Welcome to my Blog for Dance of the Immortals!  This page contains all the details for the project if you’re not familiar, and there’s a few pages up top covering screenies and demos.  The blog posts will be updates and my general bletherings about my progress and anything relevant to this project.  So, read what you like, have fun and feel free to post any and all criticisms, suggestions, advice etc 🙂

Origins~
Story~
You, the player~
Features~
 Credits~ 

   ::::Origins?::::

Dance of the Immortals was originally an idea I had planned to write out as a novel, simply to get the idea out of my head, however being more of a visual guy, I suck at writing!  So I decided to play to my strengths and bring the story to life via the medium of games, but in the spirit of the idea I had, make an effort to keep the game as “Novelesque” as I could, thinking it could become an interesting element to the playstyle.  To this end, I’m focussing more on storytelling and narrative than anything overly groundbreaking in-game mechanics, especially since I’m new to VXA and scripts are still pretty far beyond me.  Anyhoo!

I’ve worked on the story for years at a time; t’was one of those things that I always just came back to, year after year; updating, changing, editing and trying to improve the story every chance I got, but I always had that one mental block.  I could never really get past it, but the idea was in my head, I wanted to bring it out and make it real, and the only medium available to me was writing; I couldn’t code or design games, cartoons were outwith my abilities, and something never quite felt right about a comic strip; it was more wordy than comics usually allow.  Only this year it finally occured to me to use 2k3, which I’d had for some years already, to put it together in that, letting me get past those mental blocks and ease the strain from writing, allowing me to be more creative and artistic.  I’m hoping that I’m bringing this to fruition better than it ever would have been in writing, but the beauty of this project is that I know I can do both; the game and the story are self-perpetuating, so it’s easy enough to allow the game to fuel me creatively so that I can write it out any time I feel, and I’m thinking that when I do get round to that, it’d be a nice add-on to the game.

    ::::The Story::::

The dance of the world is choreographed by the Storytellers, ancient Immortals who bring life and give history to Averell with their wisdom in lores and their eternal warnings against an unholy temple containing the Hellfire, a power of unknown origin.   
However, it appears that after centuries of peace, the Hellfire is being sought by the Goblins, a race with which the humans have been at war with since the dawn of history, no doubt related to recent mumblings of the return of the Goblin King…

The story is based around multiple characters, each having a key role in the massive changes to come across the world, Averell.  The real story with it all is a messy web of different interactions, so convoluted that no one person knows the whole story, no one person knows exactly what’s actually going on, who’s pulling all the strings and why any of these mysterious coincidences keep occurring.  To that end, we view the story through the eyes of these characters and witness the things that they do, hear the words they say and understand what’s going on.  Not everyone is who they seem to others, it’s all about context, point of view; everyone has their own story, but it’s not always open knowledge.  The only thing we know for sure is that the Storytellers warn of the Hellfire, as disastrous unknown power that can destroy the world, and that the Goblin King has the ability to lead the Goblins into a massive world war; combine these two facts and it leads to a result that has even the great Immortals worried.

     ::::You, the player, the character::::

You are faceless, a nobody. It’s time to write your story and change that!

You are a Freelander who was captured and enslaved in the Imperials raid of the islands.  Shipped across the ocean in Fasdraal, one of the larger military continents, you manage to escape with a group of others.  After some amount of time hiding out as refugees underneath the city sewers, you suddenly have a paradigm-shifting dream, something that truly awakens you to your potential and inner urge to explore, to write yourself into the story of the world.   Not likely coincidentally, you are immediately presented with an opportunity to allow you to step outside the realms of your Hideout, your safety, and to expand your horizons and discover the world for what it really is.  Discover what’s really happening, what the deeper story is.

 You begin as a faceless, hooded character with nothing to show for yourself and no character.  Your only story is that you are hiding in the refugee Hideout with other Freelanders and wanting to do more.  Within the Hall of Change you get the opportunity to rename yourself, change your title, appearance and class as many times as you wish, and start to create your character, to diversify him and build him up from the nothing he begins as.  From thereon in, you get to bring your character to life and start to drive him through the world as he meets his challenges and tries to write his story into the history of Averell on the quest to discover what is actually going on in the world.

   ::::Features::::

  • Piece together the history of the world and the puzzles of the Hellfire, Storytellers and the Goblin War as you play through the game, not only as your own personal creation in the story, but through the eyes of several other key characters involved in the plot.  As well as this, collect important pages from an ancient manuscript that reveal secrets into the past and even a secret level!
  • Dynamic, innovative combat style, with bulky, stronger enemies slowly roaming the map as you get attacked randomly by sneaky enemies.  In caves, the rats run rampant, as the bats hide within the shadows and attack anyone who comes near!
  • Build and rebuild your character as you advance, with a unique ability to return to the Hall of Changes where you can alter and update your character as you learn

    Choose from multiple character costumes as well as unlocking and discovering even more!

    new information and find new methods of combat, even down to your sprite and name.  As well as this, find secrets across the world that unlock extra features and allow you to make yourself even more of a legend in the world!

  • Information is power; dangerous treks and incursions need not always lead to some glowing weapon, but can reveal secrets and history.  In-depth narration at every turn, with an aim and goal towards the novelesque, nothing is short and brushed off!

     ::::Credits::::

Not everyone in this list has work visible in the game (at least, not yet), but I have taken note of everyone whose work I have taken for my resource collection and am giving credit either due to liking it enough to want to put it to use, being inspired by it or just thinkin’ it looks rad.  To them and everyone who has work already within the game, or who have been testing, giving advice, supporting and helping out in any way at all, I thank you all 🙂

~Support, Help & Ideas~
Lauren, my love & gamer girl
~RMRK~
Amycha19
charas-project
Phylomortis Resources (http://save-point.org/thread-3528.html)
D&P3
Jack Attack
Avanura Seta
FoldYourWings 

~Images~
MadMaX
grafikal
Celianna & Lunarea
Mack
Weliver
Indrah
Jalen
NZ Nathan
Ookie Panda
Rajawali
FenixFyreX
IceDragon
Kazzador
Lord Badargo
Avadan
Blackxwolf
Damian666 (Char Creator)
Aindra

~Audio~
IceDragon
amkrogh89
moneymenace
cloud_525
Joerao

Scripts~
Zylos
modern algebra
DoctorTodd
fyzzo
Trihan
prexus
Yanfly
Kread-EX
Khas