Castle Darkuan (Full Release)

[Shadowfied]

Castle Darkuan is my first somewhat serious custom story.

I have made quite a few custom stories but never shown or released them on any site (one exception), so I have practiced a bit. I have released one custom story here on the forum already called "F*cked Map" which is just a very, very un-serious story I made for fun.

You play as Keith. A quite ordinary man who one day receives a letter from his old friend Angus, who have just been informed that his grandfather has died, and Angus is to inherit his old castle.

Castle Darkuan has been a major location for "scary" stories and tales in the nearby towns and is said to be haunted, and no one has ever dared going in there. Angus says that he doesn't believe the place being haunted, yet he asks Keith to go with him. In the letter Angus sent to Keith, he included the extra key, he asked Keith to meet him at the entrance, and Keith agrees to come.

I started this project 1 January 2012, finished it on 26 June 2012. Spent about 3-4 months actively developing.

REMEMBER TO USE A NORMAL PROFILE AND NOT A DEVELOPER PROFILE!

"Support Me" Download link

Normal link

Castle Darkuan is on ModDB, head over there for more information and tons of screenshots!

When creating this story, I have been thinking of what I get annoyed by or don't like when playing other custom stories, and will not do the same things in my own story. Here are a few examples of things that annoy me or I dislike.

Spoiler below!

- Unlabeled keys / items
- Major typos (Seriously if you're gonna release a custom story, please look over your notes / texts)
- Tons and tons of empty desks and drawers (I'm not saying they need to contain useful items, but at least something and not just completely empty)
- Too much oil & tinderboxes
- Not enough oil or tinderboxes (IMO tinderboxes shall be quite common (depending on the story, though) and oil more rare)
- Enemies with few waypoints which you can't sneak by and never despawns.
- Places in maps where you are forced to get killed to get rid of an enemy.
- Thalers placed but NEVER being used.
- PewDiePie fan stories (Seriously, stop posting them on the Frictional forum)
- Major PewDiePie references in stories.

So that will probably give you an idea what not to expect from my story.

Here are a few things you can expect from my story though:




- A lot of quests. For example, if doors are locked, almost every time you will get a quest for it and I will always try to have some mementos at all times, so you have an idea of what to do. (Without making it linear and actually TELL you what to do)

- A lot of interaction and items.

- Breakable boxes & barrels. I have personally yet to see this in a custom story and I have played every custom story I have been able to find. So remember to break boxes and barrels to find items.

- Safe & comforting environments and scary environments.

Spoiler below!

After working lots and lots on this custom story I decided to remove the thalers and chests. I will most likely use it for another story though.

- Minor RPG-ish elements like optional places to explore, a lot of items to find, a lot of thalers to find which you can use to open chests. It will usually be like a few chests next to each other with a note below saying what it contains, so you will have multiple choices of what items you want, like choose either health-potions or oil.

And that's the list for now, it will get updated though.

Screenshots:
(Click on them to see full size)










Changelog

Spoiler below!

21 June 2012 - The map has been sent out to a few testers. Fixed bugs etc.
23 April 2012 - The last days I have been working hard. As I've said before, story is my weakest point so I've been trying to tie the story up and make a somewhat decent ending. The maps are pretty much done, just the story that needs more sense and details etc.
4 April 2012 - Been slacking and enjoying too much other games with my new PC. Today I've made quite a few small bugfixes and minor adjustments.
26 Feburary - 4 March 2012 - Been having a break again cause my new computer arrived a few days after the last update and I've spent some days changing around in my room and moving over stuff from my old computer. At least this will boost developing time a bit.
12 - 26 February 2012 - Have made real huge progress on "Dungeons" and the level is completed for now. Introduced a new feature: In (probably all) most levels there are oil and item spawns at different locations which are randomly chosen in the beginning of the level. The possibilities are not equal, sometimes you might find 2 laudanum and one oil potion, sometimes you might find 2 oil potions and no laudanum etc. This also affect breakable boxes and barrels which will also be randomly chosen. (They are not completely random, I have put all items out myself and made scripts which chose from 1 out of 7 possible scenarios, but most players probably wont play the levels so many times anyway)
Introduced a kind of examination-feature. Most objects that normally can't be interacted with are now interact-able. Inspired by Penumbra and the Deterioration custom story.
Sorry for the lack of updates. Since about the 18th of February I've been very sick. I'm getting a lot better now. I've been having a pause for the last week cause I've been sick.
5-12 February 2012 - Development resumed. Huge progress made on the "Dungeons" level, mostly scripting.
30-5 February 2012 - Been having a little break. Will continue very soon though.
25-29 January 2012 - Huge huge progress on Dungeons.
24 January 2012 - Have made huge progress on the latest level called "Dungeons" and it is definitely the largest of the maps in this custom story.
18 January 2012 - Have done lots of work since 14 Jan. Forgot to update changelog. Went back and touched up some levels, finished machine room.
14 January 2012 - Finished "Guest Room" level. Began working on "Machine Room".
13 January 2012 - Began working on a new level called "Guest Room"
12 January 2012 - Made huge progress overall. Made and finished a new "Study" level.
11 January 2012 - Made huge progress overall. Finished "Storage" level, changed some ideas for the story, removed thalers and chests. Added a storyline.
10 January 2012 - Made huge progress and finished the "Garden" level.
9 January 2012 - Added a "Garden" level accessible from the main hub and worked a bit on the "Garden" level.
7 January 2012 - Made quite a bit of progress on "Storage" and a few script enhancements to the first level.
6 January 2012 - Began working on "Storage" level.
6 January 2012 - Finished first level and almost finished the "main hub"
3 January 2012 - Custom Story development began

I have played every custom story that I have found cause I love the game and custom stories, and I never seem to get bored.


Thanks for reading.

[Mine Turtle]

by going on moddb, i can see in your latest comments that you havent really put much effort into the story part of this CS/ FC (not too sure which; not going to play a CS/ FC without a story.(not saying there isnt, but i cant really know the story unless you post something that atleast looks like a story description.)

on another point, i can see multiple "mapping errors". not clipping textures or anything, but the fact that on the:

1st screenshot: the roof texture is visibly repetitive. you can "see" the squares of the textures on it. id get that texture majorly spread out; OR use a roof-model in the Castle-base folder in static objects section of the level editor. you can thereafter fix the next problem: a major, MAJOR amount of unused space. the roofmodels in the castlebase section are great to blend pillars into what looks like your main hall. lets be fair, a roof doesnt hold up itself ^^.

2nd screenshot: not too much to comment on, other than the fact that the room is brightly lit up, but the corner of the room is pitch black, for some reason. id get a pointlight to blend that out.

3rd screenshot: not too much here either, other than the fact that you should ALWAYS put welders inbetween the cellarbase walls. ALWAYS. or else you can see the wall segments connecting = not good.


for future projects (if you want to get more serious in modding), id highly recommend working on the story part of the CS. work on the story first; before setting off and starting to build your levels. for me, and most others in the forums (except the slightly newer breed of forum-dwellers), find playing a CS without a story to be a.. strain; and it makes playing it through just worthless in the end. id look into some threads in the articles section to get somewhat of a hint on where to begin; and to see some threads from other forum users who write about what they like in a decent FC/CS.

id love to try this CS out, but i know in the end i wont have much benefit of it. good luck with future projects, and i hope this sorta helped ya in some ways ^^

[Shadowfied]

by going on moddb, i can see in your latest comments that you havent really put much effort into the story part of this CS/ FC (not too sure which; not going to play a CS/ FC without a story.(not saying there isnt, but i cant really know the story unless you post something that atleast looks like a story description.)

on another point, i can see multiple "mapping errors". not clipping textures or anything, but the fact that on the:

1st screenshot: the roof texture is visibly repetitive. you can "see" the squares of the textures on it. id get that texture majorly spread out; OR use a roof-model in the Castle-base folder in static objects section of the level editor. you can thereafter fix the next problem: a major, MAJOR amount of unused space. the roofmodels in the castlebase section are great to blend pillars into what looks like your main hall. lets be fair, a roof doesnt hold up itself ^^.

2nd screenshot: not too much to comment on, other than the fact that the room is brightly lit up, but the corner of the room is pitch black, for some reason. id get a pointlight to blend that out.

3rd screenshot: not too much here either, other than the fact that you should ALWAYS put welders inbetween the cellarbase walls. ALWAYS. or else you can see the wall segments connecting = not good.


for future projects (if you want to get more serious in modding), id highly recommend working on the story part of the CS. work on the story first; before setting off and starting to build your levels. for me, and most others in the forums (except the slightly newer breed of forum-dwellers), find playing a CS without a story to be a.. strain; and it makes playing it through just worthless in the end. id look into some threads in the articles section to get somewhat of a hint on where to begin; and to see some threads from other forum users who write about what they like in a decent FC/CS.

id love to try this CS out, but i know in the end i wont have much benefit of it. good luck with future projects, and i hope this sorta helped ya in some ways ^^

Thanks for the feedback.

I actually have already lowered the tiles in the ceiling of the main hall and I've also put welders in the room of the third screenshot. Just never got around to taking new screenshots, will do that later though.

Well, compared to most of the crap that some people put out the story isn't that bad, like there are so many stories that make NO sense whatsoever and just end abruptly, even though I'm not good at story itself, I at least have an intro explaining the story and an ending, and some pieces of information. I'm very impressed that you take time to look through custom stories here, considering you want good story, since there is just so extremely many PewDiePie maps and other non-sense-making custom stories.

I completely accept if you don't want to play it, cause at least you motivated why and gave some feedback. If I make more custom stories I will try to plan out a story first. I had learned so much though and wanted to really create something, but I didn't want to get a writer involved cause I really wanted to experiment myself, but at least now I know what I'm capable of, and perhaps someday I will make something with a proper story.

Again, thanks for your feedback, highly appreciated.

Edit: By the way, there is quite a bit of story description in the summary on ModDB...

[clock123]

nice custom story.

SPOILER SPOILER HELP HELP SPOILER!:

where do i get the water for the bucket? , i tried taking the water from the wierd statue and it doesnt work.

[Shadowfied]

nice custom story.

SPOILER SPOILER HELP HELP SPOILER!:

where do i get the water for the bucket? , i tried taking the water from the wierd statue and it doesnt work.

You do that in the yard, use it on the pump.

[℃elsius]

downloading it now, so exited to play this CS and ofcourse i picked the "support me" link!

[Nam1xaii]

Well to start you made a PewDiePie reference by adding chairs and tables... :P
Second,I found interaction pointless.Why would I care if I can poke piles of coal and stare at blank paper?
Third,I couldn't progress past the second room. You add "quests" to tell the players that they have to open a locked door or cabinet (Who locks their cabinet?) When it's obvious and plus I found those momentos about the quests un-informative. "The castle door is locked,Maybe there is a way to open it?" What good is that doing me? I know I need to open it so don't spam my journal with obvious objectives.Good day sir. I hope to be a part of your future CSs/FCs.

[Adny]

Well to start you made a PewDiePie reference by adding chairs and tables...

Not sure if serious...

[Nam1xaii]

Well to start you made a PewDiePie reference by adding chairs and tables...

Not sure if serious...

I wasn't being serious. It was just a bro joke.

[Shadowfied]

Well to start you made a PewDiePie reference by adding chairs and tables...
Second,I found interaction pointless.Why would I care if I can poke piles of coal and stare at blank paper?
Third,I couldn't progress past the second room. You add "quests" to tell the players that they have to open a locked door or cabinet (Who locks their cabinet?) When it's obvious and plus I found those momentos about the quests un-informative. "The castle door is locked,Maybe there is a way to open it?" What good is that doing me? I know I need to open it so don't spam my journal with obvious objectives.Good day sir. I hope to be a part of your future CSs/FCs.

The reason you do not progress is because you are mostly used to poor custom stories that re-use the same types of puzzles from the main-game and doesn't try anything new. Take a look around you, check things that perhaps normally aren't used.

I have quests to keep things organized. If you have been wandering around the castle for a long time and can't remember what to do, you can just hit M and see a list of things that needs to be done.

I don't care whether you care about the examination element. Besides, that's not what I meant by interaction. It's quite obvious that you are a PewDiePie fan, and this is what happens because of that. The examination element is, like I said, inspired by games such as Silent Hill and stories like Deterioration. Since real horror games aren't focused on action, but rather on puzzles and scary environments etc, examination and looking around is quite important.

---

downloading it now, so exited to play this CS and ofcourse i picked the "support me" link!

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it! =]