Lost Dungeon's Gaming Corner: Now & Then - Dungeons of Fayte vs. Realm of the Mad God

Just to take a look at how far gaming has gone, I'll be doing a Now & Then posts. Generally I'll be comparing something older, to something relatively new. However, to kick it off, I'm going to be showing a couple of games made relatively close to each other, but that shows a huge change.

DUNGEONS OF FAYTE

I first ran in to Dungeons of Fayte while working with a program called Game Maker. It's one of the games available to download from their site, made with Game Maker. It's a simple dungeon crawl game, complete with a few RPG elements, and a shooter kind of feel.

You have only so many weeks until some Lich comes to ruin your day, not to mention the town you help protect. As time passes you train your character, during your non-adventuring weeks, and do side jobs in order to unlock other classes and afford your equipment. Once a month you head off to a dungeon, and try to clear it for maximum reward, so that you have a better chance when the Lich comes calling. If you've played Princess Maker, or Monster Rancher, you'll be familiar with this kind of flow.

The graphics are old school, NES'ish, or older, but they get the job done, and are actually part of the game's charm. Clearing a whole dungeon is surprisingly difficult, and you can run through the game many times in a relatively short period of time, making a pretty decent replay value.

Don't expect huge thrills and chills from this game however, as it's pretty straight forward. It's fun for short periods of time, and due to it's small size, it's easy to hide away for a rainy day. Overall, I'd say it's a good time killer, something to play when you don't have enough time to tackle something bigger.

REALM OF THE MAD GOD

My wife was tuned into Towelie's live stream on day, and I saw him playing this game. Since I was familiar with Dungeons of Fayte, I had a good hard laugh at the massive group of people playing with Towelie, and proceeded to find the game. I believe that this game, developed by Wild Shadow Studios, and Dungeons of Fayte have the same creator at the heart (or at least their artist 'Oryx')

Anyhow, Realm of The Mad God is an Massively Multiplayer Co-operative Fantasy Shooter. That's a mouthful, but describes it right. Up to 64 players can join a single map at a time, all connected together by a main trading/chat hub. It requires no download, and plays directly on your web browser. Neat trick. Neat enough that it's become a finalist for the Technical Excellence award at the Independent Games Festival.

Gameplay is similar to Dungeons of Fayte, however much faster and much more action based. You (and hopefully at least a couple other players) take on hordes of beasts as you gather enough strength to take on the Mad God. Each class plays much differently, with different ranges, stats, and special abilities. To finish up a map, you need a large group of various classes to succeed. Dying in the game means the end of your character, no respawn here! However, it is a mechanic of the game, as you complete quests with one class in order to unlock another. So if you want to play them all, you're gonna die a lot too.

The graphics are actually the same sprites from Dungeons of Fayte, with a good helping of new monsters thrown in, and a few different classes to play. The gameplay is fun, and strangely addictive. There's always a mass of players on, so if grouping up is your thing, it's easy to do. It is a Free-To-Play game, which means there is an money shop. You can unlock additional character slots, and grab some items if you really want, however I didn't feel the need.

Wrap Up!

These two games to me show a huge jump... not for gaming in general, but for the possibilities for game designers. A programmer started with a Game Maker game, and was able to make a full fledged MMO'ish game, which I'm sure has landed him a decent chunk of change. I'm sure he had his fair share of help along the way, but this proves that you don't need a whole company to be successful in the market, just a good idea, and some determination.