Knights of the Chalice 2 – Update on The Dark Arena

Following a bit of a jolt during the recent OGL mess that ended up with Wizards of the Coast reverting the planned changes and keeping the old license intact, Heroic Fantasy Games brings us this here Kickstarter update for Knights of the Chalice 2.

With the game utilizing the OGL to its full extent, predictably, the update has no shortage of joy regarding the eventual outcome of these past few weeks of D&D turmoil. It also shares a few things about the game’s upcoming The Dark Arena module, and lists the patch notes for its recent updates.

Here’s a couple of excerpts:

Also, after the announcement from Wizards of the Coast that the Open Game Licence would be updated, I published a video on YouTube calling on people to reject these plans. And it seems we’ve won! A few days ago, Wizards said that they will leave the original OGL untouched. It’s a great result! Thank you so much to everyone for having made your voice heard loud and clear!! Congratulations: thanks to YOU and your efforts, creators will be able to keep making OGL video games and other types of content!

The YouTube video also contains some preview images from The Dark Arena.

This month, I also received the long-awaited ruling on the family-home inheritance. It is exactly as I was expecting it. Now, the only question is how long it’s going to take for this ruling to actually come into effect. Hopefully, not much longer. I’m so looking forward to that, and having my own place at last.

Some animations I made for The Dark Arena

Recently, I created a new moving water animation effect for the game. It will be available in the next version of the game, version 1.57. The water animation effect is applied in the Module Editor using a new menu option under ‘Other Tools’. You can specify the effect’s opacity from 1% to 100%. Lower the opacity to create a subtler effect.

I’ve also added a new game option allowing the player to turn this effect on and off. Here’s a GIF animation showing what the effect looks like with 100% opacity.

Also, since there’s a drawbridge in the map of Crossroad Castle (see the world map here), I couldn’t resist creating a drawbridge animation for The Dark Arena. Here’s a GIF animation showing what it looks like, below. That feat requires quite a few Half Giants! ^_^

I’m planning to add more animations to the game. The ones I am interested in are the rain, falling snow, falling leaves, glowing will-o’-the-wisps, and moving natural fog. I’ve already done a bit of work on the rain effect.

[…]

Next Steps for Knights of the Chalice 2

Unchanged from the previous update, the next development steps are the following:

• Work on the three upcoming adventure modules. Create the new world map & new dungeon maps.
• Hire a graphic designer to create new sprites, new maps and other types of artwork.
• Fix any remaining issues mentioned on the Steam Forum, GOG Forum, website Forums, and by email.
• Implement new features such as new monster abilities, subraces, familiars, items & weather effects.

As always, if you find bugs or if you have any feedback, thoughts and suggestions, please feel free to let me know here, or in the Forums, or by email at enquiries [at] heroicfantasygames.com.

Thank You For Your Loyal Support, Wise Mages and Fearless Warriors! Best Regards 🙂