Yup, we’re announcing a release month as we wrap up the final touches on Betrayed Alliance Book 1, thank to a stretch goal from the Book 2 Kickstarter campaign.
Betrayed Alliance 2023 Retrospective
I had 2 hopes for this year for Betrayed Alliance. One of them was hit, the other one we’re just missing.
The first hope was the release of the Demo for Book 2 – to finally give people a taste of what I’ve been working on for many years now. In February, the Demo for Book 2 released! However, with its release something happened that precipitated my other big hope for 2023 – it wasn’t the demo for Book 2 that was getting downloaded in large numbers, it was Book 1 that was getting bigger traffic. This needed to be addressed!
The second big hope for 2023 was to complete the overhaul of Book 1 with new artwork, bug fixes, and a musical overhaul that would enable the game to play sound using the original 80’s and 90’s era drivers. I wanted people to have the best experience possible with Book 1 before really promoting the Book 2 demo. Here are a few updated backgrounds by myself and Karl Dupere-RIcher.
The big push to complete Book 1 has hit a few bumps in the road, but the game itself is finished, albeit still needing a round of testing or two more and having the final musical elements sorted.
To go along with the release of the update to Book 1, I’ve also put together a physical game manual with hint-guide and a walkthrough. I’m eager to make this and some other merchandise available upon the launch of the game (which will continue to be a free download)! More on that in 2024.
With the virtual completion of Book 1’s update, I turned my attention back to Book 2 and together with Karl Dupere-Richer and we have taken a huge chomp out of the remaining backgrounds for the game. We’re probably just about 20 or so away from a complete map.
With 2023 coming to a close and 2024 on the horizon, look forward to the updated Book 1 release and more news on Betrayed Alliance Book 2, which is deep into development now and looking better and better every day!
A huge thank you to the legendary supporters of EGA games on Patreon. Your excitement and support keeps me going and working on this project day by day. I will do my best to make the wait worth it!
Until then, Merry Christmas and happy new year!
Betrayed Alliance October Update
Hello everyone!
I just wanted to drop a quick update about the progress with the development of Betrayed Alliance, both Books 1 and 2.
Kickstarter Stretch Goal – Book 1 Update
This update is nearing completion and is in many ways complete. Development-wise the game is complete and undergoing final testing. The last piece of the puzzle is redoing the music to play with the old drivers. We are anticipating the initial release to work with AdLib and MT32 drivers first, then later to patch it to make other sound drivers available (such as Tandy, General midi, et al.)
There’s been some personal life stuff going on with Brandon (new job and other life events) that has stymied progress on the sound design side, so a bit more time will be needed.
With that said, let’s take a look at Book 2!
Book 2 Design Update
With my work re-coding and re-designing artwork (and testing/bugfixing) the Book 1 update mostly finished, I’ve turned my attention back to Book 2.
I’ve set to work getting a basic build of all the rooms in the game represented, mostly with scratch artwork, just to give me a final sense of the game’s geography and how the areas and puzzles should be be tied together.
With Karl Dupere-Richer’s help we’ve been iterating on an overall map of the area, which I have been working to fill in the details of some of the less-developed areas.
Now I am working to flesh out the areas with artwork that is (hopefully) a bit more interesting the the wire-frame scratch artwork:
Final Thoughts:
Things are quietly getting done. I am thankful to have a generally peaceful time in my life right now which gives me the time and attention I need to work on this project. I appreciate your patience as I know the proposed completion date for the project has come and gone. But with the demo out earlier this year and the completion of the update to Book 1 on the horizon, I have to say I am proud of the work that’s been done and I hope the love and excitement for these old games translates into the game itself.
If you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear them. Thanks for reading.
Betrayed Alliance Updates
Maps!
Welcome to the southern realm of the Kingdom of Shelah as depicted by Karl Dupere-Richer, who reworked many of the backgrounds for this game and illustrated this map of the playable overworld area.
Karl also took the difficult step of translating this map into pixels to be used for the in-game map as well.
As for me, I’ve been working on getting this map up and running in the game so that you can actually use it, which is now possible and looks much better than how it used to:
Hint Guides and Walkthroughs
In the past I had been asked to put together a walkthrough for Betrayed Alliance, which I had done a long time ago. But with this update I wanted to take an extra step and not only redo the walkthrough (as a number of things had changed), but also put together a hint guide for those who didn’t necessarily want the answer, but welcomed an additional nudge in the right direction.
So I put together this document which took quite a lot more time than I had imagined! It includes pictures for easier navigation, guided hints, and then straight-up answers. With the pictures (and a decent amount of white space) it ended up being about 40 pages long with 6,600 words. Not a bad little document! And am I very glad it is “done,” although I haven’t proofed it yet.
Odds and Ends
While the playtesting build for Book 1 has been out in the wild, I haven’t gotten a lot of unsolicited feedback, so I will need to be a bit more direct and actually ask people to help personally (crazy thought I know!). The good thing about that is that I’ve been doing small updates in the shadows anyway. A couple of updates are the battle system artwork, UI, and coding, and the Rotating Tower scene needing a visual update:
I needed to make the player character taller to start as the proportions always felt “off” to me. Because of this I also needed to redraw the other character’s battle sprites (minus the troll here!)
I had thought about using the same battle system artwork and animation I had used for Book 2, but I think this will end up working better for the type of battle system in Book 1 where the mechanics are not the same as they are in Book 2.
I also did some work on the Rotating Tower, mostly ornamental work to the borders, but also some color changes that I think make the mood fit a bit better:
So that’s about it for the what’s been going on lately. There’s a whole lot of boring small fixes and bugs that I had to fix, but they’re not so interesting to show all the time.
Working on the game has been a slow process, especially with the ongoing ordeal that has taken my time away since January, having to do with a flooding basement. But we are now finally nearing the end of that as I’ve gotten the floors recarpeted, walls are almost finished repainting, and it won’t be long before we can move the furniture and regain a bit of breathing space in our cramped home. But I won’t complain too much; things could be much worse than that! I still have some time to work on Betrayed Alliance and that gives me a bit of respite!
Book 1 Playtester Build is ready to play!
Hero Cave artwork by Karl Dupéré-Richer
- Download for the playtester’s build of Betrayed Alliance Book 1
Hello everyone! I’m very pleased to announce that the artwork and programming update to Book 1 of Betrayed Alliance is *mostly* complete and that a playtesting build of Book 1 is now available to play.
The update to the musical score is still in the works, so the old audio (and the issues that come with it) are still there from the older release, but those will be finished in time.
I want to give a huge thank you to Karl Dupéré-Richer who did most of the background artwork for the new release. I am eager to share his artwork (and some of my own) with you in this updated version.
That being said, this is not quite the final product for the Stretch Goal to update book 1, so there are still a few things that may need polishing or redoing. But I’m very proud of the work and happy to share this with you.
- Download for the playtester’s build of Betrayed Alliance Book 1
April 2023 Betrayed Alliance Update
After the release of the Demo for Book 2, Book 1 got a lot of attention and downloads. As so much had already been prepared for the update for Book 1, we’ve been putting a lot of attention on finishing the Stretch Goal of overhauling Book 1’s artwork and music. Here’s a look at some recent progress.
Backgrounds
While Karl has been very busy with an exhibition of his impressive sculptures, he’s also been giving me a hand with an odd background here and there. Here is collection of a few of his most recent backgrounds:
In addition to Karl’s background efforts, I’ve also been working on updating a few backgrounds as well. Here’s a few overworld backgrounds that I’ve been working on lately:
With this, the number of backgrounds that still need makeover is in the single-digits!
Book 1 almost feels like a completely new game with all the new artwork.
Item Icons
Another thing I’ve been busy with recently has been updating all the item icons: Here are a few examples:
At this point I have redone most of the icons for items:
While a lot of work has been finished, there are still a handful of backgrounds to do, but more work than that will be the reprogramming and updating of some gameplay elements. But steady progress is being made.
Music
Brandon is working on giving Book 1 the same treatment as Book 2 – that is, making sure the music and sound works for many available drivers. While Book 1 does have a mostly complete soundtrack, there are 8 or so songs that were “free-to-use” stock music that he plans on making new tracks for himself.
Betrayed Alliance Book 2 Demo (and update)
Yes, it’s true! A demo for Book 2 is playable at long last, complete with music by Brandon Blume. You can find out more and download the game in the “Betrayed Alliance” tab, or just click here.
Sorry for the long delay in the updates. I’ve had in my mind for a while that the next update would need to be the “Demo is ready” update, which I was originally hoping to have out late December. A lot has happened since December and not a lot of it has been good!
Since early January, my family and I have been suffering from a flooding basement. As of a couple of days ago, we’ve gone through the process of waterproofing our basement, but it’s made it hard to work on the project when your workspace is not useable, not to mention the time involved in cleanup and now, repair.
But all that aside, I hope you find some time to play the demo. I feel like it really shows in a small way the type of gameplay that will be present in a bigger scale when the full game is complete…hopefully sometime this decade!
Small Update:
A few people have been experiencing their Windows antivirus firewall looking askew at the Demo installer. After talking with someone more knowledgeable, this seems to be a fairly common issue. I was linked to an antivirus report, which details different antivirus assessments of the program. Most of them have no problem, but Windows has a big issue with it.
The file has been submitted to Microsoft with the intention that they clear their warning for this program. I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. Obviously I do not want to be associated with viruses, so hopefully they can get this sorted soon.
End of 2022 Betrayed Alliance Update
Good news!
I’ll keep this short:
The demo for Betrayed Alliance Book 2 is complete in most assets and has even underwent a number of playtesting sessions which unveiled pages and pages of bugs, spelling mistakes, and insight on puzzles that needed more or less signposting. While I’m sure it’s not perfect, I’ve implemented all necessary changes, fixed all *known* bugs, and corrected all *known* typos. I was also very encouraged by the testers perception of the game.
I am looking forward to opening the demo up to players early in the new year.
Until then, however, merry Christmas. I’m going to spend time with family and get a head start on my coursework for the Spring Semester.
Betrayed Alliance Book 2 Check-in
It’s a small update!
I wanted to give you a quick update detailing some of the work on Betrayed Alliance lately, and that I plan on releasing a demo soon (fingers crossed before year’s end)
So what’ve I been up to?
- The introduction cutscene is “basically finished.” Essential animations and dialog is now finished, with only some extra touches still to be done. The music for that section is also in the works. But here is a sneak peek (listen?) of the music
- The puzzles for the demo are now up and running and playable, with puzzle points built in.
- The coding and implementation of the death tracker is now fully complete, and there are about 11 deaths possible to “collect” in the demo
- More animations and text is being added every day. It’s now at the point where trying to count the lines of text is far too cumbersome a task.
While there are two or three fairly major things to put into the game/demo before I would consider releasing it into the wild, there are tons of small bugs/inconsistencies and quality of life fixes to be made. I’ve made a list, and I’m going through it to fix up the problems.
Thanks for continuing to be a part of this project. Hopefully it won’t be too long before you have something to play/enjoy.
Playable Update for Betrayed Alliance Book 1
Back when I had run a Kickstarter to help fund the music for Betrayed Alliance, we also had a stretch goal to revamp and update the music and visuals of Betrayed Alliance Book 1.
What’s been worked on recently
Thanks to the amazing productivity of Karl Dupere-Richer, over half of the background screens have now received a visual update (upgrade!). In fact, his productivity has been so good, I decided to take a month or so off of working on Book 2 just to focus my attention to the update of Book 1. That’s been my focus for the last half of August and most of September.
Reprogramming the rooms to work with the new visual information, streamlining the code, and adding features (like the autosave I’m using for Book 2). I’m hoping to fix that pesky “out of heap space” bug that crashes 10% or so of runs too.
While the Book 1 update is not by any means complete, I’ve worked hard enough to make the programming for the new version playable to the end.
And this is where you come in!
If you’d like to have access to the update of Book 1 as it’s in development, I’m making that available to all KS backers and all “Early Access” Patrons on Patreon. I’ve also put together a Google Doc you can edit to track any bugs, parser commands that you think should work, or any general ideas or thoughts you have about a particular room. Obviously there’s no obligation to do any of that, but if you’re interested, I’d love your help to make it the best experience possible.
So that’s been it for the last month and a half or so. Book 1’s update is coming along very nicely. Beautiful new artwork and a revamp in the coding, and maybe even a few extra features!
Slattstudio 