Dawn of Fantasy
| Dawn of Fantasy | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Developer(s) | Reverie World Studios |
| Publisher(s) | 505 Games[1] |
| Designer(s) |
Christopher Theriault[2] John Lockwood (Technical Director)[2] |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | September 6, 2011 [3] |
| Genre(s) | MMORTS |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Dawn of Fantasy is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game set in a medieval high fantasy setting. The game was developed by Reverie World Studios for Microsoft Windows, an Xbox 360 version was initially planned but cancelled.[4]
Design
Dawn of Fantasy has three playable races: Men, Elves, and Orcs .The economy of Dawn of Fantasy revolves around four primary resources: food, wood, stone, and gold. Dragons and Dwarves were originally planned as playable races, but were cut due to a lack of resources.[5] According to the developer, they are likely to be featured as playable races in a future expansion or sequel.
Single player
Dawn of Fantasy has a number of single-player game modes including Kingdom Wars, Lay Siege, Castle Defense and Custom Scenarios.[6]
Kingdom Wars: This is a dynamic conquer-the-world game mode where players capture other cities (in any order they choose) through battle or diplomacy while fending off AI attacks. Players choose their Race (Humans, Elves or Orcs), choose their starting city (4 per race) and choose what campaign they wish to play:
Union War - Conquer the other cities of your race to unite your realm.
Realm War - Start with your race's realm allied to you and conquer the other realms.
Epic War - Start with one city and conquer the whole world.
Lay Siege: In this skirmish mode, players lay siege to one of the 12 major cities of the game world, allowing them to perfect their attack strategies and hone their skills
Castle Defense: In this skirmish mode, players must defend one of the 12 major cities of the game world, allowing them to perfect their defensive strategies and hone their skills
Tutorials: Dawn of Fantasy includes several tutorial maps that provide players with an introduction to various game concepts, such as Constructing Buildings, Commanding Units, Gathering Resources and Siege Mechanics
Custom Scenarios: Players are able to design their own custom maps with the Scenario Editor. The Scenario Editor is the same tool used by the developers to create all the town, city and quest scenarios in the game and uses the easy-to-learn Lua scripting language.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer action in Dawn of Fantasy takes place in the "Online Kingdom".[7] The Online Kingdom provides players with a persistent world where after having chosen their race (Human, Elf or Orc) and their starting region (3 per race), they are faced with the task of growing a small village into a mighty citadel as they battle other players for precious resources and complete quests in the service of Wizards, Kings and other adventurers. While this is a multiplayer mode, players can choose to go solo and just do PvE quests or siege cities by themselves, but the real fun comes when players battle each other, complete quests together or join forces to lay siege to one of the major NPC cities.
Game Editor
Dawn of Fantasy includes a scenario editor, which utilises the Lua script language.[8]
In addition to the scenario editor the game includes a number of other tools including: a model animation viewer[9]
Development
Development of Dawn of Fantasy began in 2001 by a group formed out of members of an Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings scenario editing community, forming a team led by Micah Hymer, John Lockwood and Kristo Vaher.[10] Originally intended as a medieval strategy game, the project was reinvented as a fantasy game in late 2002. As an independent studio for the vast majority of DoF's development, Reverie World Studios (originally, Reverie Entertainment) obtained funding from the Canadian Government's Telefilm Grant. Dawn of Fantasy was signed by Lighthouse Interactive,[11] which filed bankruptcy shortly after the deal was made.[12] On September 1, 2012 game was submitted to Steam via Greenlight.[13] On 30 November, Dawn of Fantasy become one of the first 50 titles to be voted onto Steam by the gaming public, when Valve announced the third set of games to receive the greenlight[14]
The original audio score for Dawn of Fantasy was composed Joel Steudler[15][16] and the game was made using the Mithrill game engine developed by John Lockwood.[16]
References
- ↑ "505 Games Announces Dawn of Fantasy". pc.ign.com. IGN. 19 January 2011.
- 1 2 3 "DAWN OF FANTASY - Telefilm Canada", www.telefilm.gc.ca (Telefilm Canada), retrieved 3 October 2011
- ↑ Reverie World Studios. "Release Date - September 6th-10th".
- ↑ "Dawn of Fantasy - Xbox 360 - IGN", xbox360.ign.com (IGN)
- ↑ Dawn of Fantasy Heaven. "Dawn of Fantasy's "Forgotten" Races".
- ↑ "Dawn of Fantasy". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ↑ "This Ultimate Quest: The Online Kingdom". IGN.
- ↑ Reverie World Studios. "Fantasy Friday XV: The Scenario Design Editor".
- ↑ Dawn of Fantasy Heaven. "Scenario Design & Modding Interview".
- ↑ "Original Age of Kings forum thread 'creating your own game...'".
- ↑ Gamers Hell. "Lighthouse Interactive Signs Dawn of Fantasy".
- ↑ "Game publisher Lighthouse bankrupt". Parool.nl.
- ↑ http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92931949
- ↑ "Third Set of Games, First Greenlight Software Titles Revealed". Steam.
- ↑ http://www.joelsteudler.com/
- 1 2 http://dof.reverieworld.com/credits.php
http://www.markashton.net/ 3D Artist