D'LIRIUM News

We'd like to mention that it's not bad news. There's no need to panic that the project is going through some troubles.

The thing is, we have decided to focus on the expansion we mentioned earlier in our previous posts. That project has intrigued us quite a bit and, in our opinion, it might end up becoming far more diverse and interesting than the original game. After it's release we will return to the development of the game while you are going to be busy diving into the new adventure.

Now that we have explained why we had put our work on hold for now, we're going to tell you what's to be expected from that expansion. It will be called "The Golder Rogue" and it's going to surprise you. The story of the expansion will unfold some time before the events of the D’LIRIUM, and the main characters will be Dismas and Gestas, known by the original game. The expansion will include a lot of new features, but will also become more resource-hungry due to the large levels and some new mechanics. The levels will be really big this time, with a lot of interactive items. Some of them could be just browsed, the others could be used. The game will have the new enemies and weapons, but also a companion. It's worth mentioning that there will be no annoying need to protect him, the game will allow to even leave him at the beginning of the level. The companion will be needed only to advance the story. But in order to avoid him being useless, we have given him a few features that will be helpful, if you figure out how to use them best.

Now, let's have a little heart-to-heart. What is that expansion for? There are people who criticized us about starting the development of a new game while not finishing the previous one. And we want to say it genuinely, yes, people love to call such projects "money milkers" and that is true - we won't hide that we're doing that game to raise some money. The sells of the original D'LIRIUM are currently down and we can no longer make enough for living and the further development. And we haven't even finished it yet! Our salvation lies in people who support us on Patreon, it's thanks to them that we can actually afford this new project and we're truly thankful to them!

However, we don't want to disappoint the players or to go against our own principles. That's why we're going to take the development of "The Golden Rogue" really seriously.

We're back to experimenting, taking risks for the sake of creativity. We're making a point of unfolding the story of the characters that players did not really sympathize in the original game, to show you all a new interesting story, even if it will be more linear than the one in the original game. Moreover, the story of the Rogue will be connected to the future story of Beta-1.

Now, let's get back to the beginning to this article - how is putting the development of Beta-1 on hold going to affect D'LIRIUM? First of all, we'll have more time to think the ideas we want to see in the final release over. Some new features of "The Golden Rogue" will also be added to D'LIRIUM. We watch a lot of movies that inspire us and give us the new ideas. That helps us come up with the ways of making the levels more diverse and the story more interesting. If earlier the game ended on the scene of the meeting with Abel in the Cathedral, in the new version that is only the first part of the game. And that's really great, because we don't want the new players to pass D' in just 30 minutes.

Well, that's the big news we have for now. Thank you for your patience and your support, it means a lot to us! We're looking forward to your comments!

You can support the development of D'LIRIUM and The Golden Rogue on our Patreon page:

My month-long vacation is now over and it's time to get back to work. The development of Beta-1 is going really slow, because the most of our efforts are being put in the development of an expansion, but we are still going to tell you what is to be expected of the next version of the game. So...

In addition to the large amount of bug fixes and the new visual effects, and also changing some levels, almost all of the environment will become interactive. You'll be able to break the windows (already are in early beta-6), turn on the tap in the bathroom, break the pipes and release the poisonous gas at the monsters, open the boxes and take out the items (or nothing) from them, flush the toilet, turn off and then back on the torches with the fireballs. I think you've got the idea. The game will gain some new levels and a new complete story, a big one. There will also be a radio, but we won't tell you much about it. It won't be connected to the gameplay, but will be important for the story. By popular demand, the game will also get a map, but it won't be easy to obtain and won't show where the character is at the moment.

What not to expect from Beta-1 is the random events. The thing is, adding them to the game is a big deal. Not because it's hard to think of all the consequences. But because the random events will be ruining it for the speedrunners, since they'll make it so the luck defines how long the playthrough will be with the given set of random events. Say what you will, but keeping the game adapted for the speedruns and setting new records is really important to us.

Also, we can't really guarantee that Beta-1 will get the cutscenes, because creating even the shortest of them is really time-consuming. But we'll see what we can do.

This is far from the full list of what is going to appear in Beta-1, many things have been overlooked, but, indeed, it'll be a huge update. We don't know when it'll come out yet, because we're working on one more game that will become, let's say, "the opposite side of D'LIRIUM".

We want to thank all of those who support us on Patreon! It's thanks to you that we now can afford the new software and equipment! You can support us too on our Patreon page, just click on the link below:

Kind time of the day, friends! For a long time not much was heard from us, but we didn't sit around all this time. We made a lot of new stuff, the game has significantly changed. However, it's is too early to show.

Nevertheless, the development of the game at this time will have to stop, since I'm busy overhauling a new house, as well as collecting documents before a wedding. In addition, the rest of the team is still busy writing code for the multiplayer game, which, perhaps, we'll show you soon. In July we will continue to work on beta-1, and also tell you more about what awaits you there!

Thank you all for your support on Patreon! This helps us very much, because there is no money even for overhauling, what can we say about the development.

In the game description we have mentioned this feature, but have never specified what it is exactly. Time to change that. So, here goes...

We hold the belief that everyone is familiar with the games where the plot development depends on the player's choices. In our game, however, we want to try a different approach. D'LIRIUM is not an RPG, it's a shooter. Thus, the plot in it is rather linear, and that's the way it's going to be, the player's choices won't affect it drastically. However, what will give the player the unique experience is the random events.

The random events have been present in the games before, but didn't seriously affect the plot. In D'LIRIUM, however, the plot itself is going to be partially based on them. There will be the key scenes, but almost everything that's going to happen between them will be random.

Here is an example: the character appears on the level and must go from point A to point B. While at it, they might meet a crowd of monsters, or might find themselves in an auxiliary plot branch with the puzzles to solve, or might even have to deal with a meteorite falling down on them. A good example of a random event is the level with the Lanterns. Perhaps, those events will even have consequences for the entire futher playthrough, which will make it unique.

We don't really know if the random events will really be the way they are described above, because PLANNING them through is really hard. Maybe they won't appear in the game at all, but we just don't want to leave that concept alone.

There will be no random events in Beta-1. We'll tell you about what to expect from Beta-1 later. Meanwhile, we would really like to hear your opinion on this topic, so, leave your comments and offer us your ideas below!

Also, we would really like to thank our Patrons! Thanks to all of you for your support, your donations won't be for nothing!
You can support this project on our Patreon page!

We want to say at first that this announcement isn't an April joke. It's really important for us and we are really asking you for help.

The development of Beta-1 is going, but it’s not going well. The problem is that the work is very expensive. No one will work for you for free, you should pay for your team. But D’LIRIUM sales don’t make enough profit that I can pay for my team, and also feed myself.

It's not a pleasant to pay from your pocket and then eating ramen noodles at the end of a month. Especially when you have another project in development.

So I’ve decided to make a page on Patreon in hope that there will be those who wants to support the development. All the money that we will earn on Patreon (and maybe other services), will be used to fund D’LIRIUM development and our other projects. Check out the list of things that we need to pay for:

• Cinematics. The serious and big CG cutscenes with a good directing and voice acting instead of script. They should be responsible for filing a story and to replace the screensaver after the death of the player. One of those cinematics you can see by starting dev_build.
  
• Tiles and sprites. Graphics are mostly drawn alone. My friends helped me with this. However, it's a lot of work. To come up with the design, then to realize it and to compile every detail to a full-fledged level, after all. I’m tired and I'd love to give the opportunity of drawing textures to someone else.
  
• Translating the game to the other languages. There are some enthusiasts who are ready to translate the game to their native language, but not everywhere. We want to embed as much languages as possible.
  

Then goes a list of not important things, but still quite good:

• Software. It can help us work faster and better, also to port the game to other platforms etc.
  
• Equipment. For example, synthesizers for huge vastness of sound and music experiments.
  

Our patrons can watch the work in progress content and also they will be included in the credits. We hope you like our idea so we can have some cash. Thank you so much for playing D’!