DF: Reborn second character revealed + Chad Hines joins our team!

I'm pleased to announce that Chad Hines aka @continuitydrift joins Dark Forest: Reborn crew as a writer. 

So, if you see some crap in our writing (and especially in this blog), it's not him!

Chad helps us to transform DF: Reborn concepts, scenes and dialogs into beautifully written magic of English language. Moreover, as a professional writer and creative guy, Chad not only improves our existing ideas, but also brings tons of new ones. Check out his wonderful novel!

DF: Reborn second character revealed

Her name is Taliet, and she stepped into the Dark Forest: Reborn world from another realm (writing on GIFs below by C. Hines).

Taliet was a part of a secret experiment of high-tech civilization that went terribly wrong. She managed to escape, but at a ruinous cost.

Should you manage to survive her traps and win your way into her presence, her fear may be overcome at last by curiosity, and she will question you eagerly, and inspect with her weird glass fingers everything you carry.

Combat system in Dark Forest: Reborn

'Well...that geyser of blood emanating from my chest is proof I have high blood pressure.'

'Unfortunately, his spine is now clearly visible from the front.'

Fallout   

This post is a demonstration of Dark Forest: Reborn combat system. Our system is unique and provides user with the 'do whatever you want and still get game reaction' experience. 

The world of Dark Forest: Reborn is cruel. You will face local conflicts with highwaymen, clashes of criminal groups and even war. Every event in the game tests your abilities. Will you be able to stay Human?

Let us pretend that misterious forces took your poor body and placed it on the battlefield. Your forces are carving towards the centre of enemy army through the infinite waves of mad savages. They surge forward and it seems their strength is infinite. Your rusty sword is the only weapon you have.

John had only one choice

What will you do? 

- You can try to run away.

- You can join friendly forces in their attack.

- You can try to hide.

- You can cry and ask for help.
- You can just wait and do nothing.

- ...

Every choice will give you additional choices. Your main task is to survive, but it is a really difficult task in the world where your allies are dead and the battle is lost. Let's try to help?

As you can see, you have freedom. Do you want to hit his head using your sword? No problem. His arm? Left or right leg? Yes! If you are strong enough, you can even finish him with a single fatal blow. 

Not enough strength? Try to use words or even so called 'green magic', a gift from high-tech civilization.

You should be fast. The world of Dark Forest: Reborn is a living world - your opponent will not wait for your actions and words, he will keep fighting and hitting you until your death.

Will you be able to protect your allies? Will you save your friends, or maybe your decision will be to kill yet another enemy general? Your glory is important as well: if you show yourself as a good warrior, you will gain reputation that will help you in future adventures.

You should understand your strong and weak skills and abilities. Plan your actions. Don't use everything you have on weak enemies. Save something special for their bosses!

Your energy and time are limited resources. Sometimes it's a really good idea to try to find your opponent's weak spots first.

More details about our combat system will be revealed soon. We're also going to discuss other ways of solving your problems in Dark Forest: Reborn. Smashing everything to pieces is fun, but sometimes you don't want or just can't do such things.

Teaser of an upcoming Dark Forest: Reborn saturday announcement

Dark Forest: Reborn contains a lot of unusual and cool features that you won't find in any text-based game.

Here is the subset of our special strings for an upcoming Saturday announcement that will feature yet another unique game mechanics of Dark Forest: Reborn:

- This is your fatal mistake.
- Die, human fool!
- Your heart is mine!
- Blood! Your blood? Mine blood!
- Enjoy the last few seconds of your life...
- Blood and oblivion!
- I will loot your pathetic corpse!
- This is green magic! You can't!
- I can't see! You coward!
- My face! My eyes! Why!?
- Where are you? Help me! Help!

Basic set contains up to 1000 lines of text, and it's only the beginning.

// Subset given above is also an easter egg for those who love post apocalyptic games ;)

Dark Forest: Reborn announcement

Dark Forest: Reborn - Escape from the last underground citadel of devastated Earth and find your new world where you will save, romance, trick, betray or even kill people...using magic of words in this immersive text-based roleplaying game!

Intro

Hello, lovers of games with deep storylines, compelling characters and interesting gameplay. Long time no see. 

We have been discussing interactive fiction and text-based games: old-school stuff, games that are already forgotten, etc. Our articles contained mostly abstract analysis and criticism, so some of you might be wondering 'Wtf? Everyone can criticize! If you think you know how to create perfect adventure game, why not go and create it!?'. 

Well, guess what, friends? We are creating perfect text-based adventure game right now. It is called Dark Forest: Reborn, a next generation text-based rpg of romance and adventure.

Awesome logo. We payed 10$k for this. Really.

Key features of Dark Forest: Reborn

- NPCs that support natural language interactions and relationship modeling using a modern chatbot's AI core.

This simply means you will interact with cool characters using phrases like ‘Hello!’, ‘How are you?’ ‘I am your friend, trust me!’, ‘Do you prefer human meat or maybe I should bring some fruits?’.

You will test your perception, charisma and conversational skills. Based on your words and actions, our characters will decide if you are nice person or not. If not, watchout!

- Choices and real consequences. The game won’t tell you how to play.

- Nonlinear and replayable game world that adapts to your personality.

Do or say an evil thing and the world around you will look (or even become) evil.

- Real-time combat system with a bit of gore and awesome finishing moves.

- Game setting inspired by Arcanum and old fallouts in the style of Andre Norton and Stephen King’s fantasy novels.

Plot

Distant future. Humanity is doomed. Earth is dying. You are imprisoned in a sealed citadel deep underground. Old machines give you everything you need to live. You spend your time trudging through the citadel and researching its chambers. You have almost accepted your lonely fate, when a tragic accident changes everything.

It appears that a group of brilliant Earth scientists were living in this citadel before you, until the day they all mysteriously disappeared. They left behind, however, a monstrous ancient device that gives you a second chance, a way of once again reaching the world outside.

The world of Dark Forest: Reborn is full of ancient swamps, poisonous hills and abandoned strongholds of fallen civilizations. During your journey you will face strangers, and change their fates forever. Some of them will curse you. Some of them will be ready to give their lives for you. After your adventure you will be judged, and the fate of every character and the world of Dark Forest: Reborn itself will be revealed.

Characters

Dark Forest: Reborn mixes classic text adventure game mechanics with mechanics of interactions with NPCs via natural language dialog.

For example, in location 'House of Cannibals' you may find daughter of the Cannibals, Qara, 21 y/o slender black-haired girl with tired face who lives with her family in the depths of the forest. Your main task will be to escape the House of Cannibals. Qara's motives are not clear so it's up to you to choose your way of completing the quest: you can try to capture her and force her to help you, you can try to gain her trust or just ignore her and escape the House of Cannibals on your own. Everything depends on your personality, kindness, cruelness or even madness.

Maybe Qara doesn’t like her family and wants to escape the House of Cannibals too? Or maybe she just wants to eat your entire body alone? She definetly prefers red wine so maybe your fate is just to become a part of her dinner...or maybe this girl will be your best friend. Or even girlfriend.

Test your perception, charisma and conversational skills and find out the truth!

No, no, this type of 'flirting' with NPCs like Qara is not okay. You will learn it after the meeting with her family.

This style is more suitable.

Concept arts

If you think interactive fiction and text adventure developers have no concept arts - you are wrong.

We have no cool pictures to impress you. Our game will create cool pictures in your mind instead.

System requirements and release date

Too early for this information. One thing is clear - Dark Forest: Reborn will run only on the most powerful graphics controller you have - your imagination.

Our crew

One software developer experienced in gamedev and natural language processing aka DarkForestCrow – at your service, two writers, one native English speaker/writer will be found soon (that bastard escaped from our catacombs).

We are friendly, our NPCs are not!

Support Dark Forest: Reborn now!

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You can also find the list of our contacts here.