The Black Eye (Game Series)
The black eye is the generic term for several computer role-playing games that, like the pen & paper role-playing game Das Schwarze Auge (DSA), are played in the game world “Dere” on the continent “ Aventuria ”, and in which the rules of this pen and paper game are played. -Paper RPG can be applied.
The Nordland Trilogy
The black eye was first transferred to the computer with the Nordland trilogy by Attic. The player takes on the leadership of a group of up to six heroes. The role-playing system of computer games is based on an early version of the 3rd edition of the pen & paper role-playing game template Das Schwarze Auge . You play the games in different views: in cities and dungeons in 3D , in the outer worlds you travel in the map view and during battles the game switches to the tactical 2D top view ( isometric perspective ).
In the 1990s, Attic's games were among the few German computer games that were also successful on the international market. There the trilogy was sold by Sir-Tech and US Gold under the name Realms of Arkania .
All three parts of the trilogy were later re-published by TopWare Interactive individually and as a collection under the title The Nordland Trilogy . The games were also part of the Gold Games series of games . In the first issue was the fate blade and Sternenschweif included in Gold Games 2 was found Shadows Over Riva . In 2001 all three games were published together as a collection under the title Nordlandtrilogie des Schwarze Auges by dtp entertainment under the label Shoebox . In 2008 it was reissued by JoWooD . The JoWooD version from 2008 was criticized many times due to various shortcomings (missing CD audio music, missing expert mode). Only the hero edition of October 2011 (revised by Homegrown Games , published by UIG Entertainment ) contained all CD audio tracks, the expert mode and some new, coordinated hero characters. In addition, DSA bonus material was enclosed.
A few years later work began on a new edition in contemporary 3D graphics, published by UIG Entertainment. On March 14, 2014, Die Schicksalsklinge was released in HD, followed by Star Tail on January 30, 2018 . Both games are available for PC and PS4.
Drakensang series
The German development studio Radon Labs acquired the DSA license back in 2001. After a publishing contract with dtp entertainment was concluded, the development of a new DSA computer game began in 2005. On August 1, 2008, the game Das Schwarze Auge: Drakensang finally appeared , which no longer has any relation to the Nordland trilogy. Drakensang was rated very positively by the trade press and sold over 200,000 copies.
On February 19, 2010, the successor Drakensang appeared: At the river of time , which takes place before the first part. Shortly after the release, Radon Labs began developing the corresponding add-on, Phileasson's Secret . After problems with an investor, Radon Labs had to file for bankruptcy in May 2010 and was taken over by the Hamburg browser game developer Bigpoint . The add-on appeared in August 2010, but was only rated average by the trade press.
With Drakensang Online , the new owner Bigpoint finally announced an action role-playing game that was released without a DSA license and as a pure browser game. It does not take place in the Aventurian world and has nothing to do with The Dark Eye .
In November 2010 the Hamburg company Daedalic Entertainment announced the development of the adventure game called Satinavs Ketten . This is a rather gloomy, classic point-and-click - Adventure with hand-drawn 2D backgrounds. The game was released on June 22, 2012.
The main character is the bird catcher and magic dilettante Geron, to whom a seer once predicted responsibility for a great misfortune when he was a child. When his hometown Andergast is finally struck by a mysterious crows plague, Geron has to face his prophecy.
In March 2013, Daedalic officially announced the development of a successor to Satinav's chains with The Dark Eye: Memoria . The game was released on August 30, 2013.
Herokon Online
On November 1, 2011, Silver Style Studios announced the browser game Herokon Online , which has since been discontinued.
Herokon Online is an MMORPG and is intended to display the entire DSA continent of Aventuria in a playable digital form. According to their own statement, the developers attach great importance to the detailed representation of the game world and the rules and regulations, they also want to involve the active DSA player community in the development of the browser game.
Herokon Online can be played with a browser and installed Flash Player version 11 or higher and finances its development via the free-to-play model: Paid game content is paid for with the virtual currency "platinum", which can be purchased within the game via microtransactions . The game world Aventurien should however remain completely accessible and playable without premium points.
Demonicon
On December 20, 2008, The Games Company officially announced that in-house development studio Silver Style Entertainment was developing the title Das Schwarze Auge: Demonicon . After The Games Company went bankrupt, the remaining developers and the rights to the project were taken over by Kalypso Media . Under the new studio name Noumena Studios , the team continued to work on completing the game. According to the developer, Demonicon is an action role-playing game in the style of The Witcher .
The game was released in October 2013.
Blackguards
In August 2012, the online game magazine GamersGlobal.de reported that Daedalic was working on two more DSA games, including a round-robin strategy game with the working title Circle of Legends . The latter was confirmed by the corresponding pre-order options in leading online shops. In March 2013, Daedalic finally officially announced the game with the title The Black Eye: Blackguards . The official release date was January 24, 2014.
On January 20, 2015 published Daedalic with Black Guards 2 the second part of Black Guards .
Book of Heroes
A new role-playing game from the world of the black eye will be released on June 9, 2020. A character can be generated from four adventure races and 12 professions and individually designed. The game is held in isometric representation (similar to Baldur's Gate, for example ) and thus offers a good overview of the (combat) events. The new multiplayer RPG will be available from Wild River Games for PC (via Steam ).
Mobile games
Between 2003 and 2005, the software license holder Chromatrix published several Java-based J2ME mobile games in cooperation with the developer Elkware . These are mostly implementations of so-called solo adventures from the pen & paper role-playing game .
Published titles:
- Absolute power
- arena
- Blood revenge
- Demon curse
- The grave robbers
- Dragon fire
- Dangerous legacy
- Secret of the Cyclops
- Nedime - The daughter of the caliph
- Swords and roses
- Swamp of perdition
- Among pirates!
- Wrath of the Ice Elves
At the Dreieich-Con 2011, Chromatrix, in cooperation with Herokon developer Silver Style Entertainment, announced the work on a new turn-based strategy game for smartphones called Unter dem Kupfermond . This title had already been designed in collaboration with Elkware, but had never been implemented up to this point. In July 2012 it was announced that the title would be expanded into a trilogy with the individual titles Blutmond , Rachemond and Kupfermond .
In collaboration with the Sprylab developer studio, Hexenwald released a game for iOS and Android smartphones on September 11, 2013 that uses augmented reality technology to use the Berlin zoo as a game environment.
Browser games
After the mobile phone games were discontinued, license holder Chromatrix ported the mobile phone games to its web platform dsa-games.de and expanded the selection to include additional titles. A series of four adventures was published to accompany the computer games in the Drakensang series and are thematically linked to them.
Published titles:
Single title :
- Absolute power
- Blood revenge
- Demon curse
- The ship in the bottle
- The idol of the Mohas
- The grave robbers
- Dragon fire
- Secret of the Cyclops
- Dangerous legacy
- Nedime - The daughter of the caliph
- Swords and roses
- Hours of decision
- Swamp of perdition
- Among pirates!
- Yaquir waves
- Wrath of the Ice Elves
Drakensang series :
- Seed of Wrath I.
- Seed of Wrath II
- Path of death
- Conspiracy in Ferdok
Firestorm Trilogy :
- Fire and ashes
- Sky fire
- Imperial tournament
- War for the crown
At the foot of the ghost rock :
- The jungle grave
- The lunar silver ball
Treasure hunter :
- Path of the elves
- Path of the warrior
- Adventurer's Path
- Path of the Magician
- Path of the dwarf
- Path of treasure
Discontinued projects
Legends of the Magical Wars
With Legends of the Magic Wars (English The Lady, the Mage and the Knight , both often abbreviated as LMK ), Attic wanted to bring another role-playing game in the DSA universe onto the market in collaboration with the Larian Studios at the end of the nineties. Like its predecessors, the game was also set to take place in Aventuria, although the plot was brought forward 400 years. During this time of the Magical Wars one should find a mysterious disease on the island of Rulat. A young elf, a knight and a mysterious magician are caught in a terrible storm on board a ship off the coast of the island. The ship sinks and the heroes can drag themselves to the shore with the last resort, where their adventure is only just beginning.
After several print magazines had already published detailed reports on the project, it was finally discontinued in July 1999 at an advanced stage of development. Many factors were listed as the reason for the failure, ranging from money problems to the termination of the partnership with Larian Studios to the separation from the distribution partner Infogrames .
Contrary to popular belief, Larian Studios did not release the game as Divine Divinity . Divine Divinity started with the working title Project C after separating from Attic . In the game Divine Divinity - as a reference to The Lady the Mage and the Knight - three graves can be found: One for a lady (an elf), one for a magician (English Mage ), and one for a knight (English Knight ). Thus, legends of the Magical Wars have been symbolically buried.
Armalion
In 2001, developer Ikarion wanted to conjure up an implementation of the DSA module of the same name on the screens under the title Armalion . This project was also put on hold after a short development period because the developer company had to file for bankruptcy. This time too, disagreements with the sales partner JoWooD were named as the main reason for the failure. Later, the remains of the Gütersloh game developer Ascaron were bought, who also hired some former project employees. The action role-playing game Sacred was created on the Armalion foundation (the game is said to have been 60% to 70% complete) , which also achieved some success. In the action role-playing game Sacred, for the trained eye, remains of Armalion can still be found. For example, all characters of the game are available - albeit with new roles, and various symbols of the aventurian world of gods have also been preserved. A grave can be found in the game with the inscription "Here lies AR Malion". In this way, Armalion was symbolically buried.
Unofficial projects
Besides the official games, there are only a few unofficial projects that have taken on a computer game implementation of the DSA topic. One example is the open source game Rastullahs Lockenpracht . According to the announcement on the official website, however, the development of the game was frozen indefinitely from January 2010.
After the turn of the millennium, there was also a project that wanted to create an Ultima Online Freeshard based on DSA. Due to licensing problems with FanPro, it became the Freeshard Siebenwind with its own background.
A multi-user dungeon called "Gueldenland" has existed since 1996 . Despite the name, the game is based on Aventuria.
Web links
- DSA computer games at MobyGames (English)
- DSA computer games in the Aventurica Wiki
- DSA-Games.de , official website of the browser games
- Link catalog on the subject of The Black Eye (computer game) at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Planned new edition of the Nordland trilogy . golem.de, January 28, 2013
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Bigpoint saves Radon Labs . Golem.de . June 1, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Fantasy Adventure Without The Dark Eye . Golem.de . September 27, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Like Diablo 3 - but in the browser . Golem.de . November 29, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Daedalic is working on the fantasy adventure Satinavs Ketten . Golem.de . November 22, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ http://www.gameswelt.de/das-schwarze-auge-memoria/news/neues-dsa-spiel-von-daedalic-angekuendigt,177786
- ↑ daedalic.de: Information on Memoria ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English, accessed October 9, 2013)
- ↑ Press release from Silver Style Studios on the development of Herokon Online ( memento of the original from October 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Dark Eye: Demonicon: News of December 20, 2008 . On: demonicon.de .
- ^ Peter Steinlechner: The Games Company files for bankruptcy . Golem.de . July 15, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Kalypso takes over the Silver Style developer studio . Golem.de . September 21, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ↑ Jörg Langer : GC12: Rumor: Two new DSA games . In: Gamersglobal . August 16, 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ↑ Daedalic unveils turn-based role-playing game , Gameswelt.de, March 21, 2013
- ↑ The Black Eye: Blackguards 2. In: blackguards2.daedalic.de. Retrieved September 16, 2016 .
- ↑ root: The Black Eye - Book of Heroes. In: Wild River Games. Retrieved June 5, 2020 (German).
- ↑ The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
- ↑ DSA: Book of Heroes has potential, but has not yet shown it to us. January 24, 2020, accessed June 5, 2020 .
- ↑ The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes on Steam. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
- ↑ http://www.buffed.de/Das-Schwarze-Auge-Satinavs-Ketten-PC-236276/Specials/Dreieich-Con-Demonicon-Satinavs-Ketten-Herokon-Online-Infos-und-Videos-zu-kommenden -DSA-games-reader-special-by-DORPscorp-855710/4 /
- ↑ http://nandurion.de/blog/2012/07/13/neue-informationen-zu-dsa-handypiele/
- ↑ http://www.derwesten.de/spiele/news/dsa-lockt-smartphone-besitzer-in-den-hexenwald-id8433686.html
- ↑ Swen Vincke: The truth about LMK ( Memento from August 15, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) . On: larian.com . April 30, 2001.
- ^ Official Divine Divinity FAQ ( Memento from December 18, 2002 in the Internet Archive ). On: divinedivinity.com .
- ^ New RPG from Larian Announced , IGN Entertainment , January 10, 2000 (English).
- ↑ Web site Rastullahs curls: www.rastullahs-lockenpracht.de .
- ↑ Gueldenland
| Nordland trilogy |
1992: The Blade of Fate • 1994: Star Tail • 1996: Shadows over Riva |
|
| Drakensang |
2008: Drakensang • 2010: On the River of Time ( Phileasson's Secret ) |
|
| Single track |
2012: Satinav's Chains • 2012: Herokon Online • 2013: Memoria • 2013: Demonicon • 2014: Blackguards • 2015: Blackguards 2 |
|
| Further |