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Game News Dr. Dungeon's MADMAN! Released

Infinitron

I post news
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Jan 28, 2011
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Dr. Dungeon; Madman!

One of the stranger episodes in the history of the RPG Codex was when back in 2012, a group of members including yours truly rediscovered the existence of an obscure series of Ultima and Zork-inspired indie RPGs called Ultizurk. Developed by Robert "Dr. Dungeon" Deutsch throughout the mid-1990s, the Ultizurk games were part of a shareware RPG renaissance that flowered during the notorious slump in commercial RPG development of that period (Jeff Vogel's Exile series is the most famous product of this era).

Our Internet archaeology also discovered that Dr. Dungeon had planned on producing a fourth Ultizurk game, entitled Ultizurk IV: Lord of the Cyclops, and indeed had announced its imminent release on multiple occasions throughout the 2000s. But much like one or two other games well-known to the Codex, it had never actually come out. Unwilling to let this mystery become lost to the ages, we reached out to the good Doctor. And to our surprise, he replied.

The interest that our community showed in his works reinvigorated Dr. Dungeon's spirit, and he set out to finally finish and release his magnum opus. However, this would not be Ultizurk IV, but Madman, a remake/reimagining of one of his last RPGs from the 1990s, using the engine he had developed for Ultizurk IV. By 2014, Madman's development had progressed far enough for the Doctor to release several gameplay trailers on his YouTube channel, and we were even able to get our hands on a preview copy.

Today, over three years since its rediscovery, Madman has finally been released. In the great vaporware contest between Ultima, Wizardry and Fallout, Ultima has emerged victorious - if only just. Here's the official trailer:



Sadly, Madman is not available on Steam, and GOG have rejected it. Right now, the only way to get it is directly from Dr. Dungeon's website, for the price of $15. A free demo is also available there. If you want to help bring Madman to a wider audience, I encourage you to go vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Yeah, it turns out you still need to do that these days.
 

m_s0

Arcane
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,289
Honestly, with the kind of shit that gets greenlit and released on Steam and GOG these days I'd take this as a personal 'fuck you.' But hey, if they don't want my money that's fine.

That aside, it's incredibly cool that this game exists :salute: I'll be grabbing it for sure.
 

getter77

Augur
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
861
Location
GA, USA
Fantastic that this has made it, hilarious even that it has done so ahead of Grimoire and Age of Decadence---though not by much on the latter to be fair. Hopefully it can make it through Greenlight even if somehow GOG couldn't bring themselves around the production values despite them dwarfing at least a fair portion of their classic offerings. I guess there's always the likes of itch.io that should be more than willing to play ball with the Good Doctor as that's their whole thing?
 

Aeschylus

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Glad this has finally come to fruition! Pretty cool that my random mention of the old Ultizurk games on that "Obscure games you like " thread resulted in a whole new one being made. :D
 

norolim

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
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Location
Pawland
Good story. I'm glad I watched and, to some extend, took part in it. I'll definitely be getting the game. Congrats DrDungeon
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Thanks, Infinitron, for setting up this release thread. I'm kinda glad this is done. It took forever to make. I'm a one-man basement fellow, with a budget of almost nothing. I hope everyone enjoys it,
especially the little story it tells. At least we have a game now where you can step on and squish snakes! I love doing this, because it has a relaxing effect very much like popping those bubbles
that some packages are mailed in. I mean the bubbles that are in it. I've seen these for sale. I can never run through the game without squishing the snakes because if you let them go,
they will eventually eat every butterfly in the game that can be reached!

Tried my best to make everything in the land interactive. Popping popcorn isn't necessary, but its there for fun and makes a neat sound when popped.
I'm proud of that particular sound effect! Made all the sounds myself. For example, coin exchange. If you ever make a game where gold is exchanged, just get a coffee can
and throw in some coins with a mic nearby. (If the mic is too close it goes "crash!" so keep the mic at a distance a little.)

My lab here at the castle is predominantly my ASUS computer with a 2560x1440 Dell screen hooked to it. The other one is a little notebook for testing.
On the right is the old iMac, whose drive went zap, and it doesn't have any memory anymore because I gave all 4 gigs to my step-mother when the drive went down.

This is the main reason the Mac version will come sometime later.

Under my elbows is one of many notebooks filled with all sorts of stuff. Mostly numbers, diagrams and notes scrawled in the margins, as well as a whole slew of "last things to do" lists.

Here's a few little madman tips!
-The ranger is a little over-powered!
-For unarmed, Monks and Ninjas are toughest.
-The thief can be the strongest character as long as he holds a lowly knife. Just pump extra points into his melee skill and critical hits. He already has a much higher to-hit value
if holding a dagger as the monk and ninja do with unarmed.

- The best way to make gold is to mine ore and make weapons. Sell to Archie.
- If you get caught stealing or pick pocketing and get thrown to the blasted lands, don't worry. The monsters inside the escape cave are whimpy.
It is the fire elementals outside that are not whimpy!

- Don't over-use Ol' Killers toys! They are rare, and basically to get past tough spots in the early game.

- The monsters southward and westward are stronger than those near town.

- Try to get the spellbook from Leodalf pretty early. He will teach you how to use it.

- For fun, when you get them dancing at the "Outside Inn", quickly run into Leodalf's place and he is dancing also!

That's all I can think of for now. Have fun with it! - Rob
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Wow! I just got the "I'M LOVIN IT" award! 500 brofists! I'm famous! And when countless thousands of people buy madman, I'll be rich, too!
What will I do with all that money? I suppose I could start work on Ultizurk IV, but that would mean implementing some of the things I couldn't get into madman, mostly
because of time constraints.

Like a full party of adventurers. Most people don't know (actually, no one knows 'cause I never mentioned it) that inside the code for madman are "expansion blocks", with notes
about expanding these things, plus some code. Its pretty easy to walk 4-6 characters around.

Why program role-playing games when I could go to the Bahamas and hang out with cute gals? You know - the kind you see in James Bond movies....
(Even James Bond doesn't have five HUNDRED bro fists!!)

Or maybe shift to a true 2:1 perspective. Make it look like Eschantharion - I mean Antharscalon. You know - ULTIMA 8 perspective.

Resolution Independent. Easier than I thought. Instead of pre-setting it to a given resolution, it would look at the edges of the screen, and set the controls as an offset.
That would allow an easy way to make for easy HUD customization as well, plus ability to on/off the hud parts.

But no! I could be swimming with the James Bond gals! In a fancy pool! At a fancy hotel! In my fancy pumped up kicks!

Enhanced lighting. I originally wanted multiple light sources, but I was too dumb to do it. The lantern works fine in madman, but originally I wanted street lights
dotted around the city. I've learned new techniques since then.

Why bother? Picture this: a tall, slim glass with iced tea in it, a lemon slice, and one of those neat little wooden umbrellas to play with, balanced neatly on the
rim, leaning back on a long recliner on a hotel deck somewhere, and peeking over at some cute lass, "Hey, g'mon over here. 'ave a little tea with the good doc here."

She might not come at first. But when I tell here I got 500 brofists on the rpg codex, she'll come! (I almost did myself!) <<--- bad joke!

Or I could get those large scale monsters in. Like drakes and stuff. Figured out how to do this later. A little extra work, but not too terribly hard.

What do you think? I could either sit in my basement and start work on UZ4, or maybe a "mad" sequel, or head to the Bahamas and flirt my time away with
cute gals! Maybe I'm getting too old for...programming.

Never too old for girls.

You don't believe me? Check out the Steam Greenlight page again. Look at the last "screenshot". :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=457828980

Bahamas heeeeerrrrrrrrrreeeeeeee I come!!!

P.S. I'm just joking....about swimming in my pumped up kicks!
 

Deuce Traveler

2012 Newfag
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Man, it seems like forever since I previewed this CRPG for the site. I can't believe it has been little over a year. Congrats on the accomplishment, DrDungeon! I hope the hive mind likes it.

:bro:
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Them's some ugly characters.

20307.jpg
 
Joined
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Messages
181
sound stuff
That reminds me of my favourite explosion sound effect trick: Take a drinking glass and put a curled up (but not too much) piece of paper in it. Then shove your mic directly into the glass and that's it. Easy and effective.
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Two quick notes:
If the screen appears stretched, has lines, or some such, its probably a scaling issue. Madman won't muff with explicit video settings on your computer.
As a rule, you'll want your video panel, Nvidia, etc., to be set to maintain aspect ratio (in Nvidia its just "Aspect Ratio" now), and let the GPU do the scaling.
Many monitors have their own and differinf schemes to handle auto-stretch and the like. GPU aspect control is also a little quicker in most games.
ATI and others should have similar settings.

Also had a question about rolling in character create.
When you click the "Roll" button, it is basically offering suggested values for that character, and likewise when you add or subtract points from the primary stats,
it will adjust the skill set. From there you can add bonus's.

A thief, for example, will tend to get higher values in stuff like lock picking, a fighter in melee and unarmed combat, etc. This allows to develop the character as you like.

When leving up, the character will auto-advance in those things his class is good at, so you can allocate points toward other skills, or even in the skills he's already
good at to make him a super version of whatever class he is.

All skills play a pretty important role in madman. I know when I was testing I had a tendency to put a lot in various combat skills then I was rather lost in a dungeon
filled with traps and secret passes!

All the skills and what effects what in each class can be seen when rolling the mouse over the stats in the character create section. Sort of a quick reference.

Hope this clarifies a little. Thanks again for all your support! - Dr. Dungeon
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Its funny that when I play games I tend to do an inordinate amount of silly stuff, often holding back on the main quests, and I wonder why I didn't put them in madman, despite all
the dynamic map/interactive stuff going on.

For example, killing NPC's.

What could be more fun? The first time I met Sheogorath in Oblivion's expansion, well of course the first thing to do is attack him! What fun, what he does to you!

How many ingenious ways have people found to kill that Adoring Fan? "By Azura by Azura by Azura!"

In Ultima 7, my main "quest" - when I was at a pretty high level, was to ATTACK Lord British's castle! What fun! Summoning creatures, casting lightening, sneaking around the passages
in the castle. Whheeooo!

Jumping. Maybe its more a 3D thing, but I usually jump my way to glory! Doing that right now in both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Wither 3. Why walk/run when you can jump?

And when you're by a cliff, you've GOT to jump off and kill youself - after saving tour game. I even get mad at games that don't let you jump!

Customize Characters. By far, the thing I waste the most time on! I mean those games that let you adjust things like eyes, hair, cheekbone width, etc.
I spend FOREVER getting them to look right! My mighty Paladin, who I usually call "Elrond", has got to look tough! My lovely elven ranger, who I usually call "Milua" has GOT
to be cute and have big, lovely eyes! Really wish I would have implemented this. Then those that don't like madman's portraits could customize them, and make them look like my
old characters in "Ultizurk I" or "The Great Ultizurkian Underland". (Someone post a pic or two to compare.)

Toilets and sinks.
Let's face it. If you see a toilet or sink in a game, you gotta flush it! Or run the sink. I don't know why. Because its there?

Cheats and exploits.
Here's a funny thing. When Deuce played an early version, he could make money by chopping and selling endless slingstones from rocks - one of the interactive features
of madman. I'm thinking, well, who's gonna take all that time to do that? I had forgotten my earlier brag about the "snappy" interface - meaning madman is very
responsive. Indeed, you could get a LOT of stones very quickly and sell them off for a fortune!

So I re-did Archie - the weapons guy, to not buy stones as he can get them outside.

Has anyone tried any of Ol' Killers stuff? Like the cigars? I'm glad I put all that in. I didn't want to take all the FUN out of life! -Rob
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Infinitron - I'm seeing about a 1 in 4 interest rate. I vowed I would be honest with my friends on the codex. This is my internet HOME after all!
So here it is:
I'm at 33% of the way.
I got 273 "yes" votes.
I have 24 followers.

Also, if anyone would like to make a "Let's Play Madman!" youtube playthrough, I'll be offering FREE keys for the game. Give me a buzz if you're interested.
I'm still at lotcyclops@aol.com Thanks again, -Rob

P.S. "Buzz". I actually don't drink. I meant an email, not a beer. :)
P.S.S. Actually, I'm surprised making madman didn't drive me to drink!
P.S.S.S. I think its actually P.P.S. and P.P.P.S. ?
 

Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
Congratulations doc, installing the game now :incline:

Steam and GOG have rejected it

:hmmm:

Maybe the Codex twitterers could bombard Spoony and Matt Barton with tweets about Madman...
 
Last edited:

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Just curious - do most people prefer a game with good mechanics and gameplay, or an involving story? Or a mixture of both? This just popped into mind and I was wondering.
Do we shift gears, so to speak, when reading a book or watching a movie vs. playing a game?

For example, would something like the movie "First Blood" make a good video game, or is the story more workable as a movie or book?
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
Oops! Another thing forgot to ask! Do players prefer a super-huge world with a moderate amount of detail, or a smaller, but highly detailed world?
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
We've had many threads with those and related questions in General RPG Discussion over the years, and I believe people are mostly tired of discussing them at this point.

The huge vs smaller world may be a more interesting thing to discuss, though. You can make a thread in GRPGD about it if you want, since I don't think you'll get many answers in this thread.
 

DrDungeon

Developer
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
195
I forgot to mention that Madman uses the Humble Bundle company to purchase through the widget on the site. I chose them on purpose because not only do they give a significant amount of revenue to the developer, which in turn allows the developer to make even better games, but a portion goes to many charities like
ablegamers, childsplaycharity, specialeffect and others.

Many of these places are helping children with disabilities.

By the end of the 2014, the total charitable amount raised by Humble's Bundles exceeded $50 million across 50 different charities!
http://www.ablegamers.com/
http://childsplaycharity.org/
http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/

That's always a good thing, not just for my game, but for any other developer's games you buy using this service. Something to think about.
Dr. D.

Madman - a bizarre land and a lot of off-the-wall characters, available now:
http://www.machgryphon.com/
 

crpgnut

Augur
Joined
Dec 11, 2002
Messages
337
Location
St. Louis,MO,USA
First, a caveat: Buy this game. It is worth $15. The below are questions for after 30 solid hours of fun!

Well, I'm curious as to whether the 3 villages right as you start the game are the only villages in the whole game. It appears that most of the world is totally empty of anything but shrines and an occasional dungeon. I know there's a castle out west, but I'm looking for towns like in Ultima VI. Are there any big towns or is this it? If those 3 towns are it, what is the impetus for playing the rest of the game? The vague little tidbits from your sister? I'm starting to lack motivation because I have all the nice gear, plenty of money, etc. What is the "hook" to keep interest?

P.S. I'm not a story guy.

The item from the water chick was appreciated btw. There is a lot of good stuff in Madman, but I'm wondering why there is a massive landmass to explore, that has almost nothing on it. There seems to only be about 100 total items to find in the whole game so opening trees and chests for loot has gotten old. I don't need the money, so I'm leaving everything on the ground except potions. I've dropped the shovel and the sleeping bag since I never use either. Could use a brighter lantern, was hoping to find that in one of the dungeons.....
 

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