DF-21 Forums

[Jimmy Chicken]

It’s just been a little over a year since lucius first announced DarkXL. I confess I hadn’t been visiting the forums very much until then. But now I pop in every few days to see how things are coming on the project.

When I registered back in ’03, the community was still very active. Unfortunately, over time, the traffic here on df-21 slowly declined. At one point I really believed DF had died, but now I think it was just in a coma, waiting for something like DarkXL to revive it. I think we’ve all seen quite a few re-appearances of “long-time no-positing” members (myself included).

I still recall when the first alpha of DarkXL was released. Progress seemed rapid, with updates every few days. I think even some of us believed that the project would even get done before Christmas. Unfortunately, real life projects like DarkXL take time just like everything else.

But considering the shape of df-21 a little over a year ago, I think we are right where we should be at this point. I’d estimate by the rate of development and the amount of work already completed on DarkXL, we might see a playable beta of the game and editor by the end of this year. IMHO, the hardest part is over. lucius has the framework of DarkXL built, the community is coming back, and I figure that DF will see many more add-on levels before it really is finished.

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"if you see a wall with the blast marks DF 21 shot into it, I was there"

[lucius]

Well I'm not that far behind... but yeah otherwise I think you're right. Once I can get the preview build out, I'm thinking of having some more community involvement - testing and feedback of course - but probably also a simple contest or something with contestants creating small levels using the DarkXL editor. That could be fun.

Anyway hopefully DarkXL will allow the Dark Forces community to be somewhat similar to the Doom communities are now. There is still an active modding community for Doom with tastes that range from classic levels to those who make Doom levels with modern features in source ports such as Dooms Day and ZDoom. There's really no reason why we can't have a vibrant community for many years to come.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Burning Gundam]

Here here! *Raises glass of fine champaign*

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Barry Brien]

Agreed *but doesn't touch any champagne given what happened to laptop last week*

[Taton]

*pushes Barry's champagne glass over to break the status quo*

Cheers!

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"A fight should be clean and elegant, without waste"
-Asuka Langley Sohryu, Evangelion

[Jackson]

*Would celebrate but there's a bomb under his chair.*

Seriously though, I think you guys are spot on in your estimates. (Also, I hadn't actually realized how active the Doom communities still are!)

[Gez]

[Burning Gundam]

I would totally build DM maps for dark forces

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Nottheking]

I would definitely like to give a hand at making multiplayer levels for Dark Forces, were that capability ever added. I like making maps that are not just a "place for the level" but also look like they'd be actual locations. Combining those two things is always a challenge to get right, and I like that. This goes double for multiplayer maps, where balance is even more important.

As for the status of the DF-21 community, DF had the whole closed-source thing holding it back; Doom being made open-source allowed for a lot more ports to be made much more easily, and hence it kept a lot more interest. That, as well as the multiplayer factor, kept it going much more easily.

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Wake up, George Lucas... The Matrix has you..