We can't believe it's been 30 years since the game came out. It is so lovely to see so many fans come back to this amazing game.
Some may have thought that with Jedi Knight's release interest in Dark Forces will wane. But that is not the case because we have lots of exciting updates for you today!
DF-21 has survived full website outage and over the past few years we rebuilt our level database and many assets that we thought were lost, including the elusive original Frogman mission.
New Missions
For the past few months the community has been hard at work on new and remastered community missions. You can check all of them out in our Levels Section
Matthias completed a total overhaul of the map including new textures, models, sound effects, custom enemy logics, music and cinematics. The GOB now clocks at 140 megabytes which is twice the size of the original Dark Forces release!
Just look at the new model of Dash Rendar's Outrider!
The outdoor areas have been overhauled with lots of new areas to visit and explore !
The world is now teaming with NPCs that will interact with you. Nothing like this has been done before.
Pirate Raid has you exploring a facility where Kyle must eliminate the leaders of a ruthless pirate gang.
There are lots of outdoor areas with new models and a fantastic boss fight.
You will explore underground bars where pirates talk about their exploits!
The map has lots of fantastic architecture with an emphasis on fighting in the shadows!
Additionally, Geoffrey has released Enter the Kell Dragon which is a mini side-scrolling adventure in a similar vein to 1990s beat-em-up games.
Your character will move through various Nar Shaddaa areas and punch out nasty gangsters!
The mission has lots of new sprites to make it a unique adventure!
This will bring a doze of nostalgie to those that enjoy the side-scrolling beat-em-up genre!
Furthermore, Tim Smulders, has finished his multi-level adventure Operation Kyber Crystal . This campaign contains twelve missions and will certainly test your mettle!
The campaign has diverse locations such as canyon waterfalls.
You will get lost in Coruscant's web of skyscrapers!
You will visit frozen planets with a plethora of imperial personnel to combat!
Unique imperial base defenses will test your puzzle-solving skills.
What is a Kyle Katarn adventure without combat in space?
In addition to the Kyber crystal campaign, Tim has released a secret project he's been working on Sith and Jedi trials.
These are collection of puzzles one must solve as well as gladiatorial combat against various minions of the Star Wars universe.
Don't drop off the platforms !
This should be a fun collection of mini levels for the community to overcome !
Night Dive Dark Forces Interview
Night Dive studios recently released an interview with Max Waine about the game's remaster development ! Check it out !
The Force Engine release 1.15
The force engine released a new version of the engine. In addition to bug fixes and work on the editor the engine now supports custom mod overrides and scripting which will allow for new custom content creation.
While you download the latest release here, you can read the full list of changes below.
Numerous bug fixes (everyone)
Many editor changes @luciusDXL
ForceScript API work @luciusDXL
ScriptCall functionality in INF (with editor support) @luciusDXL
Script state serialization for save games @luciusDXL
CMake: automatically make system midi optional by @mlauss2
Update Dear ImGUI to 1.90.9 by @mlauss2
Use external release metadata XML for Flathub info by @fpiesche
Replace GLEW with built-in GLAD by @mlauss2
Fixes for GCC LTO (Link Time Optimizations) by @mlauss2
Enable item ten by @jerethk
Adding logging timestamps by @ifeldshteyn
Ading new input buttons such as HD, screenshot and GIF recording. by @ifeldshteyn
Mod conf overrides by @ifeldshteyn
Adding Mouse panning to the PDA by @ifeldshteyn
Custom logic proposal by @jerethk
Add mod directory to s_searchPaths when loading from a custom GOB by @jerethk
Adding open folder button for mods. by @ifeldshteyn
GIF capture feedback messages by @kevinfoley
actor.cpp, flyers.cpp, sewer.cpp: replace anim.state magic numbers … by @kevinfoley
dragon, phaseOne: replace anim.state magic numbers with enum values… by @kevinfoley
Switch mod conf versioning to 1 by @ifeldshteyn
Weapon data externalisation by @jerethk
Fixes for TELEPORTER BASIC by @jerethk
Make sure we can fly over water sectors. by @ifeldshteyn
Change to forward slash for paths by @jerethk
Custom logics fix by @jerethk
New Dev panel with lighting controls by @kevinfoley
Fix VUE camera by @jerethk
Subdirectory related amendments by @jerethk
Externalise pickups by @jerethk
Fix custom logics serialisation by @jerethk
Add svg redraw of app icon following modern icon guidelines by @fpiesche
Check for FME extension before attempting to load a FME by @jerethk
Externalise weapons by @jerethk
Actor code readability amendments by @jerethk
Fix building on Linux by @sotpapathe
Fix for fist ammo by @jerethk
Dark Forces VR
An enterprising community member Erny was able to port the game to VR. You can check out the video below.
You can download the here and join their discord at this link
Replays
While all of this is going on we are also hard at work on Dark Forces demo replays. You can now record and playback any mission just like in Doom! This will hopefully be deployed in the near future in the next TFE release.
You are able to playback both base missions and any mods. You can slowdown or fastforward or pause the replay as you go along.
You can see your replay's progress as you go along. It would be great for speedruns and walkthroughs!
