11 hours later...

First off, the game is not publicly out yet.

Second, I have it. I have played it for 11 hours.

Third, it is amazing.

Even from someone who built up hype for years upon years, and who has look forward to other games, and never had a game ever live up to my expectations, ever, someone who owns 100+ console games, and around the same for computers, the same person who is usually extremely critical of games.

This game, both lives up to everything you wanted it to be, and will surprise you over and over again.

Instant Classic. Those 12 years were not wasted.


In other news, a new demo has been released, go check out SHFF's page.

LINK

Update: Is this finally it?

In regards to the other news story about the "storm coming", Zack Black has posted something new:

...as the fireball hit the wererat's brown matted hide, it lit up like dry brush on a hot summer day. The beast shrieked and collapsed into a pile of black soot as the hot magic consumed its evil body. The pungent smell of singed hair polluted the otherwise fresh evening breeze. As the orange glow of the fire faded from Bryant's face, he felt a single raindrop hit his cheek. Looking up he could see the dark storm clouds gathering overhead. It was time to head to the tower top.


Time for the next round testing
No, I said... it's time to head to the tower.

This sounds like the news we have all been waiting for.

News from Zack Black

Good marrow all, and happy anniversary to the great DC forum! Well, I really pushed to have the game released today, but sometimes no matter how hard we try there are things beyond our control, and we must accept them. I do have some good news though. There is only one remaining bug, but it is kind of a nasty one. I say this because it is only happening on one Mac that SHFF has (and it is a real crash, not a harmless quirk) so we're having to do some long distance bug tracking and it's a slow process. We do have some tricks up our sleeve though, so with any luck we'll get this thing squashed and... well, you know... Keep those shields ready. The weatherman predicts a storm moving in next week. 8)

Straight from Zack Black, the closest thing to a release date in a while.

Here's some more quotes:

"Though he hinted that it MIGHT be next week."
The weather can be difficult to predict. There is definitely a storm front on the horizon, but wether we'll get thunder and lightning remains to be seen.

Time to keep those fingers crossed.

Anyone remember the "Armory" level from the trailer?

I'm sure some people remember this level, shown in the trailer for Return to Dark Castle:

But, what if it had been done by the original team? How about this?:


I know, don't even try to say "Too much free time".

Anyways, something to distract you from the fact that the game isn't out yet.

Calm Before the Storm update

Zack Black has given us a few more riddles, and clues to the coming news, here are the snippets:

While SHFF has been busy hunting pests, I have not been idle. I decided to try a different approach to perhaps bring the rats out of hiding. After much pondering, I recalled a trick a friend of mine showed me once, when he helped the townspeople of Hamelin. (Rat)


"It's called playing us a merry tune and having us follow along hypnotised. So as I said "
This is one possible interpretation. There is definitely another. (Rat) (Rat) (Rat)


"There are three of them following you now... Which way is the river?"
Lol. Ahem... Ah, but it is neither the river nor the rats that are of interest. I shall say no more, but rather hum quietly to myself as I read the posts.

So, again, take this how you will, and rack your brain for any possible solution to the riddles, and if you find anything, let me know with a comment!

UPDATE:

Zack posted some more hints, along with a "hint.mp3"

"The Pied Piper? He's a pretty cool dude."

Very cool dude. We used to jam together back in the day. (rat)(rat)(rat)(rat)(rat)

"Every one of his posts refers to music. Even when he says he'll hum quietly"

(Whispers nonchalantly and stares at the ceiling...)

LINK - Hint.mp3

"Looking at the file info, it was encoded with Amadeus II, which is my audio editor of choice"

Methinks there will be much amusement over the riddles and secrets in RTDC. ;)

"Maybe Zack Black's so frustrated with the delays and not being able to say anything that he's done slightly mad and this is how he's venting."

This would seem to make the most sense since I did use A(mad)ues to encode the music.

In the end, it looks as though Zack Black has added music, though we don't have a confirmation at this point.

Zack Black: The Calm Before the storm

Last week was a slow week, hmmm...

Take this as you will, it could mean that the game is set for release.... Or it could be, that there is news coming.. Take it as you will, but take it for good news. :)

NEWS! Straight from the source

First off, the picture is a custom level made by Zack Black to show off the level editor.

Also, Zack Black was left us all with some news, so, I will go straight to the quotes.

GAME NEWS:

Here's the latest news: SHFF has very thorough beta testers. DC3 is, and has been, extremely stable for about the last 6 months to a year. SHFF is finding little things like, say you use a morning star in the training to defeat the henchmen then die by running into a wall and restart the training while patting your head and rubbing your tummy AND you're playing on a Friday the 13th, then the training stops working and you have to quit back to the main screen, lol. I'm not knocking them for their hard work, it's great to have people who can find these weird little edge cases we never thought of, but that is what is actually delaying the game at this point. Let me be clear that MSP wants to release ASAP, as in today if it were possible. But they are going to continue to experiment and stress test until they are completely satisfied with it. In the supposed "final" build that was sent to them around the time the trailer was released, they found 13 of these little quirks. I fixed all of them and sent another build a few days ago, in which they uncovered 5 more. All of which were quickly dealt with. I sent them another build last night with all issues solved. They will test it on Monday at the latest.

The release is very close. It's NOT going to take another year. SHFF wants it out as badly as we (you) do. Stay cool all.

Level Editor news:

The level editor will likely be made available as a free download shortly after the game is released. Price is yet to be determined, but likely in the $20 - $30 range. Distribution is initially going to be download only, but SHFF is looking at boxed copies down the road if it sells well.

I think most of you expect that I never answer any of these because I've been hiding in a crack in the Dungeon for the last couple of years. I'm making an effort to play a more active role now.

You can customize wall / floor textures, stairs, backgrounds, just about anything except for items and enemies.

So, I'm sure everyone will be happy with this news. I know I was. :)

Now, as promised, a shout out to everyone that left comments before!

Thayne, you are stoked for Return to Dark Castle. Thanks for leaving a comment!

Izdale, I know you go to the forums and such, but I said I would give a shout out to everyone who left a comment, Thanks!

Freed, I'm right there with you, I can't see how anyone wouldn't be excited for DC3! Tahnks for the comment!

Anonymous, You may not have put a named down, but I'm glad you read this blog, and I'm sorry there isn't more news to share. Thanks for the comment!

Hamishi, Thank you! I'm glad some people are reading this, and Thanks for the comment!

SHFF site, extremely minor update.

As I said in the title, there's been an extremely minor update to SuperHappyFunFun's site, which is now linking to some of the news articles mentioning Return to Dark Castle.

Like, I said, nothing major. But it's good to know that they are keeping tabs on what people think of Return to Dark Castle. :)

On a side note, this is the blog's 50 post. Congrats to those watching this blog, and keeping it alive.

Everyone reading leave a comment, and get a shout out in one of the next blog posts.

Source [SuperHappyFunFun]

UPDATE: Zsculpt.com partially updated.

I realized that there was something I missed when I first read the page, and thanks to 'Bryant Esquire', I noticed it, and without further adu:

Many milestones have been reached in the recent weeks, so we can finally think about what comes after DC3's release. Feel free to post the trailer anywhere you like, and spread the word that the final release is just days away.

I bolded the part that is the best news of all. :)

Magic Brooms - News From Zack Black

Why did Merlin conjure them up? To help sweep away the nasty dust and spiders that plagued him while he was working on his electrical inventions. If only the software development process was as easy to deal with. Not to worry though, the current build is very stable on all the Mac setups we've tested, but SHFF seems to have a knack for discovering rats that escaped our traps.

I quotith Zack Black, and once again, you can take this any way you want, it could mean that everything is done, and he is just worried SHFF might dig up some small bug. Or it could be taken as, they found another glitch at the last moment...

Like I said, take this how you will?

ZSculpt.com Partially updated!

It's been a while since we've gotten our news from the Zack's web page, but they have finally posted an update, it's not really new news, but the fact that it's been updated at all is great news.

www.zscupt.com/website/news/index.php

In addition if you care, it seems that Joe Williams has moved his blog, the new location is located here:

LINK

News from... Joe Williams?

It seems like forever since we heard anything from Delta Tao, probably because it's been almost a year since we heard anything Dark Castle related, yet tonight, he sent out an E-Mail, which read:

Delta Tao gave the rights to Dark Castle back to Mark Pierce, the
original designer, so Return to Dark Castle will be published by his
new company, Super Happy Fun Fun. When? We still don't know -- but
it's looking very, very close.

Check out this trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az6ispvk_WM

Also, keep your eyes open for updates at:

http://www.returntodarkcastle.com

Don't forget to vote! Make a difference.

Thanks!

--Joe Williams
President, Delta Tao
http://deltatao.com/deltajoe/

So, take this as you will, it could mean that that game is really done, and that he's been asked to let people know through his mailing list.

Or, it could just be him seeing all the headlines lately...

Like I said, take is as you will...

Enter Monday, Commence waiting...

Well, it's monday, the weekend is over, and in all odds, Return to Dark Castle will be hitting sometime this week.

So, like the title says, as hard as it is, it's time to start waiting. Not that you haven't been doing this for a while now, but if this truly is the last week, and it really could come out by, or before friday... Then, well, it's going to long week.

Remember, whoever see that's it's released first, and posts a comment, either here, or on the forum, will get a shout out. Besides, you'll have to wait for it to download anyways, right?

Remember though, this is if all goes well, keep those fingers crossed.

Proof that DC3 wont get swept under the rug?

After the release of the trailer, I decided to go on a pilgrimage to all corners of the web, advertising it's existence. Here's what's come so far:

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

Not bad, I would like to thank every one of these sites and encourage you to keep visiting them, as they are great sites.

Now, as good as I did, I think that WE can do better, so I am asking for your help in E-Mailing these sites, in hopes they will run the story also:

LINK

LINK

LINK

Good luck, hopefully they will listen to numbers. :)

EDIT: I added another site.

EDIT: More sites picked up the story.

Update: "Tomorrow's News"

Now, after yesterday's news flash, the news finally came.

Sadly, the game is not out. BUT before you start screaming and breaking things, that doesn't mean that nothing has happened.

Zack Black and SuperHappyFunFun have brought us the 'first' Return to Dark Castle trailer, and good gosh, it's amazing, so without spoiling anything more, I shall link you:

LINK

Enjoy!

P.S. If you would like to discuss it, feel free to visit this forum topic:

LINK