“Are we there yet Hunter?”, Weiress sighs as they approach the chained decrepit iron gate. Hunter nods as he uses one of the cloth torches to light up the unlit surfaces around the entrance of the dungeon. Inspecting the surroundings, the entrance reminisces a fully functional iron fortress gate, built to withstand hordes or enemies. Artemis touches the arcane lock, trying to decipher the ancient cryptic magic casted upon it. “I-It’s d-d-decaying, isn’t it?” Michael stutters as he mutters loud enough for the others to hear. “Not yet. I can still sense a presence of magic. It must be coming from the arcane prism. Our presence may disrupt the balance of this ruin and may hasten the decay process.” Artemis says to Michael, who looks back and begins to question his life choices. Theodore taps his shoulders, “Doubt not, comrades. Remember what we came for!” The lock snaps in half. Artemis turns around and says, “It’s ready.”
The game is intended for arcade game enthusiasts, along with those who are interested with playing roguelike mechanics with shooting, skill variations and beat-em-up elements.
Arcane Dungeon Chronicles – The Awakening is a single player arcade game, inspired by the 80’s retro arcade top-down shooter games with various gameplay mechanics added such as shooting, fighting and roguelike elements. The game focuses on our group of heroes, Weiress, Hunter, Theodore, Artemis, and Michael, who are tasked to defeat Arvatorr, the Shadow Walker, that lies in a deep slumber, within the confines of the dungeon. Our young heroes would have to fight their way towards the very heart of the dungeon, overcoming various monsters and obstacles but most importantly, any conflict that comes their way.
Cerulia, the Celestial Goddess of Luminia, has summoned five individuals who she had deemed as the most powerful heroes of all Luminia after having a vision of the dark rising that will come upon the entire realm. She then tasks these heroes to eradicate the four major dungeons, which holds the four most powerful underlings of the La Croix empire, waiting to be awakened. The first dungeon our heroes need to face is the Dungeon of the Shadow Eldritch. Here lies Arvatorr, the Shadow Walker, a creator capable of bringing chaos to multiple realms with his enormous dark essence and crave for flesh and uncorrupted souls. As the heroes manage to “defeat” the Eldritch and come back to Luminia, little did they know that Arvatorr was able to survive and take the form of Michael, who is now possessed by the Shadow Walker.
The player character will focus on Theodore Eisenbard, son of Theobolt. He is a human knight, blessed by the Celestial Goddess, Cerulia, as one of the chosen heroes to defeat the underlings of Lorelei La Croix, the Dark Empress of Ashburn. Theodore, as one of the summoned heroes, is highly motivated with glory and honor, making him the leader of the group. (Concept art is located at the last part of this section).
The game is based off of retro-themed 80’s game design, similar to River City girls which is a classic beat ‘em up fighting game added with a mix of Darkest Dungeon and Soul Knight roguelike elements and mechanics. The main goal is to reach the deepest part of the dungeon and defeat the hibernating Dark Lord within. The main force opposing the player’s drive would be the number of enemies along the way as well as variation of attacks and level design complexity across multiple levels which is very similar to Soul Knight whose dungeons are designed in a way that all creatures and traps coincide to build a new level of complexity to the game. Once the players defeat the final boss of the whole game, the rest of the story will unfold and reveal more bits of the story to be unlocked for the next addition to the series.
The story will be told through cutscenes after each accomplishment. Hero-focused backstory will be unlocked at a certain level (bits by bits will be unlocked). There will be some dialogue within the game, specially during events of interaction and rest.
Daughter of the Arch Mage of Thaymore, sister of Lunaxis Crestfallen and the youngest ice mage of Frostpine. Born with the elemental affinity to ice, she was banished off to Frostpine after causing chaos throughout the land with her inability to control her power. She was then raised by Solomnus, the Ice Wizard of Frostpine, where she was able to better take control of her given power and later on, succeeding her mentor. She is very soft spoken and timid and most of the time, she asks Theodore on how to better improve herself as she sees Theodore as a very confident and determined person.
No one really knows where Hunter came from as he changes the story every time. One time he told them that he was abandoned as a child and learned his tracking and cunning ability as a part of normal survival skills. Other times, he states that he was raised by a bounty hunter that taught him the ways of the blade. He even exclaimed that he was once been a part of a secret society of assassins, trained in the art of thievery and stealth. What we do know is that he will do what it takes to get a job done, for a right price.
A moonglave elf, raised by the celestial goddess, Cerulia, herself. The night of her birth, Artemis’ family was killed in a storm where she, a newborn child, survived among the debris. In the quiet of the night, after the storm, the goddess have taken notice of the child, crying alone in the moonlight. She took pity in the child and took her in as her daughter and apprentice. She is now provided with the ability and understanding of lunar arcane magic.
Son of Erylyn and Bartholomew, Michael lived a pretty normal life as a human child up until he discovered and got lost in an ancient ruin, similar to a dungeon. He was shortly found later but then he found himself fascinated of the ancient writings carved within the walls of the ruins. He dedicated his youth towards learning and studying to decrypt the ancient language and soon enough, he was able to harness the primal energy within the realm and manipulating it towards health restoration as well as light energy.
The main villain of the game, Arvatorr, is primarily located at the boss level which can be unlocked by collecting the four artifacts to summon him. During the battle against him, he will be occasionally summoning undead skeletons, ghouls, and liches. He can also use concentrated dark magic which is casted throughout the map like meteors falling from the sky. He can also shoot projectiles in all directions towards the player in a circular motion.
The environment will entirely focus on the dungeon itself rather than the overly expanded setting of the game which is the realm of Luminia. Instead, it will show bits of the mentioned environments and will focus more on the dungeon. The dungeon that I envision for the Dungeon of the Shadow Eldritch is similar to the Darkest Dungeon’s Ruins.
Dungeons – dungeons are previous placeholders for ancient runestones which causes them to get decayed over time if left unused. Once an ancient runestone gets decayed, it will destroy all physical matter that the magical energy reaches or touches. Air particles that are affected by the runestone will be most likely to have a reaction in which can turn the entire area into a toxic wasteland. Due to this highly negative consequence, a runestone is most likely used as a tool to imprison highly skilled individuals that become to a threat to Luminia.
Luminia – A realm of magic and sorcery, controlled by the four primal sources of magic, Light, Darkness, Soul Energy and Spirit Energy. (Soul energy is the source of magic for life forms such as humans, monsters and other creatures and spirit energy is the source for ethereal beings that do not have a physical body).
The character experiences the game through various dungeon level designs, cutscenes and character interactions that define the world around them. The world’s locations connect through the cut scenes that show more about the world outside the dungeon as well as the character’s backstories. Though, it would not be the primary focus of the game to showcase the entire environment setup, they would be able to get a grasp of the game’s theme through the various aspects mentioned. The game’s introduction will be fast paced and after the introduction of the main plot (Cerulia’s summoning and teleporting them into the dungeon entrance). After that it will then briefly introduce the character to the dungeon, similarly like Soul Knight in which will block a part of the dungeon until it is cleared. Each dungeon may contain an artifact, a curse or a piece of the lore.
An artifact is a sacred relic that may help the characters progress through different dungeon levels as each relic may have an effect specifically on a character or for the team. An example of this is the Weeping Angel’s artifact, which increases a character’s immunity towards negative spiritual energy. Another example of an artifact is the King’s Crown which adds a bonus morale to all characters when the crown is being used by a character. However, once the crown as been used in a dungeon, it would no longer have any effect in future levels.
A curse is a negative buff that may affect a character throughout the game or through various levels. All curses can be cured by Michael, who is a priestly mage but would take some time depending on which curse was afflicted. An example of a curse is the Demon’s Whisperer, which will continuously degrade a character and provide debuffs unto them through the entire game. Another example of a curse is a Mermaid’s Lullaby which makes a character charmed towards Eldritch Sirens whose intentions are to harm the player.
Occasionally, the player can unlock journal entries of people who went inside the ruins, lore artifacts which can trigger a short cutscene for a character, dark runestone pieces that will showcase small bits of information about Arvatorr, the Shadow Walker.
It is the character’s goal to reach the boss level which can be reached if the player has specifically collected the artifacts to summon the gate to his lair (automatically gets summoned and the gate will appear and will be accessible on the next level). Once they are able to defeat Avatorr, the ending sequence will be triggered. The sequence will be shown as comic-slideshows like the prologue to the game. After the sequence, the player will be able to unlock a playable character from the main heroes which is randomly chosen.