A Team-Based Game
| In Dark, there are two classes: soldiers and hunters. In any game there is only one hunter, and as many soldiers as desired by the hosting server. The soldiers have the advantage of superior weaponry, but the hunters have superior vision. The core gameplay is based on the advantages and disadvantages of light. The game takes place in unlit environments, so the soldiers must carry dim flares if they have any hope of defending themselves against the hunters. Gunfire lights up immediate areas but causes light to dim afterwards, as soldiers' eyes readjust to the darkness. The hunter only has a melee attack, but can see far better in the darkness than a soldier. |  |
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The interaction of light and dark creates an intense, sometimes frantic atmosphere, as groups of soldiers unload hundreds of rounds blindly into the darkness in an attempt to take down the hunter, while more soldiers are disappearing as the hunter manages to attack them unawares. Dark's single-player vs. team-player style provides a unique gaming experience. |
| The Dark engine is coded by William R.C. Smith and uses Microsoft DirectX 8. The engine is fully scalable to any supported video resolution, color bit depth, and z-buffer depth. The engine uses a real-time ray-casting shadowing engine to draw accurate leaping shadows and a high-resolution height map system to provide precise collision detection, as well as conversion utilities to allow users to create their own maps in third-party CAD programs such as 3D Studio Max. |  |
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| The ray-casting shadow engine not only provides realistic geometry-hugging shadows but provides free per-vertex vector hit detection. The Dark engine does not use hitboxes. A keyframe interpolated animation system provides as smooth animations as the host computer is capable of displaying. |  |
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When finished, Dark will be a single free download containing all files necessary to run the game. The aim of Dark is to provide an entertaining gaming experience playable on mid-range computers, sacrificing cutting-edge graphics for emphasis on more open team dynamics and gameplay. For more information on Dark or to submit media to the project (always welcome, and always credited!) please send an email to FictiousWill@netscape.net. |
