With the Christmas holiday consuming at least part of the latter half of his month, Goldenflame Dragon hasn’t made too many updates to The Dark Unknown since we last checked in on his progress. At least not in terms of hours invested…though that isn’t always the most reliable measure of progress made, is it?

And, indeed, Goldenflame seems to have had a fairly productive end-of-the-year. He added several key graphics and item definitions, for example:

Only worked for a few minutes tonight, but added graphics for Nightshade, Executioner’s Hood, and Sulfurous Ash, and created the item definitions for those plus Black Pearl and Spider Silk.

He also created in-game signs for a variety of shops, and several other graphics as well:

Leaving for the holidays soon, which doesn’t mean I won’t keep working on DU, but does mean I won’t have my system with photoshop on it with me. Therefore, making all the graphics I can today. Today I created, and there are mild spoilers in this list but think of them more like teases:

Signs for: Magic Shoppe, Alchemist, Weaponsmith, Armoury, Casino, Healer, Grocer.
Dragon fingerbone
Stones of Embers, the Blaze, Sparks, and Conflagration
Amulet of Reflection
Book of Lore

This reduces my count of non-effect graphics that I need to 16. And it should let me do some more mapbuilding while I’m on vacation.

His most recent progress, however, is likely the most impressive:

Found a pixel editor that works well with animating gifs. This will make palette swapping a LOT easier than doing it in photoshop, and I’ve already done a few (Elder Dragon vs Drake, Twister vs Air Elemental). Similarly I’ve just downloaded a midi editor so I can do some music work outside the studio.

Building another dungeon today, this one has a weird name. It’s called “Mt Drash”. It has a magical location in it called the “Pool of Radiance”. You’ll probably find out about it in a Bard’s Tale, and we’ll see how many more references I can shoehorn in there

One looks forward to chronicling Goldenflame’s progress on The Dark Unknown in the new year. And, hopefully, to giving a revamped demo a try!