New Drakan game!! (maybe)

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:31 am

Hi to everybody! I'm Andrei and we (because we are about 3 members) have an idea about a new Drakan game! [:D]. We want to make this idea real!![;)] If you want to join us, you have some ideas or you just want some info, please contact us:
e-mail: ancuta_djf3000@yahoo.it
yahoo messenger: ancuta_djf3000

W Drakan!!

p.s. We don't like spam. It makes us [:(!]!!! Don't send spam!

danutz_mdab · Post by **danutz_mdab** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:48 am

Hi! I thing this is a grate idea!

I'd like to play another Drakan game!!! This is what I was waiting for!

gaba3000 · Post by **gaba3000** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:56 pm

HI! this somes grate! I like the idea! I can't wait to see it finished. By the way, I want to join to you!!!

AXE · Post by **AXE** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:11 pm

I personally gona wait till I hear alil more about this before I start sending e-mails! Sceptical, maybe, do you even have an idea how to make a game?

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:16 pm

There are a few open source game engines available to use but it's a massive task to make a game from scratch. Assassin once had a go with the Ogre engine and from his previews and screenshots looked like he was on to something good. However I have not spoke to him for at least 2 years so I doubt he is still continuing with it.
But yes, if enough people can get together and stick at it, making a similar game based on Drakan is possible. The only thing I can contribute to however is maybe the story as I am no programmer...

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:04 am

Hi! I've read what do you said and yes: I have an idea how to make a game. We want to make a game that will be the numer 1!! We won't do it by our self, but with a team that had created games before! But befor start to make it, we most have a project. We just design the game, than a team will develop it! If you want to help us to make the project (story, characters, lands, weapons and other things)!

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:02 pm

To Webmaster of Arokh's Lair:

Send us your story if you want to help us. We want to se it. You can sent it at my e-mail!!!
Thanks!

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:36 pm

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you were game developers / programmers that could make the game from scratch or build around an open source game engine. As for the story, Ill see what I can come up with this weekend if I get time.

EDIT: One other thing you need to consider is copyright laws as Sony own the rights to Drakan and it would be very difficult if not impossible to persuade them to make another Drakan game. The alternative would be to purchase the rights to the Drakan franchise from them but this would likely be far too expensive.

The only other way is to make the game an add on to Drakan: OOTF so you would need the original game to play it. As you may know the source code has not been released so this would be another obstacle to overcome. For example Drakan Online was a project set up by a couple of ex Surreal employees which was looking very promising but failed due to similar reasons.

I think maybe this time if anything were to come of this project we should have the game as a prequel to the existing two games. Probably set it immediatley before the Dark Wars (600 years before the games) so Heron and Arokh would be the main characters. I also think the player should choose who they play as and have other dragon / riders to choose from at the start of the game giving it some sort of RPG feel. The game would revolve around the Order of the Flame battling the Dark Union and have many NPC dragons on your side as well as the enemy.

What do you guys think?

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:23 pm

To Webmaster of Arokh's Lair:

Yes, we know that we must persuade Sony or buy the copyrights laws! But to persuade Sony we must show them a very, very...very good game!!!
And yes, we want to make a the game 600 years before Drakan : OOTF!! And yes, we want to have mroe NPC dragons on our side as well as the enemy, but we don't want to make a game where you can choose yuor dragon and rider because we want to make the beggining of Drakan: OOTF and Drakan: TAG!!
And we don't want to make a RPG, but an action game with some RPG features!

This is a STRAT!!

)

Thank you!

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:54 pm

A START!!

Sorry!!

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:47 pm

Sounds good to me.

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:03 pm

As a matter of interest, Lowlight over at www.surreal-news.com has posted that Midway (the owner of Surreal Software) is about to file for bankruptcy so I would keep a close eye on that one over the next few weeks.

Sony still hold the rights to the Drakan franchise but as for Surreal it could go two ways; one is they go bankrupt along with Midway and the other is for them to become an independent developer again. If this happens, you could submit your ideas to them and see what they think. They will still have their contacts at Sony and who knows something might come of another Drakan related game.

As for the story, here are my basic ideas...
This link will help in getting the game story timeline more or less in line with the game world's history. http://www.arokhslair.net/lore.html#timeline

The game should start ideally just before the Dark Wars with a brief prelude cut scene showing the meeting of Heron and Arokh which led to their friendship and eventual bonding. The introductory cut scene would then go on to show their enlisting in the Order of the Flame. The story on Arokh's Lair, the uniting of heroes is about this period in time.

Fast forward 200 years or so and the game starts with Arokh and Heron summoned by Navaros (who is still a member of the order but plans to destroy it - see the Drakan backstory) to the great dragon temple in Drakan city. The events of Drakan's backstory happen i.e Navaros utters his words of destruction and the temple is destroyed and many people are killed. Heron and Arokh escape with their lives and travel across the world meeting up with a group of other bonded survivors clashing with Dark Union forces on the way. During the course of the game, this group, led by Rimril gets larger drawing the other survivors together. The assault on Alwarren would then take place led by Arokh and Heron. Prehaps a section of the game here could have Turi as a playable character? After the Order's failure of the assault and Turi's cataclysmic spell, an action plan is put in place where the last stand is planned out. Heron is then tasked with finding the components for the Runeblade which would turn the war in their favour.

The game would take place in the 3 year period of the Dark Wars eventually ending with the runeblade being used to open the rift which results in Heron's death and Navros's temporal eviction from the world. Saddened and weary the ending cutscene would show the remnants of the Order going their own way with the Dragons retreating to their lairs to go into eternal sleep. Not a happy ending but it would say to be continued... and as you know Drakan:OOTF continues the story.

That's a brief outline, what do you think? Also have you read the Drakan stories on Arokh's Lair? These will give a vast amount of information on the game's world and history etc. The events in these stories have been taken from 'official information' from the games and the rest made up by game fans.

EDIT:
To be honest though, the project is a dead duck if you can't get the rights to the game or get Surreal / Sony / another large developer to make it.
The only way around this is to make it a free mod for Drakan:OOTF which would limit the ideas severely as the source code is unavailable and the problems with the editor. Also the Riot version 1 game engine is very old now; nearly 10 years.

I'd keep an eye on what happens with Surreal for now unless you have any other ideas.

Shelim · Post by **Shelim** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:59 pm

Sorry to disenchanted with your idea - but I think you have real poor chances to finish your game. I worked on making indy computer games since 2003 and I know how hard work it is. And even if you happen to finish your work, Sony may start legal action against you because of legal stuff. It's very sad, unfortunately

But, there is nothing lost - you can write game about dragons. Original game, not based on Drakan

You know - share your own ideas, not follow on someone's else work.

And more - never, <i>ever</i> write "I want to make game, who will help me?" When I see this, I immediately close my browser. You need to show what you have got, some concept arts, some scenario information. Only then you may find valuable workers

Arokhs Twin · Post by **Arokhs Twin** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:10 pm

I agree with you Shelim as I have mentioned in other posts it is a massive task to build a game from scratch and there is no easy way to get the game legal. I wrote up that story in a matter of minutes to show some interest but I doubt it very much it would turn into a finished product.

Andrei A.I.:

I'm sure Surreal had plans for a 3rd game but it never got past the planning stage due to poor sales of both previous games so Sony never gave them funding. Due to these reasons this is why I cannot see another Drakan game being made especially by indie developers. Another game based on a similar world maybe but not Drakan. The only glimmer of hope is if Surreal became independent again and you got support from them but ultimately it is up to Sony and whether it is worth the development costs.

The best thing you could do is start up a website and put concept art, story and game information on it and hopefully it will get noticed. A good example of this is offset www.projectoffset.com which started off as an idea just like this one. Other indie developers became interested and concept art was made and eventually a game engine. Work was very slow however and it was never worked on full time. It was all voluntary work I believe. Now it has been noticed by Intel and they have bought the technology behind the game engine. With a large corporation behind them the game can finally have a chance of being completed.

However, if you were to do this your game must be original and not based on Drakan unless it is an add-on or you somehow manage to get permission. Sorry I have no idea how you are going to get this.

Your best bet is to try and contact Assassin Ravenlord on this forum as he did exactly this - started to make his own Drakan game. He had the concept art, website, story and screenshots plus a full game plan. It was built on the open source Ogre game engine and from early previews looked promising. However, it had to be heavily modified due to copyright infringements (could not get Sony to even reply to him) and instead it turned into a game <i>similar</i> to Drakan. The game still hasn't seen the light of day in any form anyhow.

andreipirate · Post by **andreipirate** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:30 pm

Thank you!