DAVE is the 0th game in the Stickman Series. The 1st game is Bomb Dodger, which some of you may have played the demo of, and there are other games in the series which I've done a small amount of work on, but not enough to be worth showing. The idea of the Stickman Series is to concentrate on the gameplay over the graphics - however, the graphics will improve in later games, as the world in which the games take place evolves.
Anyway, the basic story. When the world was created, it was very complex, with many different things to keep track of. For that reason, it was named DAVE - the Daft Amount of Variables Environment. A lifeform was created to watch the progress of the new world from the ground, and to aid in the development. Due to the limited resources of the new world, this lifeform had to be created using the only suitable resource available - sticks - and so, what is now known as the 'stickman' was born! This stickman sacrificed some of his power to create more stickmen, each with some of his abilities, and the new stickmen created more stickmen over time. As the population grew, the new stickmen gave the first stickman the name Dave - and the title of ULTIMATE STICKMAN GOD!!!
At this point, the player is introduced, either as a preset stickmen, a custom generated stickman, or a randomly generated stickman. They have been around long enough to have a basic understanding of the world, and have chosen a career as a random adventurer - basically, someone who chooses a direction, runs forward, and sees what sort of opportunities arise. On the journey you will fight fierce battles, trade and wager with fellow stickmen, discover incredible landmarks, earn thousands of pixels, and perhaps even meet crafters such as the Davelopers. Those random adventurers who use their skill and luck appropriately may even meet Dave!
So, I bet you all want to see this incredible RPG/Roguelike/Progress Quest game in action? Well, tough! The proper demo is not quite complete yet. However, I have made a very basic demo, which is available at
http://www.shockedfrog.com/dave.zip and allows you to participate in a battle with a very easy stickman, who explodes quite nicely. Note that only the basic attack works completely - the Stab skill will do damage, but there's no animation, defending has no animation, but will half the damage you recieve from your opponent's next turn, and trying to escape won't work at all, because I haven't added it yet.
The main reason I'm posting this incredibly limited demo is because of the problems I was having a while ago, and still suffer from, where DBP games run slowly, but if I run a flash applet in the background while the game plays, it actually goes faster. I even tested it on Not Gavin's computer, and the same thing happened there. I think he's using the same Nvidia drivers as I am. If you download this demo, please try it twice - the first time, play it without anything in the background, and the second time, open a browser window at a site such as
http://www.shockwave.com and leave it open while you play. I used to be able to use these forums, but someone's removed the flash applet. After testing, let me know which time ran faster, and also post important stuff like your OS, your graphics card, which drivers you're using, that sort of thing. The game is best played in 640x480, but unfortunately, if I use 640x480 fullscreen exclusive, then the flash applet in the background thing doesn't work. If you want to see the game in proper 640x480, change your desktop resolution first, or if you're using XP, then switch on 640x480 mode in the compatibility options.
A proper demo will be released when it's done, featuring battles against proper enemies, trainers who will improve your stats, merchants who will sell you better weapons, and stickmen to wager against.
