Saturday, January 25, 2014

Awesome Thing #43 -- The Labyrinth (through the eyes of my tribute!)

I talked a bit about the lava flow gag in the Labyrinth a few awesome things ago, but really . . . I gotta give it up to this whole dungeon, and what better way to do that than give it, oh, 12 hours of my life learning the new foundry system in Neverwinter trying to recreate the dungeon as a parody/tribute?

Seriously, there is nothing that will make you appreciate good Designers more than trying it yourself -- I'm a farcry from a good designer. I always tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. (like my tribute to Wizard101 in Little Big Planet)

So,let's get started then . . .

If you play Neverwinter and want to give this Wizard101 Parody a shot, Search for the short code "NW-DTKOXE29P" or the term "Dragonspyre" (currently in the "For Review" tab and stop reading now, so I don't spoil anything. :)

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(Click on the pictures to make them larger if the text is too small to read)

The scene opens with a young wizard in distress, one Bailey Skystaff is rage quitting.


Watch out for those Confused Sentries near the entrance!


Ahh, Dmitri will guide us through!


Oh look! Bailey's treasure deck on the ground!


Gotta get that key to cross the lava bridge.


Did I say lava bridge?


I did!


And it's not as safe as the one in Wizard101's Dragonspyre (not-so-pro tip: swim back through the lava to the beginning . . . there's some stairs there)


Once at the end, Dmitri's asked you to deal with those three scandelous criminals that The Dean had freed.


Watch out for their vengenance after their defeat!


Free their souls that are bound to their prison doors (pro-tip, there's a short cut portal behind Andor's door so you don't have to swim through all that lava)


Behold, a side quest by that famous young wizard! (Pesky spells just keep jumping out of her spell book,don't they?)


Time to unlock the center pedestal


. . . and talk to the Dean.


Wait a second, it's not supposed to play out like this, Dean?!


Dmitri scoffs at letting The Dean free.


What could go wrong here with the Property Master?


1,2,3 . . . the banners have revealed secret doors and the cloak, staff, and crystal ball have been secured. Here you go, Dean!


Oh man, I should have listened to Dmitri . . . forgot the Dean was a Death Wizard . . . MEGA FINAL BATTLE THAT'S INSANE AND REQUIRES MULTIPLE POTIONS ENSUES! This time Dmitri joins in! WOOT!


Oh, it was all a test, whew . . . glad to be part of Dragonspyre Academy


LOOT!


This tribute/parody in Neverwinter takes about 10-20 minutes whereas the real Labyrinth takes around an hour or two. If I would have made you crawl through a bunch of streets and open a back gate to deal with the Gallium Paladin (still thinking of adding him in as a side quest:)), it would have taken longer -- but my family's patience was wearing thin with the amount of time it was taking to 1) learn the tools (which are pretty limited, but still awesome) and 2) just put the darn thing together. Whew!

I had a ton of fun doing this, and I will say out of all of Dragonspyre's dungeons . . . this is the one that has stuck with me the most. Because of its memorable nature and my newfound respect for how awesome this zone is . . .

it's awesome.

Happy Dueling

1 comment:

RaltsMaster said...

Wow, that was awesome. I am never gonna use Neverwinter Nights but it was cool that you used the Level Creator to re-create the most infamous instance in Dragonspyre. My Balance and first Myth Wizard finally got through Dragonspyre and it was awesome! ^_^