Merry Christmas, dear fellow taffers!
After almost 2.5 years of development, three periods of long-time inactivity and three persistent comebacks, I'm proud to present you the first version of my Thief-themed card game made in Flash. It's a card game somewhat similar to Magic:The Gathering, but with its own set of rules and its own peculiarities, and what's more important for you taffers out there, it's Thief-themed.
System requirements:
Pretty much any computer that can handle Flash Player, with any OS that has a standalone Flash Player released for it (MS Windows and Linux tested, Mac OS was not tested but the game should theoretically be compatible with it). You need to install the standalone Adobe Flash Player 10 (or higher, when available) in order to make the game work. Be sure to use the standalone Flash player! The browser plugins are known to have problems with the game, such as inability to go into fullscreen mode and whatever.. The game will NOT work with Adobe Flash Player 9 or any lower versions of the player.
Installing and running the game:
Unpack the downloaded archive into a folder, then click on the Gauntlet . swf file to launch it. You must have Adobe Flash Player 10 or newer for it to work. If you're using a standalone Flash Player downloaded from the link below, start the Flash Player by clicking the executable, then click "File -> Open", then "Browse", then navigate to Gauntlet . swf and open it.
Installing the Standalone Adobe Flash Player 10:
In case you have problems locating and/or installing the standalone Flash Player 10, here are the instructions on how to do it (it looks like Adobe has changed the way the Flash Player is distributed over the last few years):
On Windows:
1) Download the standalone content debugger flash player 10 here: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/f...0_sa_debug.exe
2) Run it, click "File -> Open", then "Browse", navigate to the folder where you extracted Magic Gauntlet, and open Gauntlet . swf in there.
On Linux:
1) Download a standalone player from here: http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html, it's available under the link "Download the Linux debugger and standalone player". Make sure you get the one for version 10, not the one for version 9.
2) Unpack the .tar.gz file, run the player, click "File -> Open", then "Browse", navigate to the folder where you extracted Magic Gauntlet, and open Gauntlet . swf in there.
Objective of the game:
As of v1.0, the game supports a one-on-one Human vs. AI duel. Each player starts with 20 life. The objective of the game is to deal damage to your opponent, using creatures, spells, etc., while trying to protect yourself from damage dealt by your opponent. As soon as one of the players has his life points reduced to 0 or less, he loses the game, and the player who dealt fatal damage wins. The game comes packed with a manual that explains most of the game rules in detail - be sure to read it before playing! Version 1.0 contains three complete AI profiles, one easy and two difficult ones. AI profiles may be customized by editing GauntletMGS.ini and the initialization files in the "MGSData" folder (one can even create brand new AI profiles from scratch), but this process hasn't been documented yet, you'll have to experiment a little if you'd like to start customizing the game now.
Manual errata and additions (NEW):
- Page 10 (Fast Effects): Some cards belong to sub-group of Effects known as Fast Effects. These can be activated in counter to the opponent summoning a Creature. They generally have effects which harm the hostile creature. It should be noted that Fast Effects may be played at any time and during any phase, provided that the Fast Effect has a legal target. No more than one Fast Effect may be played by each player on one and the same creature.
- (Not in original manual): Forts are special types of Permanents that obey the following rules: 1) There may be only one card of Fort type in each player's Permanent zone at the same time; 2) If a player already has a Fort card in his permanent zone and he plays another Fort card, the Fort that was already in the permanent zone is buried; 3) Fort cards have the ability "Permanent Stability 2", which means that they require two Glyph of Destruction cards to be played sequentially on them for them to be destroyed; 4) Using one Glyph of Destruction on a Fort card reduces its Permanent Stability from 2 to 1. Unless another Glyph of Destruction is played on the Fort during the same turn, the Permanent Stability of the Fort is restored back to 2 once the player's turn ends.
Credits:
Many people have participated in the creation and testing of the game. I'd like to express my gratitude to RedFace and Dan for the beautiful custom card art, and to Dan also for the cool custom sound effects and music; to jtr7 for consultations on the setting lore; to Stath MIA, NathanGLPC, and Dan for card ideas; to Sithis, Stath MIA, NathanGLPC, Dan, and my family for testing; and of course, to Eidos and Microprose for the wonderful games without which this project would have never been possible. I do not take any credit for all the original Thief/MTG elements that were used in this project, they are copyright by their respective authors.
Supporting the project:
I'd like to make it explicit that the project is, and always will be, completely free for everyone to download and enjoy. I'm also not asking for donations - as a matter of fact, in case you're considering making a donation, please do NOT do it - instead, consider spending your money on supporting Thief and/or Magic:The Gathering, the games without which this small project would have never been possible in the first place, and some of the elements of which have been used in this game. If you have some spare money and you want to do a good thing, buy a Thief game (1,G,2,DS,or 4 if/when it comes out) and/or, if you like collectible card games, Microprose's Shandalar M:TG.
Future of the project:
I have some extra material submitted for the future versions that didn't make it to version 1.0. Currently the project is on hold due to my extreme busyness, but version 1.1, when it comes out, should contain a full, complete custom sound set (the long-term plan is to remove as many original Eidos/Microprose elements as possible, and replace them with custom-made material). Also, future versions will include more cards and more AI profiles, and the long-term goal (maybe for v1.2 or v1.3) is to add a multiplayer mode for the taffers to compete against each other online. I don't know when and even if the future versions are going to be released, it depends on the spare time I can spend on coding the game. Please do not ask me for a release date, I don't know when the next version is coming out. It's going to be released when it's done.
Suggestions:
I welcome any suggestions, bug reports, as well as constructive criticism, but I want to make it explicitly clear from the get-go that I will not change any fundamental rules of the game, or the general way the game is played, or add any elements that may potentially unbalance the game. The game mechanics themselves will remain pretty much as they are (with potential minor changes), you can safely assume that they are mostly set in stone - it's the game as I planned it, like it or not. If you feel like you don't like the game because you don't like its mechanics or rules, please just don't play the game.
Experimental features (NEW):
You can edit the Gauntlet.ini file in your Magic Gauntlet folder in order to enable or disable the custom sound set we're currently working on. Since it is incomplete, it's not enabled by default, but as of version 1.1, it's going to be the default, complete, custom sound set. You need to change SoundEffectsSet=Shandalar to SoundEffectsSet=Original in your Gauntlet.ini in order to switch to the (currently incomplete) custom sound set. All the sounds that don't yet exist in the custom sound set will be replaced by the standard Shandalar sounds. Revert the change to switch back to the Shandalar sound set. All the custom sounds were created by Dan (great job, dude!).
Other initialization file tweaks (NEW):
Changing the DefaultPlayerName option in Gauntlet.ini allows you to define the default player's name that will be already typed in for you at the opponent selection window.
The game can be downloaded here:
DOWNLOAD MAGIC GAUNTLET KARATH-DIN v1.0
DOWNLOAD MAGIC GAUNTLET KARATH-DIN v1.0 (MIRROR AT DARKFATE.RU)
I hope you enjoy the game as I enjoyed making it for you!Happy holidays!
Last edited by Gadget2006; 29th Dec 2009 at 06:39.
Awesome, can't wait to play it! I was a huge fan of the old MTG game by Microprose, back when my PC could actually run it. Spent many hours in Shandalar.
Looking for a link to a standalone player, all I find at Adobe's website is this page, and it appears to be for the browser plugin. Can you give us a link to the standalone version?
I think the Windows installer from the page you linked to should install pretty much everything, including browser plugins and the standalone player - give it a try and tell me if it works, I assume it should (after clicking Gauntlet . swf you should run the game in a standalone window, as opposed to opening it in a browser window). Linux users might need to actually download a standalone player here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html
There's a link further down the page for a Linux standalone player.
Nice to see this realeased.
You can also play it "stand alone" in Media Player Classic
sweet something to play over Xmas, thanks Gadget
Thanks for all the work Gadget.
Thank you
Mirror: Magic_Gauntlet_KarathDin_v1.0.zip
Awesome Christmas present! Downloading...!
All it gave me, after I figured out how to actually install it (Vista64, it didn't kick off automatically as it needed admin rights), was the ability to open it in IE or Firefox. There is no standalone Flash Player installed on my system, all I have under Programs is the ActiveX control and the Plugin. I'll try it with MPC as Sxerks suggested, although so far it seems to be working fine in the browser.Originally Posted by Gadget2006
This is really slick. I like Magic, and this delivers.
Hoping for online multiplayer in the future so we can take each other on. It'd also be nice if there were a zoom-in feature on the card-face window, so we could zoom in on the smaller text of some cards for easier reading. But overall this is great stuff.
About the standalone player: it's weird, I'm sure that the thing used to be available from the Adobe's website without any problems, now that I look at it, it seems like they only provide intuitive links for browser plugins, and everything that's standalone is hidden under a bunch of explanatory notes on the content debugger Flash page. At any rate, I've tried this link and it worked (at least it looks like this is the way the standalone player is available now):
1) Download the standalone content debugger flash player 10 here: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/f...0_sa_debug.exe
2) Run it, click "File -> Open", then "Browse", navigate to the folder where you extracted Magic Gauntlet, and open Gauntlet . swf in there.
@ demagogue: The zoom in feature is already available in the standalone Flash Player versions - just right click on the card, then choose "Zoom in", then don't forget to choose "Show all" when you're done.
@ clearing: Thanks for the mirror!
@ Everyone: Thanks for your comments and thanks for trying the game out!
IMPORTANT: I've modified the first post and included the standalone Flash Player 10 installation instructions, and I've also added some Gauntlet.ini tricks there as well! Be sure to check them out!
IMPORTANT: I've added some corrections and additions for the manual text to the first post. Stath, if you're reading this, please consider adding that information to the manual for the upcoming version 1.1!
Last edited by Gadget2006; 25th Dec 2009 at 04:00.
No problem Gadget. I just got back from Christmas with my relatives and still have a week off so I should have plenty of time to edit it.
It's so cool to see the warm reception it's getting.
Added instructions for the Linux standalone player.
Sorry for the durp, but I can't figure out how to make my creatures attack. I try selecting them and clicking play/tap, but it tells me I can't cast spells from that area. There needs to be a controls guide in the manual.
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