HAZELWOOD: THE FIRST SWING OF THE SWORD

We started a game today.

Hazelwood: The Crown of Power is the adventure we always wanted on the 64: top-down sword fighting like The Legend of Zelda, and conversations like Ultima IV, where you walk up to anyone and type what you want to ask about.

Where it stands

It moved fast once it got going:

• The engine. A hero walking a screen of trees, bushes, rocks, water and paths, with a sword and a shield.
• Combat. Swing, hit, get hit. Creatures with their own hit points.
• A HUD. Hit points, gold, levels and experience, and random encounters out in the wild.
• A title and a hero. Name your hero on the title screen, then off you go.
• A prologue. The story scrolls up the screen between full pictures, starting with Morvath, the Dragon Lord, and the clouds over his fortress.

The rules we set

Hazelwood has to run on a real Commodore 64, from a disk image, on a Kung Fu Flash. No PC tricks, nothing that only works in an emulator. Every step gets tested in VICE first and then played on a real 64.

We'll post here as it grows. There's a lot of realm to build.