Drop Spider have released the first 'work in progress' sneak peak of Golem Crusades at:
http://www.golemcrusades.com/videos.html#1
Golem Crusades is a direct follow-up to the Commodore 64 classic, Druid, and is making the transition to 3D using the Venom 3D Game Framework. It promises an arcade / real time strategy hybrid with you commanding multiple Golems over 16 levels.
Drop Spider Games was founded by Andrew Bailey in 2009, having left Tantalus (a game company he helped co-found) last year. Screenplay has a fantastic interview with Andrew on his 8-bit roots, how the original Druid game came about, what to expect in Golem Crusades, as well as going full circle and starting again as a small indie developer.
How difficult is it now to set up a new studio compared to the pioneering era of the industry?
I think we have, or are coming, in a full circle. For the 8-bit home computers, video games were more about original games, due to the open platform. But with the success of closed platforms like the NES, and the want to put licensed material on it, the "work for hire" relationship came into being.
...now, every platform has a digital distribution portal that is fairly easy to get in to (albeit with varying levels of ease), making the bedroom operation viable again.
Great interview, be sure to read the entire feature at Screenplay here!
Anyone play this on the C64?
Did anyone play Druid on the Commodore 64? It's definitely one of the classic games on that platform. I think it came after the Gauntlet games, so I initially thought it was going to be a Gauntlet clone (it has some similarities - wizard, isometric view, dungeon crawling, shooting + action gameplay), but it turned out to have so much, much more depth than Gauntlet.
Although it was so long ago since I played the game (I think I was probably 8 or 9), I do have some very fond memories of the game. The highlights were definitely summoning a golem so you could grab a friend for some co-op fun. I do remember some other bits and pieces of the game - skulls shooting fireballs at you, and pentagrams and all that, but it's been so long.
Anyway, the trailer looks nice, although I would've liked the artwork to be a bit more stylised, and generally with a lot more love and care, although we'll have to see how the game progresses further in development.
It's extraordinary to find out that the developer of the original Druid game is residing in Melbourne and even helped co-found Tantalus.