The Realm of Riesig
The Realm of Riesig is a large 256k adventure game inspired by the original Atari Adventure. It consists of 30 unique game levels, each with it’s own 64 room overworld map, a 10-15 room dungeon, and unique enemies and obstacles. There are 2,259 defined rooms in the game!
Playing the Game
I encourage everyone to download the instruction manual for all of the details, but here’s a quick start guide with a summary of the objectives.
Each of the 30 levels shares the same objectives:
- Find the Sword to defend yourself against the enemies in the realm.
- Find and gather 3 gems.
- Find the hidden entrance to the dungeon and explore the dungeon to find the golden chalice. You must also search for the dungeon’s exit to return to the main realm.
- Avoid the obstacles in the dungeon, which will take a block of health and return you to the dungeon entrance if you hit one.
- Find the key to the castle.
- With the key, the 3 gems, and the chalice in hand the castle gate will open revealing the exit to the next level.
- Finish these objectives on all 30 levels and you will win the game.
Other important things to note:
- On the Hero, Adventurer, and Explorer difficulty levels the dungeon entrance is hidden. You must walk through every area of every room in the realm order to find the trigger mechanism that reveals it.
- Find the magic staff to temporarily ward off enemies.
- Avoid the bat, who will steal your key if it touches you.
- Avoid traps and obstacles in rooms, which will steal your health.
- You have 8 health blocks, and you will lose one if an enemy touches you.
- Killing an enemy replenishes one health block.
- Entering a dungeon replenishes all of your health.
- There is no permanent death in this game, if you lose all of your health you will lose the key (if you had it in your inventory) and return to the starting room for the current realm.
- There are four skill levels in the game, details are in the instruction manual.
Continuing a game
Note that this game does not feature save games, however I did include a built-in method to continue your game near where you left off. The game is large enough that it’s unlikely anyone will beat it in one play session.
I went back and forth on this issue, as I could potentially add game saves to the atarivox/savekey if I removed one of the 30 levels to free up a bank to do that, but I’d rather not. From the skill selection screen, you may push down on the joystick instead of pressing fire, which will take you to a realm and dungeon selection screen that allows you start from any level. I of course recommend against playing the levels out of sequence, but the option is available all for the cheaters out there. 😊
Technical Info
I used the batariBasic 256k multikernel framework, which in a nutshell allows programmers to build up a large game out of smaller individual 4k projects. This game makes use of all 64 4k banks, and each one is pretty much full.
I came across the multikernel framework thread earlier this summer and I thought it would be cool to create a project that used it. My mind immediately went to an expansive adventure game with dozens of worlds, each similar but with different maps, enemies and obstacles. Because each of the main game levels only use 8k (4k of which is shared between every level for duplicated code), I was somewhat limited in what I could add despite the fact that this is a 256k game. I tried to squeeze as much in as I could given the limitations, and I tried to make something fun out of my original concept.
Because each of the main realm/overworld levels each use a shared second bank, each of the 30 game levels could be independent games that would use about 12k of ROM each. One game level has a dedicated 4k main bank, a dedicated 4k bank for the dungeon, and a shared secondary 4k bank that is used by all main game banks.
Mapping the game
I spent an extraordinary amount of time playtesting and mapping the game and making sure each of those 2000+ rooms connected properly. Since I needed to visit every room in the game for testing, I went ahead and took screenshots of every room and created maps for every realm and every dungeon during my testing. Mapping the game is definitely part of the fun, and I’d recommend pulling out the graph paper if you still have some in that old box of Dungeons and Dragons books in your basement. 😊
I used Google Gemini to create some cool AI artwork to go along with the game, which is included in the instruction manual and the map guide.
A Guide to Spoilers
The instruction manual includes a full map of the first realm and the first dungeon to get you started on your quest, but I’d recommend referencing it only if you’re stuck. It shows all of the item locations as well.
The Riesig level and dungeon guide is a huge spoiler, as it includes a full realm and dungeon map for each of the 30 levels and dungeons, as well as all of the object locations.
The easiest difficulty level (Scout Difficulty) is also a spoiler of sorts, as that skill level will always reveal the location of the dungeon entrance, and the location is the same across all skill levels. I would not recommend the scout difficulty level unless you are truly looking for a casual game experience.
This game is also not random, object locations in the game are static and never change.
What’s in a name?
Why did I chose “Realm of Riesig” for the title of the game? Well, my great-grandparents were born in Germany and I thought it’d be fun to find a German word to use in the title of the game, and all of the good adventure game names in English are already taken. 😊 As far as I know, Riesig translates to “Huge” or “Gigantic” in English, which seemed like an appropriate title. I also just liked how “Realm of Riesig” rolls off the tongue.
Is it done?
Well, the game is finished, but there is still a possibility that I might make a few more changes in the future. The game is packed pretty tight as it is now so adding new features would be difficult, but I’m happy to listen to anyone’s feedback for potential changes to make it better.
Credits
I’m so thankful for the great community here at AA and all the support I’ve received over the years. I wanted to mention a few people here who helped out during the development of the game. I apologize if I missed anyone here, I will edit this later if I forgot anyone.
Thank you to Random Terrain for his slippery movement code.
Thank you to Karl G for helping me with brainstorming, playtesting, feedback, and bug fixes.
Thank you to James at ZPH for playtesting and providing feedback, and for having me on his show.
Thank you to SeaGtGruff, who in 2006 shared a move around rooms demo that inspired Cave In and ultimately led to this game.
Thank you to bjbest60, who shared a procedural music demo in 2018 that was the basis for the title screen music.
Thank you to RevEng, who created this multikernel framework and regularly gives me feedback when I have questions.
Thank you to sramirez2008 for playtesting.
Thank you to David Exton for all the great artwork he’s created for my games over the years, and for some feedback on this game.
Thank you to Al for, well, everything, and for some feedback on this game.
The game can be played with the Stella Emulator.
Download from AtariAge: