Shadow Over the Twelve Lands

Shadow Over the Twelve Lands

By Bruno Oliveira (@btco_code)

This is a retro CRPG game where you control a party of adventurers through an epic quest that starts out with a small mistake where you essentially doom the entire world to a decade of disasters but worry not, because you are going to fix things now and defeat the great evil you unleashed upon the world.

The game is a cartridge that runs on the TIC-80 fantasy console with all the delightful restrictions that come with it: 240x136 screen resolution, 16 colors, basic sound/music, all in a whopping 64K of Lua code + 64K of VM data. 

Don't worry: your progress is saved to the cartridge's battery-backed memory so you can save the world in more than one sitting.

It's turn-based, so you have as long as you want to think things through and even in the heat of battle our monsters are well trained to wait, seemingly forever, until you have taken your turn.

You start at the shores of Riverside with barely no equipment, a laughable budget and a desire for fame, fortune and making the world a better place. Let's see how this works out for you.

Printable world map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-9d8MZCrX5cdGBQ0LVlgSxD2lK6vp_zd

Source code: https://github.com/btco/so12l

SAVEGAME WARNING: Depending on your browser, the save game feature might not work (known issue on some Chrome versions)! To test that it's working, reload the page after the intro screen. If you see "Save OK" on the top left, savegames are working. In any case, if you are playing this seriously, consider downloading the desktop version.

Controls:

• arrow keys: move
• [Z]: menu / confirm
• [X]: cancel / close
• At any time while adventuring you can bring up the game menu by pressing [Z] to allow you to: rest, cast spell, manage inventory and see detailed party info.

Tips:

1.  To interact with things, just walk into them (huts, fountains, doors, etc, etc).
2.  To rest, use food rations: press Z to open menu, select ITEMS, select the food ration, press Z and select USE.
3.  Always carry plenty of food. Buy them in General Stores.
4.  Always carry plenty of torches to light dark caves and dungeons. Also found in General Stores.
5.  Upgrade equipment! You won't go very far with just a dagger and no armor.
6.  Save at every opportunity. Fountains and inns allow you to save.
7.  Beware of unidentified items. They may be cursed, explode, release poison gas, and all sorts of other bad effects. Plus, if you equip a cursed item, you won't be able to remove it.
8.  When you get enough XP, go to a town to train to level up. You will know you have enough XP because the XP meter on the bottom right will be highlighted with an up arrow.