Stonekeep
| Stonekeep | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Interplay Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay Productions |
| Designer(s) | Christopher Taylor (game designer) |
| Platform(s) | Windows 95, MS-DOS |
| Release | 1995 (Win95) November 8 1995 (MS-DOS) |
| Genre(s) | Role Playing Game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Stonekeep is a 1995 computer role-playing game for DOS by Interplay Entertainment. It is a first-person dungeon adventure with pre-rendered environments and live-action cinematic sequences.
Story
Stonekeep is centered on a hero, Drake. During the Devastation of the world by the evil god Khull-Khuum, Drake the boy was saved from his castle by a mysterious figure. Years later, Drake returns to the ruins Stonekeep and the goddess Thera sends his spirit out of his body into the ruins itself to explore, reclaim the land, and defeat Khull-Khuum.
Along the way, Drake makes many friends, including Farli, Karzak, and Dombur the dwarves, the great dragon Vermatrix, a temple of Sharga, the mysterious Wahooka, and even a troupe of faerie players.
Magic
Stonekeep features an elaborate 'Magick' system where four types of runes are inscribed onto a spellcaster: Mannish, Fae, Throggish, and Meta.
Stonekeep's mythology revolves around a variety of Gods associated with planets of the solar system In order, they are Helion (Mercury), Aquila (Venus), Thera (Earth), Azrael (Mars), Marif (Jupiter), Afri (Saturn), Saffrini (Uranus), Yoth-Soggoth (Neptune) the Master of Magick, and Kor-Soggoth (Pluto) the Brother to Magick.
Trivia
- Stonekeep was packaged in an elaborate gravestone-style illustrated box and came with a white hardback novella, "Thera Awakening," coauthored by Steve Jackson and David Pulver.
Interplay's own Black Isle Studios worked on a sequel called "Stonekeep 2: Godmaker" for five years before cancelling it in 2001.
If you use a bow with arrows and Azreal's orb for fast attacks, you can create a weapon almost unrivaled within the game.
- The initial story line was written by Peter Oliphant, who also designed and programmed the graphics and AI (artificial intelligence) engine for the game. The project started out being called "Brian's Dungeon" (named after Brian Fargo, the president of Interplay at the time). Brian Fargo came up with the final name, Stonekeep.
- The production took much longer than expected, basically because of the rapid advancement of personal computer hardware at the time; specifically, IBM/PC CPU's advancing from 80386, to 80486, to Pentiums in the years the game was being developed.
- The project started out with just two people, Peter Oliphant and Michael Quarles, was intended to last 9 months, and was to cost $50K. But the initial stages of the game looked so good this was extended, and eventually had a production crew of over 200 people, took 5 years, and cost about $5 million dollars.
- Upon release, it instantly went platinum and made $10 Million in the first 3 months. It also was nominated and won many awards.
- The planned sequel to Stonekeep was developed for 5 years before it was eventually abandoned.
External links
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