Necromancer's Rise

This content pack was released on October 24, 2014

## Builder Pack: Necromancer's Rise

by BJ Cholewinski

Hello, boils and ghouls. BJ here [senior content designer Team Dakota] Today, Team Dakota unleashes the Scourge of Verdia on the Project Spark marketplace in the form of the Necromancer’s Rise.

Not long ago, there was much joy and peace amongst the woodland folks of Verdia. The Queen rallied the people to create a festival of games and fireworks. And the King organized tournaments for his soldiers so they may stay sharp as the finest blade.

Then came the Zombie Outbreak. Small numbers of the walking dead began terrorizing the living. These sightings and tales of dread triggered the King to halt all festivities and order a militarized course of action. The King commanded a legendary blacksmith to forge magical weapons that his army could wield against the undead uprising. Additionally, Spark’s Champions – Scarlett, Avalon, Karlsnor, and Haakon joined the struggle to safeguard the public and root out the cause of the outbreak.

Today, the King’s army has discovered that a Necromancer is commanding the undead from a remote cemetery. But can the King’s guard and Spark’s Champions come out on top? You decide!

What’s that? You want specifics, tips, and fun facts about our new Necromancer’s Rise content pack? Well here you go….

Characters - Necromancer Character with Character Studio clothing pieces plus a brand new Sinister head, hair, mustache and beard options. You also get the new Female Zombie with new clothing and hair options as well. There is also an awesome Infected Hand you can use to with the any of the female humans!

Sky – What? A new sky? That’s right! Evening Stormy sky backdrop is perfect for creating scary settings dripping with doom and gloom.

Audio – Brand new Music track “Night of Fright” and over one dozen sounds and voiceovers that support the visual effects and characters included in the pack!

Objects – Check out the marketplace description and showcase world to see all the creepy-cool props included in the pack. Some highlights include the Mausoleum, Mausoleum Gate and Padlock with power animations, Coffin and Coffin Lid, and Tombstones. [Secret Discoverables – If you’re reading this, you can be one of the first to put the equip brain on the Padlock and wield it as a blunt type melee weapon! Also, scale down the Coffin Lid and put the equip brain on that and see what happens.]

This is also the first pack to include a brand new type of ranged weapon prop – the Enchanted Skull. Equip this prop to shoot projectiles from it and use the With Windup combat tile to activate new spell cast animation. Depending on your combat property values, you may need to adjust the Shoot Frequency property when using the With Windup tile to all the full spell cast animation to play out. For tips on using this, check out the default shoot properties and default brain that comes pre-Koded with the Necromancer located in the Character Gallery!

Effects – New Grave Burst and Bat Swarm visual effects are great for creating scares and adding life to your worlds. The various undead and Necromancer-themed magic effects and sounds expand your library of spell casting options. Also, Undead VFX have sweet skulls and bones built into them! The Undead – Summon visual effect is like no other effect and has neat runes/glyphs included the design. Be sure to experiment with the Effects Tints to customize the colors of your effects.

Brains and Assemblies – You get two new default brains – Necromancer and Zombie – Melee. These are great entry level brains that show how to Kode simple and effective combat AI. You also get three advanced Enemy AI Assemblies – Necromancer (like a boss), Zombie Runner and Zombie Walker. Drop these foes into your game for instant combat challenge. Or open up the assemblies and check out the brains to get tips on how to make bosses and advanced AI that mix up behaviors.

But wait, there’s more! Dive into the Crossroads create your own adventure play mode and check out new unlocks – Necromancer Boss encounter and Ominous Graveyard Boss arena. Also, if you own the Zombie Outbreak and Necromancer’s Rise content, new Zombies will appear if you choose the Zombie enemy theme!

Well, that’s my time. Team Dakota hopes you enjoy the new content and thanks you for your continued support! Now show us who wins the epic showdown between the King’s army and the Necromancer’s undead horde! Peace!

-BJ Cholewinski

## References

1. ↑ http://forums.projectspark.com/yaf\_postst87647.aspx