General Info

## **Basic Gameplay**

**Keyboard Commands/Keys and Concepts**
Barony uses the standard control scheme of 'mouse and keyboard' controls as input, generically known as "mouselook/keymove." Many prior games (notably DOOM and Quake) have used such a scheme. The game cannot be played using only a mouse but may be played with keyboard only, but it would be very difficult.

```
 [W] = Move Forward
 [A] = Strafe Left
 [S] = Move Backwards (reduced speed)
 [D] = Strafe Right
 [Q] = Rotate Left
 [R] = Rotate Right
 [C] = Look Up
 [Z] = Look Down
 Left Mouse Button = Attack with weapon or use item
    (in Inventory) = Arrange items/spells, or observe objects in dungeon
    (Hold Left Mouse) = Power attack
 Right Mouse Button = Interact with doors/levers/fountains ect
    (in Inventory) = Item use menu, equip/eat/appraise
 [Tab] = Inventory Screen
 [M] = Magic/Spellbook
 [F] = Cast Spell
 [Space] Block with shield/torch or lantern
 [Esc] = Close Inventory/Magic

```

There is no jump; the only elevation change in a level is perhaps if you include while swimming (in water or lava).

Items will need to be Equipped (as will spells) prior to being able to be used by right-clicking on them and selecting 'Equip'. A light blue hand will indicate items currently equipped. Be careful, however, to not equip a Cursed item, as they are not ever able to be removed (until the curse has been removed by magical means). Equipped items have a chance to become damaged through use. Items that are worn out or destroyed will not be able to be used, even though they were equipped.

While your Inventory or Magic screen is open, your character will be unable to look around with the mouse, you'll have to use the keyboard instead. Placing items on the hot bar will allow you to quickly equip weapons or tools, allowing you to swap between a pickax and a sword without opening the inventory, the same works for spells and ingesting items such as food.

## Description

Barony is a 3D, first-person roguelike. The goal of the game is to descend to the bottom of a dark dungeon known as the Devil's Bastion and destroy an undead lich named Baron Herx, who terrorized the peaceful town of Hamlet in life and is now harboring a curse against the land from beyond the grave. To aid you in your quest are friendly humans who have been eeking out a rough life within the dungeon for generations, as well as any friends you can bring with you in real life: Barony is the first of its kind as a first-person roguelike in that it fully supports cooperative multiplayer for up to four players.

## History

**Initial Concept**

The initial concept of Barony came to lead designer Sheridan Rathbun in the summer of 2011. At the time, Sheridan was busy teaching himself to build rudimentary 3D game engines in C, and the idea of melding the gameplay of Nethack with real-time action and a modern 3D perspective was as intuitive as it was compelling. Nonetheless, Sheridan found the idea too ambitious to pursue at the time, so the concept was shelved until June 20th, 2013, when, after a few false starts with other game prototypes, he fell back to this original concept and immediately began work on what would come to be known as Barony.

**New Inspirations**

Over the summer of 2013, Sheridan remained the sole developer of Barony and produced a series of prototypes and prealphas that established a firm foundation for the feeling and style of the game. To differentiate the game from others of its type, the decision was made very early on to make the entire game multiplayer capable for up to four players. As development continued, Sheridan also introduced other sources of inspiration into the design: the game's interface was inspired largely by System Shock 2; the dungeon experience was derived from Daggerfall and Ultima Underworld; and the level progression and environments were influenced by Spelunky. Minecraft did not seriously influence the game's design; despite some assumptions to the contrary, the pixellated artstyle was chosen simply to enable rapid generation of the game's many hundreds of art assets.

**Forming the Team**

Despite the rapid progress Sheridan was making on Barony, he couldn't dedicate the majority of his time to it for very long; by September 2013, the new semester had begun at his university. To maintain the momentum he had developed over the summer, Sheridan thus decided to build a team that could work on the game even when he couldn't. This impulse to find help culminated in an ad that Sheridan posted to gamedev.net to attract new blood to the project, and within 24 hours, Sheridan had made contact with multiple individuals who were interested in contributing to the project. These included Chris Kukla, who would become Barony's musician and main sound designer; Ciprian Ilies, a programmer who would additionally contribute to several areas of design; and Julian Seeger, who became Barony's lead character designer. Additional members such as Frasier Panton and Mathias Golinelli would also sign over the next several months to contribute in areas such as art and writing.

**The Aftermath**

As of this writing, Barony's greenlight campaign is still underway and the game itself has yet to be released. Despite this, the game is all but finished at this point, and early previews of the game have gained a significant following on the Twitch.tv community. Kevin White, aka Jacklifear, a fairly prominent streamer on Twitch who doubles as the community manager for Unepic, has signed on to stream the game with numerous other twitch broadcasters as part of an event to generate interest shortly before release. Though there's no telling how well Barony will do in the longrun, the excited reactions of streamers and fans is indication enough of its genuine appeal and true potential for greatness.