Balazar III -- Balazar in the rancid skull dungeon !

Balazar III is a dungeon adventure game with multiplayer support. As you explore the dungeon, you'll gain magical objects, experience and powers, but also... curses ! Balazar III is based on the (French) comics "Le guide Balazar du mauvais sorcier" (Balazar's guide to bad sorcerers), hosted on Webamag.

The game comes in two versions (which are network-compatible):

  • 3D version (with OpenGL + Soya), destined to computer gamers. The 3D version is graphically more beautiful, as it takes avantages of the nice cellshading algorithms of the Soya 3D engine. However, it is more difficult to install due to the high number of dependencies, and it requires a 3D accelerators with the corresponding drivers (possibly proprietary ones).

  • 2D version (with SDL + Pygame), currently supporting 640x480 and 800x480 resolutions. It has been designed mainly for hand-held devices (Sharp Zaurus, Nokia N810, Openmoko Freerunner, Asus EEE PC, and the like), although it can be used on computer too. This version has been highly optimized so as it can be run in 640x480 on a Zaurus C1000 (416 MHz ARM processor without graphics accelerators).

Balazar III is a free software written in Python and available under the GPL v3 licence

Graphics have been designed using free softwares (Blender and Gimp). Balazar II is realized by Jiba from the Nekeme Prod. French association. Help is welcome, in particular for porting and packaging the game on various platforms (I don't have all the devices listed above !), for translating the game, for testing the game (especially the network mode), for informing about the game, or even for improving the website and developing the game.

The current version (0.1) is entirely functional, but includes only a single playable character, a single monster, and not a lot of items, powers and rooms. It is still fun and you can get an idea of the game. The network mode is quite advanced; it is quite powerful and should support a high number of simultaneous players. The amount of data exchanged is limited to the strict minimum (about 300 bytes per second in average).

08/30/2008
in Balazar III

Balazar III 0.1

The first version of Balazar III is out !

This version is entirely functional, but includes only a single playable character, a single monster, and not a lot of items, powers and rooms. It is still fun and you can get an idea of the game. The network mode is quite advanced; it is quite powerful and should support a high number of simultaneous players.