Occultas Veritas

[Darth Mandarb]

Proudly presents ...

Occultas Veritas

The Game's Plot

The year is 1922.

You play as Nataly Buchannon, daughter of millionaire steel tycoon Wilson Buchannon III.  She is an adventurous and independant woman in a time when woman aren't taken seriously in society.

As a child, while traveling with her father in Italy, Nataly found an old amulet in the ruins of Pompeii.  She has worn it around her neck since and has recently begun researching its origins.  She is very interested in ancient Roman history and knows the amulet has something to do with that era.

While on a ship liner to England she meets a mysterious man named Alan December who tells her he has information about the necklace she might find interesting and that she should visit his antiques shop in London.  When she arrives he tells her that the amulet once belonged to the Roman Emperor Domitian and that it is the key to unlocking the mysterious events surrounding Domitian's ascendency as Emperor.

Did Domitian kill his brother Titus as history would suggest?

Travel with Nataly as she uncovers the ancient mystery, travels across Europe, and finds herself in a struggle for her very life and possibly the future of the world!

From Europe in the 1920's to ancient Rome in 79 AD the mystery spans the centuries ...

The Screenshots



Some characters


Team Hasselhoff
Background Artist: Neil Dnuma
Programmer: Zooty
Sprites: Darth Mandarb
Music: Jarek
Storywriters: Darth Mandarb, Creed Malay

Game's Progress
Story/Plot: 100%
Puzzels: 10%
Music: 50%
Graphics: 15%
Scripting: 30%

Game Features
- intuitive GUI designs
- secret alternate ending
- full and rich soundtrack
- more than 20 unique locations
- logical puzzles
- tons of fun!

Stay tuned to this thread as it will be updated regularly with updates of the game's progress!

Development Diary
April 20, 2005 - Development continues on sprites and backgrounds.  Neil is super busy with real-life but still manages to turn out some incredible work.  Zooty is pluggin' away with the scripting and has come up with some great stuff!

[nihilyst]

Wow! The screenshots are very promising, so is the story. Can't wait to play it. Good luck with this! I just wondered, why all the characters appear to have the same height?

good-luck cheers
nihilyst

[Kweepa]

Ooh, awesome!
Is this what you were working on for the ATC?

[Squinky]

Looks top notch guys...All around. This is one I will look forward too....

[simulacra]

Looks very nice!  :o

EDIT: As a treat, I'll give the team a recursive Hasselhoff:

[ildu]

Looks and sounds great.

[Bernie]

This looks very tasty! Can't wait to play!

[Ubel]

Mmm sure looks promising! Gonna have to play it when it's ready.

Keep up the very good work.

[Vel]

Wow, that looks and sounds great. It seems that the ATC has once again put together people with great talent, who are to produce a great game. Good luck, guys.

[Abisso]

Uhmm, Buchannon, team Hasseloff, I sense a plot...

Very promising game though, and with high quality graphics.

[Nightfable]

Wow!... This game looks incredibly fun to play, it gave me nostalgia chills when I saw the screenshots. Hurry up and release that demo, pronto!

[Darth Mandarb]

Thanks for all the kind words! (keep 'em coming!) 

We're all still very motivated to work on this game!

Hurry up and release that demo, pronto!

We are, sorry to say, not planning a demo.  We consider it a waste of time.  We are planning on releasing a 'trailer' shortly ... to whet your appetites!

I just wondered, why all the characters appear to have the same height?

It's just appearance ... Inphitrion and Decimus are the same height, but the rest are of differing heights.

Uhmm, Buchannon, team Hasseloff, I sense a plot...

You know ... I never put that together.  And I don't think anybody on the team did either.  It wasn't intentional, but good catch none-the-less!

Is this what you were working on for the ATC?

Yes, it is.  We started working on it and then realized we had conceived of a game that we would never, realistically, finish in time.

[RyRayer]

Trailer? Cool. Screenshots are nice. Can't wait to play.

[Nine Toes]

Nice. The interface looks good.  The graphics look great.

[Kweepa]

The Use Item interface looks rather complicated - having to scroll through inventory items one at a time could get boring fast. Do the item graphics *need* to be so big? That vase looks pixel doubled anyway.

[Sam.]

There will also be a main inventory window that can be used to select the "active inventory" the scrolling is just if you change your mind during gameplay. And the items are njot that big, thats just a mockup. in reality, the items are 25*25.

[José Luiz]

It'll be an excellent game! I liked the screenshots and the plot very much - I really enjoy stories that have something to do with ancient cultures.

(I'd like just to say something about the Latin name, can I? I'm asking first because I don't want to be seen as the boring guy... )

[Abisso]

(I'd like just to say something about the Latin name, can I? I'm asking first because I don't want to be seen as the boring guy... )

What do you mean by "saying something", if you don't say something then?

Anyway, Occultas Veritas means "Hidden Truth", more or less.

I hope Darth will excuse my intromission! 

[Zooty_college]

yes the name means hidden truth, as close as we can get it. We do not want to dwell too long on it as its is relativley unimportant. However, feel free to correct our latin.

[Abisso]

My latin studies are almost forgotten, but maybe, and I say, MAYBE, it should be "Occulta Veritas".

I'll check it with the help of the vocabulary, and then I will correct it, if needed.

[Chicky]

Aww, it looks great guys! See, i told you my art wasnt worthy of the ammount of effort you're putting in

Can't wait to play it

[Kweepa]

My latin studies are almost forgotten, but maybe, and I say, MAYBE, it should be "Occulta Veritas".

I would imagine it should be "Veritas Occulta". Or perhaps "In Umbrae Veritas".

[José Luiz]

That's what I was going to say: it should be "Occulta Veritas" - or "Veritas Occulta" (in Latin the order could be that too). In fact, I prefer the first one.

But you are right, that's not important. The important is that the game is very good and interesting, and I'm sure we're all anxious to play it - I really am!

[hedgefield]

Looks absolutely amazing fellas, cant wait to play this!

Hmmm, Pompeii...brings back some good memories...

[Kinoko]

Ooooooooooh, a really decent looking game to look forward to ^_^ Darth, thankyou. I can always rely on you to produce some great looking stuff!

[edmundito]

I'd say it's Veritas Occulta... if that means Hidden Truth. I was looking at the gui and I know that you, darth, like semi transparent backgrounds and whatnot, but I think it might feel a little too modern for the game's setting. Kind of like putting rock music.

It looks really good! Very interesting plot, very original in its own way. I'm looking forward to it.

[Sam.]

Ooooooooooh, a really decent looking game to look forward to ^_^ Darth, thankyou. I can always rely on you to produce some great looking stuff!

TEAM hasselhoff, theres no darth in team.

[Darth Mandarb]

Kinoko - thank you very much for the compliment!  But as Zooty said this has been (and is) a superb team effort.  I'm just a small cog in the wheel of progress with this game

We've really all come together on this project and it's one of the most rewarding team effors I've ever been involved in.

netmonkey - yes I do have a tendency to use transparecy in my GUIs   I was concerned at first that the 'modern' look of it would clash but in-game I really don't think it does.  I'll play around with it ... thanks for the tip!