Current Campaign Version: 1.4
WARNING: If you are playing version 1.0 of the campaign on one of the newer alphas (4063 or above) please update the campaign! There is a critical bugfix, that makes hero portals work properly again. Otherwise most maps will not function correctly.
Requires the newest alpha to play, you will have to update before starting the campaign! Use at least Alpha 4055.
This is a campaign with 10 main levels and many bonus levels. Two moon levels are also included. The difficulty level is intended to be approachable for all players with some experience with the game, but still challenging and interesting. Also contained are a small tutorial level at the start to explain some obscure mechanics, and a bonus level that acts as a small, optional hub area to find hints for secrets in the campaign. (The campaign also contains some of the levels I uploaded before, with some changes to aesthetics, balancing, new creatures, etc)
As of 1.4, the campaign is available in German as well.
Features:
Play as the blue keeper throughout the campaign
New graphics (like a new Dungeon Heart) and new decoration objects
2 creatures ported from Dungeon Keeper 2, the Maiden and Black Knight (ported by ErminioLucente)
Uses various new KeeperFX features like expanded map size, campaign flags for progression between levels, and many others
Custom soundtrack (see note below for how to install!)
Story:
As the blue keeper Sapphire you are trying to take over the floating island of the Trinity Sanctum. You will have to fight or cooperate with the white Diamond hero guild, the black Onyx clan of renegade heroes, and the yellow rival keeper Topaz. Don't trust them not to stab you in the back, and fight your way through these 10 realms on your conquest.
Custom soundtrack:
This campaign has a full, new soundtrack! The music is compiled from various other games, but not directly included with the download on the KeeperFX workshop due to its larger filesize. The campaign is perfectly playable without the music, but I would recommend playing it with the new soundtrack for the extra atmosphere it adds! To download the soundtrack, check here. To install the music, simply unzip the archive into the campaign subfolder sapphire_realms_media so that the mp3 files are in campgns\sapphire_realms_media\campaign_music.
Any feedback is welcome, and if there are major things to improve I'll add an updated version. There is also an update coming at some point, that will add NG+ with some changes to the levels for players that have beaten the campaign.
Some special thanks:
The KeeperFX Discord ben_lp, dofi, Krizzie, and all other playtesters and people who gave early feedback ErminioLucente for the DK2 creatures And all contributing developers for KeeperFX
Changelog:
1.1
Changed some landviews, made realm 8 slightly more difficult, fixed a lot of bugs, fixed the bug related to portals not working on newer alphas, adjusted some mission objectives and texts to make some things more clear
1.2
Some small fixes with leftover debug commands, fixed the alliance mechanic in level 9 not working
1.3
Tons of little fixes and changes to make some maps smoother and fix some bugs that were breaking bonus level rewards. Also added the basis for translating the campaign (German translation coming soon-ish). For people who want to translate, the English script is included in the sapphire_realms_media folder, called "English Text.pot".
- Prettied up the level thumbnails in the hub
- More robust level progress tracking (only affects the hub level)
- Fixed an issue with bonus level 2 / realm 6 with setting the floodgate state
- Slightly boosted starting gold in realm 3
- Modified some event triggers in realm 7, and added some more enemies to make the level slightly more difficult
- Prevented Horny from becoming unhappy in bonus 1 to prevent some issues
- Fixed an issue where a timer in realm 6 remained visible after winning the level
- Fixed an issue with resetting ally status in bonus 3 and fixed message formatting
- Fixed an issue in realm 9 where some bonus areas were inaccessible/unclaimable
- Prepared the text format in levels for translation
- Overhauled new moon bonus level (buffed starting gold, nerfed the enemy slightly, changed some level design and fixed hounds not spawning for the player)
1.4
- Prepared and fixed some things for potential future translations
- German translation added! (all text is translated, voice lines are still only in English)
I have written quite a few reviews by now and have seen varying levels of quality maps. When I started this campaign, I had no idea I was about to play a masterpiece for the next several hours. There were times when I thought, "Wow, is this really the Dungeon Keeper game from my childhood? How much can people still get out of a 30-year-old game?" Just to say: I intended to play just one level that evening and ended up playing four!
Sapphire Realms has become my favorite campaign so far. I was captivated by the engaging story behind the campaign, which was well reflected in the level selection map and the meticulously designed levels. Each level felt fresh, sometimes even unprecedented. I liked the inclusion of some newer creatures, but it also gave me the opportunity to appreciate the Hound after so many years—a creature I would usually discard as they would appear quite late when I had much stronger options on my roster.
While playing the game, there was not a single moment when I felt any repetitiveness, which must be quite a challenge for each map maker, as every map maker has their own style. There was always something new—often even an atmosphere of mystery, particularly reflected in the level that acted as a HUB and the several secret levels (sadly, I didn't manage to complete the last one).
Regarding difficulty, this campaign started easy and gradually became moderately challenging later on. This makes the map ideal for returning DK veterans or those who just want an interesting and refreshing DK experience.
I really hope there will be more maps from aqualakitu (who might have become my new favorite map maker).
A little side note: I managed a few secret levels but somehow had the feeling they didn't do anything. Perhaps I just didnt pay enough attention when playing the actual map that should have been affected by the reward of the secret level. Also, I wasn't able to discover the secret of the HUB which will probalby make me replay the campaign soon ;-).
Difficulty: 3/5 Rating: 5/5
Thank you very much for the kind words!
I gotta give a huge shoutout to all the people that made new content and the modding tools, likewise I was just very impressed by what crazy stuff you can do with the game by now. And it was a lot of fun to explore how that can be put to use in level design. All the new scripting options open up a crazy amount of possibilities for both gameplay and theming.
The bonus levels are all designed to be played exactly when you get them, and only count for the level right after. Transfer creature as a reward is just impossible to balance around, so I wanted some different bonuses. An older comment of mine here in response to Spatulade has a note on what the levels each unlock, marked by spoiler tags. That said, some of the rewards for the bonus levels were a bit bugged. I looked into fixing it up more and I'll upload a new version soon that should hopefully address an issue with the second bonus level.
The last secert level is definitely very tricky, I wanted it to be a tight puzzle sort of deal and maybe overshot it a bit. But I hope it's still interesting to the players who have the endurance to puzzle it out. Definitely would've given it a second take in hindsight and made the objectives in each segment clearer.
The hub secrets are mostly optional little bits, but I'd say try digging around a bit and you might find some new things. If/when I get around to doing a big re-release to add NG+ to the main levels, I'd like to expand on the hub a bit more, but I'll have to see how that's gonna go when I get to it. I'm taking a small break from mapmaking but I'll definitely return to it at some point both to make some entirely new levels, and to brush up the campaign some.
Either way, thank you very much for playing and leaving your detailed thoughts!
Finally finished it - I really loved it! Some really fun ideas. My fave level was the one where the water rises, that was a really fun idea, and it was well-explained and telegraphed to the point where I waited to let it happen!, a lot of the ideas were really good, the levels weren't super hard (relatively relaxing actually) and everything was fun! I liked the "home" level where you could explore as an imp, I went back to that every level but I think I broke it because not all the flames lit up, probably my fault. How does that level work exactly? How do I unlock all the doors? What do the bits at the bottom of the map mean?. Bonus levels were really fun and really unique, I liked them all, and the first person ones were interesting and pretty tense in places with all the sneaking about! I think I might have broken those as well - I couldn't tell if the rewards for doing those activated or not, e.g. the black or white one didn't seem to do anything, but I might have been on version 1.1! All in all, the music, unique level design and theme make this a whole new game! Amazing!
Thank you very much, and very glad you enjoyed it!
I'd imagine with the hub, the variable tracking your progress may have broken... basically, it's supposed to count up by one with every level you beat, and change things up. I do have a fix in mind that should make it more resilient to errors that I'll implement soon. The flames are just supposed to represent which levels you've beaten. If you've not gotten the later flames, then that likely means some of the later features of the hub also didn't work sadly. Maybe it's worth a replay eventually when I've made the fix, there's some cute secrets but also nothing essential to miss in there.
As for the bonus levels, basically here's what they each do; The first one gives you a few extra starting minions in the prison in the Altars level. The second one lets you change which parts of the map get flooded in the rising water level. The third one lets you ally with one of the keepers in the level with black and white. This was sadly broken in 1.1 and has been fixed in 1.2 at least.
But either way, thanks for playing!
In the Finale - Sanctuary of the Crystalline Heart nothing happens after the nine creatures are sacrificed.
Hey there, that's unfortunate to hear. I'll see if I can fix that if I can reproduce it. Can you give some details on what happened? Like did any message pop up for any of the creatures, or did no message show up at all? And did you specifically sacrifice 3 giants, 3 samurai, and 3 fairies in the temple?
Got it working. I had countdowns, sound effects and messages for each three. I sacrificed some prisoner imps earlier on after the fairies, so did three more fairies at the end. I'm using Alpha 4065. Fantastic campaign by the way.
Ah, okay! Glad to hear everything worked out in the end then from what it sounds like. And happy to hear you enjoyed it on the whole! Since the campaign uses a ton of new features and isn't on a new stable release yet I'm just always checking to see if everything works, want to make sure that everyone has a bug-free version if possible.
I recognize that second map! And still that fairies spawn jumpscare gets me.
I just started playing it, I'll come back with a review once I'm done or defeated I guess. For now, the hub idea is just fantastic! You really are using the new features from keeperfx to the max.
Also, that first secret level? I've never seen that before. The idea is simple but it works well!
Thank you! Basically, maps 2, 3 and 4 are levels I have uploaded previously. There are some changes, for example level 2 has a chance of spawning a Maiden as a playable unit. For the most part, the differences are small though. However, everything after that is entirely new. And glad you liked the hub! It's worth coming back to it at some point before you do the last level.
I realize I didn't play your fourth level before. Neat, that was a nice discovery. Quite stressful too, even if I thought I was doing things quickly. It's nice to be on the other end of fairies' dps for once.
I check the hub after each map to see what changes. Before map 4 I received a tip from the dragon for what appears to be map 5, is that normal?
Yep, some hints unlock a little bit earlier incase the player doesn't check back super frequently. So even if you're a bit early you can get some hints for later levels. I figured it would be a bit difficult to convey what the hub is there for anyway, so to me it seemed best to make it a bit more generous.
Fair enough then.
I'm at level 9 right now. I'll post a full review soon. I believe I've found a bug though: my fairy in the last secret level learnt drain, not meteor as the in-game message said, which made thing harder but still doable. Also, maybe you should warn the player that the reflect spell lasts a very short time so you have to time it properly.
Maybe I should talk about the "issues" in the discord if you're there?
You can really see the immense effort you've put into this. I really like the maps, although they're too difficult for me, but I think the difficulty level is appropriate for other players. I also like the changes you've made to the map itself. Great job!
I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing! Was there any moment that felt unfair, or is it more about the overall difficulty level? Since if there is something like a sudden difficulty spike I'd like to fix that.
Thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks for the campaign
Thanks for playing, and very glad you enjoyed it!
An absolute must to play!
Looking forward to the NG+ versions :D
Thank you very much!
It'll probably be a few months before I do those since I want to gather some input, ideas and take a break to prevent burning out on making maps. And I'd like to make the maps a bit more than just throwing more guys at the player, but it's gonna be... interesting to work all of that into the same maps instead of it being standalone copies.