[zoom in screenshot - 174K]

Gold Yard
http://www.goldyard.net

Category:
Computers > Games & Consoles

Created by:
Francesco Maisto and Grace Milstein in 2001

Rating:
Not rated yet

Date added:
Oct 10th, 2001

Last updated:
Nov 14th, 2001

Tools Used:
3ds max, Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW, Macromedia Dreamweaver Ultradev, Macromedia Flash, Swift 3D

Designer's words:
Gold Yard is a 3D isometric adventure game I developed in Flash. Playing the role of a little thief (Arthur), the player can walk through lots of rooms, collecting gold pieces to increase the score while avoiding harmful monsters and traps. He or she can also find keys to open doors, healing potions to cure wounds and all sort of items to access secret locations. The game has a map system that automatically keeps track of the locations the player has already visited. The game's website features additional contents, detailed instructions and "behind the scenes" material.

Our comments:
Gold Yard is one of the few Flash-based games that feels and plays like a real computer game thanks to Maisto's excellent game design and programming skills. For old-time gamers, Gold Yard reminds BitmapBrothers' 1990 game Cadaver in terms of art and gameplay. All the graphics in Gold Yard look like hand-drawn but according to the author of the game, most of the objects were actually 3D-modelled, then "rendered as a vector format image (.swf) and finally colored and optimized in Flash." Flash's mathematical smooth color gradients are abundantly used throughout the game to simulate lighting effects and keep download times short.

The web site of Gold Yard features a simple yet attractive design, which is perfectly compatible with the game. The menu font and the golden headlines look great, the game art is used where needed, the background image nicely covers the whole browser window, and there is even an parchment.

--Aycan