About > History
How We Got Here
Damasca ultimately began its long life on December 25th, 1999 as the brainchild of Ryan "Kirath" Miller.
Assembled mainly as a conglomorate of smaller projects he had worked on in the past, Damasca had a humble beginning as little more than a fan-made fantasy game that Kirath shared between friends. Soon, however, it found its way from obscurity and made its debut in an online game called Graal Online. As a privately owned and controlled game server, it ran independently from the owners of Graal at the time. During its first iteration, seven clans fought each other for dominance on one tiny continent.
When it ran on Graal, it ran up there with the best Graal had to offer. Among the staples that made Damasca stand out from the other servers on Graal were excellent staff support, frequent updates to the game world, and previously unheard-of techniques used to create the then-fledgeling server. On top of all this, the quality of the virtual world, and the quality of the user experience, was truly phenomenal in comparison to other servers of the then-young game.
Damasca had to evolve through several more iterations before it finally became "The Conflicted Kingdoms". During this time, the owners of Graal Online began to change their policy, dedicating their resources to consolidate the various privately owned Graal servers into their own network as hosted servers called "playerworlds". Regardless of whether or not is was fair or right to do so, strong-arm tactics were used to convince Kirath that a privately operated server would no longer be permitted. With no time to argue and no inclination to fight a protracted battle over nebulous semantics, he and his team instead opted to acquire an official server on Graal Online itself. Fortunately, this official Damasca server rapidly developed a sustained popularity, a testament to the quality and ingenuity of its content.
However, it wasn't meant to last. In mid-2001, Graal began the transition from free play to a paid subscription-based system. To make matters worse, by this time, communication began to break down between Damasca staff members, and it wasn't long before voids were formed. Petty bickering and division replaced the cohesive teamwork that had made Damasca what it was, and this situation came to a standoff that ultimately resulted in the loss of several staff members as well as their work.
With a large portion of the game gone in an instant, along with indications that Graal would be switched completely to a subscription-only model, the Damasca server was permanently shut down. Kirath, disgusted that his work had been undermined in such an immature manner, left Damasca's legacy to Dart Zaidyer and Celine, two of the most loyal staff members, under the impression that it could somehow be revived. After much thought and deliberation, the solution was obvious: create a stand-alone game.
Things were slow-going at first. Despite Damasca's popularity among its former audience, not many of these players were skilled in creating any aspect of a game. To make matters worse, web space hosting was difficult to secure once realgamers.net went down. Damasca had been jumping from server to server, never really getting what was required to run the site, until it finally settled for a while on a shaky but suitable free host.
Of all the woes Damasca has had, however, programming has been one of the worst shortcomings of our design team. Having seen programmers who all promised great things for Damasca, but could never really deliver, one of them finally brought in an old friend of his, Olly Fallows, known to us as Diaftau (and jokingly, our code monkey).
Progress was booming for a while with Diaftau's skill and patience, but as time passed, we began to grow up. People started going to college and leaving for jobs and careers. Even though we had established an impressive volume of work including extensive lore and history, and even a preliminary game engine, things began to slow down. Spare time fast became a scarce commodity, but those of us who could still took the time to come and post, contribute, and generally keep the fire burning, for days when more time is available.
Unfortunately, after so much time and effort spent on figuring out how the game was meant to work, the temptation to go back to the drawing board with each milestone was too strong to resist. What we didn't know, and what many other game developers know all too well is that this is one of the forces that can kill a project. We were continually dissatisfied with the engine's capabilties, unwilling to use placeholder assets to speed up development, and eager to re-open issues that were already solved "to find a better way". Wisely, Diaftau decided to seek employment with a professional game development company, and as he did so, he no longer had the time to develop for Damasca.
As we tried to figure out where to go next, we began to realize our mistake. Several attempts were made to create solid design documents for a simpler game that could be completed on a definitive time table, but by then it was already too late. Too many team members had left the project or run out of free time to build content for a new game. Once it became obvious that we simply could not do the work, Damasca faded into obscurity.
The website and forums yet remain, and the few who still maintain it hope to find new ways to implement the fantasy universe we created for Damasca. Until that time, however... the rest is silence.
Damasca ultimately began its long life on December 25th, 1999 as the brainchild of Ryan "Kirath" Miller.
Assembled mainly as a conglomorate of smaller projects he had worked on in the past, Damasca had a humble beginning as little more than a fan-made fantasy game that Kirath shared between friends. Soon, however, it found its way from obscurity and made its debut in an online game called Graal Online. As a privately owned and controlled game server, it ran independently from the owners of Graal at the time. During its first iteration, seven clans fought each other for dominance on one tiny continent.
When it ran on Graal, it ran up there with the best Graal had to offer. Among the staples that made Damasca stand out from the other servers on Graal were excellent staff support, frequent updates to the game world, and previously unheard-of techniques used to create the then-fledgeling server. On top of all this, the quality of the virtual world, and the quality of the user experience, was truly phenomenal in comparison to other servers of the then-young game.
Damasca had to evolve through several more iterations before it finally became "The Conflicted Kingdoms". During this time, the owners of Graal Online began to change their policy, dedicating their resources to consolidate the various privately owned Graal servers into their own network as hosted servers called "playerworlds". Regardless of whether or not is was fair or right to do so, strong-arm tactics were used to convince Kirath that a privately operated server would no longer be permitted. With no time to argue and no inclination to fight a protracted battle over nebulous semantics, he and his team instead opted to acquire an official server on Graal Online itself. Fortunately, this official Damasca server rapidly developed a sustained popularity, a testament to the quality and ingenuity of its content.
However, it wasn't meant to last. In mid-2001, Graal began the transition from free play to a paid subscription-based system. To make matters worse, by this time, communication began to break down between Damasca staff members, and it wasn't long before voids were formed. Petty bickering and division replaced the cohesive teamwork that had made Damasca what it was, and this situation came to a standoff that ultimately resulted in the loss of several staff members as well as their work.
With a large portion of the game gone in an instant, along with indications that Graal would be switched completely to a subscription-only model, the Damasca server was permanently shut down. Kirath, disgusted that his work had been undermined in such an immature manner, left Damasca's legacy to Dart Zaidyer and Celine, two of the most loyal staff members, under the impression that it could somehow be revived. After much thought and deliberation, the solution was obvious: create a stand-alone game.
Things were slow-going at first. Despite Damasca's popularity among its former audience, not many of these players were skilled in creating any aspect of a game. To make matters worse, web space hosting was difficult to secure once realgamers.net went down. Damasca had been jumping from server to server, never really getting what was required to run the site, until it finally settled for a while on a shaky but suitable free host.
Of all the woes Damasca has had, however, programming has been one of the worst shortcomings of our design team. Having seen programmers who all promised great things for Damasca, but could never really deliver, one of them finally brought in an old friend of his, Olly Fallows, known to us as Diaftau (and jokingly, our code monkey).
Progress was booming for a while with Diaftau's skill and patience, but as time passed, we began to grow up. People started going to college and leaving for jobs and careers. Even though we had established an impressive volume of work including extensive lore and history, and even a preliminary game engine, things began to slow down. Spare time fast became a scarce commodity, but those of us who could still took the time to come and post, contribute, and generally keep the fire burning, for days when more time is available.
Unfortunately, after so much time and effort spent on figuring out how the game was meant to work, the temptation to go back to the drawing board with each milestone was too strong to resist. What we didn't know, and what many other game developers know all too well is that this is one of the forces that can kill a project. We were continually dissatisfied with the engine's capabilties, unwilling to use placeholder assets to speed up development, and eager to re-open issues that were already solved "to find a better way". Wisely, Diaftau decided to seek employment with a professional game development company, and as he did so, he no longer had the time to develop for Damasca.
As we tried to figure out where to go next, we began to realize our mistake. Several attempts were made to create solid design documents for a simpler game that could be completed on a definitive time table, but by then it was already too late. Too many team members had left the project or run out of free time to build content for a new game. Once it became obvious that we simply could not do the work, Damasca faded into obscurity.
The website and forums yet remain, and the few who still maintain it hope to find new ways to implement the fantasy universe we created for Damasca. Until that time, however... the rest is silence.