For anyone who has been following the Sword of Legends project that I was doing last year with Troy Thompson, you might be interested in knowing that Troy and I have decided to release the IGF demo. This game was entered in the 2010 Independent Games Festival at the Game Developer’s Conference, but it didn’t make it into the finalists. It seems that there isn’t a place in IGF for traditional-style games, instead they seem to favor games that are more art nouveau; flashy, edgy, and technically emphasized. Unfortunately, Sword of Legends focuses more on revisiting traditional video game formulas and themes rather than trying to break any new ground.
Our rejection in this competition was the last straw of our motivation for continuing this project. After all, a game of this scope would probably take the two of us years to finish and we simply don’t have the time or energy to continue it. We were approached with an offer to have our game published on a Flash game portal, but it wasn’t something that I pursued since the publisher was expecting us to casualify our game. Sword of Legends isn’t meant to be a casual game, but a traditional action-RPG in the vain of the classics that my generation grew up enjoying.
Like Madhouse, I’d love to revisit this project someday and develop it to completion with a proper release. Until then, the Sword of Legends will have to sleep quietly and wait until that opportunity comes. In the meantime, please enjoy this demo that features some of the game’s core mechanics and themes:
phubans.com 
That’s unfortunate dude.
This game looks very good too, I saw it up on youtube. This reminds me a bit of a mix with Zelda 2 and Cave Story with a minor hint of Maple Story. Maybe you should add super huge bosses, cause the engine is really awesome and that your game looks like you really put some time into it.
Well, someday you’ll get to post this on ether a flash website or on a home console system. (Go for XNA)
Never give up hope my friend.
Thanks! The influences for this game were Crystalis, Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure), Legacy of the Wizard, Faxanadu, and Zelda, particularly the side-scrolling platform parts in Link’s Awakening. Huge bosses was one of the things that the game was definitely going to feature and we did have a giant snail boss in there at one point but it was a little buggy so we cut it. And yes, we definitely did put a lot of time into it, so it’s too bad that it ended up in my project graveyard. But who knows? Maybe once I’m finished with my current projects I’ll come back to it if I can find a more dedicated programmer. Although, it’s at the end of a long line of other projects that are waiting to be picked up again and finished.
More dedicated programmer? Haha
Man, lot’s of time and effort went into this. I’m sure we will get around to finishing it some day soon 🙂
Thanks for posting the Sword of Legends demo. Unfortunately, the link appears to be down. Also, I can’t find the Madhouse Special Edition since Megaupload is now dead. Would you mind posting updated links to these two games? I’m curious to see what additions are in the Special Edition. Thanks.