This game has deliberately been made as a tribute to the wonderful, classic RPGs of the late 80s and early 90s, but with a modern twist. So we've aimed to reach a kind of halfway point between old-school and new-school. Because of this, many modern graphical conventions have been left out to achieve a fun, retro feel.

Currently, you can run the game in one of two modes.

Full graphics mode, which looks like this:



Or low detail mode, which looks like this:



The low detail mode allows the game to run on slower computers by cutting away all of the fancier graphics settings. It looks fairly basic (particularly in the countryside) but we're looking to improve that in future.

The first time you run the game, you may experience one of the following:

- Lag
- Shadow anomalies
- Strange pixellation
- Flickering graphics glitches

If any of these are the case, you may need to alter your video settings.

In the game's launcher you'll see a configuration button. Click it and you'll be able to change your video settings. In there you will see various things you can change. But here's what each one does:

Bloom changes how "glowy" the game is. You can crank it up quite high or set it to nothing.



The detail level changes how many pixels get used to draw the main screen. Basically it controls the DPI of the view window. Turning it right down not only gives a more old-school look, but also speeds up the game:


Otherwise it can be turned up high, which is slower, but much finer use of screen detail:



Alpha levels control how dark the game is. Setting Alpha to zero makes for a VERY creepy and exciting experience when entering dungeons, as they will be pitch black. If you're not that keen, then you can turn it up to make the game easier to see.


Post Processing can be turned off to disable bloom completely, but it will also remove a few other little bits of polish which are handled by the bloom engine. Not hugely noticeable, though. Disabling this can actually fix most graphical problems that people have.


Shadows being enabled make the world look much smoother, and add natural lighting to the game in real-time as you play, but this process does take a toll on your performance.

Here is the game WITH shadows:



Here is the game WITHOUT shadows:



Finally, on the main menu of the game, in the top-left corner, you'll see an option to play the game in a Low Detail mode. This mode strips away all of the prettier graphics and runs the game in a "vanilla" mode, allowing it to work on older or less powerful machines.

We're still working on this mode quite a bit, so the countrysides still look a little basic when it's enabled:



The dungeons, however, still look quite nice. Here's a dungeon WITHOUT low detail mode:



And here's a dungeon WITH low detail mode:



So hopefully this helps people configure the game to their liking and resolve any issues they are having. You'd be surprised what just disabling shadows and post processing can fix!

If all else fails, though, I highly recommend jumping onto the discussion board here, or even our official forum[www.malevolencegame.com], where we will be only too happy to help get you fixed up!

Happy adventuring!