Atomboy
Atom Team
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Thank you! Thank you so much! You won't regret it, too!
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KickStarter ATOM RPG - Wasteland Soviet style! - now with Dead City update
Atomboy
Atom Team
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Right now our default guy model is almost everything we've got. Only the stats are customizable. But gender, body and facial features are totally planned for the full version. It takes a bit longer, because we first made the game for the guy. The girl version shouldn't be just a palette-swapped copy of the male path. We need to add special lines in tons of dialogues to make each playthrough at least somewhat original. Face and body customization just takes a lot of time for the programmers, so we're constantly avoiding it to make more city blocks in Krasnoznamenny. It's gonna get there, though. And maybe we'll see Max roaming the wastes.
Okay, I think we should continue in English to not piss off some prestigous gentlemen
Thanks for stopping by! I hope more people will take interest when they learn the could ask a developer some questions in person.
Poetic guys are silent at the moment, but I'll continue to ping Andrej, whom we have warm relations with
Any luck with contacting 'big buys' like Fargo or Avellone? Via Twitter maybe? I know for sure they left some nice feedback for Poetic as well, they seem like guys who'd support beginner RPG developers with the right starting material.
Israfael
Arcane
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- Sep 21, 2012
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- 3,604
I'm not so sure if this will fly under the US and EU IP & copyright laws - sure, no one cares about them here in our Siberian hinterland with vodka, bears and balalaikas, but (((they))) might object to such 1:1 recreation of what was done by BI / Inxile etc. Haerve would surely object and try to rip you into shreds
Atomboy
Atom Team
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Okay, I think we should continue in English to not piss off some prestigous gentlemen
Thanks for stopping by! I hope more people will take interest when they learn the could ask a developer some questions in person.
Poetic guys are silent at the moment, but I'll continue to ping Andrej, whom we have warm relations with
Any luck with contacting 'big buys' like Fargo or Avellone? Via Twitter maybe? I know for sure they left some nice feedback for Poetic as well, they seem like guys who'd support beginner RPG developers with the right starting material.
That's actually a rather painful topic for me! I'm not talking for the rest of the team, but personally, I'm one of the people that love game developers like teen girls love their boy bands. I'm almost at the point of starting to create some nasty Black Isle fanfiction. Like, if we're ever on a convention together (like in the year 2080 as heads in jars) I'd run up to them on my mecha-spider body-throne and scream how much I loved Torment. So on one hand I really, really want to DM the lot of them, especially my two future best friends Monte Cook and Chris Avellone. But then again, I'm afraid I'll look like a cringey beggar... I mean it's okay to sport this look on the Codex, cuz you guys get me, you get how this Atomboi rolls. But these legendary dev beasts... How will they react? Eh, I guess I'll just send my humble letters, and we'll see.
Atomboy
Atom Team
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
- Messages
- 717
Just you wait for the Big City #1! The game will show off it's original ideas after we finally build Krasnoznamenny. As for the interface and the feel... (((We))) know how it looks. Had many discussions. Still decided to keep it, even though a few subtle changes would've made it much more original. We're in it for the homages as much as we're in it for the originality. Maybe if (((someone))) pushes us too hard, we'll change some stuff. Right now we just want to show off our sources of inspiration. Wear 'em proudly and all that!
You got me on "my mecha-spider body-throne" :D
A try is a try, so go ahead! You could always say that wasn't you and somebody hacked your account, you know :russiastronk:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atomrpg/atom-rpg/posts/1870098?ref=backer_project_updateATOM RPG - FAQ
Hey guys!
ATOM RPG almost reached 50% of its final goal! It's a big victory and we owe it solely to you, our backers!
We made a list of answers to the questions about the game that we received in various social media websites.
If you don't feel like we answered every question - send us yours and we will be sure to feature it in a future update!
On our project and setting:
* Who are you guys?
We're an international team from Latvia, Ukraine, Poland and Russia with an unofficial headquarters in Riga. In real life, we are writers, scriptwriters, programmers, artists, modelers and designers. Some with ongoing careers in major gaming studios. ATOM brings us together after work hours, to make something of our own. Something, that we always wished to create.
* So is this like a fan attempt at a new Fallout?
Modesty aside, it is much bigger than that. While the setting and the look of things was definitely inspired by the first two Fallout games, we're not trying to copy them. We take our inspiration from very varied sources - from the first MS DOS Wasteland game, to the esoteric, thought-provoking Planescape: Torment, and thrilling Deus Ex. We combine the Post-Apocalyptic setting with a different kind of world - The society in our game setting is much closer to medieval than in the titles mentioned. We're working to show how the psychology of the masses changes in the aftermath of everything getting blown to bits. While traveling our world, you will find that most people carry the medieval mythological thinking inside them: in our world legends, myths and gods are born. Bandits act like feudal lords, honest working people regress into peasantry, bureaucrats (not warlords) rule the biggest city on the map, stories of past tech give birth to mystical legends, former Communist Party Members and the KGB become boogeymen that are said to wait for lonely travelers near their hidden installations in the deep woods, magic and witchcraft are explanations many NPCs have for genetic mutations and even the war itself. Our world is as realistic as we can make it while still keeping it fun. We also lack the common traits of the genre - such as retro-futurism, and weapons and technologies straight out of 50's science fiction. Mostly.
* What new things can you offer to a Post-Apocalyptic RPG setting?
Most of the newer projects that take inspiration from Fallout and Wasteland try to mimic those titles, combat and atmosphere-wise. What we’re offering is a lot of text. Unique dialogues with every NPC, role-playing moments in every dialogue, multiple solutions to any quest. Skill and perk-based dialogue options. Whole quests centered on the dialogue text window. The game isn’t finished, not by a long shot, but it already sports 3,000 lines of text. There’s going to be a lot more. For each and every occasion. Our prose does not try to look like Fallout's or Torment's. We have this highly stylized colloquial language partially based on Russian authors from the XX century we enjoy, partially inspired by art-brute. Text is the main thing, anyway. Good text. At least - the best we've got. Sure, text was important for many slavic Fallouts. But in ours, it's our everything. Role-playing in each dialogue, changing the world in every quest, getting unique stories depending on the skills and attributes you picked. Making every action matter, or at least become a rumor or a legend somewhere in the world.
On the game itself:
* When can I try this game out?
The free alpha build demo is already out there. Here's a direct link, in case you didn't find it on our page: http://atomrpg.com/cdn/atom.zip The full version of the game will be released in February 2018. This date may change, just like we mentioned in our risks section on Kickstarter. However, the main reason this may happen is if we reach one of our stretch goals on Kickstarter. This way, the game may come out late, but it will have many more amazing features, that we can't afford to program into it right now.
* Does the demo feature all the things I should expect from the finished game?
Well, we're not planning on changing the major things - the wonderful Unity3D engine, the graphics, the turn-based combat, the skill, stat and perk system we have got working in the background of the game. But this demo is still nothing more than an Alpha build. We are currently working on a better English translation, minor tweaks to dialogues, many more new locations and items. The game's economy, events, NPC behavior, and many more things are subjects to inevitable improvement. Bigger, better, smoother - these are the words you should keep in mind, when comparing the release version and this demo.
* I can't figure out the controls!
Holding the left mouse button on an item or an NPC in the game world, sends you to a context menu, where you may chose all possible actions. Holding the right mouse button on an item in your inventory brings out the item menu.
On Public Relations:
* How can I help out?
We're a small team with zero budget for PR campaigns. Anyone spreading the word is doing us a bigger favor than one may think. Even if you don't have an ability to back our project financially right now, please consider helping spreading news of our humble game to your friends on social media!
* Can I get an interview with you guys?
You can contact us on Kickstarter or anywhere else we are represented in. We are highly interested in talking about our project, sharing plans, goals and other information. Feel free to contact us anyway you see fit!
Thank you!
50% Done! Crafting and a new stretch goal!
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Hello and thank you!
We are 50% done and that's all thanks to your help!
Stretch goal at $25000: Crafting system
It’s only natural in a survival situation to use whatever is close at hand. To represent this aspect of wilderness and urban survival, we are planning a simple but effective crafting system for the game.
Collect all manner of things and try to combine them to create something new… And who knows, maybe one day it will help you in a tight spot! Or seal your fate.
Grenade + duct tape + rat = interesting trap!
You can experiment with different combinations of items, but the success of the end result will be determined by the Tinkering skill.
Stretch goal at $30.000: Female protagonist
It’s easy to make an automatic male to female protagonist transition, by changing “he” for “she” at specific places in each line of dialogue.
However, this is not what we have in mind. Role-playing characters of different genders should come with slightly different and sometimes even unique experiences and varied story telling. Different approaches to solving the same quest situations are also needed.
Our aim is to make certain NPCs react to male and female protagonists differently, say different things, act differently according to the gender the player picked at the beginning of the game.
This needs a complete overhaul of most dialogues in the game – a task which isn’t that easy, seeing how we already have 3000+ lines, and the game isn’t even finished, not by a long shot. However, with extra donations, it will become possible for our writer team to start working full-time to make it happen.
Thank you again, guys! Without you this wouldn't be possible and we are positive that with your continued support we can make it!
Pope Amole II
Nerd Commando Game Studios
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2012
- Messages
- 2,052
Played the demo a bit, can't say I've enjoyed it too much. The only decent thing is the writing and even so, it's fanfic-tier. Not to mention that the game will never be translated well simply because it can't be translated well - it's the same case as with the Space Rangers or Planet Alcatraz. The text heavily relies on understanding the patterns of the soviet lingo (and it'll take a high-grade linguist to actually transmute that into english, at the very least; it's hard to explain, but it's like normal english and sigil speech - the texts in the game should have the same feel of strange language) and on the knowledge of soviet culture. Considering that USSR had no Hollywood (its cinematograph is great, but there's no global cultural pressure - the world knows who the hell Kirk and Spock are, but not of, say, Zheglov and Sharapov), there's already too much stuff in the game that the foreign player will never understand.
And most of the stuff in the game is a fucking reference (at this point). Most of the portraits are paintover soviet or post-soviet actors. Lots of the dialogues some either pop-culture or soviet-culture relation. And then there's just, you know, not trying to hard and just recreating the stuff from fallout 1 - small village that's oppressed by the raiders, said raiders which you can join, derelict vault that's full of rats, big trade city nearby with caravans going on, etc. The not-special system which is literal special expy. The combat which recreates the same "punch&run" tactic with early melee enemies and the same "bandits on the path to vault city" feelings. And while both are nostalgic, they're also both kinda bullshit.
Also, there are some serious cases of decline here. For example, there's no skilldex - instead, if you can use a skill on the object, the GUI (which is clunky and horrible) will offer you to do it. Which takes most of potential thinking out of the game. After the brilliant skilldex usage in Nevada, this approach looks amateurish. There are also various survivalist mechanics which are loved by the FOnline fans and which are also total crap. The RPG system doesn't bother to explain itself as well as the original did (like, you know, conveniently stating the formulas for all the skills). And, at the moment, it's just literal copying & pasting from the fallouts. No signs of trying to improve upon the formula.
So I dunno what I'm supposed to feel awed about.
And most of the stuff in the game is a fucking reference (at this point). Most of the portraits are paintover soviet or post-soviet actors. Lots of the dialogues some either pop-culture or soviet-culture relation. And then there's just, you know, not trying to hard and just recreating the stuff from fallout 1 - small village that's oppressed by the raiders, said raiders which you can join, derelict vault that's full of rats, big trade city nearby with caravans going on, etc. The not-special system which is literal special expy. The combat which recreates the same "punch&run" tactic with early melee enemies and the same "bandits on the path to vault city" feelings. And while both are nostalgic, they're also both kinda bullshit.
Also, there are some serious cases of decline here. For example, there's no skilldex - instead, if you can use a skill on the object, the GUI (which is clunky and horrible) will offer you to do it. Which takes most of potential thinking out of the game. After the brilliant skilldex usage in Nevada, this approach looks amateurish. There are also various survivalist mechanics which are loved by the FOnline fans and which are also total crap. The RPG system doesn't bother to explain itself as well as the original did (like, you know, conveniently stating the formulas for all the skills). And, at the moment, it's just literal copying & pasting from the fallouts. No signs of trying to improve upon the formula.
So I dunno what I'm supposed to feel awed about.
- Joined
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Atomboy
Atom Team
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
- Messages
- 717
Even those sarcastic smiley faces won't change my opinion! Even when it's not wonderful in... you know... the game engine sense... it's still superb because of it's support base! These guys can help you out from any corner you coded yourself into!
Well, I did it despite the doubts. Silent treatment for 50 hours already, and still going! I feel like such a loser! :D Or maybe... a winner? I mean getting cold shouldered by Avellone is still interaction with Avellone. To some meager extent. (Not really)
Apan, god damn! You even made the text look cool and stuff! Thanks, man! I couldn't get my hands on posting info on the newest update for days, now here I am, and some amazing person already did it!
Atomboy
Atom Team
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- Oct 1, 2016
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Take it from a man who never been to Sigil, Faerûn or Morrowind until he played the games these places were featured in: it's good to play a known role in a familiar place, but sometimes it's fun to just dive into a completely unknown, backwards or alien culture and try to tie together some semblance of understanding how it functions and what's it's culture all about! That's what we want to achieve in ATOM for our sweet, sweet English-talking players - a Weird Tales-esque journey into a culture/time/place they have no ties to or knowledge of. Will we achieve this sense of child-like wanderlust and weirdness? Well, it won't be a certain, doubtless "ÿes", but seeing how the Codex's own Colonel RPG, MetalCanyon and other English-speaking Youtubers reacted to our stuff - it's a "yes" at least for some players even now, when the game isn't really finished! A skilled translator is needed though, and you're completely correct about that. We're not trying to molest the Soviet Culture too much, though. Like the soviet actors you mentioned - we've got like 6 of them, that's 6 out of 47. And 1 of these 47 is Doc McCoy from Star Trek! :D
On common themes: Some scholars actually say that all of the stories and legends of the world can be distilled down to a one common proto-myth. Others say that there are only 8 kinds of stories in the world, and the difference is only in the details. We in the ATOM TEAM believe both of these things, that is why we attribute all things common with the Fallout / Wasteland franchises to pure coincidence. Okay, not really. But hey, our Shady Sands has more endings, and our Khans are like 10 times more deeper-er, maan (no disrespect to Garl Death-Hand, but our Garl has so much more personality, it's sickening!).
On locations: well, everyone and their uncle hate sewer levels and grinding on rats in a dungeon setting. But... like... it's just how life is. You know what I mean. Every game has this. And even when you start off by saying "there won't be no derelict vault that's full of rats, big trade city nearby with caravans going on, etc. IN MY INDIE TITLE" it just appears anyway, for some reason. And nobody knows why... Maybe it's for the better this way. Sure, you can put mutated green muscle men into your vault instead of rats, but you might just come off like a poser if you do that!
The full Skilldex was actually a topic for a huge discussion we had. A simpler, more intuitive model won. But there was much talk beforehand.
The not so SPECIAL is also in the works. Lots of formulas work quite differently already, and we're tweaking it all the time, all the while looking at player feedback. The combat isn't really original. But some love it this way. There is going to be a stretch goal dedicated to slight improvements, though. Gonna update ya'll soon!
Also, let's talk about AWE. We don't mind it, when we get some
But we don't really expect it from anyone or state that people should feel it when looking at our stuff (especially with it's current English). As a Slavic indie dev team praying for the Kickstarter moneys, we're aiming a bit lower - our goal isn't awe from the masses, it's slight-to-moderate enjoyment and general good vibes from the good people that always wanted to play a game like this and they would have done it too, if it weren't for that meddling VanBuren getting the AX. Indie guys that aim for more / guys that expect more from indie guys are not too compatible with reality, IMO.Now to end this verbose word salad on the mention of fanfics: we don't mind the comparison, actually. It just means that ГОСПОДИН ЗНАЕТ ТОЛК В ГОДНЫХ ФАНФИКАХ! :----)
Atomboy
Atom Team
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
- Messages
- 717
News travel fast, it seems! Such a great reader, this man. Liked it with all of my shitposting accounts!
Atomboy
Atom Team
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
- Messages
- 717
Well... It's pretty sad, actually. I forgot the password to the first one, so we made this other one. Later on I found the password again... The newer one is the legit one. The older, original one is now mainly used for begging Shia LaBeouf to pay us for placing the HWNDU flag in the center of Otradnoye and posting official ATOM RPG fan art
So we decided to drop all pretense to originality... just because... reasons.
Because putting mutated green muscle man is the only possible alternative. So much creativity...
And no life is not like this and even if... this is a game. No need to make it boring on purpose.
I'm happy there was so much talk before you decided to went with decline. It makes it sooooo much better this way.
Combat. Some love it that way no doubt. Some people like blood sausage... people are morons !
Sykar
Arcane
I still don't know what Cheeki Breeki means and yet I love Stalker, even Clear Sky despite its many many shortcomings.
Looks pretty good actually for an alpha version.
First advice, slightly change the UI so it mirrors the tone of the game. Your game takes place in a post apocalyptic world, I think it would enhance the atmosphere if the UI went from squeaky clean to weathered/worn.
BATTLE SYSTEM - Our plans!
Hey guys!
It's time for another update, and we'd just like to start off with how grateful we are for all the amazing support you have given to our project. Youtubers making first look videos, backers and fans helping us out on forums and social networks. We have strong belief that we will get what we need to finish the game quickly and without any setbacks.
Thank you for caring about our game, and spreading the word!
The last update was about our strech goals, but what about something that 100% will be in the final game? Well, the update we're going to share with you this week concerns the Battle System.
Here it goes!
COVER SYSTEM
Duck and cover! A shoot-out in the Wasteland is no fun, unless you can hide behind a derelict wall, or some general rubble. There will be two main types of cover (those you crouch behind, and full body coverage, like the aforementioned wall) each one with a special set of animations.
*Cover animation. Work in progress!
INJURY SYSTEM
Now critical hits are sure to sting for a long time... Both NPC and Player alike will now sustain long-term injuries under various conditions. Unhealed injuries will hinder your abilities according to their type. But isn't that a fair price to pay for maiming your enemies in all the creative ways you can possibly imagine?!
*Headshot! Work in progress!
MORE ANIMATIONS
We are finally working on various animations we planned from the start. More realistic attacks, no more holding guns wrong, cover animations, general body language improvements and many more.
...And yes, for all you gore-hounds out there. ATOM will finally feature maiming. In the most explosive ways possible...
These three improvements to the game are our main concern for the following weeks.
*Cover animation. Work in progress!
Follow us in our accounts on social media, to watch these long awaited improvements come to life before your very eyes!
Thank you again for the support. Yours, ATOM TEAM!
There are also some videos in the kickstarter update I think: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atomrpg/atom-rpg/posts/1882991?ref=backer_project_update
Also, let's talk about AWE. We don't mind it, when we get some
Now to end this verbose word salad on the mention of fanfics: we don't mind the comparison, actually. It just means that ГОСПОДИН ЗНАЕТ ТОЛК В ГОДНЫХ ФАНФИКАХ! :----)
You do know that you're talking to the Nerd Commando himself, right?
He's done a review of your demo on his channel.Aenra
Guest
First of all, thank you for posting all that.
I could live with everything else you highlighted, i'd even enjoy it if the combat really but really felt Fallout-ish.
But skill auto-choosing.. that tells me a lot. And if i combine it with other similar hints in regard to their mentality about new/old, which i do? Maybe some of you guys were right and i was way too optimistic.
What the fuck must i do to get me a Fallout 3 before i die ffs? I mean Jeesus..
passerby
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
- Messages
- 2,788
Pluck the pawns
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