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Rune II: Decapitation Edition - abandoned by Human Head Studios, still causing drama

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Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
This is funded by (partly) PUBG money: https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/23/...unds-dev-invests-in-gaming-capital-firm-esdf/

Bluehole is hard at work trying to get PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds out of Early Access on Steam and on Microsoft’s Xbox One console, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t juggling other ventures. The studio is actually one of the financial backers of upstart capital firm ESDF, which specializes in funding gaming projects. ESDF revealed its first project, the revival of the Rune series from developer Human Head Studios, in August.

[...] That model involves looking for holes in the market and partnering with talented creators to execute on those opportunities. ESDF also has a lot of people with experience in business and publishing, and they plan to use that to help ship games. The team includes chief executive officer Sam Goldberg, who has worked as an entrepreneur and founded the mobile-tech company The Mobile Majority along with Kim. Sam Chun, the chief financial officer, has spent more than 15 years work in private equity. And Matt Candler, who is the head of production, recently oversaw games for The Walking Dead franchise at Skybound. He previously worked on games like MechWarrior 2, Battlezone, Spyro, and more.

[...] Rune: Ragnarok from Prey developer Human Head Studios is the first game that ESDF is backing, and it is due out at some point in the future for PC. That’s the only announced project, but ESDF finished by giving an idea of what may come next.

“We want to produce games we’re fans of,” said Kim. “The kind we really want to play when we hear about them, which is exactly what happened with this new sequel to Rune. We deploy smart development practices to be able to rapidly respond to fan feedback … while the process for creating hits is sometimes elusive and unexpected, there are those amazing times when you catch a shooting star. We look forward to sharing more games in the ESDF pipeline as they get closer to release.”

And it looks like this ESDF is "focused on producing PC games": https://esdfmgt.com
 

Hines

Savant
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
258


PvP and PvE multiplayer, "raid with your friends"

Sounds like they're doing things like "shared world experience" and/or "a game as a service." Hope not, I guess.

That's not what I want. Hopefully, the multiplayer components the developer mentioned will be implemented in a similar manner to Dark Souls, and players can chose to opt out if they prefer experiencing the game exclusively offline.
 

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Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/rune-ragnarok-to-feature-sailing-hunts-raids-pvp-w513999

- Looks like they're taking many hints from Souls games, from combat mechanics to intertwined single-and-multi player experience. Campaign, co-op PvE, and PvP will be intertwined in one big open world.

- Then again, they want players able to host their own private servers with their own settings.

- You can craft ships, and sail around the world and raid villages with your friends.

- Campaign is non-linear and has various choices and consequences.

- It's six months in to development. So expect a long wait, I guess!

'Rune: Ragnarok': Sailing, Hunts, Raids and an Open World in Which to Do It
An interview with Rune: Ragnarok's project director

runeragnarok-3-8d20dad3-47df-47ba-91be-aec61341bad4.jpg


Craft powerful weapons and armor sets to brutally attack giants, beasts, and undead Vikings in PvP and PvE play. Human Head Studios



There will be lizards and, yes, you can eat them.

It’s been 17 years since Human Head Studios, perhaps better known for its work on the original Prey and canceled Prey 2, released the original Rune. The third-person action adventure game had players take on Ragnar, a Viking warrior tasked by Odin to avert Ragnarok, the Viking end times. While the game sometimes struggled with the finer points of enemy tactics, it developed a following of fans who loved the feel of the chunky Viking melee combat.

Earlier this year, Human Head surprised everyone with news that it was working on a sequel to the game. It is one of three the studio is currently developing.

Rune: Ragnarok takes place during the end times, but something has gone wrong. In Viking mythology, Ragnarok is meant to be both an end and a new beginning. In the game, though, the world is stuck in mid-Ragnarok. You’ll play as a new character, one you get to create and customize down to which god they align with and which tattoos they sport.

“In mythology, Ragnarok begins, the gods fight the giants who have reappeared, the worlds are smashed together, a lot of people die and the gods die,” project director Chris Rhinehart tells Glixel. “But in Rune: Ragnarok, seven years have passed and the gods still haven’t died, the world hasn’t been consumed, it’s frozen literally and metaphorically. As one of the last surviving humans, you are trying to figure out what happened.”

While the game takes place seven years after the dual ending of the original Rune, it’s been 17 years since the game was released. That’s because, Rhinehart says, the studio struggled to find the right partner to back and publish the game.

“We’ve always wanted to do a sequel to Rune,” he says. “But after we finished the first one, we wanted to do something a little different for a little while.”

After Rune, it’s multiplayer add-on and the console port, the team worked on Xbox western Dead Man’s Hand and then went to work on the original Prey and Prey 2, which was never released. In the past few years, the studio has worked on a few smartphone games, and done some work for hire on BioShock Infinite, World of Tanks and Batman: Arkham Origins. It wasn’t until earlier this year, about six months ago, that the team found a way to begin work on Rune: Ragnarok.

“Over the years, we’ve pitched it to various people,” Rhinehart says.

Ultimately, they landed some funding from capital firm ESDF Management. This is the first game the relatively new group has funded. Rhinehart says that the deal leaves Human Head with “tons of creative control.”

Ragnarok
There’s a lot going into this new Rune beyond making the world and its characters look much better. But, Rhinehart says, the team is striving to make sure that the game will still feel familiar to fans.

“The original was a completely linear experience,” he says. “It had one storyline with two endings. With Rune: Ragnarok, we wanted to open it up a lot more. So there’s a lot more choices you can make with where you go. There is a narrative to it, and end goal and signposts that lead you there, but it’s a lot more open.”

The game will bring back little things gamers may remember fondly from the original, like the ability to drink mead and eat lizards for health, but also some of the bigger tent poles from the original game’s design.

“The combat will feel familiar,” Rhinehart says. “You can still lop off an arm and beat people to death with it. It will be gory, but tactical.”

They will be modernizing that combat a bit though.

“We took a look at a lot of modern games like Demon’s Souls and took a look at what they’re doing that is good to make combat more modern,” he says. “A lot of people want us to make Rune: Ragnarok exactly as it was; just update the graphics and put it up. But there are a lot of mechanics we want to modernize.”

The goal is to maintain the tactical feel of the original game’s combat, which required you to be mindful of what weapon you used and which your enemies were using, but improve upon it.

Another major area the team wants to make better for Rune’s sequel is online play. The original game’s multiplayer was designed around LAN play, Rhinehart says. “We’re taking a look at how we can optimize the game for internet play.”

runeragnarok-aeb3e2f2-4aa3-4e65-b2a5-e70ad3c9fe17.jpg


Giants, one of the most fearsome enemies, can only be slain with advanced weapons and fighting tactics.Human Head Studios


The original game had single-player and deathmatch and post-launch the team added some more modes. What it didn’t officially have, but the sequel will, is cooperative play.

Rhinehart says that the single-player portion of the game will let you go out in the world, explore and go on adventures. Ragnarok will also support both Player-Versus-Environment and Player-Versus-Player modes.

In PVE, you can team up with friends on the fly or even form a clan and go on raids or hunts with them. In PVP, you will be able to fight other players. The idea is that there will be areas open to player versus player gaming and encounters.

While the team is still working out the details of things like server settings, they do know they want players to be able to run their own servers alongside official servers. In theory, player-run servers could tinker with everything from the creatures spawning to rune power, how quickly you level up and even the gravity.

All of the game modes will take place in the game’s massive open world, Rhinehart added.

The team is about six months into development. Rhinehart says that means they have a good handle on the overall world, a lot of the core weapons and armor are done, and they’re working on the player-growth skill tree.

“Basically, we’re nearing a point where the core functionally is really solid,” he says.

So he can tell me, for instance, that the world is packed with explorable areas, some of which you’ll need to sail to, to discover.

runeragnarok-2-c03d4019-2bcc-484e-b8ef-9ff59ac2ee0e.jpg


Sail to new islands to raid enemy territory, gather valuable weaponry, and end Ragnarok. Beware, enemies will hunt you by land and sea. Human Head Studios


“You can craft and build ships and then jump on a ship along with friends, sail to an island, raid it and take the stuff back to your base,” he says. “The world has been flooded and parts of it are frozen. It’s really wrecked in a lot of places.”

The size of the world also allows the game to support a lot more players on one server. Rhinehart says at least 50 players will be able to sign in to a single server, but that the team is hoping to make it 64 if possible.

Another thing the team is currently working on are raids and hunts.

“You can raid an enemy Viking base that is held by players or AI controlled enemies,” he says. “You can sail to a fort, raid it, try to kill everyone in the base and take all of their loot. Or maybe there will be a larger objective, where you can destroy a Runestone to Loki to weaken him. We tried to come up with high-level ideas that are fun to do solo or with friends and also fits into the theme and location.

“Similar to a raid, a hunt has you taking on a giant creature. It would be a special elite that might drop unique resources.”

The plan is for all of that, the PVP, PVE, the sailing, the hunts and raids, will occasionally intertwine with the game’s campaign or serve as side quests, Rhinehart says.

As the team toils away on their vision of the game, they’re also looking at aspects of a beta. Human Head will have a beta for the game, but they’re not sure yet when it will be or what aspects they’ll include in it. They’re also looking at what early access might mean to the development of the game, Rhinehart says.

The plan, he adds, is to release the game next year to PC and the consoles down the line.
 

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Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Well it's six or seven months in development, so I think the current real game probably looks like a little more than greybox heaven.
 

Hines

Savant
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
Messages
258
Well it's six or seven months in development, so I think the current real game probably looks like a little more than greybox heaven.
That's most likely the case. A "beta" will hit in 2018, and will most likely be a vertical slice to help with networking, but despite the studio planning to release this year, I bet it will slip into 2019. Still, I'm happy that single player is a fully-featured option. I was concerned they were planning to make this a stealth "games as service" release, and just didn't want to attract warranted controversy early in development.
26219131_845764428939726_577921197832118504_n.jpg

I quite like the art direction for the giants, they manage to retain a nice concept art look.
26229991_845764425606393_5623016867827034927_n.jpg

You can see some of that greybox world on that barren cliff face.

The Hexen dude answered a bunch of questions in a video late last year:
 
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Machocruz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
4,316
Location
Hyperborea
Hopefully the map is full of handy points-of-interest markers, so you don't miss any of the country's hot-spots while on your trip.
 

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Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
A short teaser for the next week's announcement:



A little preview of what's on the horizon...keep an eye on our Facebook page next week.

From Facebook comments:

I'm confused... so is it like an MMO now? He's talking about your clan doing PvE missions while being attacked by another clan.

Hey Henning. There will be single player, coop PvE, and PvP modes available...so you can play with your friends, but you don't have to.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
Game developers are the real rape culture.
They keep raping my childhood/adolescence.

#metoo
 
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abnaxus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
10,849
Location
Fiernes
I don't remember a single womyn in first Rune.

At last now should be some goddesses and valkyrie sloots.
 

Don Peste

Arcane
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
4,277
Location
||☆||
It would be great if they could partner up with Ninja Theory and have Senua as a DLC character.
 

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