Vapourware Routine - Upcoming First Person Space Horror

[Jaesun]

Damn, I forgot about this. March 2017 can't come soon enough.

 

[DraQ]

Photorealistic if you're using a lens from about 1870 perhaps.

Or shitty disposable cameras from the convenience store. Maybe their moms take reference photos for them.

Or if you wear glasses.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Posting in this thread has become...ROUTINE.

 

[Sodafish]

I really, really hope you'll be able to turn that CA/dispersion shit off.

 

[sexbad?]

BZZZZT
PRRRBBBB
BRAAAAAAP
FART
PPPPPPBBBBBB
ZZZZZZZZZCH
BZZZZZZZZZCH
BZZT
PRRBBBBB

 

[Machocruz]

Photographic, not photorealistic. We could only wish those games were trying to actually look realistic.

The better word would be 'naturalistic' if they were trying to actually look realistic. Photorealism reproduces the visual idiosyncrasies of the photographic image, including its limitations, distortions, aberrations. Most people misuse the term, thinking that cameras capture visual reality precisely (the healthy human eye is much more capable in most respects), or think anything very realistic is photorealistic. I've seen people call classical (pre 19th century) paintings photorealistic. The fuck? Maybe I'm being anal, but it bugs me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I disagree. The word photorealism was coined to describe the degree of verisimilitude of a given artificial representation, since a photo captures reality itself and thus the more realistic a work of art is the more it approaches an actual photo. All those photographic effects were developed after photography sought to become an art in its own right, which ironically meant a departure from the simple and direct representation of reality, since that is the base line of a photo. Thus, it is correct to say modern games are photographic rather than photorealistic, since they are borrowing from photography qua art as opposed to photography as a means to acquire a direct picture of reality.

 

[Sodafish]

All those photographic effects were developed after photography sought to become an art in its own right, which ironically meant a departure from the simple and direct representation of reality, since that is the base line of a photo.

You are confusing deliberate departures from a realistic rendering of an image (due to choices of film, processing, development, printing and so on) with non-deliberate and unavoidable errors (chromatic aberrations, distortions, field curvature, lens flare and hazing etc) in the image introduced due to limitations in optical design and element coatings. The latter is what is being discussed here, i.e. what is being aped by the horrible "effects" in vidya, and those limitations in optics have only shrunk over the decades, not gotten worse.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, i don't know about that. My point is that the term "photorealism" is used to designate a degree of verisimilitude rather than anything pertaining to photography specifically. That's why i prefer the term photographic to describe modern games, like i said.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

They better let me turn off these "photographic" bullshit effects or else no money from me.

 

[Machocruz]

Well, i don't know about that. My point is that the term "photorealism" is used to designate a degree of verisimilitude rather than anything pertaining to photography specifically. That's why i prefer the term photographic to describe modern games, like i said.

Photorealism started as an art movement to reproduce exactly the photographic image, based completely on photo reference. It is now commonly used to designate a degree of verisimilitude, but the error is thinking it's the end point of realistic representation, that cameras capture reality exactly and precisely. The distortions and some of the other effects we talk about are innate to the medium, especially in the hands of bad photographers with cheap cameras. No camera has ever caught the world as seen by the 20/20 eye, which is the standard of visual reality for humans. There is always a smaller color and value range, light and shape distortion, flattening of space, etc. And I've seen paintings that were more accurate to visual reality because of this, like Trompe L'oeil paintings, which exceed the verisimilitude of photography and can fool people into thinking they're seeing an actual object. Above either of those would be sculpture, such as those seen in the Hyperrealism movement.

But I do have to agree that video games are more "photographic" than "photo-real". They are chasing cinema/music video aesthetic where photographic effects are purposeful or seen as happy accidents that make shit look cooler, style. Even with the limited color and value range of photography, I've never seen a photo taken from life where you get dark and long cast shadows on an overcast day (impossible), like I've seen in a number of video games. War photos have more color than Call of Battlefield.

None of this make sense in the pursuit of crafting as realistic a virtual 3D space as possible, mind you.

 

[TripJack]

is it out yet

 

[Gondolin]

is it out yet

No.

 

[Sodafish]

Thread needs a vapourware tag at this point.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.lunar-software.com/2017/03/march-they-said/

March they said…

Its March, and as our Release Date Trailer revealed a while back, it is release month!
When we last made an Update in October, we talked about how we could rush a release date of December 2016, but wanted to have a few extra months to really make sure that the game was polished and felt like something we could be proud of releasing, so we came up with a March Release Window.

That extra time has been invaluable to the project, and as things were being put into a final release state (Sound, Animations, Gameplay) we felt a great amount of joy and satisfaction in seeing everything in Routine really come to life. However, there was one thing we never felt clicked, and that was one of our paths.
Routine has always had two ways to progress through the game, each with their own unique endings, but we never quite knew how they would feel until the game content & experience was really polished up and playable as one solid, consistent, experience.



We made the call at the end of January that our second path was just not as strong as the other. If you follow us on twitter you may have noticed over these last two months that we’ve been very inactive, and the reason has been that we’ve just crunched like crazy to try and hit that March Release date. It’s looking like we just can’t do that, there are still a few things that require our attention. You have waited almost 5 years for Routine, and we want to make sure that what we give you in the end is nothing short of the best we can give you. We’re genuinely sorry to announce this small delay, but we feel like the last thing we want to do is disappoint all of the people that given us their love, support and kindness, by releasing something that didn’t feel complete.

We only get to release Routine once, and we want to make sure we do it right. We don’t expect the delay to add more than a month or two and when we next update, we promise to finally give you a clear release date with a game that we are proud of.

Once again from the bottom of our hearts, thank you all for your patience and support.
-Lunar Software

 

[Siel]

Thread needs a vapourware tag at this point.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Thread needs a vapourware tag at this point.

It's April or May, not Vapourwareday.

 

[vortex]

Will it feature guns gameplay?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Will it feature guns gameplay?

It looks like there will be some, from the 2013 trailer. But don't expect to be an overpowered Space marine. This is primarily a survival horror game.

 

[toro]

"I can confirm that Routine is still being worked on There's sadly a few small things holding us back from announcing a new release date, but the game is definitely not cancelled (or in any sort of danger of being cancelled). Feel free to share this email if people are asking.

If you have any other questions just send them our way too, we'll try and get back asap, as long as they won't spoil any part of the game of course! I'd also like to apologize for the radio silence, we are just going through an awkward situation on our end which we hope to have sorted very soon.

All the best and thanks again for reaching out.

-Peter from Lunar Software"

 

[Ivan]

 

[Infinitron]

Massive vaporware: https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/mb5qpx/routine-release-date-space-horror-alien

So, What Happened to 'Routine,' That Promising Space Horror Game From 2013?
I want to start checking in on games that disappeared from the world, so we might as well start with one I can't forget.

Ever have one of those games you look up on Google every once and awhile, wondering what happened? You’ve given up on playing the thing, but still, you’re curious.

For more than five years, I’ve been looking forward to a horror game called Routine. The 2012 trailer teased a sci-fi thriller where players wander a space station, scrounging for resources, and hiding from menacing robots. The grimy Alien aesthetic pulled me in, and when I learned it was a non-linear adventure with permadeath and no HUD—the UI was supposed to communicate everything—I was completely sold.

That trailer promised a game in 2013. It is, of course, 2018. What happened?

It wasn't an an immediate bait and switch; the developer, Lunar Software, started giving regular updates every few months. In June 2013, we got a first look at gameplay. This is around the time when Routine went from “Oh, interesting” to “Oh, goddamn.”

Most of the trailer is quiet, dark, and moody. It’s unclear what happened on this station, but you seem to be the only one around, and things went very, very poorly for everyone else. You can sort through retro-futuristic computer terminals, trying to piece together what might have happened. Then, as you turn a corner: stomp, stomp, stomp.

A robot. You don’t know what the machine’s intentions are, but the sheer speed it's marching the hallway at, combined with the surrounding destruction, is foreboding.

Stomp, stomp, stomp. Stomp, stomp, stomp.

The trailer still gives me chills. I profiled the game on Giant Bomb later that year, as part of my annual Halloween coverage. Though 2013 came and went, in early 2014, the developers said they’d made “huge progress” but a “good amount of work” still needed to be done before they could provide another release window. If they said the game was coming in a few months and didn’t, they argued, that made nobody happy.

A number of months went by—six, in fact—before the developers resurfaced in late summer, confirming the game was still in development and “a lot has been happening” to finish Routine. To whit, the developers said playtests were “feeling a lot less playtesty.” A lot of games were flirting with Early Access, but that wasn’t in the cards.

“We want to thank you guys for the continual support,” reads an update from Halloween 2014, which brought a new desktop wallpaper. “We really appreciate it and hopefully one day we can return all that amazing love you have given us!”

In March 2015, the developers said they were painstakingly going through the game and replacing placeholder work—gameplay, art, story—to bring everything up to speed. This is usually the point in development when the team is no longer adding new things, turning their attention to tweaking, polishing, and refinement. More importantly, perhaps, was the team clarifying the game wasn’t dead and “progress is going great.” Yay?!

Routine once again went radio silent for most of 2015, returning at the end of the year, wherein the developers tried to (again) address why the game was taking so long:

“Routine is our first project as a team and while we do have some previous experience individually this has been a huge undertaking where we have clearly underestimated a lot of the workload. We are happy with everything we have learnt and we are still completely committed to releasing something that we are all proud of and hopefully something that you will all enjoy.”

Though nobody had seen new footage from Routine in some time, they did release a few new screen shots, suggesting work on the game continued. Routine wasn’t dead!

You couldn’t have been blamed for thinking that, though, given how little was said about Routine in 2016. But everything changed on Halloween: Routine now had a release date, alongside a slick trailer that played more like a horror movie than a game.

March 2017! It was time to get excited all over again. The developers had been aiming for late 2016, but figured Steam’s holiday sale would have proved too distracting. What was another few months, anyway? The game had been delayed for years.

“It’s incredibly motivating to read your kind messages even when development has took so much longer than expected,” said a blog update.

As it would turn out, it would need more than just a few months. As April rolled around, the developers came clean: Routine would not be coming out in March 2017. The big hurdle, they said, was the game’s multiple endings. They’d settled on two, distinct paths through Routine, but one was “not as strong as the other” and they hadn’t resolved it.

“We only get to release Routine once, and we want to make sure we do it right,” said the update. “We don’t expect the delay to add more than a month or two and when we next update, we promise to finally give you a clear release date with a game that we are proud of.”

That’s the last time I thought about Routine, figuring the developers would get in touch when it was time to hand out review copies. That “month or two” flew by without any public word on why a game that had felt nearly finished for several years still hadn’t been released. Nothing would be said about Routine in 2017, and the social media accounts for the game (and developers) went dark.

It’s been nearly a year since Routine blew past its “release date,” prompting me to send a note to the developers, hoping to find out more. Maybe the game was truly dead, and I could move on, crossing Routine off the list of games I absentmindedly dream about.

Or not. Hope springs eternal.

“Thank you for remembering Routine,” said the developers in a statement. “It honestly means a lot to us considering we have been very quiet for a long time now. We are indeed still working on Routine but things have been a bit rough on the personal side, the team is good and well though and we are going very strong!”

The team didn’t elaborate on what’s been “rough on the personal side,” but reiterated they are remaining silent, as they’ve done often before, to avoid raising expectations on when the game might be done. They may not know themselves.

“We just need to make sure that the game is at least 99% complete before we do that as we don't want to miss a release date again,” they said.

There’s reason to take that sentiment with a grain of a salt, of course; it’s been said time and time again. And yet, I take solace in knowing Routine isn’t dead—yet, anyway.

(Please be good!)

 

[Beowulf]

 

[Sodafish]

Everything is shit.

 

[Shackleton]

I'd forgotten all about this. It isn't being crowdfunded though is it? We're not talking The Mandate or Star Citizen are we? Where are they getting the funding from? If they're not, and doing this as a side project in-between a bill paying job then it explains the glacial pace.