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Vapourware Seven Dragon Saga - Gold Box spiritual successor from SSI veterans

AbounI

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SSI partially rebirth under TSI (Tactical Interactive Simulation): Paul Murray, David Shelley & David Klein are 3 veterans of the old studio who are funding this new studio

David Shelley:
Tactical Simulations Interactive is a return to providing the player full control of their party, with a focus on creating immersive and unforgettable story experiences, exciting exploration, meaningful social/political choices, and robust tactical combat

The official website will launch soon, as for now it's just ina "coming soon" state
http://www.tsi-games.com/

More info from yetanotherreview site:
http://www.yetanotherreviewsite.co....actical-simulations-interactive/#.U-T23mMQNlN

I hope for dem all the glory of dem past :hero:
 
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ProphetSword

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This press release happened recently, for those of you who didn't know:

Introducing TSI – Tactical Simulations Interactive

New independent video games studio formed by SSI alumni, aiming to bring back the “Gold Box” RPG experience for a new generation.

August 8, 2014 - Los Angeles, USA /… Tactical Simulations Interactive (TSI), a new independent video games studio with old school RPG sensibilities, has been established by Strategic Simulations Inc. veterans Paul Murray and David Shelley, and company President David Klein.

Drawing on their experience at SSI, the team at TSI aims to provide the next step in meaningful player experiences in the same way that SSI's ‘Gold Box’ titles did during the 1980s and 1990s.

David Shelley takes on the role of Producer/Lead Designer, while Paul Murray serves as Technical Designer at TSI. The team was integral to the international success of Strategic Simulations Inc.’s genre-defining RPGs, such as Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pool of Radiance, and Wizard's Crown.

David Shelley, Producer/Lead Designer, TSI said: “Tactical Simulations Interactive is a return to providing the player
full control of their party, with a focus on creating immersive and unforgettable story experiences, exciting exploration, meaningfulsocial/political choices, and robust tactical combat.”

The Gold Box series of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons RPGs were produced by SSI between 1988 and 1993 using the same game engine, provided a quality game experience that was “true to tabletop” and allowed players to create, customize and control a full party with tactical combat. They earned the Gold Box moniker because of the gold boxes that they camepackaged in, with the series also acting as a precursor to RPG classics like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights.

Tactical Simulations Interactive will reveal more details about its debut title in the near future. To keep updated, visit:
Website: http://TSI-Games.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TSIGames
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/TSIGames


David Klein
President
TSI
 

Jaesun

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This is fucking awesome news. Will they go back to making cRPG's or strategy games... or both?

I wonder if they could finally do a Wizard's Crown sequel? Obviously updated to the 21st century. That would be sweet.

Of which.... there is no current trademark for that NAME. I however assume UBIsoft, from acquiring SSI's titles, own the IP to Wizards Crown.

In before Fargo buys it.... :M
 
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Roguey

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I hope this works out well for them just to stick it to Pierre Begue. He had his chance.
 

octavius

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Well, the excellent encounter design of the Gold Box games were in no small part due to David Shelley of "Dave's Challenge". Paul Murray is credited with design and programming of most of the Gold Box and proto-GB games.
Let's just hope they have not turned their attention to tablets and MMOs, like so many of the old CRPG designers of the '80s.
 

Gozma

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Is there a good interview or something that lays out what happened in the bad years at SSI and points fingers at who fucked up?
 

ProphetSword

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I prefer to be hopeful. They contacted the people behind Dungeon Craft to tell them that they were big fans of their work and that they would be creating games that would be enjoyed by people who like that kind of thing. For those who don't know, Dungeon Craft is a remake of Unlimited Adventures, which was a toolset to create Gold-Box games. So, that's a promising sign, I think.
 

Abelian

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In before WotC starts a lawsuit due to the initials' similarity to TSR...
 

Jaesun

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Let's just hope they have not turned their attention to tablets and MMOs, like so many of the old CRPG designers of the '80s.

To be completely honest, all of the Gold Box Games run fine on a tablet now. There is a fine line that I think is acceptable if it is on PC and Tablets. The incredibly fucking stupid memory limitations of tablets really hampered Shadowrun Returns (even though Dragonfall is still excellent).

As ProphetSword mentioned above, if they are thinking kind of a.... less graphic intensive cRPG like game, tablets may be fine. I just hope they keep in mind those memory limitations. And if THAT starts to dictate how you have to design a game around (similar to how all console garbage is specifically designed around the controller) then there are reasons to possibly worry.....
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
What a resurgence PC gaming is having. Dawn of a new age of incline.
 

octavius

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As long as the games are not so simple that they are for tablets only.
I want something between simplistic tablet games and AAA interactive movies with romances, visceral this and visceral that, and voice acting by Patrick Stewart with budgets the size of the BNP of a small African country.
 

octavius

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Is there a good interview or something that lays out what happened in the bad years at SSI and points fingers at who fucked up?

Matt Barton has an interview with Joel [forgot last name], the founder and president of SSI.
IIRC much of the problems was due to the transition to new engines after the Gold Box games and things taking much longer than planned. I think the first Dark Sun game was delayed a whole year, for example. They should have milked the GB engine a bit more, I think.
 

Jaesun

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They should have milked the GB engine a bit more, I think.

I think from a business standpoint, the Gold Box Games were just starting to show their age BADLY. Very badly (compared to the games that we available at the time). They did need a new cRPG engine, with sufficient development time. They should have started earlier.
 

Loriac

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Let's just hope they have not turned their attention to tablets and MMOs, like so many of the old CRPG designers of the '80s.

I almost can't believe I'm about to write this, particularly after the debacle that was SR:R and its clear tablet-based design principles, but I am beginning to think that an update of the goldbox games might actually work best on tablets.

I recently decided to try BGEE on an android tablet. I really thought the game would suck on tablets, and that I'd be wasting my money. I was completely wrong.

We can argue about BGEE being shit compared to the original / modded version all day long, and my comments aren't about that; rather, the tablet interface works astonishingly well for the IE games without any loss of functionality, and with the benefit of tremendous portability. If/when other IE titles are updated for the android tablet platform, I'll be buying those too I think.

But the key is that BGEE is still the full original computer game that was released 15 years ago. SR:R in contrast was a deliberately cut-down design that aimed to provide a taste of tabletop without offering the breadth of play from a more non-linear set up or from a fuller adaptation of the PnP ruleset.

If TSI can create a fully functional combat engine (based ideally on Pathfinder rather than 4E or 5E) that doesn't take shortcuts and that runs on tablets, I think that would be a winner. Pick up and play gameplay is preferable for many people, and it wouldn't surprise me if the IPad and Android were the future for gaming platforms for the unwashed masses.
 

Alchemist

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In before WotC starts a lawsuit due to the initials' similarity to TSR...
An interesting aside : A company is actually using TSR as their company name - totally unrelated to WotC. They've been going for a while and putting out Gygax magazine , with no news so far of any legal troubles - so I doubt TSI will run into any trouble.
 

Roguey

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They should have milked the GB engine a bit more, I think.
They released about a dozen GB games in the span of five years. They ran that shit into the ground, making more would have been a mistake.
 

undecaf

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
This sounds promising.

They should ask Gary Grisby to join up too. I'd very much like to see the rebirth of Steel Panthers.
 

felipepepe

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IIRC much of the problems was due to the transition to new engines after the Gold Box games and things taking much longer than planned. I think the first Dark Sun game was delayed a whole year, for example. They should have milked the GB engine a bit more, I think.
There were fucking 14 games using the Gold Box engine in just four years. Even EA or Activision never did that. The market got (OBVIOUSLY) saturated and the engine got old... so sales dropped and TSR pulled AD&D out of their hands when Dark Sun failed to sell as they hoped for. So no one cared for their engine anymore, and they lost all the IPs people cared for. Hurray. They tried to salvage it by creating their own "Land of Aiden" setting, where Thunderscape and Entomorph were set, but those were just mediocre...

Then they went, "well, at least we still have the strategy games market!" No, you don't, because it was taken by RTS games and you once again failed to prepare or react to changes in the business.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
IIRC much of the problems was due to the transition to new engines after the Gold Box games and things taking much longer than planned. I think the first Dark Sun game was delayed a whole year, for example. They should have milked the GB engine a bit more, I think.
There were fucking 14 games using the Gold Box engine in just four years. Even EA or Activision never did that. The market got (OBVIOUSLY) saturated and the engine got old... so sales dropped and TSR pulled AD&D out of their hands when Dark Sun failed to sell as they hoped for. So no one cared for their engine anymore, and they lost all the IPs people cared for. Hurray. They tried to salvage it by creating their own "Land of Aiden" setting, where Thunderscape and Entomorph were set, but those were just mediocre...

Then they went, "well, at least we still have the strategy games market!" No, you don't, because it was taken by RTS games and you once again failed to prepare or react to changes in the business.

(It's called "World of Aden")
 
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ProphetSword

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While I understand that there were a lot of Gold-Box games created, some of us never got tired of them (and they sure as hell sold a lot of them). A lot of people don't realize that the Dark Sun games were the evolution of the Gold-Box engine...but I thought they weren't nearly as good or as engaging. The trouble started for me when people started to really love the Eye of the Beholder games and everything started to go real-time. Had that series been turn based as well and had more story elements, they could have had a successor to the Gold-Box games instead of a completely different type of AD&D game. That's just my opinion, though.
 
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To Gold Box enthusiasts: where do you position the Ravenloft series and the other 1st person DreamForge games published by SSI with regard to the Gold Box games?
 

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