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KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

luinthoron

Learned
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Apr 24, 2017
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That is not how things work. They are not getting money from M$ for a Xbox version so they make a PC centric game that plays badly on console.
Apart of others already having confirmed here that there won't be any changes, it's hard to claim it will play badly on the console when the PC version will be playable with a controller as well. Shouldn't be any difference in the user experience there.
 

PanteraNera

Arcane
Joined
Nov 7, 2014
Messages
1,023
Found a reference to the codex in The Briefing Vol. 5's story "Everything is so much worse than you thought it was"

I’ll give them that the debates are much friendlier than back when people wasted their lives shitposting on the net. Nothing like an apocalypse to give you some perspective, huh?
 

xmd1997

Educated
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
54
Interesting intel from the Snapshot forums and their discord.
  • Backer build 2 slated for July 2nd according to UV(And yes, we all know its subject to change :P ).
  • Uv is also currently writing the next blog update too. I'm guessing were gonna get one this week
  • Two new never before seen alien types will be featured in the next blog update. No idea if they'll be included in the next backer build though
    • Edit: Discord quote from Uv.
      • "I'm working on a new update
        We will be revealing 2 new enemies
        Well, one isn't entirely new, but has changed a lot"
  • They're testing vehicles. Again no idea if this will make it into the next Backer build(Fingers crossed).
 
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Israfael

Arcane
Joined
Sep 21, 2012
Messages
3,580
Can they actually show any of the geoscape? We don't need the shiny baubles, give us the meat of the game which is what actually makes PP (allegedly) distinct from Firaxis fauxCom or its clones
 

PanteraNera

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Nov 7, 2014
Messages
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https://phoenixpoint.info/blog/2018/6/18/good-guys-and-bad-guys
GOOD GUYS AND BAD GUYS
Since our last update, the team has been busy working on Backer Build Two, fixing bugs and adding more content and functionality.

The Good Guys
So far our demo and Backer Build have only showcased 3 classes from the New Jericho faction. Our reasoning for this is that our New Jericho models were in a more complete state and we wanted more time to work on the others before showing them.

The Technician class has so far been absent from our NJ lineup. This is mainly due to some unique mechanics that the Technician has (such as their turret and exosuit arms). These all required extra animation and programming which we didn't want to rush through just to have them included in the first Backer Builds.

Turret

The Technician, now with his un-deployed turret stowed beneath the power pack of the exosuit.

Not only does the Technician have a deployable turret which requires its own set of animations and unique mechanics, but they also have some unique attacks of their own.

Technician_FX5_attack.jpg

A Technician melee range attack using the exosuit

The art and animation teams are also busily working on the other factions. The Phoenix Project, the player faction, is one of the most anticipated. We have shown some concept work for them in the past, but now we have fully textured models.

PX_PO_wip.jpg

The Phoenix Project Assault class

We're also working on the Alien Chitin Armor set which will be usable by The Phoenix Project in the Luxury Edition DLC

chitin_rough_01.jpg

The Alien Chitin Armor set

Sticking with the Good Guys, (if New Jericho are the "Good Guys"), we're also working on animations for the Armadillo, the New Jericho APC.

quality00.gif

Everyone in the back has just spilled their coffee

The Bad Guys
So far we have shown the Crabmen, the Queen, some concept work for the Chiron and the Queen's larva. In this update, we're going to be looking at some developments on some of those creatures and also take a look at two new creatures.

Let's first have a look at the progress on the Chiron.

Chiron_set7.jpg

A selection of different Chiron mutations

As the Chiron has a very beetle-like carapace, this provides the perfect opportunity to use some chromatic blue and purple colours. We are very conscious not to just make everything in muddy shades of brown and grey, which is so easy to do in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Next we have the Queen.

Queen.png

The Queen with a heavily armored carapace

Back in April at EGX Rezzed, Julian did show off some new mutations for the Queen as part of his presentation, though they were untextured models at that point. Above, you can see the Queen with heavy armor (both undamaged and damaged versions).

We said that we had 2 new enemies to share with you. So here they are!

Firstly, we present to you The Siren.

Siren.jpg

A small selection of the Siren mutations

The Siren has undergone some major changes since her early concepts. Along with having some pretty nasty attacks of her own, the Siren also has a number of support abilities to help her allies and hinder your own troops.

For something completely new and never seen before - The Juggernaut!

Juggernaut.jpg

Just one variation of The Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is one of the heavy hitters for Team Pandoravirus. While we don't wish to spoil too much about the Juggernaut, they have a number off different and unique ways to attack. Some of them might really surprise you.

The Guys (and Gals)
As with every major update, we shine a light on some of our new team members. It's been a while since we last covered the latest editions to the team, so the list has grown quite long.

Boz.JPG


Bozhidar

QA Lead

Boz is the QA Lead for Snapshot Games. He's the guy who has to wade through all of those bug reports that you submit from the Backer Build (even when they're not bugs at all). He sorts them, tries to replicate them, passes them onto the appropriate department to be resolved, then tries his hardest to break them again after!

Boz previously worked as a QA Lead at Gameloft. He likes a variety of different games including Transistor, the Dishonored series, Invisible Inc., Fallout 1 & 2 and Bloodborne. He's currently focused on making sure the Technician class and Armadillo work correctly.

Ina.JPG


Konstantina

Texture Artist

Another new addition to our ever-growing team is Ina. Fairly new to the gaming industry, Ina is working on many of the textures for Phoenix Point. A big fan of Rayman Legends, Ina is currently working creating textures for new environment props and buildings for the NJ faction.

download.png


Dean

Programmer

Dean is the latest addition to the programming team. He optimizes the code to run better on lower end machines. He was the lead programmer on Heavenly Sword, Brink and the PC version of Silent Hill 2. He's also worked on titles such as Halo MCC and Sudeki. Previously, Dean has worked for Apple, SEED, AMD and Unity. This is also not Dean's first time working with Julian. Dean was part of Mythos Games and worked on the unreleased Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge.

Dean likes to play Laser Squad, Civilzation, Mario, Manic Mansion and Zelda. He is currently optimizing the physics and destruction system, along with making sure the build runs well on the Xbox One.

Mario.JPG


Mario

Technical Artist

Next up we have Mario. Joining the art department, Mario is a Technical Artist. Previously, Mario worked at Masthead Studios. A Dota 2 fan, Mario is currently working on implementing the new Queen into the game engine.

Martin.JPG


Martin

Environmental Artist

Martin is our new environmental artist. Preferring to work on hard surface models, Martin creates many of the weapons, vehicles, buildings and props for the game environment. New to the gaming industry, Martin's previous experience was in the advertisement industry where he was a 3D modeler making environments and visualisations for use in TV commercials.

A massive Star Wars fan, Martin likes to play Knights of The Old Republic, Fallout 1 & 2, Fahrenheit, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Civilization, StarCraft and more. Martin is currently working on the industrial and residential areas for New Jericho havens including vehicles, buildings, industrial machines and cover.

IMG_1850.JPG


Ohan

Concept Artist

Oni is one of our new concept artists. He mainly works in 2D. He's worked on a large number of smaller titles in the past. Oni likes a variety of different games, but has a passion for anything PVP based. He is also working on the environments for the New Jericho faction at the moment.

Dante.JPG


Prodan

Marketing Artist

Dante is the only Sofia based member of the marketing team. He creates the videos and images for our promotional material.

A fan of Naughty Dog games, Dante enjoys playing The Last of Us.

Dante is currently working on redesigning the visual elements of our webstore along with creating the assets for our Facebook ads.

Wrap up
That's it for this update. We will have a new version of the Backer Build coming very soon, and more things to show to you in the coming weeks. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or join us on Discord for the latest information. Be sure to sign up to our mailing list to receive email notifications of these development updates along with The Briefing ebooks as they're published.
 
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ArchAngel

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Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
Yea I also don't like the new look of PP faction soldiers. As someone said, those shoulder pads look terrible and have no real purpose.
 

PanteraNera

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Nov 7, 2014
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As I am not sure that anyone got this, here see the old and the new Siren side by side for comparison:

old (from fig)
https%3A%2F%2Fd3pylr1apgoxnh.cloudfront.net%2Fcampaign_images%2Fimages%2F1ce6cf5aa317c76aaa73da369b315b741475b1ce%2Foriginal.jpg%3F1491576293

https%3A%2F%2Fd3pylr1apgoxnh.cloudfront.net%2Fcampaign_body_images%2Fimages%2Fa5af17e7fa6d8342062bd665ee95766626b0730d%2Foriginal.gif%3F1491564105


new Siren (from the June Dev Blog)
Siren.jpg


I do like the new design thought, but not as a replacement.

My personal opinion: everything they redesigned looks less gritty, grim, bloody, dangerous, gory. Like old vs new New Jericho, old vs new Phoenix Project, old vs new Siren just is another step that makes the game look a lot more friendly and uhm *shrugs* generic.

As I said before, I do not care for graphics that much, but still a lot of the tone has changed between the fig and now. And I would say not for the better.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Hmmm, I thought the "siren" was just an infected woman, not a creature of the sea.

Agree with PanteraNera Shame that they are reducing the gore/grit, need to hit some MS rating or something? But then again Gears of War has a shit-ton of gore.
 

PanteraNera

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Nov 7, 2014
Messages
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Shog-goth
here is an answer from UnstableVoltage on reddit to one of your recent questions:

Regardless of the current total, post-fig funding doesn't count towards stretch goals. Neither the Floating Base or Underwater Missions stretch goals were met. We decided we would still include the floating base anyway - but instead of making it part of the base game, we would release it post-launch as free DLC.

If we produce the underwater missions, it will be most likely as a paid DLC/Expansion further down the line.
 

Shog-goth

Elder Thing
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Feb 23, 2018
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Original grimdark vision and art direction have gone down the toilet, replaced by sterilized crap good for mass market. It's that simple.
 

mwnn85

Savant
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
210
old Siren
https%3A%2F%2Fd3pylr1apgoxnh.cloudfront.net%2Fcampaign_body_images%2Fimages%2Fa5af17e7fa6d8342062bd665ee95766626b0730d%2Foriginal.gif%3F1491564105

new Siren
Siren.jpg

Prefer the older variant too - looks like it's straight out of John Carpenter's "The Thing".

Wouldn't describe it as a Siren though - more like infected female civilian. Hopefully it might pop up as something else or be modded back in.
The latter design looks a bit more feminine, it certainly looks like it comes from the sea. I'm thinking it looks more like a mermaid than a siren though.

I imagine there's some sort of age-guideline requirements/recommendations for console releases.
 
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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
https://gamingbolt.com/phoenix-point-interview-fighting-constantly-evolving-sea-aliens

Phoenix Point Interview: Fighting Constantly Evolving Sea Aliens
Julian Gollop answers some of our questions regarding his team’s upcoming game, Phoenix Point.

Phoenix-Point-cover.jpg


Phoenix Point is an upcoming game that is being made by the creator of X-Com, Jullian Gollop and the team at Snapshot Games. However, this game is quite unique all on its own with procedurally generated enemies which evolve and adapt their strategies according to the player’s actions. The game will also feature a story in which players will discover the secrets behind some sea-based alien creatures.

To learn more about the game and its development, Gamingbolt reached out to the developers with some questions and Jullian Gollop provided the following answers.



"I don’t own the XCOM name any more, but I still think there is a lot of unexplored ideas which I have had over the years for an XCOM style game"

What made you go with sea-based aliens this time around as opposed to what we’ve usually seen with the XCOM titles?

I read an article about how the sea was filled with viruses, most of which we know little about or have little interaction with. Then I read about the pandoravirus, and how it has a huge, complex genome which again is little understood. Then I imagined this pandoravirus is alien, and it takes over the sea viruses, and ultimately all the sea creatures and then invades the land.

What inspired you to make your own game separate from the XCOM franchise?

I don’t own the XCOM name any more, but I still think there is a lot of unexplored ideas which I have had over the years for an XCOM style game.

The idea of enemies evolving their own tactics against the player’s tactics sounds very cool, but also terrifying. Would this mechanic make the game a bit too difficult for some players?

No, because there is a fair amount of randomness involved in the alien adaptation – at least in the early stages of the game. The player has other advantages, specifically technological advances and domination of the skies.

There seems to be great emphasis on a story shrouded in mystery. What can you tell us about the narrative in the game?

I can’t say too much without revealing the story, but suffice it to say that it has a strong Lovecraftian theme. There is a lot of backstory about the Phoenix Project having researching a similar outbreak in earth’s prehistory, and how this might be used against the current threat.

What inspired the idea of procedurally generated enemies? Is there also a level of scripting involved to ensure that each encounter remains unique and distinctive?

Procedurally generated enemies gives each play through and each player style a different challenge. There isn’t any scripting to ensure each encounter is unique and distinctive, we just make it highly likely that they will be and the games systems take care of it.

Can you tell us a bit about the different classes we can expect to see in the game?

Each human faction has some unique technology and soldier class in the game. For New Jericho they have a powerful heavy infantry with strong armour and multiple weapons systems. They also have a technician class with neurally connected robotic arms that can fulfill a number of support functions. Disciples of Anu have a beast handler than controls specially bred mutant creatures called mutogs. Synedrion have the most advanced tech, but they use it mostly for defence or infiltration, and their infiltrator class is both stealthy and deadly.



"The boss monsters are a bit like battleships with multiple weapons systems and defences, and a whole variety of AI behaviours"

When the aliens develop strategies to counter your own, is there a point at which they might get too powerful? How are you balancing this issue?

Balancing partly comes from the fact that the aliens are responding to your battle victories, rather than pursuing a fixed advancement. They don’t care too much if they are winning, but will go through mutation processes if they are losing.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced during the development of this game?

The procedural generation of environments and aliens is a big challenge, as is the character customisation system. Also, we are setting high goals for the production quality, which is always hard work.

Can you tell us a bit about what we can expect from boss fights in the game?

The boss monsters are a bit like battleships with multiple weapons systems and defences, and a whole variety of AI behaviours. They will usually be quite unique and memorable. One interesting thing is that the monsters are persistent characters with a specific lair, and if they survive a battle they will get stronger and strike again.

This seems to be a game that is all about high risks with tensions constantly running high. Is there any change of pace during different sections to slow things down?

There will be some ebb and flow, depending on the strategic situations and actions of the other human factions, but it will get progressively difficult just to survive while a solution to the alien threat is devised.

So any chance we could see a PS4, Xbox One and Switch versions soon?

If we have sufficient resources we will certainly consider other platforms, but we have no plans as yet.

Finally, would you like to add anything more before you go?

Just to say that finally we have a great team in place at Snapshot Games to make the game I have been wanting to make for the last 18 years. It’s the most exciting and interesting project I have ever worked on, and I am sure it will be something special.
 

Farewell into the night

Guest
I'm waiting for this game since the beginning!
 

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