KickStarter BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION - isometric post-apocalyptic adventure from STASIS developer

[Tramboi]

The To Do log, combined with the quest markers should make for a much more streamlined experience!

I'm a casual gamer now
Very little patience for backtracking, sadly.

Btw, the game has lots of good things going for it

Edit: yeah, I'll buy the next one day-1 so that's that.
Faster travel should be a game changer too.

 

[vortex]

Hey all - just wanted to let you know that I'm reading everything said about the game! I really appreciate all the criticisms of the game that you have - they are all being taken into account with our next (pretty bad ass) project!

Will your next thing have combat ?

 

[Pyke]

Hey all - just wanted to let you know that I'm reading everything said about the game! I really appreciate all the criticisms of the game that you have - they are all being taken into account with our next (pretty bad ass) project!

Will your next thing have combat ?

Currently... no. We did have a few 'brototypes' which I may share a bit more of later on (even tested out an idea for an ARPG) - but it's definitely going back to our more 'traditional' genre roots.

 

[negator2vc]

Hey all - just wanted to let you know that I'm reading everything said about the game! I really appreciate all the criticisms of the game that you have - they are all being taken into account with our next (pretty bad ass) project!

Will your next thing have combat ?

Currently... no. We did have a few 'brototypes' which I may share a bit more of later on (even tested out an idea for an ARPG) - but it's definitely going back to our more 'traditional' genre roots.

You could always add subtle rpg mechanics to an adventure game like Unavowed did it.
No statitics or combat but borrow rpg mechanics like choosing a "class" for your character and choosing party members both of which can affect puzzles, dialogs, etc...
An adventure game with a subtle touch of RPG.

 

[Tramboi]

I think it's best to stay focus on the core gameplay when you're a small team. Additional time should be invested in developing plausible failures (use bad object in bad object) that give hints, humor, or lore.
Or additional dialog lines in the same style when you're talking to the "wrong" person, so that you didn't visit him for nothing.

 

[vortex]

You could get combat through dialogue. Every class could use different skills which you can use it within dialogue to fight attack.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You could get combat through dialogue. Every class could use different skills which you can use it within dialogue to fight attack.

 

[Pyke]

You could always add subtle rpg mechanics to an adventure game like Unavowed did it.
No statitics or combat but borrow rpg mechanics like choosing a "class" for your character and choosing party members both of which can affect puzzles, dialogs, etc...
An adventure game with a subtle touch of RPG.

Adding RPG mechanics into an adventure game does come with a big cost/benefit ratio. There is a reason why RPG's take many people and many many years to make - every single system is intricate and complex, and has a HUGE knockon effect. The only way its really worth it (financially) is if you can get people who are interested in RPG's (probably one of the largest most lucrative genres out there) interested in your game. Unfortunately what tends to happen is that those RPG players see the mechanics being super light, and adventure game players see the mechanics being extremely intrusive.

It certainly CAN be done - UNAVOWED is a perfect example of this - but there are sacrifices that have to be made. Languages is a BIG one. Writing is cheap - but translation is EXPENSIVE. If we want to keep our games profitable, we have to translate into multiple languages. Having classes or different characters that can take different paths, while still keeping the 'adventure game' feel of a tight character driven narrative starts to get damned expensive. Each character you add sends your text budget up an order of magnitude.
Then you have testing. We test our own games, and every time we do a change we play through the game from the beginning to the end. Multiple characters can take that from a 4 hours speed run to an 18 hour speed run. So your testing and release schedule for bug fixes can jump VERY easily.

Again, this is built into an RPG, where you can charge a higher price point because people WILL try to play through the game more than once. But for a linear narrative adventure game, the prospect of multiple playthroughs at a lower price point just doesn't justify the cost you have to put in.

If we had a larger team, or ran multiple projects I can definitely see us overcoming lots of these issues - but with our goal to remain a 2 man team, it's something that will require a lot more planning and experience on our side to get right.

 

[Tramboi]

Is i18n very important for your games though ? Do you see bumps in sales when certain localizations become available ?
I think what would have made Stasis and BD better for me would have been more *reactive* flavour text. Hovering descriptive writing was good though.

 

[Pyke]

Is i18n very important for your games though ? Do you see bumps in sales when certain localizations become available ?
I think what would have made Stasis and BD better for me would have been more *reactive* flavour text. Hovering descriptive writing was good though.

About half of our sales are non-english. Unfortunately it also contributes HUGELY to piracy. But yeah - it's a big enough chunk for us to take it seriously into consideration.

 

[negator2vc]

Adding RPG mechanics into an adventure game does come with a big cost/benefit ratio. There is a reason why RPG's take many people and many many years to make - every single system is intricate and complex, and has a HUGE knockon effect. The only way its really worth it (financially) is if you can get people who are interested in RPG's (probably one of the largest most lucrative genres out there) interested in your game. Unfortunately what tends to happen is that those RPG players see the mechanics being super light, and adventure game players see the mechanics being extremely intrusive.

It certainly CAN be done - UNAVOWED is a perfect example of this - but there are sacrifices that have to be made. Languages is a BIG one. Writing is cheap - but translation is EXPENSIVE. If we want to keep our games profitable, we have to translate into multiple languages. Having classes or different characters that can take different paths, while still keeping the 'adventure game' feel of a tight character driven narrative starts to get damned expensive. Each character you add sends your text budget up an order of magnitude.
Then you have testing. We test our own games, and every time we do a change we play through the game from the beginning to the end. Multiple characters can take that from a 4 hours speed run to an 18 hour speed run. So your testing and release schedule for bug fixes can jump VERY easily.

Again, this is built into an RPG, where you can charge a higher price point because people WILL try to play through the game more than once. But for a linear narrative adventure game, the prospect of multiple playthroughs at a lower price point just doesn't justify the cost you have to put in.

If we had a larger team, or ran multiple projects I can definitely see us overcoming lots of these issues - but with our goal to remain a 2 man team, it's something that will require a lot more planning and experience on our side to get right.

1. The reason that I pointed out UNAVOWED as an example is that they are also a small team.
2. The scope can be reduced with the reduction of the world map which in most cases don't work that well with adventure games. I think in fact some other fellow rpgcodex members have pointed the large map as a flaw about "Beautiful Desolation" (in previous posts).
3. From the moment you don't include combat in the game you already lost the rpg players. I am talking more about an impovement of the adventure game formula.

For the record I have only played and loved Stasis and was very interested in Beautiful Desolation
but user comments and walkthrough videos (that I always see for a just few minutes so I can better understand the gameplay but not enough that they spoil the game for me) made me wary about all that walking.

 

[Pyke]

If anyone wants to give the game a try - you can get the demo over at GOG!

https://af.gog.com/game/beautiful_desolation_demo?as=1649904300

 

[Infinitron]

So that's what those cards were: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/912570/view/2855799982656767166

STEAM CARDS & DEMO NOW AVAILABLE & COMBO BUNDLE DISCOUNT!
30% OFF the Brotherhood Combo, what are you waiting for? Play the demo, save the world.

BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION STEAM DEMO

You can grab the demo from the main Steam page. The demo will autosave just before it ends and you can carry on playing from your last save point if you get the full game. Steam will seamlessly sync your demo saves as well.

CLICK ON THE STEAM STORE PAGE:

THEN CLICK:

STEAM CARDS

We have launched the community cards for Beautiful Desolation. Get trading!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[lightbane]

It's been a few crazy months, but between the scamvirus and other personal issues, I haven't been able to play this game yet, despite having the thing already installed for a while. Now I should be able to do it so soon, and hopefully enjoy the full experience. I'll post my thoughts once I'm done with the game.

Since BD has working dialogue trees, then the next game hopefully has the promised ultraviolence.

 

[Pyke]

It's been a few crazy months, but between the scamvirus and other personal issues, I haven't been able to play this game yet, despite having the thing already installed for a while. Now I should be able to do it so soon, and hopefully enjoy the full experience. I'll post my thoughts once I'm done with the game.

Since BD has working dialogue trees, then the next game hopefully has the promised ultraviolence.

 

[Pyke]

 

[HoboForEternity]

Wee congratulations!

 

[Pyke]

Thanks! Also got another announcement coming soon(ish). :D

 

[lightbane]

Careful now, if your games arrive to the consoles, the SJW crowd will notice that BD features ugly black mutants plus white males as protagonists, which means they'll start immediately screaming about "muh racism!"

 

[Abu Antar]

Thanks! Also got another announcement coming soon(ish). :D

Ugly Erection?

 

[agris]

So the clue is in the skeletons shape and the cobwebs. I almost thought ALIENS, but I'm thinking another game set in the Stasis world? Someone who has played it more recently than me might recognize the shape of the skeletal form.

 

[vortex]

Necronomicon meets Prometheus. How far is that ?

 

[Silly Germans]

Why not Evil Dead meets The Thing ? Or perhaps something more on the dark humorous side like Braindead meets Mars Attacks ?

 

[Pyke]

*writes down everyone's ideas....*