Game News One of them Bard's Tale's diaries

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Bard's Tale (2005); InXile Entertainment

<a href=http://www.gamespy.com>GameSpy</a> has posted another <b>BT</b> <a href=http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/song-of-the-bard/546744p1.html>Developer Diary</a>, #9 if somebody's counting. In this latest edition, we are told why 2D is obsolete and convinced without reasonable doubts that 3D does rule. Or whatever.
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<blockquote>When Maxx Kaufman (our infamous art director) first approached me about building a world for The Bard's Tale, we talked about all the things that bothered us about the action-RPG hack-'n-slash genre. Why do you never see the sky? Why is the world always so clean? Why do things always look so blocky and tiled? And why is everything in the world cut 12 feet off the ground? It's like someone took a laser beam to walls, trees, gates, everything! When you cut the world 12 feet up, it all of the sudden becomes very flat. <u>It must be some kind of leftover from old-school, 2D isometric games. But games are 3D now!</u> All of these things led to one thought. I always feel so detached, so far away from the character and the world. The cameras in action-RPGs are 30 feet up in the air. How could you NOT feel detached? </blockquote>Amusing, isn't it?
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[Spazmo]

Morrowind was first person and I felt utterly detached in that game. Fargo needs to realize he might be good at signing paychecks, but otherwise, he needs to zip it.

 

[Thorndyke]

It must be some kind of leftover from old-school, 2D isometric games. But games are 3D now!

I fell from my chair when I read that. How can a game developer say something of such naivety and ignorance?

Of course it's not the '80s anymore, but stating that a game basically has to be in 3D these days "just because" and regardless of whether a 3D approach suits the game mechanics or not is just an obvious sign of incompetence when you're working in the game industry.

Oh well, fuck them and their game.

Jakobsen tells you everything that's wrong with the environments in competing games

What kind of attitude is this anyway?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Jakobsen tells you everything that's wrong with the environments in competing games

What kind of attitude is this anyway?

Winning? :wink:

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Forgive me my 2D, isometric ignorance, but I'm a little confused about this developer diary. In almost every screenshot of the Bard's Tale game, I see a crappy camera angle looking down at the Bard from about 30 feet up in the air.

How exactly is the Bard's Tale different from other hack 'n' slash games in which the camera is looking down at the character from 30 feet in the air?

Edit: Oh, never mind, I see. The camera is still 30 feet in the air, your character still looks like a bug, but now the trees go up that high! I have seen the light!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It's has to be "30ft up in the air" so you have a decent viewing distance in an action CRPG. If it's "12ft up in the air", you might end up walking up on top of 50 uberogres of doom without knowing it because you can only see a five feet radius around your character.

Like Spazmo pointed out, if you're detached from your character, the problem certainly isn't with the height of the camera, it's with the rest of the game.

 

[DamnElfGirl]

I was mostly mocking the developer diary for saying that the 12-foot world detached you from your character, then "solving" the problem by making the trees taller. And that brings you closer to your character how?

But I do have a problem with the traditional bird's eye view in some action-RPGs... particularly on consoles. If the camera is pulled so far up that your character looks like a bug, it makes it difficult to do anything but hit the attack button repeatedly. If I can't see the monsters very well, I can't tell when they're going to attack, so shielding or timing attacks isn't worth it. This is particularly a problem with console games and (and their PC ports) with crappy resolution. BGDA was like that, which annoyed me greatly. The Bard's Tale looks like the same story.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Heh. DamnElfGirl got it right. That article's just damn funny.

TALL TREES! BENT BUILDINGS! I FEEL IMMERSED!!

Sorry, capslock got stuck for a minute there.

 

[taks]

ya'll are reading waaaay too deeply into this guy's comments. he's speaking of a physical problem with typical graphics engines used in crpgs and you're taking it to the "rest of the game" lengths. the "detachment" he's referring to is not some metaphysical problem with games. he's speaking directly to how odd a game looks when nothing is taller than 12'. nothing more. the cool part of having a world that extends up around and above the camera has been totally overlooked...

taks

 

[MF]

It''s not cool because you can't see shit. There's a reason a radar is used for spotting stuff instead of satellite imagery, you can't see shit with all the scenery.

Playing a game looking at tree tops isn't fun. Sure it's not realistic, but realism doesn't equal fun. Developers tend to forget that they're not making simulations but games all too often

 

[taks]

maybe, maybe not... occlusion is a definite problem, but there are solutions. i have no idea what they should (or will) be with BT, but i may find out.

taks