Game News Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #49: Prototype Demo

[Infinitron]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Project Eternity

This week's Project Eternity Kickstarter update brings us the game's long-awaited first demonstration video. Without further ado:

​

Welcome. Today's update is a big one, though not by volume of text. Today we’re showing you our game in action. Specifically, we're showing what we've been doing for our exterior environments. The Infinity Engine games were known for their art, and we wanted to hit the high standard of visual quality established by games like the Icewind Dale series. We also wanted to introduce dynamic elements into the environment that were mostly absent from the classic games, like dynamic water, movement in foliage, and dynamic lighting of the scene.​

In a 2D game, this required our programmers and artists to come up with some creative solutions. What they came up with surprised us initially and it continues to amaze us. While we are still working on refining some of the dynamic elements, we're very happy with the progress we've been able to make and hope you feel the same way. Special thanks to Hector Espinoza, our lead environment artist, and Michael Edwards, our rendering programmer, who did a lot of amazing work to bring this environment to life.​

Thanks for reading, thanks for your feedback, and we'll see you next week.​

 

[Gwendo]

It looks very nice. I could nitpick a few things, but this is not an AAA game, so I guess it would be unfair to nitpick.

 

[Krash]

Yep, definitely (more than) good enough for an infinity engine like rpg. Hoping other areas look just as good.

 

[Angthoron]

That looks pretty great.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

The only real gripe I have with what I've seen is that the character seems to "sink" into the ground while walking. This looks like a minor glitch, since it was only really visible when zoomed in.

If this was AAA then there should be inverse kinematics on character while walking on stones so that the char's feet would angle properly depending on the slope it's walking on.

 

[belated]

Not too shabby

 

[Rhuantavan]

Yup, looks pretty nice.

 

[Rhuantavan]

If this was AAA then there should be inverse kinematics on character while walking on stones so that the char's feet would angle properly depending on the slope it's walking on.

Yeah, the character should be jumping from stone to stone, really.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Dope! Getting a nice ToEE vibe from it!

 

[phtmyr]

Aw yiss. Textures don't seem to blend together well, but wasn't to point of the demo anyway.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Been missing this good looking 2D art a lot, aside from a couple of exceptions here and there. Good job. Proud to be a traitor.

 

[kaizoku]

 

[General Maxson]

Looks fantastic, but looks aren't everything. Hope Sawyer won't disappoint with future gameplay updates.

 

[Zeriel]

Looks fantastic, but looks aren't everything. Hope Sawyer won't disappoint with future gameplay updates.

Looks were the best part of Infinity Engine games. <trollface.jpg>

Here's hoping they are not trapped by their own legacy and can into good gameplay.

Also, dat basket rapier.

 

[Smejki]

Oh lord. Tech fags in comments complaining about shadows

It looks really gorgeous. Only movement of trees feels a bit odd. But that might be an information lost in video compression.
So far, one big

 

[aris]

Characters are small as hell, as the camera is zoomed really far out. Not sure if I like. Looks like the infinity engine games that were intended to be played on 800x600 but played in 1928x1200 with mods. I like that the shadows bends and lights bends over the 2d backgrounds in the way you would expect.

 

[Zeriel]

I am wondering about the zoom level too. Obviously they have engine tricks to zoom in wherever they want, I'm just curious if the player is going to have access to that sort of duality (zoom in close for character detail, out for map scale/tactical play).

 

[Smejki]

The best

!st Looks great
now the criticism
- I'd like to see a different weather / season for the same area
- I'd like to see animations for a strong wind
- The plants art doesn't impress.. like nothing. And I'm not asking for variety of bushes and grass here.
- Dust on foosteps
- Small animals roaming
- dynamic cloud shadowing the ground.
Small bugs
- as the night comes, the shadows don't rotate (accordingly with the sun's position)
- at night the bushes move from the breeze the trees do not .. trees are more likely to be affected by the wind.

What a gaylord
criticism and bugs he says. OLOL


but since dynamic cloud shadows is actualy a good proposition...

 

[Brocken Jr.]

Looks pretty terrific.

I was unable to contribute to this Kickstarter (at sea when it happened ), so I have no real stake in it...but I might end up getting it after it's released if it turns out well enough.

 

[J_C]

Characters are small as hell, as the camera is zoomed really far out. Not sure if I like. Looks like the infinity engine games that were intended to be played on 800x600 but played in 1928x1200 with mods. I like that the shadows bends and lights bends over the 2d backgrounds in the way you would expect.

Character size is good compared to the enviroment. Of course they look small while zoomed out, it is like this in every strategy game (for example) where you can zoom.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks pretty terrific.

I was unable to contribute to this Kickstarter (at sea when it happened ), so I have no real stake in it...but I might end up getting it after it's released if it turns out well enough.

Pre-order: http://eternity.obsidian.net/

 

[Minttunator]

Looks great, not much more to be said.

 

[Hegel]

srj6w4u

This is truly amazing. The only thing I find lacking is the absence of wolves in the scenery. When you complete the game, don't forget to add the wolves for Chris Avellone. Man really loves his furry friends.

 

[aris]

The best

!st Looks great
now the criticism
- I'd like to see a different weather / season for the same area
- I'd like to see animations for a strong wind
- The plants art doesn't impress.. like nothing. And I'm not asking for variety of bushes and grass here.
- Dust on foosteps
- Small animals roaming
- dynamic cloud shadowing the ground.
Small bugs
- as the night comes, the shadows don't rotate (accordingly with the sun's position)
- at night the bushes move from the breeze the trees do not .. trees are more likely to be affected by the wind.

What a gaylord
criticism and bugs he says. OLOL


but since dynamic cloud shadows is actualy a good proposition...

That's actually really good criticism, and pertains 100% to what the update was about. And really, he is right about the plants, they look like shit. You can render better plants in real time.

Character size is good compared to the enviroment. Of course they look small while zoomed out, it is like this in every strategy game (for example) where you can zoom.

Didn't know you could zoom. Then it's ok. And sure, characters looks proportional to the environment, which is good.

 

[Zeriel]

What they're trying to get at is criticizing a gameplay-less prototype is kind of dumb. (Admittedly by the time something is at the gameplay stage, often criticism can't be acted on because they just need to get a product out, but you've just got to have faith that Obsidian is not retarded and this is a WIP.)