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

[ghostdog]

Combat! ITZ an aRPeeGee nao! :D

This looks great Pyke, but I sure hope you tone down those flashy effects and give the option to remove the blood splatter thing altogether from the screen.

 

[Pyke]

Combat! ITZ an aRPeeGee nao! :D

This looks great Pyke, but I sure hope you tone down those flashy effects and give the option to remove the blood splatter thing altogether from the screen.

We are adding in as many options as possible to alter the graphics. Glows, particles, even the colour and intensity of the 'xray' where you run behind objects. Ill check with Nic if we can add 'blood borders' to that list. :D

 

[Pyke]

Im watching those things VERY closely to see how well they work out! Its a very cool idea - but Im always wary about permanent discounts with Kickstarter games on release. Like I would hate for our backers to feel screwed over if the release price is super discounted from their backing amount.

Also, your games are actually good, is it worth diminishing pedigree with ((huge)pre release) discounts normally reserved for shit games?

Pricing games is a difficult thing to get right - but yeah, I would be concerned about coming out of the gate at a low price. The sales spike you get in the first few days/weeks compared to the rest of the life cycle of a game is large enough that a prolonged opening discount could severely hurt your game in the future.
I think what has happened is that because STEAM no longer organically gets you the numbers it used to, developers are trying to find ways to work within the STEAM ecosystem to drive traffic to their games.

We are hopefully going to be able to get around a lot of those launch day issues because of the Kickstarter. We should have a few thousand people at launch talking about the game on various places outside of the digital marketplaces.

 

[Kem0sabe]

So there will be no character stats? The combat will be resolved through items and strategy only?

 

[Pyke]

So there will be no character stats? The combat will be resolved through items and strategy only?

No character stats. You gotta learn how to use the units you have access to in the different scenarios. You can combine different race 'abilities' to combat certain combinations - so if you are fighting against robots, don't use units that have poison arrows.

Currently you can actually play the combat 'free' of the game from the menu, similar to how Star Control 2 had Hypermelee as a separate minigame.

 

[J_C]

So there will be no character stats? The combat will be resolved through items and strategy only?

No character stats. You gotta learn how to use the units you have access to in the different scenarios. You can combine different race 'abilities' to combat certain combinations - so if you are fighting against robots, don't use units that have poison arrows.

So it will be a more complex rock-paper-scissors minigame if I get it right.

And after you get some experience designing strategy gameplay, your next game will be a full blown strategy game. Please make it a reality!

 

[Pyke]

So there will be no character stats? The combat will be resolved through items and strategy only?

No character stats. You gotta learn how to use the units you have access to in the different scenarios. You can combine different race 'abilities' to combat certain combinations - so if you are fighting against robots, don't use units that have poison arrows.

So it will be a more complex rock-paper-scissors minigame if I get it right.

And after you get some experience designing strategy gameplay, your next game will be a full blown strategy game. Please make it a reality!

I thought of it as small games of chess - but yeah, rock-paper-scissors would also be a good fit. The combat encounters themselves are nice and quick to resolve, but getting that 'perfect' combination is a damned fun experience!

I would love to make a game that has a more complex combat/strategy aspect to it - but we are going with baby steps right now!

 

[Dreed]

Steam doesn't give us access to the list of people who Wish list - just the numbers. Its a good thing cos I think that developers would spam Wishlist's with coupons and announcements - but it would be awesome to have a way to directly support people who added you to their Wishlist's early. If that does change between now and release we will let you know.

Do you also have the intel on the number of people who put the game on "ignore"?

 

[Pyke]

Not that I can see - honestly I didnt even know Steam had an Ignore option.

 

[Modron]

Yeah ignore is not something I have used much besides freeing up more space on the marquee feature and recommended games by ignoring some popular shit that I have no interest in that is always up there like Call of Duty games, PUBG, et cetera.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Wishlisted and followed, best of luck to you guys.

 

[Bohr]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Dreed]

 

[Ivan]

THIS IS SO WEIRD. I WAS DECIDING BETWEEN POSTING THAT SAME SONG OR NOT.

WHO ARE YOU, SIR?!

 

[agris]

BD fans have good taste in music; news at 11.

Edit: except I always skip that track. Once is enough.

 

[Pyke]

 

[Ivan]

I like the minimalist GUI. Can't wait to enjoy this one!

 

[StaticSpine]

Pyke you are awesome!

 

[Pyke]

I like the minimalist GUI. Can't wait to enjoy this one!

Thanks Ivan. We have put a LOT of effort into trying to balance form and function in the UI. Trying to create a balance between current UI design trends (AAA floaty holographic style UI) and old school skeuomorphic design has been a challenge!

 

[Pyke]

Pyke you are awesome!

No YOU are.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...n-isometric-post-apocalyptic-ad/posts/2338521

NOVEMBER 2018 PRODUCTION UPDATE

We're still working at break-neck speed on DESOLATION!

The scene graphics are ahead of schedule, and the GUI graphics have been completed to a large extent.

I'm just about done with the over-world map screens. We'll definitely illustrate the detail we're putting into these areas in a future backer update. While I've knuckled down to get these done, Nic has been implementing some of the more arbitrary (but necessary) development, like the credits screen and diary/codex system.

Don't forget to WISHLIST BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION on STEAM! https://store.steampowered.com/app/912570/BEAUTIFUL_DESOLATION/

A previous update introduced players to the Fley: LINK (CLICK HERE) ,

and now we're pleased to reveal our next denizen:

THE NEST
The NEST are a nano-robotic life form that live in an isolated part of this desolate world. The orbital research station on which they were created, has crashed in the African veld. This warm, dry environment is not the ideal for the replication of the synthetic NEST.

Their advanced technology has allowed them to terraform the grasslands into a cold, sterile tundra that is rapidly expanding.

NEST Atmospheric Processor and ice cube maker

Mark takes some time to do a sketch.

The NEST are now in direct conflict with their neighbors - and Mark will need to find a subtle or extreme solution to this problem.

Take care,

CHRIS

 

[Pyke]

Spoiler

High res screens for the Codex.

 

[HoboForEternity]

this looks as good if not better than deadfire visually we dont know how dynamic it is compared to PoE, but considering the budget is probably like 1/100 dedfire it is damn impressive
STASIS and CAYNE got great visuals too, but was renderred in much lower resolution than this (4K IIRC)

crazy good Pyke

 

[Pyke]

this looks as good if not better than deadfire visually we dont know how dynamic it is compared to PoE, but considering the budget is probably like 1/100 dedfire it is damn impressive
STASIS and CAYNE got great visuals too, but was renderred in much lower resolution than this (4K IIRC)

crazy good Pyke

POE has things like day/night, dynamic weather, and even AI on the NPC's that allow them to react to those changing conditions. We dont have any of that - with our worlds being closer to a classic Adventure Games more static screens. We do have NPC's that walk around and do things - but its all scripted behavior.
We are doing some very cool things where your choices will alter the places you go to in a very profound way - something Im looking forward to seeing how people react when it happens!

But yeah - our budget is around double the Kickstarter funding - so we had to really edit ourselves down to make sure we get the game done on time and in budget. We do have big plans for this framework - things that we can add in for the next game to make it more reactive and dynamic.