The Dark Eye Blackguards - turn-based tactical RPG set in The Dark Eye world

[Lhynn]

So, this game, huh. I wonder how it actually plays in practice.

Gonna be awesome!!!

you are being overly positive about something, its like the entire last decade didnt happen to you

 

[HiddenX]

you are being overly positive about something, its like the entire last decade didnt happen to you

I'm from RPGWatch

- we are always looking on the bright side of life

 

[FeelTheRads]

RPGWatch can't into transparency.

Gonna be awesome!!!

No.

 

[HiddenX]

RPGWatch can't into transparency.

No - I like shiny white

 

[ColCol]

So, this game, huh. I wonder how it actually plays in practice

It's an rpg alright!

 

[Excidium]

Look at all those little sissies respecting NDA.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Look at all those little sissies respecting NDA.

Problem?

 

[Azrael the cat]

you are being overly positive about something, its like the entire last decade didnt happen to you

I'm from RPGWatch

- we are always looking on the bright side of life

My inner Python nerd associates that statement with the visual image of you hanging on a cross after being mixed up with someone else, due to your own goddamn optimism.

In fact this video sums up Rpgwatch (see the look on Graham Chapman's face when Idle starts up? Basically, Chapman is a Codexer who accidentally went to the Watch rather than the Codex - the rest of the folks in the clip are the RpgWatch forum-dwellers)



And remember kids, living well is only the best revenge if you eventually get to purley your life of prosperity into watching your foes die slowly at the hands of your Lithuanian hitman.

Now I just need to find a bunch of suitable clips to complete my set of comedians and their gaming counterparts:

Peter Molyneux = Ben Elton - Did some astoundingly subversive and innovative work when young, but not only ran out of ideas, but actively sold out in a way that seems to embody the precise ideology that his younger self railed against.

- MCA = Charlie Booker - still capable of true brilliance and one of the better writers/developers around (watch Booker's Twilight Zone tribute series Black Mirror - and make sure you start from the 1st episode of the 1st series, it isn't serialised but the 1st episode fucking rocks - it's Booker writing/directing a non-comedy, though one with some seriously sharp social satire in it; also of the kind that anyone of any political ideology can enjoy, as he's more interested in asking hard questions than ramming his personal answer down the audience's throats); but seems strangely uncomfortable having 'made it' and not quite sure how to deploy his talents now that he's at the centre of the mainstream entertainment industry he spent most of his career subverting.

- David Gaider = Dave Chappele - someone who can undoubtedly recognise good and bad design from a fan's perspective, and made some great contributions to the community in his earlier days (I'm thinking his AI and ability changes in his free mods for BG2 and ToB, including the 'real Demogorgon' fight - he clearly knows what the core crpg fans want, and is capable of designing for them when he wants to - also note I said 'designing', nothing about 'writing' here...he's always been average at best when it comes to that), but who becomes way too close to his own material, to the point where he doesn't realise that he's alienated his old audience in return for a bunch of idiots. Then proceeds to rage when those idiots act like idiots, before half-heartedly deciding that he has no other choice but to give those idiots more of what they want (the Chappelle reference is due to his creating a show filled with racial stereotypes, then rage-quitting the show when he realised that it was being watched by lots of white folks laughing at the 'silly crackhead black guy' characters in a racist manner, without taking any personal responsibility for creating the show in a way that encouraged such an audience/reacion).

- Warren Spector = Stephen Fry - been forever since he actually did anything worthwhile (and what he's done sice has been pretty crappy, albeit too far removed from his traditional work to actively undermine it), but still speaks a lot of sense, and you'd still better pay some goddamn respect and listen to the guy when he talks about the rules of making a rpg (for Spector) or comedy (for Fry).

- Jeff Vogel = Cameron Esposito - Decides that nobody is making the kind of games that he (or she in Cameron's case) wants to see represented, and that rather than complain he'll step up and make them himself. Sadly, as he (/she) makes it big, he/she starts moving closer to a lower-budget version of the kind of mainstream product that he/she was initially set up in opposition to, leaving everyone else to wonder what the point of it was.

- Brian Fargo = could be any of Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Rick Mayal or Adrian Edmonson - i.e. someone that's produced utterly brilliant material in the past, but has also shown many times that he can't do it without having his full (or close to his full) support team of talented coworkers on hand. Certainly isn't riding his colleagues coat-tails - like the comedians above, he's always an integral part of the team, but without a good team around him he's nothing.

- Richard Garriot = Bob Hope - shhh...don't say mean things about the old guy - he's one of the greatest to ever live and most of our favourite developers wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him. Not his fault that he's getting old...and senile...and about as entertaining as listening to your great-grandad tell you the same story for the 50th time....


Sadly, I thought for ages trying to come up with a gaming equivalent of Chris Rock (someone with great talent, was led astray early by bad influences and promises of $$$, but after hitting rock bottom his decision to go 'fuck it, fuck the cash, I'm just going to do the kind of comedy I'm good at' ironically catapults him to megastardom), let alone a Richard Pryor or George Carlin (someone who stays brilliant all the way to the end, never compromising and retires a legend on his own terms). Hell, I couldn't even find an equivalent of Bill Cosby (groundbreaking genius who late in his career moves to general mainstream entertainment for more $$$, but whilst it's never as great as his standup work he still manages to become king of the mainstream sitcom as well).

Can't think of a single good game developer that left at his/her height, and on his/her own terms. Would happily be enlightened if I'm wrong, though.

Maybe one of the Kickstarters might give us a gaming version of Steve Martin - one of the most talented individuals to ever enter the field, eventually became a victim of his own success and made the poor decision to start doing shitty but lucrative entertainment projects FAR beneath his talents, only to emerge on the other side decades later and do the occasional standup gig for fun, reminding the world that he's as brilliant as he ever was.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I dunno why you guys hate RPGwatch. I get lots of free stuff there.

 

[HiddenX]

Free stuff, many news, no need for anti-depressiva ... the Codex fits more for this video or this ->
I have to be in the mood for this

 

[Cool name]

Free stuff, many news, no need for anti-depressiva ...

And a community made up of, like, five guys who post every blue moon or so. The most fun I had there was having Mrowak all for myself and getting into hardcore witchy duels with him over the most vanal thingies. It's a really slow place when there are no codexers around.

 

[HiddenX]

Yes - a little community with slower forums. Good thing is we know each each other for many years now - since the RPGDot days.
No need to discuss everything 1001 times again

Let's return to topic:
Blackguards

 

[Cool name]

Let's return to topic:
Blackguards

I haven't been following the project very closely, but isn't this a supposedly tactical RPG done by dudes whose entire portfolio is made up of adventure games with beautiful graphics, good music, average stories, and awful gameplay?

Yeah, that's going to work out.

 

[HiddenX]

I have been following the project closely, this is definitly a tactical RPG done by dudes whose entire portfolio is made up of adventure games with beautiful graphics, good music, interesting stories, and good gameplay (and their secret love are tactical combat and CRPGs).

Yeah, that's going to work out.

 

[Cool name]

good gameplay

Don't misunderstand me, I do like (some) of their games but in an adventure game Gameplay = Puzzle Design.

Let's see... Yesterday after diner I did begin Memoria.

I had already finished it by the time I did make my first post in this thread.

No walkthroughs were used.

Did I like it? Sure. That doesn't change the fact the gameplay (I.E: The puzzle design) was awfully terribad. Damn thingie could have been a VN and nothing would have changed.

So, yeah. They suck at gameplay. Maybe they will show us they obvious lack of ability when it comes to design puzzles hides an amazing skill to design combat encounters and a complex combat system, but... So far, Gameplay is their weak point. There's no discussing that.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I am playing Chains of Satinav... and now way is the story average. it is definitely better than that. Although i haven't played many adv games other than quest for glory so... maybe I am being retarded...but i am likign the story so far. music is very good though. Adds to the atmosphere.

 

[Lhynn]

Don't misunderstand me, I do like (some) of their games but in an adventure game Gameplay = Puzzle Design.

i know puzzles are kinda the game part of adventure games, but how is gameplay the equivalent of puzzle design? especially when it comes to other genres.

 

[Cool name]

I know puzzles are kinda the game part of adventure games, but how is gameplay the equivalent of puzzle design? especially when it comes to other genres.

I did not speak of other genres. I did say that in adventure games puzzle design = gameplay. Other genres have other definitions for gameplay.

An adventure game with bad puzzles is like a dungeon crawler with bad dungeons and no resource management or a ToEE clone with bad combat and awful encounter design or a flight simulator with a terrible flight model and, uhm, bad flight simulator-ish thingies. Sure, the visuals may be beautiful and the story may be cool but, uhm... It still doesn't work. Remove the combat from a ToEE clone, the dungeons from a Dungeon Crawler, the flight model from a flight simulator, or the puzzles from an adventure game and you are in the dark land of games as 'experiences.' Brrr. Scary place.

 

[Rake]

Sadly, I thought for ages trying to come up with a gaming equivalent of Chris Rock (someone with great talent, was led astray early by bad influences and promises of $$$, but after hitting rock bottom his decision to go 'fuck it, fuck the cash, I'm just going to do the kind of comedy I'm good at' ironically catapults him to megastardom).

Wait a little. If we are lucky Obsidian with PE will be close to that.

I mean, they aren't going to top Blizzard, but if they can sustain their studio independently, and work on 3-4 self funded (or kickstarter) RPGs at the same time, it counts.

 

[Lhynn]

I know puzzles are kinda the game part of adventure games, but how is gameplay the equivalent of puzzle design? especially when it comes to other genres.

I did not speak of other genres. I did say that in adventure games puzzle design = gameplay. Other genres have other definitions for gameplay.

An adventure game with bad puzzles is like a dungeon crawler with bad dungeons and no resource management or a ToEE clone with bad combat and awful encounter design or a flight simulator with a terrible flight model and, uhm, bad flight simulator-ish thingies. Sure, the visuals may be beautiful and the story may be cool but, uhm... It still doesn't work. Remove the combat from a ToEE clone, the dungeons from a Dungeon Crawler, the flight model from a flight simulator, or the puzzles from an adventure game and you are in the dark land of games as 'experiences.' Brrr. Scary place.

how does combat compare to puzzle solving, both in development and execution and later on during gameplay stages? they seem like two completly different beasts.
Pretty much like saying that just because the controls are crap on your spectacle fighting game your turn based strategy will suck in the equivalent area.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I know puzzles are kinda the game part of adventure games, but how is gameplay the equivalent of puzzle design? especially when it comes to other genres.

I did not speak of other genres. I did say that in adventure games puzzle design = gameplay. Other genres have other definitions for gameplay.

An adventure game with bad puzzles is like a dungeon crawler with bad dungeons and no resource management or a ToEE clone with bad combat and awful encounter design or a flight simulator with a terrible flight model and, uhm, bad flight simulator-ish thingies. Sure, the visuals may be beautiful and the story may be cool but, uhm... It still doesn't work. Remove the combat from a ToEE clone, the dungeons from a Dungeon Crawler, the flight model from a flight simulator, or the puzzles from an adventure game and you are in the dark land of games as 'experiences.' Brrr. Scary place.

how does combat compare to puzzle solving, both in development and execution and later on during gameplay stages? they seem like two completly different beasts.
Pretty much like saying that just because the controls are crap on your spectacle fighting game your turn based strategy will suck in the equivalent area.

I dunno but I will pull out a few buzzwords out of my ass.

Different Design Paradigms.

 

[Lhynn]

I dunno but I will pull out a few buzzwords out of my ass.

Different Design Paradigms.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up (you fucking cunt, you made me google it)

 

[mikaelis]

I love this guy. It's the second interview I saw him, and he always looks like half-drunk or on a huuuuge hangover . Wonder if it will be brilliant gold or trainwreck (can go both ways with those alcoholics ).

I am buying it anyway.

 

[Brother None]

I gotta say I'm pretty excited about this title. I love DSA as y'all hopefully well know, and this one is hitting a lot of right notes that even the Drakensangs missed, and Drakensang (especially TRoT) were solid, enjoyable titles. At the very least this looks like it could be a Shadowrun Returns-quality DSA game. And I'd enjoy the heck out of that.

 

[Cool name]

how does combat compare to puzzle solving, both in development and execution and later on during gameplay stages? they seem like two completly different beasts.
Pretty much like saying that just because the controls are crap on your spectacle fighting game your turn based strategy will suck in the equivalent area.

I guess we could find paral... parall... uhm...paral/lels between puzzle design and encounter design at the very least, but that's not my point. Again, I did never question their ability. My point was simply that with a team that usually makes games with beautiful 2d visuals, bad to average to (rarely) kinda good storylines, and terrible gameplay I am not particularly confident their 3d, story focused, tactical game is going to be stellar. If it is, well, cool. I find no pleasure in playing shitty games just to tell people I told them so. *shrug*

Yet just for the sake of random shit...

Spoiler

I believe puzzle design is the most 'pure' form of gameplay design. People who consistently fails to create a fun, interesting, complex, layered challenges when in a very controlled enviroment (you have this problem, you have those tools, you have those hotspots, have funnies) does not fill me with confidence when it comes to creating interesting, complex, layered challenges in a pretty chaotic enviroment over which they don't have complete control. If you have any experience in P&P you have more than enough experience with GMs failing at it simply because they can't predict what tools the characters will have to play with: Most of the time either the party is completely unprepared for their 'really cool shit' and get slaughtered or they come with a completely WTF plan and the 'really cool shit' is anihilated (i.e: I have lost count of how many 'recurring villains' I did murderize during their first appearance on L5R campaigns by playing a Maho-Tsukai, who are really hard to plan against with the proper selection of dark gifts and blood magic, or how many Mage campaigns my group did ruin because LOL, MAGIC SYSTEM IS AWESOME AND IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN AGAINST). Computer RPGs are enviroments far more controlled than P&P campaigns, sure, but if there is any depth to the character system then we are in chaotic territory all the same. Should we trust people who can't come with interesting challenges in a completely controlled enviroment to come up with interesting challenges in a chaotic enviroment? Uhm... Hope for the best, expect the worst. *shrug*