Disco Elysium Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Irenaeus]

:mrpresident:

 

[Marat Sar]

I am not sure why you need isometric perspective if you don't have tactical combat or something else game could benefit from being isometric... but whocares

Oh, so many reasons.

1) The isometric view is just more atmospheric. (For us atmopshere is everything). This is counter-intuitive since we humans don't experience reality from a bird's eye view. Being emerged in 1st perspective, dukin' it out with the other evil apes, is good for emotions like fear and anxiety. But seeing the world from a distance, in the palm of your hand, is better for the notes we need to hit to get our world right.

2) Better for music. There's a reason why the old Mark Morgan scored games are so memorable. And why Inon Zur's score for Icewind Dale is -- I think -- more effective than his latter work. From this contemplative distance, the music has more space to breathe. We think players actually have more attention to spare for music this way.

3) Adventure gaming elements work surprisingly well in isometrics. We're mixing in skill based adventure gaming, as you can see in the first screenshot with the hanged man. This is great for investigative scenes (which we have a ton of). It also puts you closer to the art and makes you pay more attention to it. (It's not just a backdrop. There's communication between dialogues and exploration). First we have expanded on the old ? question marks in the environment thing. We have different types of orbs in there. Weather you see them is based on having enough of said skill. On top of that, clicking on a combination of them can make your character come up with ideas about what you just noticed. You have little dialogues with yourself, or more precisely the skill that drew the connection. This represents your analytical or imaginative side, depending on the type of connection.

Of course you also get new dialogue options to inquire people about the things you noticed in the environment.

4) Visual Calculus. This is a very experimental skill we're working on and I don't know if we can pull it off yet. But there is this forensics based skill we have, that I think can be downright wonderful in the isometric perspective, if done right with our art style. More on this in a later update.

5) Oh and then there's also just competition. We can build beautiful things with a small team using our version of pre-rendered visuals. They'd wipe the floor with us if we couldn't rely on our art.

For example they'll have working engine for full-fledged RPG.

That too. Although I don't entirely agree that an RPG isn't "full fledged" unless it's a hundred hours long and doesn't have tactical combat. If we get the chance to develop our ideas longer, we will probably never do a carbon copy RTwP or turn based combat system. We would want something that isn't so mechanically separate from the story.

 

[Infinitron]

Marat Sar Are you Robert Kurvitz?

 

[prodigydancer]

Saying that isometric is necessarily more atmospheric is going a bit too far (e.g. TW1 was very atmospheric) but I agree that for a small-sized team it's the way to go, especially if you have artists who can actually draw nice backgrounds and portraits. Without great art isometry doesn't work. One of the reasons why I could never get far in Arcanum was that everything looked so damn ugly. NWN was just as hideous but in a 3D game it didn't bother me so much.

 

[CryptRat]

One of the reasons why I could never get far in Arcanum was that everything looked so damn ugly. NWN was just as hideous but in a 3D game it didn't bother me so much.

 

[WhiteGuts]

One of the reasons why I could never get far in Arcanum was that everything looked so damn ugly

You be trippin

 

[Marat Sar]

Saying that isometric is necessarily more atmospheric is going a bit too far .

It's a theory I harbor. That isometrics are best for the saturnine melancholy and longing side of the scale, with some cosyness and wonder thrown in for good measure -- what No Truce is mostly about -- because a bird's eye view allows for slow pieces of music to breathe and gives you a detachment from adrenaline. Also, you're not fiddling with the camera controls, which detracts from certain emotions. Instead, we'd like you to hover your mouse over the minutiae of the art, taking it in, getting sensory prompts from your skills to bring it all to life, a la fallout's text comments or even Icewind Dale's under-appreciated Ranger tracking skill. System Shock 2 and F:NV had brilliant atmospheres, but they're a bit further along to the other side of the scale for me personally. Arcanum worked mostly thanks to it's music and brilliant portraits, however repressive it became in the long run, it was memorable and effective. I can see how some people might think it's ugly at times, though. But still, c',mon

http://terra-arcanum.com/drog/dest/highres/preview_04.png

Marat Sar Are you Robert Kurvitz?

Yes.

 

[Prime Junta]

I also now have a new favourite developer.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, I don't particularly care about the whole emotions crap, but vehement support for isometric is something I can appreciate, furries or not.

 

[cherry blossom]

I am not sure why you need isometric perspective if you don't have tactical combat or something else game could benefit from being isometric... but whocares

 

[cherry blossom]

What are your thoughts on how Age of Decadence non-combat aspect was designed?

I confess to a fault. I was intrigued by AoD -- the years of watching it being developed, plus the lead designer writes good reviews -- but I didn't get to playing it because it wasn't pretty enough. I'm shallow like that. Now I feel like I should, but I don't have the time.

How was it though? The non-combat? How was it "received" around these parts? Was there only one type of stat check -- passive? Because we've found having active checks that you roll, especially when the failure is played out too, really adds a lot. Makes it more gamey, brings it to life. It's one of the things I'm sincerely giddy to show embattled RPG veterans.

AOD would indeed benefit from prettier art. It doesn't look very appealing to me either, but at least it isn't particularly repulsive. Coherent and consistently utilitarian is the best I can say about it. Had it looked more colourful and a bit more unique, I think it would attract a far wider audience, as shallow as that is. Oh, and the damn camera. Goddamn camera. There is no fixing that. It is a blast to play, however; you'd likely be surprised at how much it achieves is similar to the design you're putting down for No Truce. So, take a five and go play it.

Definitely far more games could do with general purpose combat-in-dialogue encounters. Grind and loot, likely the biggest and pointless time-sinks of my life.

 

[makiavelli747]

Oh, and the damn camera. Goddamn camera. There is no fixing that.

What is so bad about camera?

 

[Kasparov]

What is so bad about camera?

You can't control it for the life of you. AoD has an AI built into the camera controls antagonistic toward the player

 

[Shadenuat]

isometric view is just more atmospheric.

It probably has more to do with the spirit of the games themselves - generally slow paced and with lots of text.

For example, JRPGs often use(d) pre-rendered graphics, but they did not stick to just one field of view.
If your characters are 3d, you can put them into any pre-rendered "illusion" you wish.

 

[Fairfax]

The game has potential, but the name sucks. It's not that hard to read "Furries" by accident, and it's an inevitable joke (much more so than Tranny), so a lot of people will think that's the actual title.

 

[Orobis]

A developer with some balls. Now there's a breath of fresh air.

 

[Prime Junta]

Eh, good games always get nicknames. You could do worse than No Yiff With The Furries.

 

[Brancaleone]

What about trying the Greek term, that would make it "No truce with the Erinyes".

Although I'm sure the Codex will come up with a porn-joke about that one as well.

 

[udm]

So yes, I agree, this type of game benefits from the occasional combat showdown and we have them. But they take place in dialogue. They're not RtWP or classic turn based. I guess you could call them heavily scripted turn based. They have animations and the outcomes are very prose heavy. But you can have armour and you can shoot and you can miss and so on. YOu can also die. The screenshot in the tent is a good indication of how a violent situation can start in the game. There are very few of these moments, however. To have said "cinematic literature driven mega combat system" in the promo would have been disingenuous.

Bit like gamebooks/theatre of the mind then?

EDIT:

According to the author, he largely relies on D&D world-building traditions in his writing. Others are also involved in the development of ideas. "Mass editing" was employed as a tool in the finishing stage of the book, where people of various backgrounds assessed the readability and realism of the work, pointed out confusing passages and suggested amendments.[4]

The reason behind the application of the D&D game system in the writing process lies in Robert Kurvitz’ long-term involvement in D&D games, both as a GM and a player.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kurvitz#Literature

Also:

Spoiler

In late 2013, during the so-called Sirp Scandal, Robert Kurvitz was an editor of the Estonian cultural magazine Sirp for a short time and resigned when poet Andres Aule publicly voiced his objections (a poem by Aule was allegedly published without his permission; Kurvitz and Kender assumed responsibility and resigned)

 

[Xathrodox86]

At first I thought it was about a civil war within the furry fandom...

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Good marketing strategy - have an obvious joke in your game's title so the threads about it keep getting bumped by everyone who makes the obvious joke over and over again = more exposure.

 

[StaticSpine]

I smell

 

[Jaesun]

IndieGames.com ‏@indiegamescom 2m2 minutes ago
Screenshot Saturday Highlights: No Truce with the Furries, Etherborn, Gunnhildr and more http://indiegames.com/2016/06/screenshot_saturday_highlights_1.html…



They quickly corrected their tweet though...

 

[Outlander]

2) Better for music. There's a reason why the old Mark Morgan scored games are so memorable. And why Inon Zur's score for Icewind Dale is -- I think -- more effective than his latter work. From this contemplative distance, the music has more space to breathe. We think players actually have more attention to spare for music this way.

Heh, now that I think about it the music from games I remember most are those with an isometric perspective...

 

[LESS T_T]

http://devblog.fortressoccident.com/2016/06/14/the-perikarnassian-church/

Hi! My name is Kaspar and I’m working on No Truce With The Furies as a concept artist. In this short post I’m going to tell you a bit about what goes into a background. I’ll do that by elaborating on one of the screenshots from our recent press release, namely the moody one with the bad-ass car and the rain and the big building.