George Ziets opening a new RPG studio - Digimancy Entertainment

[MRY]

Ghoulishness about a dev studio run by a guy who's a good person and has made at least one truly great game (MOTB) strikes me as bad form. Hard to make games, especially if you're not trying to follow a cookie-cutter mold, which I don't think George is.

 

[The Wall]

Agreed with both sentiments. But point remains: by summer 2023, we should at least KNOW what's he working on. That's not much to ask for

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Bummer, but unfortunately I gotta agree, publisher isn't going to keep your lights on if 1.5 year of development doesn't even generate concept art to show around .

 

[Delterius]

Ghoulishness about a dev studio run by a guy who's a good person and has made at least one truly great game (MOTB) strikes me as bad form. Hard to make games, especially if you're not trying to follow a cookie-cutter mold, which I don't think George is.

I have a lot of respect for Mr George i think we are all just depressed

 

[MRY]

Bummer, but unfortunately I gotta agree, publisher isn't going to keep your lights on if 1.5 year of development doesn't even generate concept art to show around .

Far more likely they were under NDA.

Agreed with both sentiments. But point remains: by summer 2023, we should at least KNOW what's he working on. That's not much to ask for

I mean, maybe? I myself think it's better not to hype a project until it's farther along, but it probably would be better for them from a business standpoint to hype ab initio.

 

[Roguey]

sometimes systems and narrative are developed separately, under the assumption that certain systems (e.g., combat) need to be in every RPG. However, we think a narrative-first perspective can lead to more innovative and immersive games and mechanics.

Here we go. Ziets Elysium, Ziets in the Woods...

TLDR the publisher cancelled their project after 1-1.5 years of development lmao. As a small studio, they should've released ANY game inside that time frame. Impotents.

An RPG? No way. Anyway, the project's cancellation didn't necessarily have to do with its quality; Paradox cancelled a lot of projects because Ebba went on a reckless spending spree that nearly tanked the company.

 

[vortex]

I'm OK with Digimancy making an immersive sim.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Ghoulishness about a dev studio run by a guy who's a good person and has made at least one truly great game (MOTB) strikes me as bad form.

I said at the beginning (many pages back) that their decision to hire an all American team while they all worked REMOTELY was a giant mistake. Motivated, young specialists from the eastern block cost one fifth of what George was paying his entitled American sloths.

Another mistake was hiring old guys. Old guys are by definition aren't interested in, or even capable of doing what MCA pulled on PST.

"Ghoulish". I'm butthurt that yet another RPG-related project has been run into the ground by some old timer who can't make head or tail of managing his own company.

 

[The Wall]

Brutal but high % of truth

What was last good cRPG or just RPG to come out of America? Pillars 2, four years ago? And that's it? That's it? Most powerful, richest country in the world with 350+ million people, created the genre, the centre of techological IT innovation, birthplace of gaming and that's it? In time when DOZEN different free engines exist, programming tutorials, IT colleges, game design schools, millions of $ in capital, Kickstarter for initial funding, Steam Early Access for early cash and user feedback, digital distribution with zero cost of manufacturing and? AND? What Tim Cain had from all of that in late 90s/early 2000s? He had hard work, sanity and vision

Zero. Hahahha. Z-E-R-O new cRPGs from America. I bet, and I'm not joking, that Zeits would refuse to publicly answer the question "What is a woman?". Holy Fuck! Let just sink in how much insanity was normalised and how much you got used to America being deeply fucked country. Deeply. Fucked. Up

 

[Alienman]

Wake me up when that great eastern block RPG comes along.

 

[The Wall]

Kingdom Come Deliverance, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, ATOM, ATOM: Trudograd, Underrail, Disco Elysium, Vagrus: The Riven Realms, Witcher 1/2/3. To name a few. Most from last 5 years

 

[The Wall]

Again, what was last good RPG which had MADE IN AMERICA seal? I understand: Drag Queens > Quality RPGs

 

[Bad Sector]

An RPG? No way.

Depends on the game, a small scale RPG would certainly be possible as long as they didn't try to pretend they are a AAA studio. Nowadays with the enormous teams and baklavian layers of management people have forgotten that among independent studios multiyear projects used to be the exception, not the norm.

 

[Roguey]

What was last good cRPG or just RPG to come out of America?

Wasteland 3, 2020.

Depends on the game, a small scale RPG would certainly be possible as long as they didn't try to pretend they are a AAA studio. Nowadays with the enormous teams and baklavian layers of management people have forgotten that among independent studios multiyear projects used to be the exception, not the norm.

Shadowrun Returns is the kind of RPG you can expect to get in 15 months. Good RPGs built from scratch need about 3 years, there's no getting around that.

 

[The Wall]

Wasteland 3, 2020

Two years ago. An ok RPG. With terrible DLCs. Dumbed down from previous. And with zoomer pew-pew! esthetics. Turned out ok because of Zeits. And that's RPG output of Gaming SuperPower America?

 

[Roguey]

Two years ago. An ok RPG. With terrible DLCs. Dumbed down from previous. And with zoomer pew-pew! esthetics. Turned out ok because of Zeits. And that's RPG output of Gaming SuperPower America?

There are no independent RPG developers in America anymore. It's just Bethesda, Obsidian, inXile, maybe Harebrained, and the zombie Bioware in Canada.

 

[The Wall]

I agree man. I'm not gloating. It's sad, sad situation. My point is: it doesn't have to be that way. Nothing stops indie RPG studios to sprout in America like mushrooms after rain

 

[LudensCogitet]

I agree man. I'm not gloating. It's sad, sad situation. My point is: it doesn't have to be that way. Nothing stops indie RPG studios to sprout in America like mushrooms after rain

As an American who is very unhappy with the current social collapse, moral degeneracy, etc. I'd be interested to know how different it is in other countries. For example, I'm a software engineer (not game related) and I sometimes worry about someone connecting me to my posts here and on other platforms. On video calls I use digital backdrops so people can't see the Gadsden flag on my wall.

I think the state of the American game industry has to do with fear of reprisal for not towing the line. It seems like the greats have either cucked, or been driven underground by the totalitarian woke. The enthusiasm is gone, because an attempt to form a group of like minded people would be leaped on and infiltrated and potentially black listed, even from things like banks.

 

[Bad Sector]

Shadowrun Returns is the kind of RPG you can expect to get in 15 months.

Which is a fine - if short - RPG for a small studio.

Good RPGs built from scratch need about 3 years, there's no getting around that.

I don't see where you get that "3 years" from. You don't need three years to come up with a scenario or quests, nor you need three years to come up with a combat system (99% of which will be derivative of something existing anyway). What you'd need 3+ years for is to make all the visual assets at high end AAA+ quality using a dedicated team of artists with their own middle managers and inherent inefficiencies.

Hence why i wrote it to be small scale and not try to pretend they are some AAA+ studio.

 

[Roguey]

I don't see where you get that "3 years" from. You don't need three years to come up with a scenario or quests, nor you need three years to come up with a combat system (99% of which will be derivative of something existing anyway). What you'd need 3+ years for is to make all the visual assets at high end AAA+ quality using a dedicated team of artists with their own middle managers and inherent inefficiencies.

Hence why i wrote it to be small scale and not try to pretend they are some AAA+ studio.

Fallout and Arcanum took over three years. Pentiment, which is as about as small as it gets, looks like a Flash game, and has no combat system, is taking four years. All that scripting and programming a bunch of systems necessary for RPGs takes time.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Ghoulishness about a dev studio run by a guy who's a good person and has made at least one truly great game (MOTB) strikes me as bad form.

I said at the beginning (many pages back) that their decision to hire an all American team while they all worked REMOTELY was a giant mistake. Motivated, young specialists from the eastern block cost one fifth of what George was paying his entitled American sloths.

Another mistake was hiring old guys. Old guys are by definition aren't interested in, or even capable of doing what MCA pulled on PST.

"Ghoulish". I'm butthurt that yet another RPG-related project has been run into the ground by some old timer who can't make head or tail of managing his own company.

It's not as simple as "hire cheaper labor", there's language barriers and timezone issues as major obstacles plus a bunch of smaller ones including things like different expectations in working culture.
Also, working remotely blows for productivity. Entire industries have seen productivity nosedive, there's a reason people are going back to the office.

 

[The Wall]

I agree man. I'm not gloating. It's sad, sad situation. My point is: it doesn't have to be that way. Nothing stops indie RPG studios to sprout in America like mushrooms after rain

As an American who is very unhappy with the current social collapse, moral degeneracy, etc. I'd be interested to know how different it is in other countries. For example, I'm a software engineer (not game related) and I sometimes worry about someone connecting me to my posts here and on other platforms. On video calls I use digital backdrops so people can't see the Gadsden flag on my wall.

I think the state of the American game industry has to do with fear of reprisal for not towing the line. It seems like the greats have either cucked, or been driven underground by the totalitarian woke. The enthusiasm is gone, because an attempt to form a group of like minded people would be leaped on and infiltrated and potentially black listed, even from things like banks.

First and foremost - none of that exists in Eastern Europe. Literally none. At least not yet. Secondly I can't help but feel that 95% of people are on their knees in fear of opinions of few procent of lunatics. What you wrote I realize to be unspoken truth for many, and I sympathize. You can feel it in way how devs speak, you can see it in way how their games are designed. But for those who think that if they capitulate before yet another insane demand that Insanity will stop or slow down? I have bad news

 

[The Wall]

Fallout and Arcanum took over three years. Pentiment, which is as about as small as it gets, looks like a Flash game, and has no combat system, is taking four years. All that scripting and programming a bunch of systems necessary for RPGs takes time.

Fallout 3 and Skyrim took 3-4 years. Starfield takes 6-7. Gap between games is widening to ridiculous size. Gap between GTA and Elder Scrolls V and VI will be 10+ years, in both cases

American execs are getting stupidly greedy, your workforce is getting mongrelized, lazy and incompetent and your old guard is either cucked and silent or dying. You are so fucked, you don't even realize

 

[The Wall]

Fuck games man. We all gonna play Civil War 2 soon, anyway. Sequel was in making for a looong time. Can't wait

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Regardless of your opinion on it, Fallout 2 took a year to make.
Would have been a better game if it had two, three, or five years of development? Most likely not.