KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[ERYFKRAD]

Don't you dare lol me

lol

 

[Mazisky]

I am really interested in this game because Ufo enemy unknown is my favourite game of all times and Xcom2 is my favourite game of the moment.

The fact that Phoenix point will feature even the same composer is such incline because, u know, Ufo ost is the best of 90' games, matched only by the Warcaft 2 one.
The game already feels deep and time consuming, and the hcorror vibe is much needed after the weird ninja turtles art direction taken by nuxcom...

Only one thing:
Do not understimate the importance of environmental variety in a game like this.
Featuring only wastelands, ruined havens and fucking oil platforms with barrels in a procedural system will make even a single playthrough falls into real life suicide feelings.

Both ufo defense and xcom2 did well in this regard.
Nuxcom1 did worse but at least they were handcrafted , so nice too look at

 

[Grif]

This is looking more and more incline. But still, it remains to be seen if Gollop would deliver.

 

[Space Satan]

I want to see proper Ironman. I savescummed UFO Defense like there's no tomorrow. Europa Universalis IV did great job on discouraging savescumming by making achievements available only in ironman.
I have a shitty self-control.

 

[Grotesque]

what are achievements good for?
do they translate in monetary value on steam to buy a game from time to time if you are hardcore enough?

 

[ArchAngel]

what are achievements good for?
do they translate in monetary value on steam to buy a game from time to time if you are hardcore enough?

Nope.
Those are trading cards.

 

[Mazisky]

So much incline in this update, SO MUCH

Let's hope that Julian hasn't been possessed by the spirit of Peter Molyneux.
Ideas are one thing, but implementation of said ideas is quite another.

Julian is british, not french. Relax

 

[Galdred]

So much incline in this update, SO MUCH

Let's hope that Julian hasn't been possessed by the spirit of Peter Molyneux.
Ideas are one thing, but implementation of said ideas is quite another.

Julian is british, not french. Relax

As suggested by his first name, Peter Molyneux is English too...

 

[Mazisky]

So much incline in this update, SO MUCH

Let's hope that Julian hasn't been possessed by the spirit of Peter Molyneux.
Ideas are one thing, but implementation of said ideas is quite another.

Julian is british, not french. Relax

As suggested by his first name, Peter Molyneux is English too...

He is, but you know, your blood never lies

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Jimmious]

And a flamethrower:
https://sketchfab.com/models/78cb4d6735104b59ba32f556d41539c4

 

[luinthoron]

And a flamethrower:
https://sketchfab.com/models/78cb4d6735104b59ba32f556d41539c4

And the best thing - this one finally actually has a trigger.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Jimmious]

Holy shit they are actually SIMULATING the world until the point you start? Fucking hell that's awesome!!! Gollop you amazing dude you

 

[Spockrock]

pre-orders
https://phoenixpoint.xsolla.com
20% off until Monday if you use this code: EGX20

 

[PanteraNera]

UnstableVoltage
So we know that the aliens will mutate when they are not effective but how is it determined that they are effective? If they manage to hurt the soldiers? By the player failing a mission? By killing Phoenix Point Soldiers (that one is unlikely as there are few of them as far as I hear)?

Also the only thing I am actually worried about is the budget.

Is it possible that the underwater battles (from the stretch goals) may later be added as an DLC/add-on?

Really hope that their will be ways (ingame or by config editing) to be able to turn off shadows, also I hope for DX9 support

 

[udm]

Did my part and backed the $105 tier. UnstableVoltage is it possible to increase the pledge at a later date?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/Phoenix-Point/Phoenix-Point-EGX-Gollop-Tactics-History

Julian Gollop charts the evolution of turn-based tactics, from Rebelstar Raiders to Phoenix Point

On stage at EGX, Friday, Julian Gollop - most famous for the original 90s X-Com, and now working on Phoenix Point - spoke about the history of the turn-based tactical genre from its earliest inspirations in tabletop gaming, to his first title released in 1984 all the way up to his current project. It’s an interesting watch, especially now that the genre has returned to vogue through Firaxis’ XCom reboot and no shortage of imitators.

The presentation itself was divided into three distinct segments. The first 19 minutes dedicated to an abridged history of the genre and his involvement in it. It’s fascinating to see the roots of one of my favourite genres go back to the year after I was born, 1984, with the release of Rebelstar Raiders. Primitive compared to modern tactical games, it was in effect a digital tabletop game of squad combat, with two players competing across three single-screen maps.

The video covers his work in the industry through 1988’s Laser Squad, which introduced so many of the gameplay elements that would make X-Com a classic, all the way up to the tragic cancellation of Dreamland Chronicles: Phoenix Point. Envisioned as a reboot of sorts of X-Com for modern (PS2 and Windows PC) systems. The game was going to introduce direct movement and aiming much like Valkyria Chronicles, but never saw the light of day due to publisher Virgin Interactive going bankrupt and taking much of Gollop’s aspirations with them.

The second focus of his time on stage is a look at Phoenix Point itself. Starting around 20 minutes, he takes a broad look at the setting and style of the game and then a more in-depth look at the strategic overworld layer. While no tactical combat is shown, we do get to see how you control your forces in Phoenix Point, moving a growing pool of vehicles around the globe, exploring ruins within fuel range for resources, technology and potentially allied survivors as you build up forces with the ultimate goal of turning back a massive alien apocalypse.

There’s some exciting ideas in there, with the primarily aquatic aliens gradually altering the planet to better suit them. As the campaign drags on, sea levels rise and usable terrain is lost. The aliens also send out enormous walking fortresses to knock over bases, prompting missions to land on these monsters in an attempt to find a weak-point that will allow you to kill it before losing too much. Aliens aren’t the only threat, with several human factions being potential antagonists if you play your diplomatic cards wrong.

It’s a great look into the mechanics of the game, even if the final release is a long way off. It seems to be a far more simulation-driven system than previous games by Gollop, with more in common with X-Com Apocalypse than the original, or even Firaxis’ reboot. The last section of the presentation is dedicated to a Q&A session, in which Gollop attempts to explain just how they’re planning on preventing players from levelling the entire battle-map, even though the option is there.

Phoenix Point is due for release sometime in 2018, and is available for preorder(along with a bonus free copy of Gollop’s recent Chaos Reborn) with a 20% discount using the code above for a few hours yet.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/x-com-ufo-defense/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle-xcom-julian-gollop

X-Com creator Julian Gollop was asked to work on Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle may be a Switch exclusive but it’s PC DNA is clear for all to see. The game brings together a stock of Nintendo and Ubisoft characters and has them battle together in turn-based tactical combat drawn very much from the well of X-Com. However, the link could have been even stronger: it turns out, Julian Gollop, creator of the original X-Com, was asked to work on the project.

“The creative director Davide Soliani is a friend of mine from Ubisoft,” Gollop tells us. “When I was at Ubisoft Sofia he was, and still is, working for Ubisoft Milan and I visited him a couple of times. We had conversations about project ideas… he was a fan of my previous games, like Laser Squad [Nemesis] and stuff like that, and he was really into his strategy and turn-based ideas from the beginning.”

Then, about three years ago, Gollop recalls Soliani rang him “saying 'Do I want to work on this project with him?'.” However, Gollop had just left the studio to start working on Chaos Reborn, his sequel to one of the first games he released. “I didn't know at the time that the project he was talking about was Mario + Rabbids, he couldn't say what it was,” Gollop says. “Nevertheless, had I been at Ubisoft I may have worked on it.”

Gollop hasn’t had the chance to play the game yet, he’s hard at work on Phoenix Point, his return to the X-Com genre. But he says, “to his credit, Soliani created his own tactical turn-based game, albeit in a rather unusual setting, which is brilliant. It has to join the X-Com genre because it's the only genre that's pushing this really interesting turn-based tactical system. Although it doesn't have much of a strategic layer as such, the connection with the modern XCOM systems is so obvious that it has to almost fall within the same genre.”

 

[J_C]

pre-orders
https://phoenixpoint.xsolla.com
20% off until Monday if you use this code: EGX20

I want to get this sooooo much. But I have to practice self-constraint. I have too many games as it is.

 

[ArchAngel]

pre-orders
https://phoenixpoint.xsolla.com
20% off until Monday if you use this code: EGX20

I want to get this sooooo much. But I have to practice self-constraint. I have too many games as it is.

Before this game comes out you can play and finish many of those games.

 

[Infinitron]

Lots of Gollop stuff coming out of EGX: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-new-xcom...oenix-point-says-x-com-creator-julian-gollop/

'The new XCOM game allowed me to make Phoenix Point', says X-Com creator Julian Gollop
"Because without it, I doubt I even would've attempted it."

Despite founding the series in 1994, X-Com mastermind Julian Gollop has admitted his current project Phoenix Point wouldn't exist if it weren't for Firaxis' 2012 Enemy Unknown reboot .

In 1994, Julian Gollop, alongside his Mythos Games team, redefined the turn-based strategy genre with the creation of UFO: Enemy Unknown—otherwise known as X-COM UFO Defense. A direct sequel—X-COM: Terror from the Deep—followed, before the series changed scope and jumped genres with Gollop and his team no longer on board.

Two cancelled games in the early '00s effectively buried the series, before it was revived and rebooted by Firaxis in 2012. XCOM has since went from strength to strength, with Gollop's original creation becoming its own sub-genre.

"I think it's fantastic," Gollops tells PC Gamer. "When you think that for so long I was trying to make this kind of game and no publisher was even interested, what it proves that there's now an audience for this style of game. It may not be absolutely massive, but it's a pretty solid, dedicated audience.

"People have been asking me to remake X-Com, or Laser Squad, or anything forever. They've always asked me to do it. It's just getting commercial interest from a publisher to actually do it has been very difficult."

Gollop suggests MOBAs have in many ways overshadowed RTS games in recent years, but he admires how Firaxis has "managed to resurrect" the latter genre, in turn finding critical and commercial success. Despite being responsible for the foundations of the X-Com as we know it today, Gollop reckons its current guise champions a new genre—one that his latest venture Phoenix Point is happily part of.

"It just goes to show that maybe I was right to pursue this kind of game," Gollop continues. "But what the new XCOM game has allowed me to do is make Phoenix Point, because without it, I doubt I even would've attempted it. God knows what I'd be doing. I think it's fair to say it's now a new genre of game. It's now established, and there are people who are actively looking for this style of game, and there will be more like them, which is really cool. It's brilliant. From my point of view, it's great.

"When you think about it, all the X-Com games, going back to the ones I worked on, the strategic layer is the thing that's changed the most. So the original was set on a globe, Terror From The Deep sort of copied that, but X-Com Apocalypse was radically different. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is reminiscent of the original but is actually quite different, because it's a much more scripted sequence of stuff. It's more like a min/maxing management sim. With XCOM 2, they changed it quite radically again. So this seems to be the area of the X-Com genre-style game that's changing the most."

Gollops continues, suggesting Phoenix Point—said to be a spiritual successor of the '94 X-Com—will do something different again, while retaining "this core tactical turn-based gameplay which is more familiar across all the X-Com games."

Look out for our full interview with Julian Gollop—wherein he discusses Phoenix Point, X-Com and more—later today.

RTS games

wat

 

[luinthoron]

I swear, it's like these reporters don't even listen to what he actually says. Yes, he did mention RTS games being overshadowed by MOBAs. No, Firaxis did not resurrect that particular genre, RTS games were mentioned as being the reason for the decline of TBS, with MOBAs now doing the same to the RTS genre.

I was similarly surprised by the PCGamesN article thinking the sea levels would keep rising during the game. Or, for that matter, thinking that Gollop's previous cancelled attempt was for some reason called "Dreamland Chronicles: Phoenix Point".

 

[UnstableVoltage]

In all fairness, these interviews were conducted in a noisy environment and then later transcribed to be written up by a third-party. (Source: I was there).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Biscotti]

I haven't been this excited for a game to release in years. I sincerely hope Julian and his team manage to pull it all of, the potential this game has could very well cement it among the greats of the TB tactics genre.
I think this'll be the first ever KickStarter Fig campaign I pledge to. Incline awaits!