Development Info Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #67: How To Create An Area, In 13 Days Or More

[J_C]

Heh, couldn't help but reading this, and thinking that there'll be some "bad news" announcement next.

You too? :D I was looking forward to the "game is delayed" paragraph when I read the update.

Same here. Thought I'm expecting news like "unfotunately, we have to reduce the 15-level dungeon to a 15-storey basement" rather than about a delay.

Disregarding the shitstorm that may or may not follow, would it be so bad to have the Mega Dungeon be 10 levels instead of 15, if that means bigger and better levels?

I don'T really care about the mega dungeon to be honest. I would be OK with a 5 level dungeon, if that is a good dungeon.

 

[norolim]

Heh, couldn't help but reading this, and thinking that there'll be some "bad news" announcement next.

You too? :D I was looking forward to the "game is delayed" paragraph when I read the update.

Same here. Thought I'm expecting news like "unfotunately, we have to reduce the 15-level dungeon to a 15-storey basement" rather than about a delay.

Disregarding the shitstorm that may or may not follow, would it be so bad to have the Mega Dungeon be 10 levels instead of 15, if that means bigger and better levels?

Absolutely not. I would even prefer a 5-level full-blown dungeon than 15-storeys of small rooms.

 

[Sensuki]

10 levels of Durlag's Tower quality with a bit more of Watcher's Keep's questing would be awesome. But there's a plethora of backers out there that would not budge from the number 15.

 

[Infinitron]

It's more likely that you'll have all 15 floors, but with some of them being small. Like an entire floor dedicated to a tough boss fight, or something like that.

 

[norolim]

It's more likely that you'll have all 15 floors, but with some of them being small. Like an entire floor dedicated to a tough boss fight, or something like that.

Yes, very likely. They will probably look for clever ways to limit the time needed to do some of the levels. They will be passable, but will require much less resources to do.

 

[Roguey]

They've stated in multiple places that content and features they promised in the Kickstarter campaign are A-priority and they would make cuts elsewhere before reneging on their backer promises.

So that 15 level dungeon will be delivered to the letter.

 

[Rake]

They've stated in multiple places that content and features they promised in the Kickstarter campaign are A-priority and they would make cuts elsewhere before reneging on their backer promises.

So that 15 level dungeon will be delivered to the letter.

The question is what is a level. Technicaly you could consider a single room a "level". That way i can design you a 100 level dungeon.

 

[Sensuki]

The latest update pretty much confirmed some of the areas would have less content density and/or be smaller in size than say a Dragon's Eye Cave level/Durlag's Tower/Watcher's Keep level.

 

[Rake]

As long as it's quality content and not a simple combat grind, i'm ok with that. 15 level megadungeon sounded riddiculous eitherway.

 

[Roguey]

The latest update pretty much confirmed some of the areas would have less content density and/or be smaller in size than say a Dragon's Eye Cave level/Durlag's Tower/Watcher's Keep level.

This was going to happen regardless of how much time/money they had. Early on Josh was saying things like "filler combats are bad" and "if I could take out 1/3 of Icewind Dale 2's content I would" and "Athkatla was too content-dense."

 

[Sensuki]

You don't have to repeat this stuff to me.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Then promising a 15-level dungeon was a pretty bad idea to begin with, eh?

 

[Roguey]

Then promising a 15-level dungeon was a pretty bad idea to begin with, eh?

It was a great idea when it came to motivating new backers to pledge and getting more Facebook likes.

 

[Lhynn]

I want a 15 levels megadungeon with floors so big that can take up to 4 hours to fully explore, filled with traps, monsters and tactical challenges, interesting npcs and quests (if they had an underlying feeling of wrongness and were disturbing but not immediatly obvious bonus points).

If having 15 floors means medium size id rather just have 10 big ones.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I guess this will be SoZ size 15 mini-dungeons stacked.

 

[cherry blossom]

They should have never stuck with this 2D nostalgia nonsense when they can hardly afford the time to do it. I love 2D but we're finally seriously at a point where good art direction in orthographic projection or low field of vision will net you the same rich visual experience in 3D (just look at Chaos Chronicles for a comparison with fewer manpower and less industry experience) plus the benefits of working with 3D sans labour intensive pipeline of 2D with graphics doomed to age unless developer provides source art or higher-res assets in future.

 

[Sensuki]

Well if they don't lose the source art files then they should be able to provide higher res assets in future if there is ever a need I guess.

 

[Athelas]

I do recall them saying environment art had been their biggest investment for this project (I think MCA also mentioned it in that game conference video from a few days back).

 

[J_C]

They should have never stuck with this 2D nostalgia nonsense when they can hardly afford the time to do it. I love 2D but we're finally seriously at a point where good art direction in orthographic projection or low field of vision will net you the same rich visual experience in 3D (just look at Chaos Chronicles for a comparison with fewer manpower and less industry experience) plus the benefits of working with 3D sans labour intensive pipeline of 2D with graphics doomed to age unless developer provides source art or higher-res assets in future.

Many people payed for that 2D nonsense back during the KS. And while Chaos Chronicles looks good, it doesn't have that IE vibe PE does.

with graphics doomed to age

*checking the IE games* Nope, they didn't age badly, except for the characters.

 

[Rake]

"Age badly" my ass. BG2, IWD1+2 and ToEE look better even now than 90% of AAA RPGs out there. They look better than every game made by Bioware,Obsidian or Bethesda.

 

[cherry blossom]

Many people payed for that 2D nonsense back during the KS. And while Chaos Chronicles looks good, it doesn't have that IE vibe PE does.

*checking the IE games* Nope, they didn't age badly, except for the characters.

They look good but I'm not a fan of graphics that look ant hive small today on a modern screen for a game that used to be a fairly high resolution with clean graphics at its time.

If Obsidian said "we are doing 3D but completely in the style of 2D IE games, see our example here", it wouldn't change a thing.

Anyway, not complaining about 2D at all. Just about their pipeline speed.

 

[Rivmusique]

Hope they avoid anything even close to battlesquares. Who in their right mind thought that was a good idea?

 

[Grunker]

The IE games might just be the most gracefully aged games in existence, visually.

It's more likely that you'll have all 15 floors, but with some of them being small. Like an entire floor dedicated to a tough boss fight, or something like that.

Som of Watcher's Keep's levels were pretty small, and that was a pretty big project. These things take time to become cohesive. Hopefully some of the floors will literally be one puzzle or something.

 

[Roguey]

They look good but I'm not a fan of graphics that look ant hive small today on a modern screen for a game that used to be a fairly high resolution with clean graphics at its time.

I think we've hit peak resolution for the time being. Plus I'm pretty sure when the IE games were 640x480 my desktop was 800x600 and when IWD2 was 800x600 I was 1024x768 so they were always slightly behind.

 

[Grunker]

They look good but I'm not a fan of graphics that look ant hive small today on a modern screen for a game that used to be a fairly high resolution with clean graphics at its time.

I think we've hit peak resolution for the time being. Plus I'm pretty sure when the IE games were 640x480 my desktop was 800x600 and when IWD2 was 800x600 I was 1024x768 so they were always slightly behind.

I'm running BG currently in 1366x768 fullscreen on my 1920x1080 monitor, and it looks very puuurdy without being tiny.