Interview RPG Codex Interview: Primordia, Point-and-Click Adventure Inspired by Fallout and Planescape

[circ]

Ok so this is an adventure game? Why say it's inspired by Fallout and PST, wouldn't it make a better analogy to say it was inspired BASS? I think the art is not completely dissimilar, with some 80's Metal Hurlant thrown in, well reminded me a bit of Darkseed too. Even has a robot companion apparently like in BASS. But, whatever, looks great. Although I thought a slower electronic piece would have worked better for the trailer.

 

[crafthack]

Ok so this is an adventure game? Why say it's inspired by Fallout and PST, wouldn't it make a better analogy to say it was inspired BASS? I think the art is not completely dissimilar, with some 80's Metal Hurlant thrown in, well reminded me a bit of Darkseed too. Even has a robot companion apparently like in BASS. But, whatever, looks great. Although I thought a slower electronic piece would have worked better for the trailer.

Dark Seed seems the most apt, considering that the art in that game was actually done by HR Giger, and in the interview the guy mentions Giger as an influence.

 

[MRY]

I appreciate the outrage, which I somewhat share, but only somewhat. I'm more surprised and confused by the reaction. But while I liked the puzzle -- precisely because of its trolling quality -- it's totally non-essential to the story or the overall experience. Also, several testers expressed the same frustration. I think the problem is that it occurs quite early in the game. At the end of the day, I'm more concerned with people playing my game than with gratifying my trollish urges. (The conceit of the puzzle was that you had to match up parts, but there was no way to get them all to match; eventually you realize this, and then discover that instead of matching them, you can just weld them together. The parts, natch, are called "Gordium conduits," which I figured was a hint, or at least an allusion that would bring folks a smile when they passed it. But apparently not!)

@ circ: The story is heavily inspired by those games. There's a robot companion because everyone is a robot! That said, the artist was certainly inspired by BASS. I don't think it had that much impact on me, though I liked the game when I played it years ago. Since the interview was with me, on an RPG site, I assume that's why it led with PS:T and FO. Elsewhere it's often compared to BASS. Anyway, I'm glad you're excited about the game, and have a discerning enough palate for this kind of art to detect Metal Hurlant.

 

[tuluse]

Have you considered difficulty settings, is that feasible?

 

[MRY]

One flooded basement, some rubber tubing, a repurposed fountain pump, and some rubber bands and caulk later, I'm feeling in a much better mood!

Let me elaborate slightly on what I said before. First, I suspect that there is a bit of a telephone game going on between the media, the publisher, me, and you guys. Who knows exactly what the sites said in the first instance? But, in any event, it's not a particularly big deal to me -- frustrating though it is -- because when you work on a game as a team, you have to accept that your vision is not going to be realized exactly how you might originally have imagined it. Vic and I each compromised to make our ideas fit together just right, and then our ideas had to be filtered through the watchful eyes and practical know-how of Jim (the coder). At the end of the day, scenes Vic wanted to paint, puzzles I schemed up (including a great one involving a crane hook), etc. all were dumped for various reasons.

There problem was a time when this would have bothered me more, but -- and I realize I sound ridiculous saying this -- the more things I do in life, the more I realize that if you hold out for things to be exactly how you want them, nothing ever happens with anything. I would've liked this puzzle to be in the game, but it's not integral; if I hadn't mentioned it, I don't think anyone would've noticed its absence. It was just that the timing was so horribly ironic with this interview that I felt like sharing!

@ tuluse: I did, and it's not. For one thing, it's just this one puzzle. And, since the only part that's being removed is a red herring, it would be a little weird to reinsert it on a higher difficulty setting. Even if it were feasible, the reason why we're just cutting the puzzle, rather than trying to tweak it to make it less cruel, is that we're so close to release that it's the knife or nothing. Generally speaking, the way we've handled difficulty settings is to have easier and trickier ways to solve puzzles, with the trickier ways tending to yield better rewards.

 

[skuphundaku]

Today's Wadjet Eye Games' newsletter, among other things, has a reference and a link to this interview on the Codex. of the Codex as a prestigious gaming publication.