Game News Scars of War getting all pretty now

[Monolith]

Tags: Scars of War

Gareth Fouche (or Naked Ninja as he's called in more civilized parts) <a href="http://scarsofwargame.com/DevBlog/">expanded his one-man team</a> by adding Zach, "skilled artist and talented illustrator".
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<blockquote>Ladies, gents, join me in welcoming the newest (and only other) member of “Team SoW”. Zach, aka Collywobbles. Zach is a skilled artist and talented illustrator, his official title in the team is “El Artiste Numero Uno”, or Art Director.
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We both agree that collaboration over the course of development is better than me simply purchasing a few illustrations. So Zach’s role in SoW covers all things artistic, with his help the game will be that much more thematic, artistically consistent and visually rich. From guis and modeling to character concepts and the slideshows I am using instead of cutscenes, Zach will be working closely with me to develop all of these. After some lengthy, cut-throat negotiations, I wrangled Zach into agreeing to work for moldy crusts of bread and all the floggings he desires.</blockquote>
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Good news if you ask me. Not only does "artistically consistent" sound great, but this can actually speed up the development of Scars of War a bit. Anyway, with such a whopping team to organize Naked Ninja should think about getting some sort of Division Operations Manager now - or however those fancy, high positions are called.
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<a href="http://collywobblebloggle.blogspot.com/">Here's</a> Zach's blog so you can have a taste of his skills.
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Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</a>
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[Darth Roxor]

Gareth Fouche, moar like Gareth DOUCHE amirite

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

He seems like a p. cool gai to me.

God, what have I become?

 

[BethesdaLove]

Holy shit, Ninja got himself actually somebody who can draw... Wtf? How? Btw, Zach, are you on Conceptart.org?

 

[Andhaira]

Good stuff. I'm really looking forward to scales of war. Regarding cutscense though, why even slideshows? Why not ust use the in-game engine, scaled back a bit for cutscenes?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

:hairy balls:

I see Scars of Wars also has its own forums now. We really should stop hosting these bozo's. They all just grow up and head out on their own.

 

[Andhaira]

Hey DU, we should really have an Eschalon board (or baslisk games board if you would) Yeah they have their own boards, but Eschalon is perhaps the best quality indie crpg released ever. We need to support it.

 

[Micmu]

in before sellout to the Big Name Publisher

?

 

[Collywobbles]

in before sellout to the Big Name Publisher

?

Too late.
http://scarsofwargame.com/forum/index.php?topic=200.0

 

[Kingston]

Great news. I'm really looking forward to seeing this game in action.

 

[Jasede]

Magazines, a telephone, a photograph of Pete Hines and tissues. You know, I never noticed the photograph before.

 

[Krash]

Lookin good. Now I want SoW even more than before

 

[sheek]

The new SoW website is very nice, I hadn't noticed it before. Makes it a lot easier to see why the project is interesting (eg character creation) than going through a lot of forum posts.

Has SoW been mentioned by the commercial video-game media yet?

 

[Naked Ninja]

Holy shit, Ninja got himself actually somebody who can draw... Wtf? How? Btw, Zach, are you on Conceptart.org?

He is. But he's a sneaky ninja, you will have to find him.

Good stuff. I'm really looking forward to scales of war. Regarding cutscense though, why even slideshows? Why not ust use the in-game engine, scaled back a bit for cutscenes?

Well, let me give an example. One of the scenes for the planned slide-show involves a sort of medieval equivalent of the storming of the beaches of Normandy. A fleet of ships heading into an enemy harbor, fighting off enemy ships and attempting to land in force so as to take the city.

Now, to create that in the engine I'd need ship models, some in ruins. I'd need all the particle effects for smoke and fire. I'd need player models with a slew of animations. I'd need to take time setting up the camera angles, making it look good. I'd have to worry about performance issues with that many models on the screen at once, whether I could make it work and look like a fleet instead of just a handful of ships. And it still might not get the look I want, the kind of look that might require special filters and so on.

All-in-all, weeks and weeks of work. And that's one of many.

Compare that the Zach illustrating it. It's a complex piece, no doubt. But he could do it in a fraction of the time, give it the style I like and not have to worry about how it performs on lower spec machines. He can achieve everything the cut-scene does for a fraction of the cost and time. It's pure win.

Engines are limited. A skilled artist and the imagination aren't.

e Scars of Wars also has its own forums now. We really should stop hosting these bozo's. They all just grow up and head out on their own.

:cycle of life:

Well, I like having a presence here, but I will accept it if you want to close the SoW sub-section. Still, I will always appreciate the boost the Codex gave me, getting me started.

Has SoW been mentioned by the commercial video-game media yet?

By commercial, you mean magazines etc? Cause the Watch and GameBanshee already follow, on top of the Codex. Not yet, but I have faith it will happen. Actually, forget faith, I plan to spam their mailboxes until they relent. But the time isn't right yet.

 

[BethesdaLove]

"Actually I contacted the developer mainly because I want to support independent games, especially hardcore Rpgs. It is not really possible for an independent to afford professional work. I want AoD and Dwarf Fortress and Mount and Blade to sell so somebody will make more of them."
-Collywobbles

:patriot:

 

[Elhoim]

He is a true patriot