Selaco - A Doom engine FPS inspired by FEAR and the classics - now available on Early Access

[Nexxtic]

Lead developer of Selaco here! I am going to take my time to respond to valid criticisms. I don't know what to say to you if you assume we are pandering for simply having a female character. We accepted auditions from both male and female actors and simply went with the one who was the most convincing. The gender of the character is not important in this game and we barely ever acknowledge it; we wrote the character before we even knew the gender. The ''Stick with it girl'' line was an improv from our actress and felt very appropriate in this context. Any comments about 'pandering', 'waifu' and what not are going to be ignored from here on out.

Yeah, ignore the other pointed out issues like clunky gameplay.

Could you elaborate on this? The goal of this video was to showcase the world we have created. We intentionally did not show combat because we think it deserves its own video. Movement has been slowed down to let the world breathe and allow the viewer to absorb the details better.

It's a bloody FPS and you'll surely be able to mute the protagonist and skip/ignore the story stuff.

Indeed, Dawn can be muted and story elements can be skipped if needed.

Why even make something on the Doom engine if you are going to make it so thoroughly ugly and modern looking. Oh right so they can simply say it's made on the Doom engine for "retro cred." Remember when people used to make those "If Doom/Quake were made today!" videos, and they were parodies to be laughed at. Now games that look exactly like that are celebrated as some sort of return to form for the FPS genre.

Sorry that you see it like that. We went with the Doom engine because we have a ton of experience with it. We are, for the most part, staying true to Doom's aesthetics by not going overboard with special effects. Everything is in low resolution, 3d objects are all done with blocky voxels, enemies are sprites, there is no shine applied to textures, nothing. With the exception of particle effects (due to our FEAR influence), we do not rely on modern-day special effects. When making a retro-FPS, going for an 'old' engine is the way to go for authenticity sake.

Who cares about the dykes? The gameplay looks mediocre. Those two seconds of shooting aren't anything special

I find this a weird one. Its not anything special BECAUSE you've only seen 2 seconds of it. Wait until we show combat before judging the gameplay, because we think this is easily the best part of the game

Interested in the game and most likely will play. However, I got triggered by the woman too. Not because she is a woman. I've enjoyed playing as numerous women over the years. This time I was triggered because a) it is current year and so I assumed pandering, and more importantly b) because she seems like a timid character. I will self insert nonetheless but I play FPS like a maniac jumping all over the place slaughtering everything. this girl however comes across as timid, so it will be totally out of place with my mindset and playstyle. She is NOT cold badass classic Lara Croft. to make this a successful character with most FPS gamers, this will need to be made horror themed and perhaps even slow paced, or the character should go back to the drawing board. That other female protag FPS viscerafest also works because the character is high energy, bloodthirsty and insane, matching the common FPS playstyle. I self-inserted as Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 1 just fine because the game is horror themed and slow paced. she was scared, I was scared, we were scared together (fuck off I was a kid alright).
This seems like some major and very silly oversight that has me questioning the dev's competence, but I like the look of everything else so benefit of the doubt.

I get the impression they're going for a more serious tone, not humor, movie quotes and catch phrases. They actually want her to be a believable character, but again it will be hard to make that connection and take it seriously when she's acting timid while I'm run n gunning (and jumping) like a roided up nukem maniac.

What are you referring to, the choppiness? Doom has like 4 sprites or animation frames for its shotgun pump action animation and never more than that for any weapon. This appears to have say twice that (I'm not an animator). Prodeus seems to have the same level of detail too and that's a mid budget dev. I agree frame-lacking choppy animations like this are hard to swallow but don't get too caught up on it in a Doom-derived game made by a presumably tiny team. Prodeus otoh should be criticized.

I see what you're saying here! Allow me to get to some of your points.

One of the goals with Selaco is to develop a good character. The gameplay video takes place in one of the earlier levels where Dawn is still accepting the terrible situation she has gotten herself in. While she is more than capable of fighting back due to her past, she does not like not being here at all and it's taking a toll on her. As the game progresses, her behavior becomes less 'timid' and turns more aggressive instead. This is also where more enemies start to spawn, so the progression of her becoming more aggressive flows naturally. I hope you will give it a chance and see what we are going for. Selaco is not as fast as Doom, but it's not exactly slow either. Playtesters never thought her personality felt out of place and in fact feel like its a perfect fit. Dawn is not timid, but she aint Duke Nukem or Shelly Harrison either. She's her own character who takes zero inspiration from either of them.

In regards to tone, its mostly serious but there's plenty of pop-cultural references and jokes scattered around. The section of this gameplay video however, shows a more serious side of the game. Maybe in a future video we will show the playful side a little more

In terms of animation, I see what you are getting it. Animations being 'slow' and 'choppy' was a design choice. We can easily make them super smooth but it felt out of place and made things seem too 3D, which is something we wanted to avoid. With that said, I will see if changes can be made because concerns have been shown in the past regarding this.

Honestly, thanks for this!

I like how whoever did the editing for the reveal saw the gameplay part of it and just went "oh fuck fade it to black"

Intentional. Combat is deserving of its own video.


Sorry if I didn't get back to everyone here! I tried to look for proper criticisms but there is so much ''woman character wont buy'' non-sense that its quite hard to find actual critiques. Our character is not part of a checklist to gain more sales.

 

[geno]

Will you release a demo?

 

[Nexxtic]

Will you release a demo?

Yes! But I have no idea when that will be. Either way, if a developer claims to make a retro inspired FPS, I feel like a demo should be mandatory. Like the old days!

 

[HeyCheckOutHowHardICanPee]

The responses that you've gotten are for two very valid reasons:
1) RPGCodex is mainly inhabited by people who have the hots for Chris Avellone (a man), and your main character is not Chris Avellone (nor a man, which makes it very hard to roleplay that it is Chris Avellone)
2)

Wait until we show combat before judging the gameplay, because we think this is easily the best part of the game

You've waved around the words "F.E.A.R", "QUAKE and DOOM" and now have made the point yourself that the combat is the most interesting part, yet your "gameplay reveal" video showed none of it.

The oldschool pandering market has kicked off really hard in the last few years, and having your first showcase being the equivalent of me getting shot with a tranquilizer gun and falling asleep isn't a good first step.

Best of luck with the project.

 

[Nexxtic]

I will ensure Selaco 2 will take inspiration from Chris Avellone.

You've waved around the words "F.E.A.R", "QUAKE and DOOM" and now have made the point yourself that the combat is the most interesting part, yet your "gameplay reveal" video showed none of it.

Yes, you are right but its very intentional. We have a long term plan on how to promote the game and we did not want to throw all our cards at the table in one video. Combat will take center stage in later video's.

and having your first showcase being the equivalent of me getting shot with a tranquilizer gun and falling asleep isn't a good first step.

Its fine to have opinions and its apprecated. The gameplay reveal did great things for us and I feel like we've made the right choice and I stand by that. Combat matters in Selaco, but so does worldbuilding. This video was about the worldbuilding. The real meat of the game is shown later, which is gunplay and AI.

 

[Dayyālu]

Sorry if I didn't get back to everyone here! I tried to look for proper criticisms but there is so much ''woman character wont buy'' non-sense that its quite hard to find actual critiques.

Honour to ye for bothering to engage, it's already a sign of goodwill and makes me more interested in your project. We don't have many devs managing to endure the heat from our "special needs" brigade.

Nonetheless, it's worth repeating my 2 cents from a guy that loves shooters and Doom modding: not throwing gameplay front and center was a mistake. People are starting to get tired of the retroclone boom and many of its examples weren't even that good (I found Ion Maiden a magnificent example of art&resources somewhat crippled by being a mediocre shooter).

I'm very curious about developing a FEAR-like AI on a Doom engine, I can't think of anything similar bar the meme that was Deathmatch Simulator.

 

[Nexxtic]

Sorry if I didn't get back to everyone here! I tried to look for proper criticisms but there is so much ''woman character wont buy'' non-sense that its quite hard to find actual critiques.

Honour to ye for bothering to engage, it's already a sign of goodwill and makes me more interested in your project. We don't have many devs managing to endure the heat from our "special needs" brigade.

Nonetheless, it's worth repeating my 2 cents from a guy that loves shooters and Doom modding: not throwing gameplay front and center was a mistake. People are starting to get tired of the retroclone boom and many of its examples weren't even that good (I found Ion Maiden a magnificent example of art&resources somewhat crippled by being a mediocre shooter).

I'm very curious about developing a FEAR-like AI on a Doom engine, I can't think of anything similar bar the meme that was Deathmatch Simulator.

I personally liked Ion Fury (we are not supposed to call it Ion Maiden anymore eh! Wouldnt want the band to sue the RPGCodex forums), but I feel like the art department was far too big and the programming department to be far too small.

Combat will take center stage in later videos. You have my word.

 

[madhouse]

I find this a weird one. Its not anything special BECAUSE you've only seen 2 seconds of it. Wait until we show combat before judging the gameplay, because we think this is easily the best part of the game

Gameplay should be the best part of any game. Releasing a trailer like yours is at the very best misguided; at the very worst it is misleading. Remember that at any time there are plenty of games being released, and most of us don't have the patience to be teased about supposedly good gameplay that is simply not shown, and to maintain steady interest in one project among many others.

 

[Nexxtic]

I find this a weird one. Its not anything special BECAUSE you've only seen 2 seconds of it. Wait until we show combat before judging the gameplay, because we think this is easily the best part of the game

Gameplay should be the best part of any game. Releasing a trailer like yours is at the very best misguided; at the very worst it is misleading. Remember that any time there are plenty of games being released and most of us don't have the patience to be teased about supposedly good gameplay that is simply not shown and to maintain interest in one project among many others.

It wasn't a trailer. In the past we have only shown screenshots of the game and the video can basically be considered a GIF with audio. The word ''Trailer'' was not used anywhere because a trailer would be all about the gunplay. We are slowly building up to that!

 

[Beowulf]

You guys were so busy obsessing over the 2 seconds of gameplay that you missed important clues:

 

[Nexxtic]

You guys were so busy obsessing over the 2 seconds of gameplay that you missed important clues:

That hideous icon is a placeholder. I uhh...Should have swapped it with the newer version before recording this video. Whoops!

 

[lightbane]

ould you elaborate on this? The goal of this video was to showcase the world we have created. We intentionally did not show combat because we think it deserves its own video. Movement has been slowed down to let the world breathe and allow the viewer to absorb the details better.

It seems choppy (part of the appeal, or limitations of the engine), and not that impressive because as mentioned there's been many "retroclones" done already. You do need a combat video ASAP though, because that will be the meat of the game.

Our character is not part of a checklist to gain more sales.

Let's hope so. One thing to avoid for sure which plagues most modern games is the situation where the MC acts like a weakling/coward/retard/whatever during a cutscene, then he's a superman/woman during regular gameplay that kills anything that gets in the way (see Tomb Raider's new reboot for the most infamous example). Extra points if during a cutscene the protagonist whines about having to murder people and the horrors of doing so, then he keeps killing people right afterwards as if nothing happened.

 

[Nexxtic]

Let's hope so. One thing to avoid for sure which plagues most modern games is the situation where the MC acts like a weakling/coward/retard/whatever during a cutscene, then he's a superman/woman during regular gameplay that kills anything that gets in the way (see Tomb Raider's new reboot for the most infamous example). Extra points if during a cutscene the protagonist whines about having to murder people and the horrors of doing so, then he keeps killing people right afterwards as if nothing happened.

I hear you, its one of the reasons I had trouble relating to Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series. Great character, don't get me wrong, but he didn't come across as a mass murderer in any of the cutscenes while that was certainly the case in gameplay.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I get the impression they're going for a more serious tone, not humor, movie quotes and catch phrases. They actually want her to be a believable character, but again it will be hard to make that connection and take it seriously when she's acting timid while I'm run n gunning (and jumping) like a roided up nukem maniac.

I will also admit that line made me cringe nonetheless. Sure women can wield guns and be badass, but it's far from an everyday thing and I don't want this girl power agenda shoved down my throat as it has been for the past however many years now, or forced into my games. Not necessarily being what this game is doing, but collectively it's getting a bit much. Look simps, being a nu male soy boy will not win you your queen's pussy. You need to grow balls as step 1, not shrivel them into soy beans. For all women's bullshit they can't get enough masculinity.

If you ask me FEAR is not much a game to be inspired by (overrated but still decent), but it does seem to hold some influence in this game including with a more serious tone.

I had Ion Maiden in mind when i wrote that. Not sure what they were thinking there given the association the character had with Duke Nukem.

Ironically, the safest route to avoid the ire of the woke ghestapo is to make a male character. If they dare pander they'll just draw the eye of Sauron on them and as we know those people can't be placated no matter what they do.

Talkie characters in shooters don't really work though unless you give them remarkable things to say.

I barely even remember if Cate Archer in NOLF talked during play but the character was fleshed in cut scenes so it worked that way.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lead developer of Selaco here! I am going to take my time to respond to valid criticism.

What's your waifu pillow?

 

[Goldschmidt]

If you ask me FEAR is not much a game to be inspired by (overrated but still decent), but it does seem to hold some influence in this game including with a more serious tone.

F.E.A.R. has the best shooter gameplay ever. It is definitely Monolith's best shooter and no other game really comes close to it when it comes to pure action. There is a reason why I replayed it 15 times. While I was at university, the entire engineering campus played the technical masterpiece F.E.A.R. while the kids played Half-Life 2. Says enough really.

Hear it from the FPS-review-guy itself:

 

[Nexxtic]

If you ask me FEAR is not much a game to be inspired by (overrated but still decent), but it does seem to hold some influence in this game including with a more serious tone.

F.E.A.R. has the best shooter gameplay ever. It is definitely Monolith's best shooter and no other game really comes close to it when it comes to pure action. There is a reason why I replayed it 15 times. While I was at university, the entire engineering campus played the technical masterpiece F.E.A.R. while the kids played Half-Life 2. Says enough really.

Hear it from the FPS-review-guy itself:

Agreed! If anything I wish for more games to take inspiration from it when it comes to gunplay. The action was top tier and it saddens me that it failed to deliver on that with the sequels. I still like FEAR 2 but it could have been better.

 

[Goldschmidt]

Agreed! If anything I wish for more games to take inspiration from it when it comes to gunplay. The action was top tier and it saddens me that it failed to deliver on that with the sequels. I still like FEAR 2 but it could have been better.

Sorry for my bluntness, but F.E.A.R. 2 was a trash console game. I was on the F.E.A.R. boards when project origin was being designed. And most of us gave terrific feedback. A slight hint on the wall should have been when they invited one of us to come over to their studios and play the game. The guy there played the game on a friggin xbox. Monolith did a 180 and gave us no leaning, a checkpoint system instead of quicksaving, quicktime events, glowing enemies, mediocre AI, bad shadows/lightning and bloody CALL of DUTY style ironsights. They didn't listen to us at all. But I amnot sure of that anymore, it seemed two versions were being made there and the pc version was completely abandoned lol and instead we got a console port.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The dark age of consolization. So many great franchises destroyed, none of the great profits that were promised materialized lmao.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I remember barely anything from F.E.A.R. 2. I guess one thing you could call an improvement was that environments were more varied and colourful but even then the downside was that they very much felt like setpieces whereas there was some sense of progressing thru believable, organically connected environment in the first game.

 

[Goldschmidt]

I remember barely anything from F.E.A.R. 2. I guess one thing you could call an improvement was that environments were more varied and colourful but even then the downside was that they very much felt like setpieces whereas there was some sense of progressing thru believable, organically connected environment in the first game.

You said that quite well. Organically connected environments. A majority hated them but it felt realistic what they were trying to portray. The environments revolved around the story, not the other way around where you are sent all over the place and the story is lackluster and takes a backseat. Example: Unreal 2 where they make a story involving collecting relics all over the galaxy; the perfect excuse to prop in all their different environments. No one complains that Die Hard's setting was just one skyscraper. In F.E.A.R. you go to the wastewater treatment plant, Armacham HQ and the Auburn district (also hosting Armacham's secret facility) because the story dictates so. The industrial/corporate feel reminded me a bit of the Matrix.

But yeah, kids like different settings, hence the popularity of walking simulators as Skyrim.

 

[Lyric Suite]

F.E.A.R. was my last Monolith game, but in their hey day interesting environments were their specialty. Even a pile of shit like Blood 2 had some knewl locations.

 

[Morenatsu.]

I replayed FEAR recently. It's an overrated game. The enemies die about as fast as those in Half-Life 2 and the damage they do is instantly negated by your tower of portable medkits. And then there's bullet-time, the awesum buttan in every game it's ever been in. Repetitive game (especially in terms of scares), all the entertainment comes from its flashiness, which is very cool indeed. But all that shit about teh best AI evar is actually just elaborate animation scripting. It's very good that it's there, but what is the AI even supposed to be doing that's so smart when it's stuck in a cramped hallway and I kill everyone in three seconds? This was on Hard, also.

 

[Goldschmidt]

I replayed FEAR recently. It's an overrated game. The enemies die about as fast as those in Half-Life 2 and the damage they do is instantly negated by your tower of portable medkits. And then there's bullet-time, the awesum buttan in every game it's ever been in. Repetitive game (especially in terms of scares), all the entertainment comes from its flashiness, which is very cool indeed. But all that shit about teh best AI evar is actually just elaborate animation scripting. It's very good that it's there, but what is the AI even supposed to be doing that's so smart when it's stuck in a cramped hallway and I kill everyone in three seconds? This was on Hard, also.

Care to tell me which FPS have better AI and/or better shooting than F.E.A.R. I'd love to hear it. And I love to hear it cuz I will instantly play that game!!!!

 

[geno]

I replayed FEAR recently. It's an overrated game. The enemies die about as fast as those in Half-Life 2 and the damage they do is instantly negated by your tower of portable medkits. And then there's bullet-time, the awesum buttan in every game it's ever been in. Repetitive game (especially in terms of scares), all the entertainment comes from its flashiness, which is very cool indeed. But all that shit about teh best AI evar is actually just elaborate animation scripting. It's very good that it's there, but what is the AI even supposed to be doing that's so smart when it's stuck in a cramped hallway and I kill everyone in three seconds? This was on Hard, also.

Care to tell me which FPS have better AI and/or better shooting than F.E.A.R. I'd love to hear it. And I love to hear it cuz I will instantly play that game!!!!

To be fair he didn't state that other FPS have better AI. On a side note, I think that the bigger problem with making a good AI is design it in order to be fun or engaging. I see the modern shooter (CoD or 1886) and I see an average AI, just functional. Then I play Turok 2 and, despite it being smoke and mirrors, manages to surprise me.
FEAR can be smoke and mirrors too but it just works. Maybe the problem with these games is that today we play in a very aggressive way and AI just can't shine because it just doesn't have a chance. Blood cultists are a bigger challenge but that doesn't mean they have a good AI.