Game News Shelter gameplay video

[Kingston]

Will the editor provided be robust enough to create our own adventures with? As FIFE isn't exactly on user-friendly status yet I'm hoping this will be.

 

[shihonage]

What's the status of 'em graphics and audio? Did you pay for it, or has it been put in open domain?

Anybody knows the status of the FO:T engine?

(Fuck, all these formal e-mail I have to write in my job almost made me type "Regard, PSz")

The default plan for distribution of an "eventual" alpha demo will require you to have Fallout:Tactics discs or install. This way we do not distribute any unlicensed assets and are not dependent of their legal status.

This model has been used by another project, FONLINE.

As for the status of FO:T engine, it doesn't matter because we don't use it.

Will the editor provided be robust enough to create our own adventures with? As FIFE isn't exactly on user-friendly status yet I'm hoping this will be.

We have a WYSIWYG editor for maps. Items/quest/dialogue are all script text files, similar to Basic in some ways.

We will have a tutorial which will show how to create a map/village, put a person on there, and make a quest. By the end of tutorial you'll have a fully functional "addition" to the game world.

 

[denizsi]

Nice. What about modifying game mechanics and character system once it's released? Those would be the most cherished options beside map/quest editing.

Also, context menu doesn't exactly look practical. Suggestion: key + mouse click alternatives for all options just so that you don't play "menu minigame" everytime you examine / interact / etc.

Eg. shift + click = examine, ctrl + click = interact etc.

 

[shihonage]

The game will be more (and easier) customizeable than Fallout 1, but you won't be able to change the hardcoded things. In Fallout, you couldnt mod SPECIAL into GURPS, thats too low-level.

As for the context menu... it is like Fallout context menu but using mousewheel and both buttons. Keyboard shortcuts are a given.

 

[xuerebx]

This looks quite good, haven't heard of this game before. It's been a while since I've played an iso/tb game. My only gripe from that video is the "examine/interact/attack" menu, which looked a bit out of place. Also, what is that window on the top right part of the game? It also looks a bit out of place (well until I realise what it actually is, the youtube video isn't quite clear).

 

[shihonage]

Since Youtube videos are tiny, the text window was unintelligible, and I couldn't keep it full-screen all the time.

Thats why there's a superimposed montage of its lower part in the right upper corner of the video.

 

[denizsi]

The game will be more (and easier) customizeable than Fallout 1, but you won't be able to change the hardcoded things.

I thought you might be using some kind of modular coding so you could alter low-level stuff easily without meddling with graphics API, sound etc.

How about going open source once the project is finished?

 

[Shoelip]

Hey, this looks really cool. I've always wondered why no CRPG ever had non-lethal combat. Hopefully this won't explain that too me.

Anyway, about the rats. Rats are creatures that have a near symbiosis with humans. I think it'd be pretty cool if in the post apocolyptic wasteland where they had grown to the size of ponies the scrappy survivors had managed to domesticate them. Only thing is, they'd be too smart to be cattle. They'd be more like horses or dogs. :D

 

[denizsi]

I'd rather see rat plagues. Still small squezy things, but lots of them, everywhere, and carying all kinds of viruses. Also eating crops everywhere, therefore also an economial plague.

 

[shihonage]

I thought you might be using some kind of modular coding so you could alter low-level stuff easily without meddling with graphics API, sound etc.

How about going open source once the project is finished?

We're not going open source, unless we have another project that surpasses this one in level of technical sophistication. The "Carmack approach".

Speaking of that, I have to get to making Monsterland open-source

While we do not use modular coding, the SSL (Shelter Scripting Language) affects the world itself in major ways. It can process conditional statements, play game sounds, move doors, adjust lighting, kill people, trigger peoples reactions to specific events, and it is entirely powering choice&consequence/dialogue/character achievement/quest processing.

All character achievements are customizeable and defineable. I.E.you can get it to check how long you've been standing in one spot... after 2 minutes of standing, you will get an achievement "The Patient One - level 1". Then you go to someone and a dialogue option will be unlocked where you say "I got patience ! Something something !". All that is scriptable. Only I hope no one will script something as dull as the above example

 

[denizsi]

We're not going open source, unless we have another project that surpasses this one in level of technical sophistication. The "Carmack approach".

Those things you described sure sounds nice, but still, why not? Have commercial intentions for later on? If not, what harm could come from it?

I don't get this approach. I understand the effort given towards both a game and the tech behind it and the desire to preserve the meaning of it, especially when it's an indie effort, but being indie is the ultimate reason for going open source, and especially if you already say that you may release the source some day based on some conditions. Who's to say which one of us will last until tomorrow? If you do intend to release source but become too much apathetic to give a damn, or die, or lose the source for whatever reasons (and either of these has happened to good stuff in the past), do you see how tragic that would be?

Just think of Prelude To Darkness, for instance. I'm sure others here can give other more and significant (popularity-wise; not in a game's worth way) examples that I can't remember right now.

 

[shihonage]

Have commercial intentions for later on?

Yes.

However the rest of your post made me depressed. I think I'll go drown myself now. Goodbye, open source ! Goodby-(gurgle gurgle gurgle)

 

[FirstOfficer]

Great work. You guys have now made our brilliant resident programmer drown himself. And to think, we were so far along with Shelter...

 

[denizsi]

Come to think about it: you've been lucky to come this far. I mean it. But luck runs out eventually.

Seriously, what has been the lowest you had hit so far?

 

[FirstOfficer]

As any project, it has had its ups and downs... but we try to focus on the good rather than the bad - and we're very happy with where we are right now with the game.

 

[denizsi]

I was just curious if there was any significantly memorable moments when you said something like "fuck it, we'll never make it". Anyway.

Care to share what you're planning on going commercial?

 

[FirstOfficer]

Well, it's a bit early to think about pre-ordering the game, but we'll keep you posted.

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

Not a fan of the "wacky" violent dialogue or the music plagiarism. The regular dialog's also dodgy at times: "What?" "Why?", etc.

I like the setting, it's just... old. I've seen it before.

Other than that everything looks good. Keep it up, guys.

 

[bhlaab]

Yeah I saw your comment on the video. Wasn't as informative as this one.

The "violent" ones were purposely over the top (one not shown was "I will paint the wall with your entrails" from Bioforge), but either way, all this writing will be redone once again during our second overhaul of the quest and C&C system.

Yeah, but it seems a bit out there to just have him shout stuff like that out like a tourettes sufferer. Especially since most people play their evil characters as the kind of "devil in a pinstripe suit; possibly portrayed by jack nicholson" dude. You need contextualized action movie one-liners for stuff like that.

 

[MisterStone]

Have commercial intentions for later on?

Yes.

However the rest of your post made me depressed. I think I'll go drown myself now. Goodbye, open source ! Goodby-(gurgle gurgle gurgle)

Wait, if the game uses FoT assets, does that mean that you will have to create your own tile sets, etc. before you are done, in order to be able to make a commercial version?

 

[shihonage]

Wait, if the game uses FoT assets, does that mean that you will have to create your own tile sets, etc. before you are done, in order to be able to make a commercial version?

Garry's Mod uses Half-Life2 assets, and it is being sold for 10 bucks. It is distributed without them, and relies on presence of Half-Life2 on user's hard drive.

The reasons Garry is able to sell his mod is because he is distributing only his work, relying on other assets to be already present on the user's hard drive.

We also plan to distribute just our work, no illegal distribution of licensed assets will ever take place. Neither are we duplicating Fallout's world, as will become more apparent when our Shelter reality timeline goes live.

 

[Kos_Koa]

Just chiming in to say that the writing was disjointed and gimicky, so it's good to know that it will be overhauled. Other than that I think this game looks great. Good luck with the project guys.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hey, this looks really cool. I've always wondered why no CRPG ever had non-lethal combat.

The entire Gothic series?

 

[kris]

I must ask, does the whole terrain look lifeless, dry and dead? since I saw it rain and heard about travelling storms. I know dead-lands is the predominant vision for games in this setting, but I just don't think they always make sense (like in Fallout3).

Otherwise I like your vision for the game.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

If it starts raining NPCs shouild seek buildings. /next-gen