KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Unkillable Cat]

Well, one obvious reason is that reading any kind of full 3D map becomes a migraine-inducing nightmare.

Ever try calling up the Automap in a Descent game and try to figure out where the exit is?

And UUW only had "rooms over rooms" in the same manner that Doom did it: By trickery or wooden walkways.

 

[Infinitron]

???

Well, one obvious reason is that reading any kind of full 3D map becomes a migraine-inducing nightmare.

Ever try calling up the Automap in a Descent game and try to figure out where the exit is?

Right. Maybe despite having true 3D, they still used a Doom-style 2.5D map editor and file format that didn't support "overlapping sectors".

 

[Excidium II]

And UUW only had "rooms over rooms" in the same manner that Doom did it: By trickery or wooden walkways.

Very different scenario. Doom level is a 2d plane. You can't have room over room because the game is missing one axis.

UUW you render a rectangle and cut two vertical hollow spaces you'd have that if you wanted. Bridges and platforms were actually on top of you, and the river actually below.

 

[ciox]

The terrain geometry was not 3D in SS1, it was a 2.5D abstraction like in Doom, but objects were full 3D in positioning and they could use objects to fake room-over-room and more complex spaces.

 

[SharkClub]

There were holographic walkways and stuff you could walk over above radioactive pits and stuff like that all over System Shock 1. I guess that could be the case of this being employed throughout the game:

And UUW only had "rooms over rooms" in the same manner that Doom did it: By trickery or wooden walkways.

This stuff is doable in the Doom engine as you said, I forget how exactly but I've seen it employed in a lot of custom maps, though it certainly was not frequent in official maps. I think HeXen did use this sort of stuff in the official campaign though, I seem to remember glowy/transparent/shiny walkways over bottomless pits. Later source ports and stuff for Doom obviously also support a much wider array of doing the bridge room over room black magic as well but kinda irrelevant to the discussion.

This stuff's also all over BUILD engine games like Duke Nukem 3D (vents suspended in the air that you can walk through or on top of and also go under come to mind) and that's also a fake-3D 2D/2.5D engine like Doom's.

 

[Infinitron]

2.5D games do it with teleportation tricks and other hacks. You probably wouldn't be able to say, launch a grenade from one floor of a building up to another and see it explode.

 

[SharkClub]

Yeah that's how it works with BUILD engine games with water (swim underwater and you're in a different room than the one just above water, you can see this by opening the automap and watching it teleport you somewhere outside the map to the water area) and fake room over room (projector room on hollywood holocaust is above the entrance to the back of the theater f.e.), but I mean the style of room over room that abuses small walkways/etc. that doesn't involve teleportation trickery, usually in the form of transparent walkways or some other fake shit. There aren't many examples of them not abusing the shit out of those cheats in the BUILD engine but in the Doom engine and HeXen I'd think it's a bit harder.

https://youtu.be/9xALVLt7Un0?t=7m24s

This is some ZDoom source port hack but unless my memory is failing me something that acts almost exactly like this bridge does exist in HeXen at some points (I could be wrong though I've probably played hundreds of wads in Doom, Doom 2, HeXen, etc.), and definitely has some sort of form in the BUILD engine FPS games, unless this vent here is some sort of mega room over room over room teleportation multiwarp shit which it probably could be now that I think about it.

 

[LESS T_T]

Jason Fader podcast interview, I didn't hear yet:



Also he's at E3:

 

[Alienman]

I heard there is gold in there.

 

[LESS T_T]

Few things:
- Currently the team size is roughly 25, will grow to 35-40 after entering production.
- He's been openly discussing and sharing about development with backers at private Discord channel.
- Some hardcore fan community sent them a collection of suggestions. Apparently they encouraged the developers to "find the best way to represent the true core of the original to today's gamers" and do not worry about making hardcore fans themselves happy. He and team are grateful about that.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Some hardcore fan community sent them a collection of suggestions. Apparently they encouraged the developers to "find the best way to represent the true core of the original to today's gamers" and do not worry about making hardcore fans themselves happy. He and team are grateful about that.

no cuck rating big enough

 

[Melan]

This is going to be a disaster, and it is going to be EPIC.

 

[Latelistener]

- Some hardcore fan community sent them a collection of suggestions. Apparently they encouraged the developers to "find the best way to represent the true core of the original to today's gamers" and do not worry about making hardcore fans themselves happy. He and team are grateful about that.

 

[Ash]

I'm assuming that's SystemShock.org. What happened was two non-regulars took it upon themselves to compile suggestions and add a ton of their own, while claiming to represent the site. In fact, I even chewed 'em out for it for being like 50% content of the people and 50% content of their own. It doesn't accurately represent the interests of the site's members.

 

[Jaedar]

I'm assuming that's SystemShock.org. What happened was two non-regulars took it upon themselves to compile suggestions and add a ton of their own, while claiming to represent the site. In fact, I even chewed 'em out for it for being like 50% content of the people and 50% content of their own. It doesn't accurately represent the interests of the site's members.

Sounds like a certain news bot

Also, ss1 certainly had walkways and stuff above the floor, and plenty of verticality (enemies shooting at you from above/below etc). Even if it was lacking a literal room on top of another room, it doesn't show in the final product.

 

[LESS T_T]

Also he's at E3:

Short and nothing new, only cringeworthy "Everything was Dark Souls (in 1990s)!" moment (1:01 if you want) from the NVIDIA host.

 

[Ash]

Short and nothing new, only cringeworthy "Everything was Dark Souls (in 1990s)!" moment (1:01 if you want) from the NVIDIA host.

I don't care if the manner in which it was said was cringeworthy, only that it was said. It can't bear repeating enough. Many ancient arts have been lost and challenge/expecting the player to use their damn brain in general and actually engaging them is certainly a big one.

 

[Melan]

Remember that Roberta Williams quote?

Back when I got started, which sounds like ancient history, back then the demographics of people who were into computer games, was totally different, in my opinion, than they are today. Back then, computers were more expensive, which made them more exclusive to people who were maybe at a certain income level, or education level. So the people that played computer games 15 years ago were that type of person. They probably didn't watch television as much, and the instant gratification era hadn't quite grown the way it has lately. I think in the last 5 or 6 years, the demographics have really changed, now this is my opinion, because computers are less expensive so more people can afford them. More "average" people now feel they should own one.

It is actually from 1999, eighteen years ago. She sounded like an asshole then, but now, you can't help but admit she was also prescient.

 

[Ash]

It's not the people/audience that is the problem. The onus is on devs and publishers targeting the lowest common denominator. Sellouts, as I said. Nobody has the responsibility to be an informed consumer. It's the smart thing to do, sure, but most people don't extensively research the production pipeline of every grocery store food item they purchase, every water park they visit on a whim, every movie they netflix or see at the cinema (although that's more common these days as movies also have faced some decline). What about children or tweenagers? They're supposed to instantly have standards in entertainment? Our higher standards were likely set purely by chance, from the old industry.

Devs are supposed to have principles, and the filter/regulators are meant to be gaming critics. Instead all we have is the codex which is fucking awful in that operation, but just damn well all we've got...but even it is seeming less reliable these days and of course has always been biased to a certain sub-genre of game over anything else.
Special mention to small handful of youtubers who do a slightly better job than the gaming press.

Edit: well, audience does contribute, like not spreading the word enough when a good game (or good mod*cough*) does release, but most of the responsibility lies elsewhere. there's a severe lack of principles and a severe lack of trustworthy regulators.

 

[Latro]

well no, the problem is that most devs are just as dumb as they people they cater to now

 

[Machocruz]

Too much ego to simply admit "90s level design is beyond our conceptual and technical abilities." Because if they could do it, they would at least throw people a bone somewhere in today's games, like maybe one mission that takes place in a fucked up Hexen-like dream world or a big underground labyrinth. Why not sate the "hardcore" at least a little bit? Because they can't.

And one of the tactics agents of decline use is to tie a game design approach to a demographics and/or period. So genius level design is for "hardcore" players only, so we can't have it because it needs to be "accessible" to "today's" gamers. We see the same with CRPGs and "old school," as if point in time has anything to do with making a game with interesting complexity and depth.

 

[DeepOcean]

- Some hardcore fan community sent them a collection of suggestions. Apparently they encouraged the developers to "find the best way to represent the true core of the original to today's gamers" and do not worry about making hardcore fans themselves happy. He and team are grateful about that.

Based on my experience since 2012, When I read this BS, I can only think two things:
I)Most people that that say to developers they don't need to satisfy the hardcore community: a)Never played the games in question and dont know what they are talking about or b)Know the game he is shilling for is shit but he can't accept it and is crazy to pull the nostalgia card to pretend everything is alright.
II)Developers that know they are producing shit love to hear they didn't make a shitty game and that all criticism is because of nostalgia of misguided fans.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/1919174

E3 Recap

Hi everyone! Jason here to share how E3 went for me and the team. We didn’t have an official presence at E3 this year, but a few of us attended.

Here is a selfie just before my interview (they attempted to make me less shiny).

The biggest thing we noticed was all of the new attendees this year with the public badges. The E3 folks assigned bright neon yellow/green badges to them, so they stood out amidst the clear-plastic dev badges. This turned into an interesting social study for myself. E3’s of the past were filled with devs walking around the show floor, looking tired and apathetic to their surroundings. This year, however, over half of the faces I saw (ie, the public attendees) were filled with excitement and enthusiasm. I know other devs have bemoaned the very crowded show floor, but to me, I was delighted to see so much appreciation for the game industry.

It reminded me of the first time I went to E3 over 15 years ago and how I felt seeing all of the games being presented directly by their developers. Everything was fresh and new. Over time, devs get used to all of that and the luster tends to fade. Seeing a bunch of new faces at E3 this year excited to see everything was truly inspiring. Sure it was more crowded, but I’d rather see crowds of people with amazed looks on their faces than tired devs any day!

Another thing that happened at E3 was running into some amazing Shock fans. It warms my heart whenever someone recognizes us and lets us know how much the Shock series has meant to them, and how much they’re looking forward to our reboot. In general, as you folks have noticed through Discord, I love talking to the community and hearing everyone’s thoughts, and experiencing that in person is even more of a treat

Oh, another thing some of you may have noticed is that I did a few interviews during E3. The interview with NVIDIA and my shiny head has been posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj52BqZVG-c I did another interview with Epic for Unreal stuff which should be posted soon. In every interview I do, I always do my best to acknowledge our loyal backers and how awesome all of you are



Steam Summer Sale!
It is finally that time of the year again, the Steam Summer Sale! Lots of Nightdive Studios titles discounted up to 85%! https://goo.gl/EnEM8t

FAQ
Q: Will System Shock be Mac compatible?

A: Yes. Mac, Linux, and Windows

Q: How does the sizing work on the shirts?

A: We will update the Backerkit entry with a sizing chart for both male and female shirts.

Q: Can I use PayPal as my payment method on Backerkit?

A: We're still considering PayPal - hold tight!

Q: How long do I have until I need to finalize my Backerkit survey?

A: A few months before launch, we will send out a number of updates before we're ready to finalize orders.

Q: I pledged at the $75 tier and still have issues with shipping, what gives?

A: We are so sorry with the delay, we were working hard with Backerkit to resolve this issue. At this time, all backers at that tier should no longer have to worry!



If you have any other questions or support needs, please let us know here:

Support.NightdiveStudios.com



See you next time, with another Dev Diary~!

(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡Karlee Meow

 

[SharkClub]

(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡Karlee Meow

 

[LESS T_T]

(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡Karlee Meow

Yeah, she's been put different emoticon every month, but this month's emoticon is the same with last month!

January: (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
February: (๑╹ڡ╹)╭ ～ ♡
March: ╰(°ㅂ°)╯
April: ♡✧( ु•⌄• )
May: (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡
June: (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

Sad! o(；△；)o