The Invincible - first-person retro future sci-fi thriller based on Stanislaw Lem

[toro]

https://invinciblethegame.com




https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_invincible?as=1649904300

Spoiler

https://www.gamepressure.com/editor...-on-lem-conversation-with-the-deveopers/za208

STANISLAW LEM vs. GAMES

Gamepressure: Were you sure from the very beginning that you wanted to base your game on a Lem's novel?

Marek Markuszewski: No, but it came about quickly. The first decision I made was simply that I want my own studio, and that I want to create my own project.

GP: So why Lem? Hasn't he fallen into somewhat of a neglect lately?

MM: The man was a genius writer, and I though his creativity would give us the right momentum – this stuff is just perfect for a video game. When I was reading the book we are adapting, I immediately saw the potential. I instantly knew how to approach it.

GP: Will the ending be identical as in the book?

Michal Galek: It doesn't have to. We develop reliable alternative endings that can be achieved by making certain decisions. But it's not like we've come up with some completely left-field ideas. If we decide to expand the scope of Lem's ideas, we want to make sure we don't diverge from anything he was writing about. We want the people who have red Lem to feel exactly like readers of Sapkowski when they played the first Witcher. A complete, comprehensive adaptation of the original.

MM: We're striving not to alter the message and meaning of the book. We're telling the exact same story, at the same time looking for room for player's influence.

GP: So you basically have two groups of consumers. The die-hard fans of Lem that will spot any discrepancy, and the people who haven't read him at all.

MG: We realize that a great many players don't know Lem, but our tacit ambition is to introduce them to this writer.

GP: Aren't you afraid that Lem might be a bit too difficult?

MM: Absolutely not – this simply is a modern, approachable game that tackles mature issues. This won't be some crude indie.

MG: At the same time, the book we're adapting is very adventurous. The protagonist is a scientist, but there's plenty of unexpected situations, the pacing is nowhere near sluggish; there are adventures and turns of events. This is not a game about sauntering around the primordial craters of some remote planet and pondering over philosophical concepts.

GP: Do you use the same concepts and definitions Lem used?

MG: Yes, definitely. And if we create new ones, we're striving to stick to the convention of, let's call it, retro-morphology of language. For example, we have this system similar to GPS, but we call it a "radiotracker."

GP: How do you think Lem would feel about your game?

MM: Lem was always very critical of the adaptations of his works. Well... We'd certainly feel a lot more pressure if he was still alive.

MG: Perhaps modern lemologists who will play our game will try to deride us. Our big goal is making sure we can offer credible explanations of everything we put into the game.

GP: Have you thought about cooperating with some of them?

MG: Yes, we're actually considering this. In everything we do, we treat the original with absolute veneration. But there sure will be some elements that turn out controversial for someone –that's just the inherent risk of adaptations.

MM: I actually think that ardent fans of Lem will love it.

GP: At least you can be sure the writer won't sue you for 60 million.

MM: No, but when it comes to the inheritor of the copyrights, our agreement takes into account both the preliminary salary, as well as fair royalties. If the game is successful, they will be one of the beneficiaries.

There are pictures in the article.

 

[Egosphere]

Well, I don't think it's Solaris. Futurological congress isn't it. Is it a Cyberiad adaptation? There's some funky looking robot in one of the pics.

 

[toro]

Well, I don't think it's Solaris. Futurological congress doesn't seem it, as well. Is it a Cyberiad adaptation? There's some funky looking robot in one of the pics.

 

[Beowulf]

Judging by the promo poster image, I'd say it's "Invincible".

On a side note - they recently adapted it to a comic book, with support from Polish Ministry of Culture.
Here's the animated trailer:

 

[Naraya]

Maybe it's The Invincible? (Niezwyciężony, one of the best Lem's books IMO).

 

[Beowulf]

Maybe it's The Invincible? (Niezwyciężony, one of the best Lem's books IMO).

Well, in one of the interviews Lem himself stated that "The Invincible" is best suited to a movie adaptation, as it has less philosophical undertones, and is more of a (hard) sci-fi adventure in a classic sense.
But no, we keep getting attempts at filming "Solaris".

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The Invincible is also the best suited for a game adaptation, maybe also a RPG...

 

[Peachcurl]

Let's see:

• The photos: best match with the Invincible. Of course, this may just be parts of the locations and landscape they model, depending on their current development stage.

• The promotional banner: could match with the very start of Fiasco (on Titan) As others pointed out, this is wrong. In fact, it seems the banner mirrors the cover images of several Invincible editions. Shame on me.

• The few hints from the article:

The main character of Project I will be a scientist.

Wwwwelll... this matches with nearly all books.

our main goal, at least initially, is exploring and probing an alien planet and uncovering its big mystery

The Invincible or Eden. Weakly matches Fiasco, but it's a stretch.

the book we're adapting is very adventurous. The protagonist is a scientist, but there's plenty of unexpected situations, the pacing is nowhere near sluggish; there are adventures and turns of events.

Sounds like Invincible to me.

Subsequent locations will be riddled with mysteries and side threads – during exploration, you will encounter derelict robots, and traces of people.

Again, The Invincible. Others would be a stretch (We'd have to interpret "people" as "alien people", and ignore "traces").

It's not a shooter, but there are potentially situations, where the protagonist will have to use some sort of a weapon. But that's not the standard equipment of a scientist.

Invincible.

• I'd exclude Cyberiad, since they explicitely talk about "book" rather than "short stories". Unless that's a translation error.

This video looks like it has some interesting information, now we just need one of the polish people here to translate it.
At least it has some more concept art, in some slide's background.

 

[Atrachasis]

• The promotional banner: could match with the very start of Fiasco (on Titan)

Assuming that the artist had any clue whatsoever - nope, as that clearly isn't Saturn in the background (nothing intentifiably within our solar system, as a matter of fact).

"The Astronauts" hasn't been mentioned yet, but it doesn't really fit the information given so far, so I'll place another bet on "Invincible".

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I too am going to guess that it's The Invincible.

EDIT: On a more visual cue note, assuming that's not just something Gamepressure made for the article (at least as far as I can tell it's official art), the picture definitely feels like a callback to many of the covers for The Invincible. Several of them feature skeletal and half-buried astronauts.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Italian edition (1970-80) cover by Karel Thole:

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Beowulf]

Let's see:

• The promotional banner: could match with the very start of Fiasco (on Titan)

Assuming that the artist had any clue whatsoever - nope, as that clearly isn't Saturn in the background (nothing intentifiably within our solar system, as a matter of fact).

I didn't want to go into details why Peachculr's analysis is based on wrong assumptions, but it seems like you also haven't read Fiasco:

About books

"Fiasco's" beginning happens in an icy environment, and Pirx is piloting a big mecha. He suffers an accident and uses emergency procedure that cut's off pilot's head and crushes the jaws in order too freeze and presreve the brain immediately.
In "The Invincible" we even get a description of skull lying in the sand and there are still oxygen bottles that are not fully used.


Take a look at the image - to what description it is closer?


Second point -

The main character of Project I will be a scientist.
Wwwwelll... this matches with nearly all books.

Well - no. The main protagonist is more often than no an astronaut of some kind, even in the books happening on earth.
Excluding short stories we have scientist as a main protagonist in "Masters Voice", which happens on earth during something resembling Cold War.
Can't really remember other instances.

Spoiler

Ahh, the angry cyberbee one. Found the same on my parents' shelf.

 

[Peachcurl]

You guys are of course right about the mismatch with Fiasco, the two bodies that are collected there are somewhat intact, no skulls involved. And, yes, besides the rings, the planet in the background looks nothing like Saturn.

I didn't want to go into details why Peachculr's analysis is based on wrong assumptions, but it seems like you also haven't read Fiasco:

About books

Well - no. The main protagonist is more often than no an astronaut of some kind, even in the books happening on earth.
Excluding short stories we have scientist as a main protagonist in "Masters Voice", which happens on earth during something resembling Cold War.
Can't really remember other instances.

You are missing the point. Their job description may not be "scientist". That does not prevent them from fitting to that archetype. Otherwise, is your suggestion that the game is about "Masters Voice"? It seems not.

From my point of view, there's scientist main characters at least in Masters Voice, Invincible, Eden, Fiasco, Solaris, and The Man from Mars.

 

[Beowulf]

Come on.
You most likely will play as on of the (named or unnamed) scientists from the crew of the ship, not the protagonist of the book (if there was any).
Half of them were scientists, and doubled as drivers/divers and whatnot on the land expeditions.

The protagonists "job descriptions" are pilot, navigator, astrogator, policeman, doctor, psuchlogist etc. and they don't do experiments in the lab for countless hours, they do their jobs.

But I get what you mean - nearly all of the main characters in Lem's novels are pretty knowledgable and have expertise in various fields and so might fit the "holywood scientist" archetype.

 

[DraQ]

Everything about it screams "The Invincible".
It leaves good opportunities for open/multiple endings too.
Of course, I wouldn't mind having something based on Eden or even Fiasco either (and they would also work in terms of player driven endings, although that would mean departure from original ones).

Well, in one of the interviews Lem himself stated that "The Invincible" is best suited to a movie adaptation, as it has less philosophical undertones, and is more of a (hard) sci-fi adventure in a classic sense.
But no, we keep getting attempts at filming "Solaris".

And shitty ones at that

Still better adaptation than Soderbergh's crap.

There are books that are inherently more filmable than others. The Invincible really begs to have a big budget thrown at it. Eden or Fiasco would also work. Solaris? Not so much.
Solaris as a fucking space romance raping everything about the original? Please fucking die and take your extended family with you.

Subsequent locations will be riddled with mysteries and side threads – during exploration, you will encounter derelict robots, and traces of people.

Again, The Invincible. Others would be a stretch (We'd have to interpret "people" as "alien people", and ignore "traces").

The protagonist quite literally looks for traces of people in The Invincible. If that's not a hint, I don't know what is.

Maybe it's The Invincible? (Niezwyciężony, one of the best Lem's books IMO).

Most of Lem's books are some of his best.

"Fiasco's" beginning happens in an icy environment, and Pirx is piloting a big mecha.

There are some pics in the background that look kind of icy-ish and Titan-y but other than that there is no match, everything else screams "The Invincible".

You are missing the point. Their job description may not be "scientist". That does not prevent them from fitting to that archetype. Otherwise, is your suggestion that the game is about "Masters Voice"? It seems not.

From my point of view, there's scientist main characters at least in Masters Voice, Invincible, Eden, Fiasco, Solaris, and The Man from Mars.

There is also the part that the main protagonist of book and game don't need to overlap. Plenty of scientists on the Invincible or Euridice, the crew that crashed on Eden also had scientific specializations, even though they were more like engineers, Solaris station was manned by scientists, and MaVo's cast was also almost 100% researchers (although Master's Voice is very unfilmable and also doesn't seem to have any game potential, despite being perhaps my favourite Lem's book).

 

[Peachcurl]

Good point. Using another crew member as main character would also make it easier to deviate from the book without contradicting it.

 

[MF]

Looks cool. I'm also pretty sure it'll be based on The Invincible.

I still have to read the new direct translation sometime. The one I read was and English version derived from the German version. I'm not sure how much was lost in being twice removed from Polish.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Read the synopsis for The Invincible. It's just so great. Makes me want to read it, but not the translation by Uncle Forry's doddering old wife.

 

[DraQ]

the picture definitely feels like a callback to many of the covers for The Invincible. Several of them feature skeletal and half-buried astronauts.

It was a pretty memorable scene in the novel, after all.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

the picture definitely feels like a callback to many of the covers for The Invincible. Several of them feature skeletal and half-buried astronauts.

It was a pretty memorable scene in the novel, after all.

And the inciting mystery of its story, what happened to the crew of Condor that just made them sit still until they died?

 

[Morkar Left]

I have no clue whatsoever but could be The Invincible

 

[Jack Of Owls]

It could be a cool action FPS/RPG if based on The Invincible. Just that artwork of the astronaut's skeleton buried in the sand is pretty evocative of what direction the game could take. To give variety to the game's enemies they'd have to broaden the single menace of the robotic insects to something more, I think. But I'm thinking this could be the best game of its type since Stalker if enough care and imagination is put into it.

In Black Mesa's Xen section, you come across all these dead suited humans that somehow got transported from our world to theirs that you can loot from. Unfortunately they didn't really do anything with the idea but it was an interesting image.

 

[MF]

Read the synopsis for The Invincible. It's just so great. Makes me want to read it, but not the translation by Uncle Forry's doddering old wife.

It was still a good read, but inelegant to say the least. The Bill Johnston one is much better, judging by the reviews on Amazon. I ordered it a couple of months ago but haven't had time to read it yet.

Anyone here familiar with both translations?

On topic, there is very little actual info about the game. These guys sure now how to foster an aura of mystery.