KickStarter Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall

[KafkaBot]

Will we be allowed to purchase the lorebook once the game comes out? I would be very much interested in the PDF as, say, paid DLC.

 

[Tyranicon]

Will we be allowed to purchase the lorebook once the game comes out? I would be very much interested in the PDF as, say, paid DLC.

The current lorebook's available independently here: https://amemoryofeternity.itch.io/moonfall-a-lore-book

It's just a PDF download.

Not sure if I will make another lorebook for the vampires, that's probably something I'll consider after the games comes out.

 

[NecroLord]

Will we be allowed to purchase the lorebook once the game comes out? I would be very much interested in the PDF as, say, paid DLC.

The current lorebook's available independently here: https://amemoryofeternity.itch.io/moonfall-a-lore-book

It's just a PDF download.

Not sure if I will make another lorebook for the vampires, that's probably something I'll consider after the games comes out.

Why not include it with the game manual?

 

[Tyranicon]

Current Development Priorities


Hi everyone,


Just thought I’d give you a peek behind the curtain for what’s going on in development right now. As I’ve said previously, I’m planning a demo for sometime early next year. This will be a very early demo, which means that I do not intend for it to be save-compatible with the full game, and it will likely be relatively short anyways.

There will be a few things that need to be done before the demo releases, and it’s these basic elements that I’m working on now.

1. Migration of combat system into Unreal - One of the biggest and hardest parts of development is transferring my combat system into the new engine. It will be significantly different from its iteration from Memoirs, and I think it will be better in most ways and lean towards a more simulationist approach. I am using a template asset, but it needs to be expanded significantly.
2. Basic RPG systems and UI - This means things like inventory, skill trees, party management, faction overviews, etc. Just very basic menu stuff that still requires significant investment. I am aiming for something simple but effective (and hopefully not too much of an eyesore).
3. Perspective Toggle - I think I already have a good handle on how the toggle between 3rd and 1st person will work, there are just a few bugs that need to be ironed out. If you’re familiar with The Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion or Skyrim, it will be quite similar to that.
4. Optimization - Having a lean file size and a technically polished game is very important, and hard to get right even for AAA studios with many times my budget. It is something I’m nervous about, as the technical aspects are where I have the least experience in. But, I’m planning on getting some help in this area and following best practices.

Historically, I make games at a breakneck pace and this has worked out for me in many ways, but I also see the need to make sure things are done correctly. Shigeru Miyamoto’s often-quoted saying of "A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever" may no longer be strictly true in the age of Early Access and open betas, but it’s still a warning gamedevs should heed.

I also notice a lot of people sending in offers to help, especially with voice work. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I already have people in mind for a lot of the work that I’ve scheduled, and voiced dialogue especially will be done towards the tail end of development. I’ll make an announcement when we’ve reached that point.


Thanks again,

ManlyMouseDan

 

[NecroLord]

Current Development Priorities


Hi everyone,


Just thought I’d give you a peek behind the curtain for what’s going on in development right now. As I’ve said previously, I’m planning a demo for sometime early next year. This will be a very early demo, which means that I do not intend for it to be save-compatible with the full game, and it will likely be relatively short anyways.

There will be a few things that need to be done before the demo releases, and it’s these basic elements that I’m working on now.

1. Migration of combat system into Unreal - One of the biggest and hardest parts of development is transferring my combat system into the new engine. It will be significantly different from its iteration from Memoirs, and I think it will be better in most ways and lean towards a more simulationist approach. I am using a template asset, but it needs to be expanded significantly.
2. Basic RPG systems and UI - This means things like inventory, skill trees, party management, faction overviews, etc. Just very basic menu stuff that still requires significant investment. I am aiming for something simple but effective (and hopefully not too much of an eyesore).
3. Perspective Toggle - I think I already have a good handle on how the toggle between 3rd and 1st person will work, there are just a few bugs that need to be ironed out. If you’re familiar with The Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion or Skyrim, it will be quite similar to that.
4. Optimization - Having a lean file size and a technically polished game is very important, and hard to get right even for AAA studios with many times my budget. It is something I’m nervous about, as the technical aspects are where I have the least experience in. But, I’m planning on getting some help in this area and following best practices.

Historically, I make games at a breakneck pace and this has worked out for me in many ways, but I also see the need to make sure things are done correctly. Shigeru Miyamoto’s often-quoted saying of "A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever" may no longer be strictly true in the age of Early Access and open betas, but it’s still a warning gamedevs should heed.

I also notice a lot of people sending in offers to help, especially with voice work. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I already have people in mind for a lot of the work that I’ve scheduled, and voiced dialogue especially will be done towards the tail end of development. I’ll make an announcement when we’ve reached that point.


Thanks again,

ManlyMouseDan

Please don't hire Troy Baker.

 

[Alienman]

It's the law, though.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It's the law, though.

No that's Judge Dredd

 

[Lokhir]

In my wishlist, that one. Can potentially be better than Cybercuck 2077, mainly because the bar is set very very low with it already.

 

[Vincente]

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Really dig the style of the art in the trailer. Human-made?

 

[Tyranicon]

Really dig the style of the art in the trailer. Human-made?

Some is human, some is AI.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Really dig the style of the art in the trailer. Human-made?

Some is human, some is AI.

Are ypu envisioning completely open play or does a fella's game end once the motive is dealt with?

 

[Tyranicon]

Are ypu envisioning completely open play or does a fella's game end once the motive is dealt with?

The motive is a secondary objective and a modifier to your starting conditions, it won't end the game on completion.

I'm planning on a pretty open game in terms of what you can do, but it also won't be some kind of open-world sandbox.

You can also mostly disregard the story, but that is where the majority of content is.

 

[Storyfag]

Did I perhaps mention that I really dig your music choices?

 

[kangaxx]

Cool vid. It sounds like pulling all of this off is gonna be a lot of work.

 

[NecroLord]

Did I perhaps mention that I really dig your music choices?

Tyranicon
New Retrowave will comprise most of the soundtrack?

 

[Tyranicon]

Cool vid. It sounds like pulling all of this off is gonna be a lot of work.

Thanks. On a technical level it's not very hard at all, I've already done most of this before. It'll be mostly time-consuming, especially balancing out the classes.

I'm not a stickler that every class should be perfectly balanced (especially in a single-player game with flexible multi-classing) but I want them to fit their roles.

New Retrowave will comprise most of the soundtrack?

It'll be a mix of things, I'm only starting to collect/license music and probably won't get into the meat of it until later.

I would like to commission custom tracks, but my personal experience with that is both mixed and expensive.

 

[Tyranicon]

When an AAAA game uses the same exact assets as a solo porn dev:

 

[ropetight]

When an AAAA game uses the same exact assets as a solo porn dev:

Exodus trailer is so slapped together from random stuff and tonedeaf that assets are least of their worries.
Painting-by-the-numbers cast including Morgan Freeman-like to be wise father figure narrator, finding spaceships in the caves, savior of the human race, late 90's/ early 2000's indie rock song at he end...
It seems studio leads are stuck in the happier times of their youth, and younguns have nothing.

But you are right - if this persists, solodevs will soon have production values of at least three A's.

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm mostly surprised because I was informed after my trailer came out that using example levels provided by the asset makers was considered a no-no in the industry, so I shrugged and assumed it was one of the many taboos of the so-called "pros."

Just for a 100+ million project to come out with a trailer using the same example level.

And I thought I was lazy.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Exodus is such a crapshot. Hasbro owns a bunch of scifi IPs that would make for more interesting games. In addition to Transformers, they own multiple scifi settings from the catalog of TSR, such as Kromosome, The Once and Future King, The Galactos Barrier, Bug Hunters, Dark•Matter, and Star*Drive.

I would love to see a scifi crpg based on Hasbro's forgotten Star*Drive game from 1998. It's the most detailed of the bunch as far as I can tell. It uses a lot of similar tropes to other scifi of the 90s and 2000s, but rearranges them enough that it feels like a fresher take. For example, the setting is very humanocentric: humans, with the help of the Roswell greys (yes, really), invented the first known FTL drives within the Orion Arm, allowing humanity to basically conquer all inhabitable planets within 1000 ly of Earth. There's about 10 trillion sophonts as of AD2500, 95% of which are humans. Not only that, but humans are divided into a multitude of cultural distinct stellar nations, such as the mutant supremacist Thuldan Empire (imagine if Magneto was a tech billionaire who wanted to resurrect the Roman Empire by way of Heinlein's Terran Federation), the diverse and democratic Orion League (the east and west coasts of the United States in space!), the evil corporatocracy VoidCorp (literally cutthroat Silicon Valley in space!), the hedonistic and roboticist StarMech Collective (Westworld in space!), the space cowboys of Austrin-Ontis Unlimited (the flyover country of the United States, particularly Texas and the NRA, in space!), and the space police of the Galactic Concord (NATO in space... if it had its own sovereign territories and military!). Yes, the setting has an interstellar civilization of 600 billion flyover country people and their poster children are Texan cowboys who sell guns for a living. This is the most awesome scifi setting ever and it is an absolute crime that Hasbro has consigned it to the dustbin of history. They pulped all the physical books in the warehouses in 2000 and scrubbed all the PDFs off ebookstores in 2008, so the fandom has been steadily dying without an easy way to introduce new fans. This is why I think copyright needs to be shortened.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm mostly surprised because I was informed after my trailer came out that using example levels provided by the asset makers was considered a no-no in the industry, so I shrugged and assumed it was one of the many taboos of the so-called "pros."

Just for a 100+ million project to come out with a trailer using the same example level.

And I thought I was lazy.

Hey, how'd you rip off those assets from Exodus!?