WR - General Chit-Chatter/Tidbits

[20 Eyes]

Nice portrait, and all the environments you've posted lately look great. The house in the swamp looks about as good as a lot of stuff you'd see in the Infinity Engine games.

 

[Surf Solar]

We've edited it a bit - this character will most probably used in the upcoming demo where you play a few Detroit city maps (and a different story than the maingame) - extremely hyped up to finally release something already sooner than soon. :D

Thanks again to Luther!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Whoa, demo/alpha coming out soon? AWESOME. Keep up the good work, Solar!

 

[Surf Solar]

Thanks GarfunkeL , by the speed we are doing new things at the moment I think it is done by end of August (summer is always a bit crictical with people working on some internet project ). Please note, that this demo is more supposed to show the progress we have so far done, there won't be all new functions and combat possibilities like in the maingame in. It's more to get people aquainted to the new (relatively Fallout unfitting like you seen on the screenshots) art style and atmosphere/writing. As said, you will play (either male/female) the guy/gal in the portrait above (female portrait will follow ;P ) but wont have a party like in the "real" game. We want to put this out so maybe miore people interested in the world and game will try to contact us to work together on the actual game - so it gets faster done.

And because I was bored today, some non-related to What Remains art I was doing today for fun:

 

[Excidium]

Is there any aspect of RPG development you can't do, SS?

 

[Surf Solar]

What do you mean? I am actually quite limited - I can develop ideas to do thing XY do that in an RPG system, but the actual scripting and coding someone else has to do. I don't know shit about programming.
When the tools are very good, like it is in the FOnline engine, even an artfag like me can do things straightforward, making new maps, creating new dialogues, choices, or dialogues. It is just the crucial changes to the engine itself (AI, new perks, editing SPECIAL systems, adding fog of war, party based combat) that rely on other people.

So if this engine wouldn't be there, I wouldn't be able to do shit.

 

[Excidium]

Ah, I see. How many people are contributing to development?

 

[Surf Solar]

Actively at the monent only 2, but there are many contributors who give away small things to the game and upload stuff to the repo. That was the goal of the demo as said - to interest more people to speed up the process.
At the moment I am just in crunchtime to put all the new art into the mapper and edit it so it all looks homogenous - dialogues, quests and outline are done for the Demo. Only thing that I still dont have done completely is the UI.

 

[General Maxson]

Actively at the monent only 2, but there are many contributors who give away small things to the game and upload stuff to the repo. That was the goal of the demo as said - to interest more people to speed up the process.
At the moment I am just in crunchtime to put all the new art into the mapper and edit it so it all looks homogenous - dialogues, quests and outline are done for the Demo. Only thing that I still dont have done completely is the UI.

If I knew shit about that, I'd help you... But I hope you get some talented and hardworking team mates, as this project seems very promising.

 

[Derper]

Looking forward to the demo. Will it be out on a ... friday?

 

[oscar]

Wow those screenshots. This is beginning to surpass any isometric RPG I've ever seen in beauty. This game looks damn good.

You've got a Day One purchase from me. Keep up the good work.

 

[Surf Solar]

Purchase? This is a free game, I cant ( wouldnt want anyway, it is a hobby for me) ask for money.
Thank you though! Still working on the demo, slowly but steady.

 

[sea]

Any idea what the target length for the demo will be? Or how much content in terms of quests etc.? What about compared to the full version?

 

[Surf Solar]

I took inspirations from the (imo very good and lengthy) AoD demo, so ours will feauture a city hub (Detroit) which is rather big (plus some wilderness/"dungeon" areas). There wont be as much branching as in AoD, because it is a story seperate from the game ( you can meet your demo character in the maingame as an NPC). There will be instead some adventure elements, 6-7 minor and two large encounters to show some new gameplay elements and items.Depending how much you explore, I would say that there is about 1 hour in the inital run.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Sounds great.

 

[sea]

Good length for a demo. Looking forward to playing it more than just about any other game at the moment, that's for sure.

 

[oscar]

I especially like the idea of playing as someone who you won't be playing in the full game. It's one of the reasons I've avoided the AoD demo, as I want to be able to experience the game completely virgin.

 

[Surf Solar]

I just had some indepth chat about the demo with the beta ( alpha?) ) testers. The most genuine comments were about "Dude no one will understand this" even though I tried to tone down any real life philosophical bits ( and this is coming from someone who hates "storyfag" stuff). There are genuine "wat" areas, that resemble my favorite parts of planescape translated into the the "modern" setting of Fallout. bits, but the general consent was "there is too much text". Is it really that bad when there is much (optional) text? Some of it is voiced (seldom). There is no political projection at alll, I really cared that this wont be the case. So is this just some usual "LGBT" case?I dont give a slightest fuck about how women are portrayed in the game. For fuck sake, there are factions controlled by many females, (there are reasons you will see), there will be female just "normal" women. For fucks sake, have you seen me posting stuff that "portrays women in a false projection"`?



I just want to make a fucking game. Leave me alone with this shit. I dont portray women as sex symbols, neither do I show males as the same. Get the fuck out. All I want to do is some dungeon romper with cool visuals and some overworked fallout design. Seriously.

As said, I received hate mails from people at a game that hasnt even an official demo. If you pirated the demo somewhere, good for you, but what the fuck has this to do with "gender issues"?

 

[oscar]

Don't give a fuck about those morons. Your testers sound like Fallout 3 fans whose heads start to hurt from too much writing while the other testers sound like the usual LGBT/Feminist weirdos who demand completely equal representation and portrayal of gays and women, even if it makes zero sense in the setting or reality.

If these people are finding Planescape: Torment level deepness overwhelming you really need some better testers. I've yet to meet any game that has been too intellectually deep for its own good. I even remember quite a few 'Dexers complaining that Planescape: Torment wasn't too different to stuff you'd hear on a Philosophy 101 course.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Exactly. As good as Torment is, it's nowhere near "philosophically challenging" or anything like that. Get new testers. I'll volunteer. I can even curse in German if that helps. Himmel! Donnerwetter! Scheisse!

 

[sea]

Seriously, everyone here on the Codex is looking forward to What Remains and are happy to give you detailed feedback. Of course, if your game sucks then you have to be prepared for the fact that people will say it does.

 

[Surf Solar]

Nah, I am happy with critique and encourage it, it is just such nonsense like on the previous page that made me rant. There was stuff like "when I declined to join the policemen I got thrown in a quarantine room stripped off of all my clotjes and had a naked sprite. This is fine for male characters, but you should reconsider how you treat women in this gamw" - I mean, seriously...

I am sitting in train right now, when I come home I can quote more of such gems.

And yeah, I will PM the client to you codex bros, I just decided to alter XP rewards, so players can test out the new higher level perks in the demo too. It shouldnt take too long since rhere are not many quests.

 

[Krash]

Just release the demo for all codexers! That way you'll have a large population of testers well versed in RPGs. VoD, Zed, or Bee could even make it a news item.

 

[sea]

I don't know if it's possible (I'd have to ask Buck because it's a mod) but I could try do a preview or something for GameBanshee if you wanted.

 

[Surf Solar]

I hadn't had time to do anything for the game the past few weeks but it should soon become better. Thanks for the offer but I really want to polish it a bit more as said earlier, will come back to it when the stuff is ready.