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The MSJ
May 17, 2010

Drifter posted:

Or else a Surgeon Simulator *~in spaaaaace~* dlc where you do surgery in zero-g.

They already have that in the game.

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FuzzySlippers
Feb 6, 2009

I just want a space trucking simulator at least as high a quality as the real truck simulators. Anything beyond that is bonus. The best part of Elite First Encounters was just peaceful space travel and exploding doing dumb things like screwing up docking.

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




FuzzySlippers posted:

I just want a space trucking simulator at least as high a quality as the real truck simulators. Anything beyond that is bonus. The best part of Elite First Encounters was just peaceful space travel and exploding doing dumb things like screwing up docking.

Europa Truck Simulator.

Keiya
Aug 22, 2009

Come with me if you want to not die.

Tippis posted:

Hey, that's unfair.
Elite is also about not being able to afford a docking computer and then mismatching your rotation with a space station and slamming side-first into the back wall of the docking bay.

Docking's not that hard, once you've done it a few times. Unless E:D made it harder, I've only played the classic one and the Oolite third-party remake.

BexGu
Jan 9, 2004

This fucking day....
So it anyone is youtube/twitch super star Hive Jump is sending out Streaming Builds with a demo to follow later: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/graphitelab/hive-jump-0/posts/955590

quote:

As part of our recruitment strategy, we're now spreading our "Ambush Build" of the game to Press, Streamers, and YouTubers. If you have any connections, especially with Streamers and YouTubers, please let us know. We would love your help in getting the build out in front of large audiences. Just send us a message via Kickstarter, Facebook, or Twitter, and we'll get back to you quickly.

We're also looking forward to sharing a build with all of you when the time is right. We're focusing on Press and Streamers/Tubers now, and we will continue polishing up the game demo and removing technical bugs before releasing it to all of our backers. We'll be sure to update you on the status of a backer build over the course of the next week or so. Thanks for your excitement and enthusiasm!

I personally think they should have lead with the demo since this is their second attempt at a kickstarter but better later then never. Could be a good middle of the pledge release to bump up traffic to the kickstarter again.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.
Sunless sea is making improvements! This is your typical game_creep.txt but its gonna be awesome just you wait

quote:

The core team sat down together and chewed on how to get to delightfulness.

So, okay, we said, let’s go one more time round the reasons we don’t do ship combat in real time on the map, bearing in mind that it is of course impossible and we shouldn’t do it.

Two hours later, we’d decided that it wasn’t impossible, and we should probably do it.

Two days later, we’d run the numbers, done a bit of prototyping, and we’re going to do it!

Combat in SUNLESS SEA will still be gently paced not frantic, still be pausable, still involve light and darkness. But it’s going to occur right on the main map, with the primary game systems plugged into it, not in a turn-based secondary card game.

It’s really hard, as a designer, throwing away a cherished mechanic. It’s like euthanasing a beloved pet that won’t stop eating children. But when it’s right, it’s right. We – and you – are lucky enough to have some extra time to work on this, so we’re going, once again, to do it right. This is a significant, exciting, scary change – we’ll be letting you know more soon!

Game development is a strange beast. :haw:

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


Sunless Sea rules, but the combat is the worst part. I don't mind this.

Demiurge4
Aug 10, 2011

Hakkesshu posted:

Sunless Sea rules, but the combat is the worst part. I don't mind this.

This. Fighting your third zeebat swarm in a row because they're everywhere gets really old. I just press flare, flare, shoot and wait, boring. Wonder how this will affect the observation stuff though.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Demiurge4 posted:

This. Fighting your third zeebat swarm in a row because they're everywhere gets really old. I just press flare, flare, shoot and wait, boring. Wonder how this will affect the observation stuff though.

Yeah its a decent system at first but each type of enemy becomes rote way, way too fast. And then dreading repetitive combat really drags down the rest of the game. I'm all for the overhaul.

(They should also add a system like Earthbound where if you run into an enemy vastly weaker than you, you just win. gently caress you, zeebats. Although I guess alternatively they just need to make every enemy still a threat, and maybe have a few less enemies.)

Kenshin
Jan 10, 2007
That's fantastic news because the game itself is already so fun, with the weakest part being combat.

Making it more interesting and less repetitive is great.

Suspicious Dish
Sep 24, 2011

2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro
Fun Shoe
Wow, throwing away my vision and my cherished mechanics that just aren't fun, to make the game more fun? These guys are some really good game designers.

This is sort of why I hate Kickstarter: it's too hard to make changes to make the game more fun, because somebody out there is going to complain that it's not what they backed.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Suspicious Dish posted:

Wow, throwing away my vision and my cherished mechanics that just aren't fun, to make the game more fun? These guys are some really good game designers.

This is sort of why I hate Kickstarter: it's too hard to make changes to make the game more fun, because somebody out there is going to complain that it's not what they backed.

I'm a little nervous just in terms of dev time, this is late in the process to be making such a major change. I hope they make it work though, it's the change the game needs.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005

Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch
This game looks so much like TowerFall The Roguelike it's kinda silly: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nukenine/vagante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8bamfbDHUw

Could be neat though.

Shalinor
Jun 10, 2002

Can I buy you a rootbeer?

Yodzilla posted:

This game looks so much like TowerFall The Roguelike it's kinda silly: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nukenine/vagante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8bamfbDHUw

Could be neat though.
That's both not a bad thing, and kind of unfair. Game looks pretty dang neat! Just happens to feature similar bow-and-arrow mechanics and little dude pixel characters.

What is with that name, though. "Vagante"? I know how they want me to say it, but I keep thinking of it as "Vaj-auntie", which makes it sound like a venereal disease, or something tragic that happens when women reach menopause.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005

Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch
I don't think it's entirely a bad thing and yeah it does look pretty neat, it was just the thing that struck me first mostly likely because I've played a fuckload of TowerFall.

egg tats
Apr 3, 2010

Yodzilla posted:

I don't think it's entirely a bad thing and yeah it does look pretty neat, it was just the thing that struck me first mostly likely because I've played a fuckload of TowerFall.

A better comparison for Vagante is spelunky, but dark and fantasy. I know this because there's a demo on their website and it's pretty rad.

SaltyJesus
Jun 2, 2011

Arf!
Vah-gah-nteh

Bobo the Red
Aug 14, 2004
Lay off the marmot
This neat looking game is ending soon :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682108903/jotun

Scared it might be a bit barebones, but it's very pretty

Shalinor
Jun 10, 2002

Can I buy you a rootbeer?
Ray's The Dead is taking another run at Kickstarter, this time with a much-improved pitch. Think Pikmin + zombies.




It already looked like it had potential last time, but now their video is drowning in actual, fun-looking gameplay footage.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006
And in no-loving-way news, Northward only got 1,5k out of 32k on Indiegogo with 5 days to go. I really hope they find someone to put this up on Kickstarter for them.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Yodzilla posted:

This game looks so much like TowerFall The Roguelike it's kinda silly: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nukenine/vagante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8bamfbDHUw

Could be neat though.

That looks super cute. The pixel art is pretty dang solid, and ninja rope may have me sold.


:3: That is amazing. I love the weird cut-out art style. Paper Mario in its teenage years.

Demiurge4
Aug 10, 2011

So Paradise Lost sent out a new update. Here's a little tidbit.

quote:

One of those hard decisions was the need to change and port all our current graphics into a new pixel art program

Whelp, that's a lot of work isn't it?

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"

Demiurge4 posted:

So Paradise Lost sent out a new update. Here's a little tidbit.


Whelp, that's a lot of work isn't it?

This has never gone wrong before.

Orzo
Sep 3, 2004

IT! IT is confusing! Say your goddamn pronouns!
What does that even mean? Port graphics...into a pixel art program? What?

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




I assume they mean they're switching asset development tools and needed to bring the old assets over.

Great Rumbler
Jan 30, 2013

For I am a dog, you see.
The full update goes into more detail on that:

quote:

One of those hard decisions was the need to change and port all our current graphics into a new pixel art program. The amount of animated elements from the game had been growing exponentially and the other design tool gave us a lot of problems in matter of stability, lack of tools and exportation of the sprite sheets. Surely you will think “why didn't you realize before?”, but at that moment we didn't think about the complexity of the current animations and the problems that appear. We required easiest processes to work in traditional animation, allowing us to do simple tasks as copy multiple layers at the time from one document to another or allow the use of onion skin to have a quick preview of the nearest frames in order to make smoother movements. In addition, we have realized that making a pixel game for different resolutions results in a bad resampling of some graphics, as a result of the imported sprite sheets. Right now we solved that problem but caused us to re-export all the game animations and objects from the older program.

quote:

The new program that we use to port the game's graphics is Aseprite, a great pixel editor focused in the development of professional design and animation. It's full of useful stuff like retro palettes, filters, different export options and a timeline bar that allows to have a clear view of the different animation layers. It also includes an option called RotSprite that rotates the images using an special algorithm to maintain its original aspect.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183462809/paradise-lost-first-contact/posts/954734

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

MikeJF posted:

I assume they mean they're switching asset development tools and needed to bring the old assets over.

Obviously. But when you're talking about pixel art, what all assets are there? Some sprite sheets. Maybe some separate color and normal textures if you're fancy? Still, its not like you're importing mesh data from 3DSMax into Unreal and now it needs to go in Crysis instead.

Importing sprite sheets from one development tool into another should be pretty straightforward.
"Here's the .png, here's how many sprites are in it". Not something to derail your entire development team for a long time and post on kickstarter about.

Now obviously it goes a bit further than that, they've probably got sprite position data or animation information stored as XML or JSON or something and they have to convert it for the other program to read it happy, sure, but... that shouldn't be a huge deal. Then again, they do have a toooon of art (and its pretty) and their team is like what 5 dudes? So I guess that accounts for it.

Orzo
Sep 3, 2004

IT! IT is confusing! Say your goddamn pronouns!
Right, that's what I don't get. Pixel art can be demanding to create, but manipulation of the data is one of the simplest things possible. If you can't export/import/manipulate a series of bitmaps in less than a day, I don't trust that your team is capable of actually making a game.

Kenshin
Jan 10, 2007
Yeah this isn't like going from one entire game engine to another, this is just giving them the ability to handle pixel art better. They showed examples of why they were doing that in the newsletter.

Suspicious Dish
Sep 24, 2011

2020 is the year of linux on the desktop, bro
Fun Shoe
It's not just the pixel data. I assume they need to get all their layers and guides out of their old tool, which, if it's Photoshop, might take them a little bit.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006
So Sierra Storm basically seems to be Alpha Protocol: Western Visual Novel. Chris Avellone is a stretch goal, of course.

They do want $34 dollars for the basic get-the-game tier, though. Nnnnnnot sure that's going to work out for them.

monster on a stick
Apr 29, 2013

Megazver posted:

So Sierra Storm basically seems to be Alpha Protocol: Western Visual Novel. Chris Avellone is a stretch goal, of course.

They do want $34 dollars for the basic get-the-game tier, though. Nnnnnnot sure that's going to work out for them.

Already discussed :v: The $34 isn't just get-the-game, it's also soundtrack, wallpaper stuff, and "hall of fame" which means your name in the credits. I wonder if they just left out the basic tier by mistake, there haven't been many games that jumped from "thanks for the dollar" to "name in the credits."

Darkhold
Feb 19, 2011

No Heart❤️
No Soul👻
No Service🙅
Yeah what are they thinking? For $34 it needs to be a sure bet not a bunch of guys nobody knows about.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

monster on a stick posted:

Already discussed :v: The $34 isn't just get-the-game, it's also soundtrack, wallpaper stuff, and "hall of fame" which means your name in the credits. I wonder if they just left out the basic tier by mistake, there haven't been many games that jumped from "thanks for the dollar" to "name in the credits."

So, basically just get-the-game.

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004

Darkhold posted:

Yeah what are they thinking? For $34 it needs to be a sure bet not a bunch of guys nobody knows about.

The lead Sheldon Pacotti wrote Deus Ex and has programming chops at least from his website. He's made a game as well called Cell: Emergence, so at least its not a bunch of narrative designers without any experience in programming.

monster on a stick
Apr 29, 2013

fez_machine posted:

The lead Sheldon Pacotti wrote Deus Ex and has programming chops at least from his website. He's made a game as well called Cell: Emergence, so at least its not a bunch of narrative designers without any experience in programming.

It's still an indie game and $34 is a lot for one. If they had a $15 early backer tier/$20 basic tier, they wouldn't be sitting at <$1000. Just checking among the games I've backed, the most expensive basic tier was Obduction, and that was $25.

Genocyber
Jun 4, 2012

Yeah, I got no desire to back a game like that when it's $34 to get the drat thing.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord
In my opinion if you gently caress up the tiers like that I can't really trust you to make the product. I mean video game Kickstarters have been a big thing for like 2 years now? You should know how they should work by now when you make one.

Yodzilla
Apr 29, 2005

Now who looks even dumber?

Beef Witch
Yes it's a pixel art indie puzzle platformer but SUPER III looks pretty drat decent https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/super91/super-iii?ref=newest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqF3WnrqkBA

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RadicalR
Jan 20, 2008

"Businessmen are the symbol of a free society
---
the symbol of America."

Yodzilla posted:

Yes it's a pixel art indie puzzle platformer but SUPER III looks pretty drat decent https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/super91/super-iii?ref=newest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqF3WnrqkBA

I'm a sucker for platformers. Might back them.

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