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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:There were a ton of interactive items in the environment, and the quest structure was deeper than a Diablo-type game. You still killed a lot of dudes in real time, but it had loads of extra detail. EDIT: Although it was the other way around until you got out of the starting village and surroundings.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:40
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Megazver posted:Yeah, they're not going to get this kind of money. But what I am trying to say is this: Brian Fargo had a lot going for him, given his history with two INCREDIBLY nostalgic games - it's really a perfect storm of confluence. inXile's recent past of videogames isn't a factor for the support they're getting. Larian doesn't have that history to fall back on. Also, I think inXile DID put out a tweet or whatever mentioning Larian's game. It's practically impossible to import new systems into an already made program without spending more money and time than is worthwhile. As 'wow'factor as it might be, even if Obsidian gave them their entire library of engines, Larian couldn't do anything with them, much less seamlessly integrate them into their own systems already in place. I think it might be interesting to see if other designers could be contracted to work some quests or additional storylines, but Larian has done a good job on their own. Avellone going to Torment  is, again, more nostalgia and poetic justice for the fans than function. It's also a shitton more money than what's being asked for. When you consider that a small group of programmers et al reassigned to this project may cost an easy 150k or more a month you'll quickly get overruns on a budget if you just start randomly adding more and more.Haha, I could totally see them releasing character/enemy interviews a la Sterling Archer's media days. Get a little back story going on. Drifter fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 20:40
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Drifter posted:Also, I think inXile DID put out a tweet or whatever mentioning Larian's game. That's actually really cool of them considering their own Kickstarter is still ongoing. Larian definitely should have handled the marketing aspect better, but I'm not a social media expert or communications major, so there's not much more I can say about it. They're almost certainly going to reach their goal, in any case. I just hope they'll be able to add in some stretch goals. I'd like to see the henchman personalities, for example. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I think Larian might get the extra boost of bloggability of they add in the "weresheep" that's becoming a thing on the Kickstarter comments. I have no idea what this weresheep thing is about, but it's already starting to annoy me. I guess you had to have been there.
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Apr 1, 2013 20:55
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Phlegmish posted:I have no idea what this weresheep thing is about, but it's already starting to annoy me. I guess you had to have been there. I'm not quite sure either, but I think it has to do with the second update where they killed a sheep in-game and noted that other sheep didn't react. They talked about adding a faction system for sheep so that if you killed a bunch of sheep, other sheep would react differently to you. It may be a stupid meme, but it sounds interesting enough that it might get more attention. The rate of funding has increased quite a bit in the hour since they hit $249,000, which is good. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 21:29
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:It may be a stupid meme, but it sounds interesting enough that it might get more attention. The rate of funding has increased quite a bit once they hit $249,000, which is good. aren't they at 249k right now? What do you mean it's increased?
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Apr 1, 2013 21:43
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Swen Vincke put up a blog post with some details about the Kickstarter (and I'm a sucker for statistics):quote:This is going to be a very short post because I need some sleep, but I just wanted to mention how motivating it is to see all these shows of support and how helpful all our fans and backers have been. I’m exhausted but reaching 63% of our funding goal (252K at present) in 5 days is just amazing and it’s very easy to find energy amidst so much support. And the feedback we’ve received is worth gold – that alone is a reason to do a campaign like this – now I understand what Brian Fargo & the guys at Obsidian were shouting about all the time. It’s one thing to be reading about it, it’s a completely different thing to be in the middle of it. Anyway, that’s it – I actually just wanted to share a few stats from our campaign: And there's the problem: only 30,118 views? That should really be at least a 100,000 at this point. Here's the breakdown of the direct referrals:  Rock, Paper, Shotgun, RPG Watch and RPG Codex are the biggest contributors. 80 backers (pledging 1.35% of the total amount pledged) were referred to the Kickstarter by Something Awful.
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Apr 2, 2013 07:17
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I never played a Divinty game, but this looks really good and I love me some turn based combat. Fingers crossed!
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Apr 2, 2013 07:26
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Same for me, I've never played a Divinity game but I saw this thread that said "turn-based RPG" in the title and there goes my kickstarter budget for April.
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Apr 2, 2013 07:32
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(all this should be read as my opinion, not written fact) He should post all this on the kickstarter page, not the blog. I'll never visit the blog, and only people who've already heavily invested will read that blog. People love information about distribution and saturation like this. You want to use the Kickstarter as an information gateway - THE gateway - not filter information regarding the game through several portals; gaming news(?) sites will be more likely to update based on updates from his Kickstarter because it's easier to keep track of there instead of from 4 different Larian themed sites. Plus it keeps people returning to the Kickstarter page. The more times they revisit, the more opportunity they have to pledge or discuss it amongst other people who haven't been informed yet.
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Apr 2, 2013 07:45
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He actually linked to an earlier version of those stats in the second update. You're right though, it should be more prominent. People love to frame this sort of thing as a group effort, and the element of competition is important. I've already seen some guys on RPG Codex talking about how they should try to overtake RPG Watch on that list. However, in general you really can't say they're not being responsive enough. The devs have been responding to nearly everyone's questions in the comments, and we've already had three updates since the beginning of the project. A fourth one is coming up later today, where I believe they will be talking about skills/stats and lore. Should be really interesting. Phlegmish fucked around with this message at 08:35 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 08:30
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Oh, of course. I didn't mean to imply they were being unresponsive. They've only been around for five days. One thing I've always wished projects would do more often (or at all) is collect and filter all their comment responses and put them in easy to read updates, because there's a lot of new and random information devs share that's actually easier to process through their clarifying responses rather than their (previously written or silently updated) FAQs and junk. The comments' layout in the Kickstarter website is absolutely horrible; I never read them. In addition, most of those comments read like they were written by roving packs of friendly retards (unless you're in the Anita Sarkeesian or 9yr old girl's rpg camp  sections, in which case it's angry retards).And besides, almost any update is a good update.
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Apr 2, 2013 08:47
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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:There were a ton of interactive items in the environment, and the quest structure was deeper than a Diablo-type game. You still killed a lot of dudes in real time, but it had loads of extra detail. The most strikingly Ultima thing to me so far is how the inventory stacks. Playing Divine Divinity these last few days has persuaded me that they expect you to play these games like an amoral yet good hearted dickbag, and I hope this continues into Dragon Commander and Original Sin. The Riverton market is filled with ways explicitly designed to allow you to rob the store owners blind without consequence, and it's fantastic.
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Apr 2, 2013 10:30
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First Kickstarter I've backed since Wasteland. Divine Divinity and Dragon Knight Saga were such quirky, flawed games, and I loved them (DKS more so because of my distaste for Diablo-like combat). It's funny, I remember renting Divine Divinity out of my local library (yes, they rented out PC games) as a kid new to PC gaming, and being totally in awe. I thought Baldur's Gate was interactive, I thought Morrowind was expansive. It didn't top either of those for me, but it had this ridiculous charm and magic to it that I've never forgotten, and I blame it entirely for my love of kooky semi-indie European games. I found that feeling to be replicated in DKS in a way that was a huge breath of fresh air, and now it looks like they're finally getting to make the game they always wanted to make... and one that sounds exactly like everything I want out of an RPG. Pledged for the Dragon Commander tier, would have given more if I wasn't a poor student. If this doesn't meet its goal I am going to be so mad
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Apr 2, 2013 17:38
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WEEDLORD CHEETO posted:If this doesn't meet its goal I am going to be so mad I wouldn't be too worried about that, since they're already at 2/3's with more than three weeks to go.
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Apr 2, 2013 17:43
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New Update:quote:- Extended Offer On Undies: legendary talking undies now available to all backers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdKYGpGJKXA New Article: IGN Article: Risking it all for jetpack dragons quote:“The entire company.” That’s the answer Swen Vincke, Founder of Larian Studios, gave me when I asked him how much he has riding on the developer’s next two games, Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin. There was no hesitation between question and answer; it’s just a matter of fact, something that Vincke has come to terms with. He literally can’t afford to be apprehensive. Actually, Larian has received financial guarantees from distributors that will ensure that they break even at the very least.
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Apr 2, 2013 19:52
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New update out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/443345 I've linked to it on Reddit's biggest game sub, you guys would help the devs get more eyeballs if you upvoted: http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1bj6az/divinity_original_sin_first_singleplayer_gameplay/
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Apr 2, 2013 19:52
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That was a great update. If they bring the heat like this every day they'll keep building momentum and actually have to worry about stretch goals. work hard, larian. It looks so good.
Drifter fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 20:04
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I think this looks really appealing already, even with the interface and a lot of the animations still being 'a work in progress'. Looking forward to randomly slipping on ice in the middle of combat. quote:Actually, Larian has received financial guarantees from distributors that will ensure that they break even at the very least. I don't really like the title that IGN picked for this article. 'Larian risking it all on dragons with jetpacks?  ' The real focus should have been on D:OS and the Kickstarter. Still, any publicity is good and the comments are positive.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:06
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That video looks sweet - and hey, pants for everyone! Glad to see IGN support this, too.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:17
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WEEDLORD CHEETO posted:First Kickstarter I've backed since Wasteland. Divine Divinity and Dragon Knight Saga were such quirky, flawed games, and I loved them (DKS more so because of my distaste for Diablo-like combat). It's funny, I remember renting Divine Divinity out of my local library (yes, they rented out PC games) as a kid new to PC gaming, and being totally in awe. I thought Baldur's Gate was interactive, I thought Morrowind was expansive. It didn't top either of those for me, but it had this ridiculous charm and magic to it that I've never forgotten, and I blame it entirely for my love of kooky semi-indie European games. Divine Divinity was really weird and kind of awesome. What sort of studio would make a Diablo clone and then make one of the features rearranging furniture  There's a logical progression from that to jetpacks on dragons and it can only lead to greatness.Anyways, I'm excited for both games. My biggest concern was how single-player was going to work in Original Sin. The video Megazver linked put those fears to rest.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:18
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At the very least, this Kickstarter has convinced me to go back and try my hand at Divine Divinity again. I've played it a bit once before, but probably only got an hour or two into it before being distracted by other things. It's definitely the kind of game that appeals to me and I like that it's hard without being totally brutal [though that's on Normal]. It's Diablo and not Diablo, which is nice, a good balance between cutting down hordes of monsters for loot and exploration/quests. But I keep forgetting that this game doesn't have autosave, resulting in a good chunk of time being wasted more than once. 
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Apr 2, 2013 20:50
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Referral statistics update: The SA forums move up a few places, overtaking NeoGAF and Reddit.
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Apr 2, 2013 21:52
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Great Rumbler posted:I wouldn't be too worried about that, since they're already at 2/3's with more than three weeks to go. Fruits of the sea posted:Divine Divinity was really weird and kind of awesome. What sort of studio would make a Diablo clone and then make one of the features rearranging furniture Stuffing crates on the magic carpet so you had mobile storage, stuffing even more crates and barrels in the teleport network in Serpent Isle to have a nice convenient storage area... ah, memories.
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Apr 3, 2013 01:31
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Zereth posted:I'm not kidding when I say Divine Divinity was about two parts Ultima 7 and one part Diablo. In Divine Divinity, you could pick up chests and barrels, and toss them across the screen like they were weightless. There were many instances in the game where you had to move objects to find treasures or get into secret rooms. One time there was a bed you had to move, a full-sized bed, but they forgot to give it a weight, so you could drag this huge four-poster into your inventory and carry it everywhere.
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Apr 3, 2013 01:47
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David tweeted this: That would be such a typical Larian thing to do.
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Apr 3, 2013 17:46
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If there's any sense to it at all, there would be an "Are you sure?" confirmation before it. Wallpapers and Original Sin Avatars are available for download. I just noticed this on the Kickstarter page: quote:There are six primary stats and manipulating them in combat can lead to surprising results. For instance, lowering the intelligence of an enemy with a curse spell, will cause it to walk into pools of lava (uttering words like "look, how shiny"). Or if you lower an enemy's dexterity, it has a much higher chance of falling down when it crosses an ice surface, forcing it to skip its next turn. Or... I hadn't even considered uses of curses or dropping gold to lure enemies.
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Apr 3, 2013 17:56
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I'm having a blast playing Divine Divinity. If D:OS is only half as good, I'd still be quite pleased. I have a feeling that the only reason for me not paying more attention to Divine Divinity when it got released was probably the name. drat that is just a lovely name for a game such as this. Anyway, the mini-chart from Kicktraq should be a required thing for every Kickstarter related thread, but with the URL changed to point directly to the Kickstarter project. 
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Apr 3, 2013 23:23
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Nice to see it still moving along, they're definitely going to get funded with time to spare at this rate.
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Apr 3, 2013 23:30
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Using gold as bait? That's... genius. Has that seriously never been used before in a game outside of Assassin's Creed style harassment?
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Apr 3, 2013 23:53
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Even though I still haven't played any of the Divinity games (although DKS is next on my backlog), this pitch appealed to me so much I dropped my Torment pledge to the minimum and put most of it towards this game instead. I really hope it ends up with a decent amount by the end. I'm glad they decided to redo some of the pledge tiers, too. Getting to create content or name things that only that person will see seemed like an odd reward.
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Apr 3, 2013 23:54
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:In Divine Divinity, you could pick up chests and barrels, and toss them across the screen like they were weightless. There were many instances in the game where you had to move objects to find treasures or get into secret rooms. One time there was a bed you had to move, a full-sized bed, but they forgot to give it a weight, so you could drag this huge four-poster into your inventory and carry it everywhere. 
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Apr 3, 2013 23:54
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Zereth posted:Beat the poo poo out of using a couple of bales of hay to make a portable bed! Not portable, you can only use it once, you can't pick it up once you turn the hay into a bed. Original Sin Kickstarter: Day 7 blog entry quote:I’m also learning stuff about my team. For instance, I have two guys, my lead animator and lead writer, who’ve been camping in London for the last four weeks, recording the voices of AAA actors for Dragon Commander(they call them AAA probably because they can charge us more that way, but admittedly, the actors are good). During the day they direct the actors, record their voices and capture their facial expressions, at night they spend long hours writing additional texts and reviewing existing texts. That’s dedication mixed with talent right there, of a level rarely seen. And they’ve been doing that for a month!
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Apr 4, 2013 00:19
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Not portable, you can only use it once, you can't pick it up once you turn the hay into a bed.
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Apr 4, 2013 00:52
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It's time for some new statistics. Referrals (Swen really needs to post higher-resolution screenshots): Not much has changed, SA is still right in front of NeoGAF. 93 is not that bad, all things considered. Make sure to get redirected from SA if you do decide to pledge. Why does it matter? I...uh...shut up. Pledge amounts by day (starting from the second day):  Slowed down during Easter/Easter Monday, but it's picking up again now. quote:I’m also starting to get the feeling that our entire Kickstarter campaign is going to be good for sales of the final game too as I see awareness is building. That’s bound to help in the end. I learnt a lot about what media matters for these type of things as well as who to avoid in the future. Some people and Larian will never click, fact of life. I wonder who he's talking about with that little jab at the end. IGN? Would be better for him not to burn any bridges.
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Apr 4, 2013 01:10
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This Kickstarter got me excited, because I was starting to worry after Lord British actually did launch one that the near-term pipeline was out of "awesome CRPG resurrection" Kickstarter projects. Hooray for Larian!Raze_Larian posted:It wasn't that bad. OK, maybe at the start it was, but the DK's voice got better as the game progressed (and he talked less), and IIRC all the really bad voicework was for characters near the beginning of the game (like the talking skull). Anyway, the Divinity games are so good that criticizing them instead of just saying "play them" is doing them a disservice. Except everyone can certainly agree Beyond Divinity is the least-essential one (but as I often say, if you do have time to play through a huge CRPG, the resolution to the story in that game/the first game is fantastic) And hearing that the end of Divine Divinity was, indeed, way more combat-heavy than seemed logical with the rest of the game ... that makes so much sense. The first time I played through, I was apparently seriously underlevelled and just got annihilated at the end, and gave up.
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Apr 4, 2013 01:17
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I was checking out the blog, and Swen comes off as an incredibly bitter person who doesn't have any clue about how to do PR. They should just hire an intern for communications or something.
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Apr 4, 2013 04:57
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I hadn't read Swen's blog before beyond a few paragraphs, but having read several articles from the past he strikes me as more of a realist who's heavily invested in his company. He sounds like a straight shooter, to be honest. I may have missed him badmouthing a particular person, but unless that's what he did, I'm not sure what you find distasteful.
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Apr 4, 2013 05:20
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Divine Divinity was the most Ultimaish game that I've ever played that wasn't Ultima, Larian are rad and I have backed this game. End transmission.
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Apr 4, 2013 07:40
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Swen is a pretty cool guy. He can be a little bitter about the industry at times, but it's never directed at his customers or the public in general. I agree that they really need to hire a communications expert, though. Chairchucker posted:Divine Divinity was the most Ultimaish game that I've ever played that wasn't Ultima, Larian are rad and I have backed this game. End transmission. It's been said before before, but I'd say D:OS is actually more reminiscent of Ultima VII than Lord British's new project (which seems closer to Ultima Online).
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Apr 4, 2013 11:03
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Larian has hit the 75% mark ($300,000) Kickstarter Update #5 A lot of people told us that our Kickstarter movie was too long and that a shorter version would help in spreading the word. We listen to what you say, so here it is: the 1:30 minute version of our Kickstarter movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D69mFIE6PGw Digital Rewards: Physical Rewards: Also, here's more details on the game wrong out of one of the devs (Forktong): Q: What's the dungeon/questing ratio? A: You mean dungeons don't have quests? Real answer: we are trying to keep the experience varied. I.e. one "screen" you explore, next you talk, next you fight, next you find cool stuff, next you fight a particulary tough fight, next you explore, etc. Does the difficulty level have an effect on the AI? A: About difficulty levels: good question if it has impact on AI. It is possible to do so. I should check that with code. (For instance, it is already possible to have enemies do stuff based on their INT. E.g. if INT<7 then walk through all the ice and fire and poison surfaces, else try to avoid. So adding difficulty to a condition like that is possible.) What is the item Generation system? A: in Divine Divinity, items are generated at the moment you open a chest. This indeed causes people to save/load glitch spam before opening stuff. This is still the case now. I will ask why. I wonder why not "generating" at level initialization. I would think this would make the generation even more fair... Balancing of uniques vs generated: with our current itemgen / item definition system, that is easier to control / balance. The levels of the items in containers are determined by the NPCs/monsters surrounding the container. Not the player's level. (So if you can sneak into a high level camp without getting noticed, you still get loot that makes sense. Or if you succeed in killing a higher level creature, he won't drop items that are your level, that also doesn't make a lot of sense.) Actually, balancing and creating meaningful treasure tables is probably more work than placing treasures/items by hand. But once the treasure generation was in, and containers could contain something, and there was a chance of something cool dropping, you immediately felt it when you were playing it. It may sound cheap, but item fever works, even in a game where combat is TB. This was also proven by the journalists that got the hands-on previews: they all immediately started opening things. And if an NPC was watching, their curiosity got the better of them and they were trying to make him look away or lure him off or distract him in any way (most of them ended up killing everyone, but that's besides the point). So, in short: item gen is in, because we believe item fever works and can be fun, and is one of the things that helps replayability. But not ALL drops are generated, and there are items that are hand-placed. But we do also know that balancing those treasure tables the generate loot, is the hardest part. We also have "unique" items, hand-placed, lore planned. Generated items atm are rare, but the balance of "ooooooh, I found a magical item" and "a crud, another one of those blue ones" is indeed a tough one. So, if I understand correctly, you have a problem with the naming generation? Or the fact that you could find "Sword of the Expert" or something like that in a simple farmer's wardrobe without it having anything to do with the farmer, who hasn't ever used a sword in his life, let alone has the money or background for a magical one? (I am personally more a fan of hanging on to "kick-rear end items" for a very long time ("back in my days, your party went 10 levels with a sword+1 if you found it at all") but I think I'm easily the only one at Larian. What I am forcing, however, is that magical generated boosts make sense. E.g. no "+1 to blocking" on a pair of shoes... And that magical items only pop up where they make at least a bit of sense.) What's the Journal system? A: What I meant was: we have no journal UI yet, so right now we're thinking of shipping a notebook and a pen with the game. A notes section does kick rear end tho. But there will at least be a "quest" list, a monster list (and what you know about them), a dialogue log, and a place where you can read all the lore/gossip/poetry/ingredients you've discovered. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Apr 4, 2013 13:58
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