Messages

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: April 05, 2013, 03:41:45 PM »

That trailer is pretty sweet. It's the one that sold me on AI War. And it really was the just kind of sit down and explain myself tone that did it for me. I don't know if that's appropriate for most games and companies. I think it just may be a fit for Arcen though. Most of the time I spend talking about your games is trying to explain just how BIG they are to people, that something as simple looking as Tidalis is actually far more than what it seems to be on the surface. After pushing the demo on a few people they admitted to me that Tidalis really was as deep, varied, flexible and feature packed as I was saying. A few of them even bought the game. Every single one of them said, "But the trailers and screens made it look like a Match 3."

I expect I'll get the same experience from people with Shattered Haven. I've gifted out a few copies and a few friends bought it on my recommendation. Once they get done with their Tomb Raiders and Bioshock Infinites I expect I'll be having some similar conversations about Shattered Haven.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: April 03, 2013, 05:18:11 PM »

"Stranded.  Supplies Critical.  Chasing humanity's most dangerous creation."

I love it. Sooooo when do we get to learn more about this game? 

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: April 03, 2013, 12:25:21 PM »

Your team is stranded. Your mission is critical. Your leadership is your only chance. Will your supplies last? Will your team? Do you have what it takes to see this through?

This is where I think the focus should go on the tagline, even if what I've come up with my be cliche or terrible on it's own.

This puts the focus on the player, and hopefully gets across the point that not only is the player responsible for this super critical mission but also responsible for its execution and the lives under their command. When you talk about the Prince Roger series one of the things I really hope you are trying to capture from it is the sense of responsibility that Roger grew to feel towards his guard troops balanced with the absolute necessity to spend their lives to achieve the larger objective at hand. Big missions to save the everything are standard, especially in gaming, so we need to focus on what makes this one different, and unless I've been reading this wrong thematically, I think that's where you'll find it. Not many games put a face on the guys you send to their deaths, and rarely are these troops your most limited and valuable resource, and in Roger's case, his closest friends and companions.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: April 02, 2013, 03:06:28 AM »

The lore in AI War is definitely in the background more than anything else in the game. The last two expansions have had more lore stuff in them though.

As far as micromanagement goes, AI War is really only as micro heavy as you make it. I know it doesn't look that way but managing your fleets, planetary defenses and economy is the easy part. The hard part of AI War is learning how to filter the information at your disposal to see what's relevant to your planning and how to act on this information. The interface has any tool you could want to access and filter information. You can even pause the game at any time to soak up the details and make informed decisions. In many ways AI War is an information war, or at least it is the way I play it. I try to hide as much of my capability as possible, scouting for enemy infrastructure and force composition. You don't really have to worry about managing unit abilities or watching cooldown timers. Most of the game I usually have only two or three fleets with at least one of them being a purely defensive force.

And if all you really care about is the lore stuff you can always look at the AI War wiki. If you enjoy RTS at all though I think you should spend some time with the game. It's unique and once you get over the initial hump of learning the game's conventions I think you'll find a tactical and strategic wealth that is in a league of its own.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: April 01, 2013, 01:07:59 PM »

What are the aspects you want to push the most? So far I have the impression of a high stakes adventure with implications of personality driven diplomacy and conflict and a significant amount of pressure (timed? or perhaps something like AIW's AI Progress?) and resource intensive strategy.

That's a whooooole lot of stuff to try and nail in a tagline or two.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 30, 2013, 04:08:45 PM »

(...) I'm getting something I can't get anywhere else.

That's a lot of what I'm going for in game design.  I don't have anything against people who are totally happy filling their gaming hours with Tomb Raider or BF3 or whatever.  But they don't need me   AIW, on the other hand, scratches itches that pretty much nothing else does.  I dunno if we'll ever do a flight sim like you describe, but that general "serve a need that's not being served" idea is important to me.

But it's a pain to market   So it's not all I'm trying to do, either.

Yeah, Arcen's approach to design is a big deal to me. I love what you guys are doing and your dedication to supporting your games. I'm not a big puzzle gamer but if I get that itch Tidalis is my fix. The Valley games are the kind of wild eyed blue sky development that I loved about the table top gaming scene of the eighties, with Valley 2 being really successful in pulling off its design. Shattered Haven is a lot of fun too with it's thoughtful and puzzley combat and progression. And AI War is the best RTS ever made in my opinion, and also one of the best asymmetric scenarios I've ever encountered which is a special button for me. You guys are definitely giving me stuff I can't get anywhere else. 

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 30, 2013, 01:15:35 PM »

One man's work is another's play?

And vice versa, sometimes.

Enjoying work isn't a bad thing, where it gets weird is when the "work" is a purely virtual activity that doesn't accomplish anything a series of database commands (that take one millionth as long to create and execute) would.

Yep. I've been spending a lot of time with DCS Black Shark 2, a high fidelity simulation of a fairly unique Soviet era attack helicopter. Most of my friends think I'm insane when they find out just how much study and practice it takes to become combat effective. To them this sort of thing is the furthest thing from a game or an enjoyable experience, but when I uncage my Shkval on an OpFor tank and strike it down from 6km away and then slip away behind terrain features while contacting a FOB for more targeting data, I'm getting something I can't get anywhere else. But my friends think I'm insane.

Of course I think they are crazy with how they drop sixty bucks day one on the Tomb Raiders and Bioshock Infinites.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 29, 2013, 07:51:36 PM »

As for my silence, part of it is that I was out of the house at dinner.

But yes, VN is what we were concerned about.

I went with this idea for a new project, knowing that the approach to the graphics (going for beautiful handdrawn backdrops and anime characters) was VN-ish, though the gameplay was totally different. About 3-4 weeks after that was informed that VNs basically don't sell at all.  I might have chosen differently had I known that   But here we are, and the game idea itself is quite compelling to many people.

As long as you can get across that this is a strategic game with a rich storytelling presentation you can probably ditch a lot of any perceived stigma. And while that genre may be maligned, it's more for the questionable subject matter that's often in them. Stuff like Analogue: A Hate Story seems like it's slowly turning this perception around too. There's certainly quite a few people on my Steam friends list who own it and have played it anyway. So it seems to me that there is a developing audience for this kind of presentation, people who enjoy a game that tells a story, especially if there's branches and multiple outcomes possible. If there's compelling gameplay even better, like The King of Dragon Pass.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 29, 2013, 05:09:45 PM »

Heh, Arcen forumers favorite game; tickle as much info out of Keith and Chris as possible on new projects.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 29, 2013, 04:57:05 PM »

Sci Fi roguelikes do exist. Just recently Kerberos just put out a roguelike set in their Sword of the Stars game setting and I've been hearing good things about it. And when I saw what Sword of the Stars: The Pit was, I instantly wished that it was an Arcen game set in the AI War universe.

The fact that you guys are taking AI War and expanding the universe with a new game with totally different gameplay is just as exciting to me though. And it's something I'd honestly love to see you do more with that particular setting. Sequel after sequel to a series is definitely old hat, but taking a setting and using it to explore new angles is something that doesn't happen a lot.

edit: I'm also super intrigued by the diplomacy you guys say will be in the game. Just out of curiosity, has any of you played Depths of Peril? I thought the diplomacy side of that game was pretty cool stuff and would enjoy something organic like that. I love how you can influence the entire power struggle in Depths of Peril with subtle shifts of support and some skulduggery.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 29, 2013, 04:36:37 PM »

I was just kidding about the naming your characters thing, It's not a super important thing to me at all. Although I have had some fun online with people streaming Super Amazing Wagon Adventure and naming the wagoneers after different people in the chat and so on has been pretty funny stuff. There's like zero story to that game though, it's just an old school arcade send up of Oregon Trail with a ton of hilarious video game hyperbole. But yeah, it's something that people tend to enjoy in the various Let's Plays and streaming sessions that all the hip kids are doing these days.

The mention of character backstory and history and the art style leads me to believe that you are worried the perception will be that this is a visual novel. So yeah, you want to highlight the strategic and planning aspects to avoid that situation if that's the case.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

« on: March 29, 2013, 03:42:13 PM »

The most important thing for this game is the ability to name the people in your party. That way you can show all your buddies what kind of gruesome fates they met with screenshots.

Also wow this is totally out of nowhere! The concept does sound like a lot of fun and I really love the March series. Most exciting for me personally is getting a ground level view of the action in AI War. AI War has the potential for some really rich story telling with its fun and interesting factions. I know I'm really hoping that the Neinzul play a role in the game for instance. I'd love to see more them close up.

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Off Topic / Re: TOME 1.0! - and other Roguelikes.

« on: March 01, 2013, 10:28:55 PM »

Yeah, it's been around in one form or another for something like twenty years. It's crazy.

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Off Topic / Re: TOME 1.0! - and other Roguelikes.

« on: February 27, 2013, 07:28:27 PM »

Forgive the double post but UnReal World has moved away from their paid licensing model into a donations supported free distribution model to speed up development. It's a really cool and unique roguelike that focuses on wilderness survival in a world based on iron age Finnish folklore. It's an open ended sandbox where you can hunt, trap, forage, craft, trade, build, fight or whatever else you can figure out. It comes with a tileset and some funky and endearing digital photos of the dev and his friends running around in the woods. The interface is pretty easy to get around in, with some limited mouse functionality.

I've been playing it on and off for a while and it's pretty cool. Nothing like a game where you can break your leg falling out of a tree and then freeze to death trying to drag yourself to safety.

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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Valley 2 Official 1.001-1002 "Mouse Aiming For Those Who Stood And Fought" Relea

« on: February 26, 2013, 06:12:59 PM »

I'm old and easily sidetracked and confused.

So how bout that Valley 2? I can't stop playing it.