Gryzemuis on 1/4/2019 at 11:00
I checked the games that had me hyped in the past.
*) Tangiers.
Dead. No news for a year. Hardly any news before that. Nobody working on the game.
Too bad.
*) Scorn.
October 2018 release of part 1 has been delayed.
Now the plan is to release the whole game at once.
When ? Nobody knows. There are supposedly 30 people working on the game.
Nothing on their website: (
https://scorn-game.com/)
We'll see. I'm not hyped anymore.
*) Pathologic 2.
By coincedence, this weekend Ice-Pick Lodge announced a release date. 23 May 2019.
A new release-trailer was shown as well:
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQIWmfC_CCw)
The trailer is a bit weird. I wonder how the game will be.
I played the original Pathologic half-way through. I'll definitely check out this version.
icemann on 2/4/2019 at 10:33
Scorn - All the news is via KS only, and even that has been scattered small updates. Its another FPS with checkpoint saves only btw. I even argued with the devs over it, as they refused to even attempt manual saves. Lazy programming.
In their last update (which came out last week), they complained a bit about people wanting more updates and have far greater detail on whats going on, in detail. They responded that doing that would take too much time away from the dev work, which with the staff they have, they cant do. Well they shouldnt have gone to KS then. Other KS projects with the same staff numbers have managed regular (monthly) detailed updates. So their obviously in need of better project management.
Beyond that, all I know is they got outside funding + additional staffing help. I'm really sceptical on this one.
EvaUnit02 on 2/4/2019 at 11:32
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
*) Pathologic 2.
By coincedence, this weekend Ice-Pick Lodge announced a release date. 23 May 2019.
A new release-trailer was shown as well:
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQIWmfC_CCw)
The trailer is a bit weird. I wonder how the game will be.
I played the original Pathologic half-way through. I'll definitely check out this version.
It's a remake/reimagining of the first. They're just marketing it as a sequel because their publisher wishes it.
qolelis on 2/4/2019 at 13:51
As far as I can tell, Tangiers is still in development. The updates are done mostly on Twitter and the last mention was a month ago. Last update via kickstarter was in August 2018. They also co-released Paratopic, so they are definitely still active.
Quote Posted by icemann
Scorn - All the news is via KS only, and even that has been scattered small updates. Its another FPS with checkpoint saves only btw. I even argued with the devs over it, as they refused to even attempt manual saves. Lazy programming.
Yeah, if they already have the save/load infrastructure in place, adding manual save shouldn't be that hard -- assuming they have full control over the code, that is. It
might have been a design decision to not include it, but you probably know more about that than I do since you talked to them about it.
Pyrian on 2/4/2019 at 20:22
Checkpoint saves are often implemented with very little actual "state" being saved, which more-or-less works if the checkpoint is isolated from the action. Saving the full state can be a significant task to support arbitrary quicksave.
Renault on 2/4/2019 at 21:06
I'm wondering when (or if) Red Candle Games will ever put Devotion back up for sale on Steam. It was getting great reviews, and Detention was really good, so I hope I still get the chance to play it. But, you know, China.
icemann on 3/4/2019 at 01:13
I complained to the Scorn devs after having a play of the demo released at the time of the KS. Due to the checkpoint use, it led to lost progress in a few sections where a simple save load would have fixed everything. I advised the devs of this and was promptly told nope thats not what they want in the game. So I called them lazy programmers. That went down well.
Their complaint about not having the time to update backers on progress backs that up. If you cant be bothered to keep backers updated then dont go to KS. Get outside funding instead (which they later did anyway). Visually the game looks great, but that was a long time ago, and we've seen barely anything new that wasnt already in the demo since.
qolelis on 3/4/2019 at 11:07
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Checkpoint saves are often implemented with very little actual "state" being saved, which more-or-less works if the checkpoint is isolated from the action. Saving the full state can be a significant task to support arbitrary quicksave.
Right, adding proper save/load late -- after everything else -- is probably a lot harder than doing it early on. I personally prefer being able to save at will (which is also why I'm glad I didn't wait to implement that stuff myself), so having a slight scoff at not being able to is a bit of a knee jerk reaction of mine. Then again, not being able to always (quick-)save
can, in cases, add to the experience. It depends on how much progress is being lost -- and the type of progress -- so it needs to be balanced.
In a game depending on player skill I don't mind as much having to repeat a sequence, because I will most likely benefit from the extra practice later on, but if it's more about character skill, then the forced repetition feels like more of a chore.
Mirror's Edge is a good example of the former; the satisfaction of doing something in a better or more efficient way was worth not being able to save at will. I admit it was frustrating at first, but after having played a while, I realized it was better that way. I've also played games with really involved tasks that was fun to figure out, but a pain to execute, and having to repeat those was not the most joyous of experiences, so having been able to save would have been most welcome.
Quote Posted by icemann
I complained to the Scorn devs after having a play of the demo released at the time of the KS. Due to the checkpoint use, it led to lost progress in a few sections where a simple save load would have fixed everything. I advised the devs of this and was promptly told nope thats not what they want in the game. So I called them lazy programmers. That went down well.
Their complaint about not having the time to update backers on progress backs that up. If you cant be bothered to keep backers updated then dont go to KS. Get outside funding instead (which they later did anyway). Visually the game looks great, but that was a long time ago, and we've seen barely anything new that wasnt already in the demo since.
Writing good reports for the public does take time and effort (and the more involved the subject, the more time and effort will it take), but I agree, with a full(?) team around you, it shouldn't be too much to ask (although being a team come with its own challenges). As a one-man dev I can understand it not happening, but, of course, public funding does come with extra obligations and spending one day each month on public updates isn't that much. It might not even have to be every month so long as it's somewhat regular. I can imagine them being all about finishing the game -- which is good -- but, as you said, they are probably lacking that someone with enough of a full grasp of the game to be able to collect and summarize what's needed for a public update. Maybe they feel that now that they have private funding, the public updates aren't as important!?
If I'm being too apologetic about it, it's because I struggle myself with switching between the public role and the "dev hermit in cave" role (no history of public funding yet, though, but I still need to be -- or will eventually need to be -- more public about what I do).
...and, haha, calling them lazy programmers was probably not the most diplomatic thing you could have done -- and might even only have strengthened them in their will
not to implement manual save. :p
icemann on 3/4/2019 at 13:53
Lol yeah probably.
And I've backed a fair few KS projects by this point. Many which had only 4-10 people working on them, and they managed monthly updates fine. Scorn from memory is around that mark employees wise, possibly more after the publisher came on board.
