Interview A Decadent Interview at RPG Dot

[HotSnack]

No, they'd be speaking Aengelish - it just ain't fantasy if you don't spell things in a funny way.

 

[Vault Dweller]

About the 2D vs 3D thing, did you at any point consider using prerendered backgrounds? The artwork on your website is absolutely gorgeous. Too resource-intensive, though, I suppose

Thanks, and yes, too resource-intensive.

Silly question, but isn't "greek fire" somewhat of a misnomer in a fantasy world that never had a Greece?

I guess it would. Maybe liquid fire would sound better, although we have other references like centurion, legion, Styx, etc.

 

[WouldBeCreator]

I assumed with Styx that you were including the Greco-Roman mythology. Legion and centurion are both generic terms, though of course they have their roots in specific institutions. "Greek Fire" is different, since it includes a specific place in its name. (A harder case is for things like a character saying that he'll "be frank with you" or declaring that the Common Tongue is the "lingua franca" or something like that.)

Liquid fire seems better. (Also, there are various other issues with Greek Fire, ranging from anachronism to delivery vehicle, but I think those are done away with by this being a fantasy setting.)

 

[bryce777]

"facilities that were seemed too dangerous were sealed"

You might wanna fix that typo to deemed, "Iron Tower". If you read this.

Overall game looks very interesting.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks.

 

[Twinfalls]

Hot diggity-dog. Has the rumble at the Dot over this interview started yet?

also:

But can I put things to fire? Does it have tintin?

:shock: lol kewl yeh beth sux

 

[Pegultagol]

this game looks very interesting . I'd definitely try it out. Please keep us informed of the progress. I have one question, how many people are involved in the development?

 

[Volourn]

"VD, your English prose comes across as stilted and prone to subtle problems..."

Meh. his dialogues are fine, and you are the only to whine about it yet. If you *really* want to see poor dialogue chekc out my NWN Mod screenshots. R00fles!


I thoguht the interview was rather good. He doesn't need to go 'OMG! Best game evar!". If he did, I'd have to roll my eyes, and call him a hypocirte Yeah, I know, that REALLY scares him ). L0llers! Considering that his base audience consistes of the Codexers; does he really need to 'hype it up'? Geez...

Now, so I don't come comepletely across as a fanboy; I have one small and silly criticism:

The 'ancient civilization with super powerz' has been done to death by BIO (NWN (to a small degree), SOU, and KOTOR) so keep it low key.


Heh.


Thumbs up VD and Dhruin. Great interview.

 

[Twinfalls]

I have one question, how many people are involved in the development?

Thirteen, read the interview sheesh

 

[damaged_drone]

a minor point, but, i would ordinarily associate decadence with cultures on the decline due to the complacency caused by long periods of success. if anything is going to negate decadence, its the massive revolution inherent in an apocalypse. :shrug:

 

[Vault Dweller]

this game looks very interesting . I'd definitely try it out. Please keep us informed of the progress. I have one question, how many people are involved in the development?

4

Now, so I don't come comepletely across as a fanboy; I have one small and silly criticism:

The 'ancient civilization with super powerz' has been done to death by BIO (NWN (to a small degree), SOU, and KOTOR) so keep it low key.

Just to clarify, there were no super powers, just "powers" - something you would expect from a large kingdom where magic was studied and practiced. I mean, in a war you can't imagine rows and rows of mages casting magic missiles like crazy, it's gotta be something more powerful, and it's explained in the game.

Anyway, the ancient civilization with powers doesn't come back in any way, you don't find/acquire those powers, just like you don't learn how to make a nuke or find one in Fallout. Hope that helps.

 

[Vault Dweller]

a minor point, but, i would ordinarily associate decadence with cultures on the decline due to the complacency caused by long periods of success. if anything is going to negate decadence, its the massive revolution inherent in an apocalypse. :shrug:

It's a culture on the decline. It's not a Fallout-type apocalypse where everything was destroyed and started from scratch, basically.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

And to think we may have been playing it RIGHT NOW if you didn't have to sell out your soul to the devil and suck the cock of mainstream commerical post-modern capitalist/theocratic nihilism and get a 3D engine.

Seriously doh, the game is looking better and better every day. If it's not the second coming of Christ in the form of a computer game, I will be very upset.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Yeah seriously. If it's not the best RPG since Fallout than i'm going to be dissappointed.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Looking forward to it, VD, and wishing you good luck. I may have missed something obvious, but is the engine your own?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

VD, I love you.

 

[Whipporowill]

is the engine your own?

They've licensed the Torque engine.

 

[galsiah]

Meh. his dialogues are fine, and you are the only to whine about it yet. If you *really* want to see poor dialogue chekc out my NWN Mod screenshots. R00fles!

Well, I've "whined" a little about them in a few places too. I'd agree that they are "fine", and that I've certainly seen worse. However, VD isn't hoping for the public reaction to be "AoD was good in places, and generally fine - I've seen a lot worse.". No-one is suggesting that the dialogues are generally bad - just that they could be improved in places. Of course this is true of many games, but we can hope AoD could be better than most games in this regard.

The difficulty would be in improving things. They're not at all bad as it stands, so it would be easy to make things worse if changes weren't made very carefully. Also, using several different English writers to spread the work might cause problems, since you could end up with a strange collection of different styles. I guess the best solution would be to get one English writer to look over the whole lot - which would be a lot of work.

Is it really impossible though VD? So long as you stick to changing only style / wording, and leaving the structure identical, it's an isolated change (though a large one, granted). Perhaps you wouldn't get any takers, but it couldn't hurt to look for an English writer / editor / proofreader could it?

I guess it might be difficult for someone not familiar with the game to follow the threads in every dialogue, but there might be many small changes that weren't particularly context sensitive.


On the interview, I liked it in general, but I agree that a bit of PR isn't necessarily a bad thing. Your audience is not only going to be codex types (one hopes). There are many poor souls in this world who have never played Fallout, and might have wandered to an RPG site after playing one or two modern "RPG"s. These people might not immediately see the benefits of the non-groundbreaking, non-reinvented, non-redefined systems you are using.

There's a difference between:
What you're saying:
We've done X, Y and Z, using a system similar to [insert game many haven't played] which you can see in (1), (2) and (3)...

What dear ol' Pete is saying:
We've done X, which is really cool - let me tell you about it... wait I can't - it'd take like 5000 pages to detail all the wonderous possibilities. But trust me: it's cool. And wait till you see Y - you might just die from shock when you see that...

And a possibly happy medium:
We've done X, Y and Z, using a system similar to [insert game many haven't played]. This is really effective because [fact 1] leads to [benefit 1] and [fact 2] leads to[benefit 2]. You can see this in (1), (2) and (3) - notice that [fact 3], so [benefit 3].

Basically you can be enthusiastic about Fallout-esque features (and you are aren't you?) while being clear about the facts, and without maintaining that they're anything new or that you invented them.


Also, your Philosophy:
"If what you do is meaningless, if people don't react to your actions, if you need to imagine consequences or that someone cares, the game is boring, at least, in my opinion."

Is basically saying "We think darkness sucks", rather than "We're lighting a candle", or even "Darkness sucks, so we're lighting a candle." Perhaps you think it's obvious that you're in favour of candles because you're against darkness. However, I think you could put the emphasis more on the positive - after all, that's where you're different from most codexers: you are doing more than just grumbling about how bad things are.


I think you could go some distance in the positive / enthusiastic direction, without coming close to sounding like some generic PR guy. The important thing is that you keep the substance and the specific detail. Substance and detail need not be at odds with an up-beat, positive tone.

Personally I have no problem with the interview, and it has made me more interested. I'm not most people though, and nor are most codexers. If you want to encourage a wider audience [i.e. to show the un-educated gamer the light], I think you need to spend a little time pointing out why what you've done is good (or if you like, your motivation for making the choice to do X, Y and Z).

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Other than what we're saying, what are people saying over at RPGdot and other sites that know of the interview? Like, for instance, the TER forums...

 

[obediah]

VD, I love you.

Ah, you say that to all the little boys in your trunk.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

And the heads of children lining my garage walls. But does anyone know about this interview other than us?

 

[Whipporowill]

But does anyone know about this interview other than us?

Give it some time to sink in. I've looked around and there's no buzz on the "street" yet. Only one, if however very positive, comment at rpgdot.

 

[Screaming_life]

Great interview VD, stay downbeat, it's refreshing.

Did you ever consider making a party based rpg? and what are your thoughts on the different roleplaying merits of each?

 

[elander_]

And to think we may have been playing it RIGHT NOW if you didn't have to sell out your soul to the devil and suck the cock of mainstream commerical post-modern capitalist/theocratic nihilism and get a 3D engine.

A 3d engine will save development time when they start adding lots of content. However i think that a mix of 3d models for critters and 2d objects for backgrounds would also do the trick.

The char system is impressive. Don't know if the gameplay will work out as well as it is planned. It's allways a bit tricky to get this right and it requires a lot of insight and playtesting to get the formula right but these are ambitious ideas worth to pursuit. I see they are using all the core crpg elements and have no fear of having quality hardcore role-playing in the game. This is looking very good.

It's a shame the game isn't team turn-base. This expands the possibility for rping so much. It would be possible to control team characters in battle directly and still allow them to have a personality and refuse to do something it's against their ai judgement and interests.

The only thing that is a bit odd is the gui. My sugestions use a more natural serif font like times roman and don't use more than two different fonts for everything. If possible one for the gui and another for dialog. The grouping and divisions of gui elements is also a bit odd. The background needs to be more complex. The skill panel button in Fallout worked very well with names for skills and some buttons. That is very convinient and could be used here instead of just a line of nameless icons which are in a odd position and grouping. It always pays to closely examine games with great guis like Fallout, Baldurs Gate or Diablo. A gui that borrows elements from the lore would be great here. Baldurs Gate is what more closely matches this idea i supose. Think on a theme for the gui like engraved stone panels and buttons, wood table with scrolls and small objects on the table that work as buttons when activated or something else that makes sense with the lore for that game.

 

[sheek]

Only two criticisms:

1/ The screenshots, everything looks a bit bright and washed out to me.

2/ Agree with the others, try to be a bit more 'upbeat' in interviews.

The game dialogue prose seems OK though it never hurts to get second opinion.

edit: also agree with elander on the GUI.