KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Maggot]

No new info or even screenshots.

 

[MuscleSpark]

That Prey 2017 namedrop

 

[LESS T_T]

A paper magazine printed an article based on a video publicly released two months ago.

 

[DraQ]

A paper magazine printed an article based on a video publicly released two months ago.

Paper Meat is slow, insect.

 

[LESS T_T]

And from an article about Kickstarter delays, Kick shed some more lights on the rebooting of the project: https://gamedaily.biz/article/644/why-the-majority-of-kickstarter-games-fail-to-ship-on-time

Nightdive Studios’ remake of System Shock, was initially estimated to release some time in December of 2017. Over 15 months have passed since that estimate, and it is still a ways off. Stephen Kick, CEO of Nightdive, believes that his initial estimate was feasible, but a number of factors dragged development out.

“You know, after being in the industry for so many years, there's a couple of things that you learn right off the bat that spell a lot of trouble for your project and one of those big ones is switching engines,” he said.

Kick cited high-profile controversies like that of Mighty No. 9 as raising red flags before he turned to Kickstarter. He knew it would be too risky to ask for money with nothing concrete to show potential backers. That’s why the campaign launched with a pre-alpha demo built in Unity. It was a sleek modernized vertical slice that was unmistakably System Shock, but not fully representative of what the project would look like as it evolved.

They swiftly came to understand that it would be difficult to deliver on their promise to release on both Xbox One and Playstation 4 given their choice of engine and the scope of the project. The investment made into the tools they used to create the pre-alpha demo was significant and it would make the price of switching engines steep. In order to deliver on their promises, however, they felt it was a price worth paying and switched development over to Unreal Engine.

After making the switch, the team brought more chefs into the kitchen. Personalities clashed between them and the core group of developers who created the original demo.

“They more or less felt alienated after the switch to Unreal and we lost a lot of the original people that were able to deliver that example of what it was we were gonna do,” according to Kick.

As the staff churned, the scope of the project expanded. What began as a plan to recreate System Shock almost one-to-one with modern art assets and sparse quality of life changes morphed. The original 1994 design was intended, for the most part, to be preserved in amber.

Labyrinthian levels were entirely redesigned along with objectives in individual maps aboard the haunting corridors of the Citadel Station. Features entirely new to System Shock were added like the ability to puncture pipes to release gouts of freezing-cold gas that would then entomb enemies in ice.

Pressure to expand the scope of the project mounted from within and without. After raising $450,000 more than their initial goal of $900,000, publishers approached Nightdive about additional funding.

“They came to us and they said, "We really like what you guys are doing and clearly there's a big desire from the community to see this game through. If we were to give you more money, what else could you do? Could you do multiplayer? Could you do VR? How much bigger and better could you make this game?" And, right around that time, that's when the scope creep really started to occur because we went back to the drawing board and we said, "Okay. If these publishers are willing to offer us more, then we need to sell it and we need to make something that is gonna appeal to them, so that we can see this through."”

The studio lost sight of its original vision and the project derailed. Finally, Kick had had enough.

“It got to the point where I was playing the build and it just didn't feel like System Shock. It didn't look like System Shock. It didn't seem like anybody knew exactly what we were doing and I'm sorry to say that it even got to that point before I decided to just shut things down.”

Development was put on hiatus in February of last year. Work on a re-focused vision resumed several months later. Transparency, according to Kick, was crucial in regaining the trust of jilted backers. He said that they were naive, but he is, “incredibly grateful that we were able to pivot when we did and start to deliver something that more resembled what we had originally pitched to our backers.”

"We know we screwed up. We know that we kind of betrayed their trust and I'm again, I'm so fortunate that we're able to turn that around when we did because often times when a developer gets to that point, it usually spells the end of their project and that just isn't the case with system shock."

 

[ZeniBot]

Calling it now. Epic Store Exclusive.
Any day now.

 

[Burning Bridges]

“It got to the point where I was playing the build and it just didn't feel like System Shock. It didn't look like System Shock. It didn't seem like anybody knew exactly what we were doing and I'm sorry to say that it even got to that point before I decided to just shut things down.”

Development was put on hiatus in February of last year. Work on a re-focused vision resumed several months later. Transparency, according to Kick, was crucial in regaining the trust of jilted backers. He said that they were naive, but he is, “incredibly grateful that we were able to pivot when we did and start to deliver something that more resembled what we had originally pitched to our backers.”

"We know we screwed up. We know that we kind of betrayed their trust and I'm again, I'm so fortunate that we're able to turn that around when we did because often times when a developer gets to that point, it usually spells the end of their project and that just isn't the case with system shock."

^^pure gold from the Millenial Manifesto. Please punch this guy in the face next time someone sees him. And if he asks why, do it again.

 

[Infinitron]

Gameplay stream:



https://www.pcgamer.com/the-system-shock-remake-is-looking-damn-good/

The System Shock remake is looking damn good
A year after a pause and major shift in development, we go hands-on with Nightdive's remake.

Three years ago, Nightdive Studios crowdfunded $1.3 million to remake System Shock, with the pitch "it’s not Citadel Station as it was, but as you remember it." One year ago, Nightdive more or less started over, after deciding the project had veered off course and deviated too far from the original game. At GDC on Monday, a year after I played the barebones back-to-basics demo Nightdive put together, I got to play the real thing. Citadel Station has been fully blocked out, its starting areas have shambling mutants and angry robots, there are audio logs, and there is SHODAN.

I've played some of the original System Shock, but I can't speak to the minutiae of exactly how Nightdive's remake does and doesn't compare to that game. But after walking around freely in the latest build for half an hour, I can say that this feels like a Shock game in the ways that matter. I jumped straight into it, grabbing a pipe and a few supplies and exploring the spooky, mostly abandoned station with no clue where I was going. I got clues from audio logs, found security keys to access doors that were previously closed off to me, and reflexively yelped "shit" when I ran out of energy for a stun pistol I picked up along the way.

It felt like a game from that era, but with mouse support and an easy menu screen for managing items. There's also a certain retro chunkiness to the graphics: Not a lack of detail, but a style of square corridors and sharp angles and big glowing buttons that all feel like they'd be at home in a '90s game. "Major elements like the lighting aren't final but the pieces are all there," Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick tells me as I'm playing. "Everything is back on track. We're in no danger of not being able to deliver the final game."

There's an old skeleton here—it's just wearing some fancy new skin courtesy of Unreal Engine 4, and lit in a way that screams moody sci-fi. So far, "it’s not Citadel Station as it was, but as you remember it" feels spot-on. This is not a dramatic reinterpretation, but a careful recreation intent on capturing the open-ended exploration and scavenging for resources of the original game. Even without nostalgia for the original System Shock, I got pulled in.

Nightdive's remake is still a year away from being finished, and that definitely shows. It runs smoothly and looks great, but I've only seen a small portion of the station. There are puzzles that still need to be implemented, big chunks of the UI, sound effects and so on. What I hope to see more of in the final version are bits of decor, changes in lighting, and so on that do more to differentiate some of System Shock's corridors. They get pretty samey pretty fast.

The first area's mutant enemies don't make a good first impression for combat, because their only move is "shamble forward, moan, and take a ponderous swing at you." It'd it'd be nice to see them do a little more, even if they're the game's most basic baddies. But there are around two dozen enemy types in System Shock, and one of the changes Nightdive is making from the original game is combining them in different ways to push you to change upp the weapons and abilities you're using to suit the situation.

"We love Doom 2016 and we think that's one of it's strongest aspects," Kick says of the way Bethesda's shooter mixes different enemies into single areas. "We're going to emulate that with the characters we have at our disposal."

Like old immersive sims, though, I don't think this remake of System Shock will have shooting or melee attacks with the impact and detailed animation of today's first-person shooters. That might not be in the budget or scope of the project, but it also would make for a game that feels very different than System Shock, a path Nightdive has already gone down and walked back. For a studio that cut its teeth reviving classic first-person shooters, this feels like the version of System Shock they've wanted to make all along.

As for what other unrestored old games are still on Nightdive's wishlist, the studio says that Monolith's spy shooter series No One Lives Forever remains "the holy grail" of first-person shooters to re-release for modern PCs. Westwood's original 1997 Blade Runner adventure game is another dream project.

 

[MasterLobar]

Up now: Nightdive SS1 remake gameplay



Wow, this is cool.

 

[MasterLobar]

This looks almost exactly like their teaser before the kickstarter 3 years ago. Unlike OS, they are delivering what they promised. I like it.

 

[Tweed]

"We love Doom 2016 and we think that's one of it's strongest aspects," Kick says of the way Bethesda's shooter mixes different enemies into single areas. "We're going to emulate that with the characters we have at our disposal."

You sure they didn't mean Doom 3? If they loved NuDoom so much then why is the gameplay so slow? I also don't remember NuDoom being so dark and having fog machines eveywhere.

I hate it.

 

[Morgoth]

Up now: Nightdive SS1 remake gameplay



Wow, this is cool.

*yaaaaawn*

 

[Solid Snail]

Why not using Teletubbies instead of those zombies? I think the result would be better.

 

[schru]

It's not System Shock without the original music. Of course they had to go for something more genericly electronic, tense, a little darker, and subtler, because we just can't have the original idiosyncratic style that combined horror with gaudy colours and jittered music with a distinct ‘digital’ theme. Surely Greg LoPiccolo made the music that way because of... technological limitations?

 

[ironmask]

The lack of enemies and music really make this gameplay demo boring. Besides that it looks promising.

 

[Maggot]

"We love Doom 2016 and we think that's one of it's strongest aspects," Kick says of the way Bethesda's shooter mixes different enemies into single areas. "We're going to emulate that with the characters we have at our disposal."

You sure they didn't mean Doom 3? If they loved NuDoom so much then why is the gameplay so slow? I also don't remember NuDoom being so dark and having fog machines eveywhere.

I hate it.

Doom 3 is unironically faster paced and less dark than this game. One thing I noticed is the game seems to have the awful default UE4 movement whereas SS1 and 2 have some acceleration.

 

[LESS T_T]

I find it funny NDS and OSE never mention each other's game on social media.

Anyway the video looks cool even though it still lack many things from gameplay to visuals. (Though I don't quite like that music being too subtle.)

 

[skacky]

Looks good except the music. Sad to see they're still going with that cinematic soundtrack crap. System Shock isn't System Shock if it doesn't have the techno-industrial score.

 

[Maggot]

After watching the whole thing, it's clear SS: Remastered still isn't even a real game yet just a bunch of empty rooms with two enemy types.

 

[Zombra]

I find it way too distracting to watch this footage as the player is obviously using a controller.

 

[Trithne]

So 3 years later, we've back where we started with the Unity demo, but with less animations?

 

[Jarmaro]

Is it me or game's so dark my eyes hurt when I try to look closely at anything. I don't think it's brightness fault, just not that great design. Halo remasters had this problem too, enemies were harder to look at compared to original.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Bashing trashcans and midwife monsters. Boring.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Enemy animation is too samey and stiff, AI is kinda primitive, there doesn't seem to be any variety in enemy behaviour (I am not talking about advanced tactics from brainded zombie, just some variation in how they move, attack and stuff), which make combat look repetetive and bland.

The foggy bloom is terrible, it ruins the atmosphere and look like vomit. Is it early 2000's or the current year? Maybe if it is disabled the game will look better? Unity version looked much better...

 

[Zombra]

Is it me or game's so dark my eyes hurt when I try to look closely at anything. I don't think it's brightness fault, just not that great design. Halo remasters had this problem too, enemies were harder to look at compared to original.

It's not just you; I noticed something weird about the lighting too.

The whole area is super dark ... one can't even see the corner of the room dead ahead. Yet at the same time there are garish, super bright lights everywhere. This really does seem like a recipe for eye strain.