The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante - obscure Russian narrative RPG

[Maxie]

According to this recent article on localization (warning, Russian language), the game contains 500 000 words in total. It was translated into English by two professional translators (I didn't manage to play the English version yet, so don't know how it went).

that supposed to impress me? Numenera has a million

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I didn't know this was set in a pre-existing universe. That probably explains the insufficient introduction to the world.

Well that doesn't make an excuse for developers while making it slightly more contextual.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

According to this recent article on localization (warning, Russian language), the game contains 500 000 words in total. It was translated into English by two professional translators (I didn't manage to play the English version yet, so don't know how it went).

that supposed to impress me? Numenera has a million

And how many of this million made sense?

 

[Jenkem]

I don't think the introduction to the world is insufficient. You can clearly pick up things as you age and there are things like the family tree, map, etc. that also fill in things.

Did you want just a huge exposition dump stating all the politics and lore of the game?

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I don't think the introduction to the world is insufficient. You can clearly pick up things as you age and there are things like the family tree, map, etc. that also fill in things.

Did you want just a huge exposition dump stating all the politics and lore of the game?

This is interesting question. What kind of exposition is enough in-game?

 

[Zer0wing]

According to this recent article on localization (warning, Russian language), the game contains 500 000 words in total. It was translated into English by two professional translators (I didn't manage to play the English version yet, so don't know how it went).

that supposed to impress me? Numenera has a million

It all went on the story according to the most glaring flaw of the game (lack of details and developers' expecting the player to be accustomed to the universe - it's nice to be at advantage before codextards once again after F:Sonora), as opposed to Numa-Numa's all 1 million that went on flavour text and 'dex backers' lame joke texts. Which is the most important text acoording to the same RPG Codex that praises Fallout and PS:T for its writing.

 

[luj1]

This is interesting question. What kind of exposition is enough in-game?

Think Geneforge / Escape from the Pit

the polar opposite of Pillars/Tyranny/Numenera

 

[Zer0wing]

This is interesting question. What kind of exposition is enough in-game?

Fallout 2 is the golden standard for text-based exposition. Strongly to the point, descriptive only when it's needed and vital to the story. Fuck Baldur's Gate and other non-DarkSun D&D/D&D worshipping tripe.

 

[agris]

Why F2 and not F1? F2 was Skyrim to F1’s Kingdom Come.

 

[Gruncheon]

I don't think the introduction to the world is insufficient. You can clearly pick up things as you age and there are things like the family tree, map, etc. that also fill in things.

Did you want just a huge exposition dump stating all the politics and lore of the game?

This is interesting question. What kind of exposition is enough in-game?

The lack of clear exposition at the start is probably intentional. The game sets out its stall immediately - you will be playing a scenario where you guide a single man's choices from birth to death. The introductory chapters are from a child's perspective, children receive strong but unstructured impressions of the world. They don't understand that grandpa is a domineering old titan of will because he's obsessed with the family's social standing. They just know that their grandpa is a terrifying old man. They don't know that the mother has turned to religion because it's the only solace left to an uneducated woman who's been given a very bad lot in life. They just know that mama prays a lot. As you age in the game, you age into a more mature understanding of these things, as do your siblings.

In spite of that, I never felt that there was any ambiguity about how the class structure and religion of the world works. It's a good game so far.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

that supposed to impress me? Numenera has a million

500000 is impressive if used better than a million that Numenera had and wasted them

 

[Gordian Nutt]

I wonder if Numenera would have been better if the word count had been in half

 

[toro]

I wonder if Numenera would have been better if the word count had been in half

Only cutting Brian Fargo in half would have worked.

Spoiler

bad joke. sorry

 

[Antigoon]

Finished with hidden consequences and I don't really think that's a big issues. Before each chapter you get to see all possible consequences incl. conditions, so you know exactly which way to go to avoid true death. Before each choice the game also makes in pretty clear in which direction certain values are shifting. I guess if you are more or less picking random paths that could be a problem, but if you stick to one idea, at least for my 1 playthrough, it wasn't a big problem to avoid true death at the end of C4.

 

[Zer0wing]

Why F2 and not F1? F2 was Skyrim to F1’s Kingdom Come.

Exactly, because it's so damn Skyrim big and unfocused sandbox rpg (it's the case for all open-worlds) as opposed to F1 being more directed story-driven exprience, also has a lot of shit to explain.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Third day after release. Some digits which I'm curious about.

Steamspy says it was 100-200 thousands of free demo downloads, however the actual buys are still below 20 000. A lot of reviews on Steam (340 in total, 222 are "very positive") which is incline. Illegal interest: 3000 downloads on Rutracker alone.

I wonder how well this game will sell in total? It will make profit anyway, the original fundraising campaign gathered fascinating $4000 from $3000 planned. Yes, that is the game's budget (okay, the final stage's budget, but anyway, can you imagine anyone on the West working for this kind of money?).

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

I'm picking through to the end of Chp2 and have one quibble on the interface. Keyboard L/R arrows work well enough, but a return or space bind for the black 'continue' button would be a plus.
The game does steer your choices through unlocked options, not that this is a bad thing. Eg. if you passed a 10 INT check in FO, you'd best pick it.

edit: GOG version

 

[Harthwain]

It will make profit anyway, the original fundraising campaign gathered fascinating $4000 from $3000 planned. Yes, that is the game's budget (okay, the final stage's budget, but anyway, can you imagine anyone on the West working for this kind of money?).

Considering it was done by a team that lives in Russia, I am not surprised. Ruble performs poorly as a currency - meaning euro, dollar and such have more buying power there than in Western or Central Europe as a result.

 

[alyvain]

This is a good game. It has some problems, but the heart is in the right place. I'm not sure whether you can call it a role-playing game (but maybe it's just that I'm poisoned by my years here), it seems like a very good version of disastrous "We. The Revolution".

 

[lightbane]

Sounds like this game is worth a try, once it gets a discount, patches, more DLCs and whatever.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Sounds like this game is worth a try, once it gets a discount, patches, more DLCs and whatever.

Not sure what could be patched or added here.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Starting Chp. 4 as an Old Faith Inquisitor.
Solid game and worth the 22 bucks I paid with the current 10% discount. I'd still change that keybind I mentioned above.

 

[Antigoon]

I wonder how well this game will sell in total? It will make profit anyway, the original fundraising campaign gathered fascinating $4000 from $3000 planned. Yes, that is the game's budget (okay, the final stage's budget, but anyway, can you imagine anyone on the West working for this kind of money?).

I have no idea what the going rate for Russian to English translation is, but for 500k words that has to be quite significant. And those translators are not working on some sort of Russian regional pricing model. A translation job of this size for some shitty Chinese mobile game without any quality concerns easily cost you 30k$+.

 

[Whimper]

I wonder how well this game will sell in total? It will make profit anyway, the original fundraising campaign gathered fascinating $4000 from $3000 planned. Yes, that is the game's budget (okay, the final stage's budget, but anyway, can you imagine anyone on the West working for this kind of money?).

I have no idea what the going rate for Russian to English translation is, but for 500k words that has to be quite significant. And those translators are not working on some sort of Russian regional pricing model. A translation job of this size for some shitty Chinese mobile game without any quality concerns easily cost you 30k$+.

It depends, I would imagine that an English teacher could be found happy to supplement their income in helping an indie game with a project like this, and as the game isn't inexpensive for what it is they may earn quite a lot in any case.

 

[Harthwain]

I have no idea what the going rate for Russian to English translation is, but for 500k words that has to be quite significant. And those translators are not working on some sort of Russian regional pricing model. A translation job of this size for some shitty Chinese mobile game without any quality concerns easily cost you 30k$+.

It depends, I would imagine that an English teacher could be found happy to supplement their income in helping an indie game with a project like this, and as the game isn't inexpensive for what it is they may earn quite a lot in any case.

Do you really need to hire a translator if you know Russian and English very well? The way I see it, the main reason to hire a translator is to do it when you don't have the skill, or when you don't want to do it yourself.