Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - JohnH

Pages: [1]
1
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 09:04:26 am »
When I'm reading all the informations about this project I imagine a game mixing elements from HeroCore, Prospector and Caves of Qud (not really in that order). I'm particularly interested in the idea of preparing and funding expeditions.

Will the progression be gear-related?
Will the hero explore different places on a planet, different planets or just one big world?

Again, with the caveat that everything is provisional right now:

I don't like to think of it as "progression."  It's more money related, in that you use money to buy gear, then carry that with you to increase your abilities.  But just gear isn't enough, you have to have a plan.

Each planet is a single cave, you go to a new planet to get a new cave to explore.  It might not be realistic, but it's kind of an homage to Solar Jetman.

2
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 08:41:41 am »
Quote
Honestly... physics does not a game make.

I really don't know what to say except... Whatever.

*checks page and sees the creator is here*

Well I guess if some questions are cleared up the game will seem better then... well... "ooooh physics!"

In fact just physics can make a very interesting game, or at least an interesting toy.  Check out World of Sand.  And Dwarf Fortress itself doesn't fit the traditional structure of a game, with a win condition and structured progression.

But as I explained before, I myself would probably say "So what" if I saw my prototype out in the world right now.  The realities of making a Kickstarter project are that you have to show somewhat early.  If it weren't for that project I probably wouldn't be able to find much time to work on it in order to make it something worth seeing.  It's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem.

3
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 08:32:51 am »
Oh fuck this! That is the second terraria-like game I have seen in dev recently!

How do you think I felt when Terraria hit it big?  There's an actual comment by me in the Metafilter thread on Terraria that goes, just: "OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD".  I've come to terms with it now.  I think this kind of game holds a lot more promise than a one-shot thing, and in any case In Profundis is a more focused idea.

Quote
I have been planning a LoZII like game for a while, with destructable terrain. By the time it ever comes out, all the goodness will be sapped from the genera. Fuck it, I'm going to go make roguelikes until my eyes bleed out!

You should make this!  I think Zelda II is tremendously underrated, it's still the game that does sword-fighting best IMO.  And unlike later Zeldas, it's a good challenge even in the early dungeons.  It may be the hardest Zelda game.  I have beaten that game "on one credit," without saving or continuing, but can't do it consistently yet.  Roguelikes are good too, though.  I should know, heh.

Quote
EDIT: This could just be my rage that somebody else is beating me to tasty cake, but he should slow down a little when he speaks. He would fumble he's works a little less. Reguardless, it looks interesting, and I wonder how far it will push the physics, carefully building the world aspect, instead of HIT IT WITH YOUR PICK UNTIL MAGMA COMES OUT!!!

The idea is that everything that happens could possibly be turned to your advantage.  A flood of water could drown you, but you could also use it to swim back up towards the surface.  A rain of boulders could crush you, or could break through a weak floor.

BTW, the reason I speak so quickly is because it's sort of intended to get some kind of energy across about the project.  Also, I was told that it was really important that the pitch video be really short.

4
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 08:17:26 am »
Glad you decided to pop on over :)

I've got a few initial questions, although I'm sure I'll have more as and when new features/aspects of the game become unveiled.

1.  Do you intend to supply some form of backstory and/or plot?  I'm not particularly bothered either way myself, although it may well help you stand out from some of the competition if you do include something like this.
2.  Is the gameworld a fixed set of maps or procedurally generated?
3.  How moddable do you intend to make this?
4.  Do you intend to have some form of enemy, or are you aiming exclusively for player vs environment?
5.  What is the predicted sale price?
6.  Can you tell me something surprising/unusual about what you hope the final game will be/contain?

Backstory: Working on something.  Your guy is not intended to have a strong personality or history, but there may be hints at ancient civilizations.  But not a strong narrative structure.  The thing I've noticed is, most games have REALLY crappy writing.  Dwarf Fortress is one of the few games that have managed to overcome this, by leaving the story almost entirely in the player's head.  In the interview I did with Tarn some time back he talked about this.

Gameworld: Randomly generated, of course.  Is the whole point.

Modability: I don't know yet.  Some of the game's interactions are in fact randomized.

Enemies: I'm not saying there won't be, but they won't explicitly be enemies I'm thinking.  They might be hostile, they might be helpful, they might be indifferent.  Instead of enemies, think instead natives.

Sale price: Hard to say, but I expect low.

Surprising/unusual: One design aim I'm working towards is that your character doesn't actually "die."  All of this is provisional and may not make it into the game, but....

If your character gets crushed or suffocated or drowned or flattened or punched in the face and is unconscious, you'd have a panic button available that sends a robot probe out from base to pick you up.  The probe is AI controlled, and has to find its own way to your location.  It's also bulky and not be able to fit through tight stone passages; it'd have to break through, changing the game world as it continues.  The game counts up the distance it travels and the effort it expends to find you, and that's all converted into a rescue charge once it returns you to base.

The upshot is, you have a big incentive to both get as close as possible to base if you get lost or stuck, and also to prepare the way for potential rescue missions yourself by ensuring the probe will have a clear path to travel through.

Here's a second thing: I don't really know if the game will be a platformer yet.  Platforming is useful because it's a standardized kind of game interface that everyone understands immediately by now, that does a fairly good job of presenting a game world in real time and is relatively simple to implement.  But I'd really like to present the game in a different way.  I don't even know what that means yet.  Maybe a point-and-click game, maybe a menu-based interface.  Maybe a hybrid of platforming and context-sensitive menus.  Terraria emerged on the scene like halfway through the Kickstarter period, and it's a platformer, so it might be useful to go for a different interface just to distinguish my game from it.

As I said in another response, the game's still fairly early.  I feel self-conscious about promoting my own work, but I also think the game isn't really far enough along for people to do anything other than snark over it.  I've engaged in a fair bit of snark in my time as well (I am a Metafilter member, after all).  All I have right now is a prototype and a bundle of ambition.  It is not exactly something to crow about.  Unfortunately, to make a Kickstarter project go you have to do some crowing, but now I intend to lay low for a while and work on the darn thing.

Yes I have been "around" for a while, if your measure it by account creation time, but I signed up just to make a comment or two long ago I think, I don't even remember what I commented about.

5
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 07:46:55 am »
Heh. I'm terribly amused, now, that I've got yer registry date beat by a whole two days, JH. I also just noticed that your initials match th'gearhead dev. Complete coincidence, but still amusing to me.

Anyway, I saw th'vids for this thing via linkage of th'unangband dev-dude's blog-thing a while back. Seems interesting enough to keep an off-eye on it.

I will say that looks wise, th'vids as-is seemed really... clumsy, I guess, is the best word. How close to 'done' are you, in that department? I'm not saying they need to be better, per se, but it felt like th'look wasn't really jiving with the gameplay 100%.

E: for minor clairity: The dev fellow's been here for a while :P

I'm not anywhere close to done.  The project is still really early.  It's this idea I had I decided I would try to make a go of.  The game in the videos is written in Python, after all.  It's a Kickstarter thing after all; if the game were nearly finished, I wouldn't have needed to go to Kickstarter to fund it.

6
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 31, 2011, 07:43:31 am »
Sounds interesting to me.  Does that mean there will be things like running out of food/water to worry about?  I can see a cave exploration game where you actually need to worry about heat/food/water/etc to be pretty fun.  Hopefully there is more of a reason to be down there than just exploring though!  :)

It's a treasure-hunting game.  The caves are on alien planets, and your expedition requires money to continue.  Finding treasures in the forgotten underground is how you pay for it.

I don't know yet if food and water will play a role, but food probably.  The player is intended to have to make it back to base regularly to sell treasures and resupply inventory. 

7
Other Games / Re: In Profundis
« on: May 30, 2011, 11:39:07 pm »
Hey, this person what is working on that game is me, John Harris.

There might not be screenshots yet, but there are videos up on the Kickstarter project page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/445452543/in-profundis-random-cave-exploration-sim-game

While the game might sound similar to Terraria in concept, I'm really going in a different direction with this I think.  Minecraft and Terraria (and to a lesser extent Dwarf Fortress) are games about building.  In Profundis is a game about exploring and overcoming terrain obstacles, with a more limited set of basic abilities selectively overcome with equipment.  It's supposed to feel more like an actual spelunking expedition, down to the need to prepare carefully.  I've had someone tell me that he thinks that isn't "enough" for a game, but I don't know.  We'll see.

If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them.

8
DF General Discussion / Re: DF Accelerator
« on: April 24, 2010, 03:43:47 pm »
I'm unfortunately among those who see no difference, or even somewhat worse performance.  Running Windows 7 with Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family.

9
DF Bug Reports / Re: Craftdwarf Workshop construction
« on: October 30, 2007, 01:07:00 pm »
Lightning4: Ah, that was it, thanks.

10
DF Bug Reports / Craftdwarf Workshop construction
« on: October 30, 2007, 11:42:00 am »
Attempting to construct a Craftdwarf Workshop has become, apparently, permanently inactive with the reason given being "No Special Profession NeededW".  Cancelling construction then trying again presents the same problem.  Anyone else encountered this?

Pages: [1]