Adventure Gamers - Forums

Alexian - 19 October 2012 07:41 PM

It will be an isometric viewpoint, but it’ll be more of the painted dream-like style of Bastion:

Bastion

Once the artists recover from the final pre-Kickstarter stretch, will work on getting a few clearer examples of what we mean.

Thanks for the response, it’s very good to know. I hope you manage to get an example or two out pretty quickly, because I think the visual style is going to be very important for potential backers who aren’t diehard fans already (and from day 2 and on, those will be your main source of pledges).

Alexian - 19 October 2012 07:41 PM

Not quite sure I understand you correctly. Are you saying that the art style in the isometric, dungeon crawler-images is basically placeholder graphics, and that the full game will look more like the location paintings - but with an isometric viewpoint?

It will be an isometric viewpoint, but it’ll be more of the painted dream-like style of Bastion:

Bastion

Once the artists recover from the final pre-Kickstarter stretch, will work on getting a few clearer examples of what we mean.

Well, I’m quite confused now, because Corey said in the Kickstarter comments that the graphic style will be similar to “MacGuffin’s Curse”, which has those top-down 2D graphics, and not isometric perspective like “Bastion” has.

The Kickstarter project update #1 also stated that “In particular, the 2D top-down image included in the video is a concept piece.  That is the point of view you will have in the game, but the actual image is a placeholder.”

theres a real danger in showing any concept art in these kickstarters. People will be quick to judge and label the whole game by them.

I think you HAVE to show some concept art, but showing a mock-up of a single screen in-game image should be at least somewhat representative of the target product. Project Eternity showed a mock-up of an in-game set, and everybody loved it.

I get the need for placeholder art, but if you can’t come up with one screen that you at least think represents the style you’re going for, you should probably not be showing that.

I also find it strange that some people involved (and some of the concept art) suggests it’s isometric, and that “in-game” shot does not.

Frogacuda - 20 October 2012 06:10 PM

I think you HAVE to show some concept art, but showing a mock-up of a single screen in-game image should be at least somewhat representative of the target product. Project Eternity showed a mock-up of an in-game set, and everybody loved it.

everybody loved that project before they were done clicking on the link
its a big risk to put any concept art that doesnt look like a finished product. And most concept art doesnt (nor should it). Mock-ups that look more like the real thing can help a lot, but still very risky.

One thing I find a little odd is that you can get the QfG games in the $50 tier, but this isn’t included with higher tiers unless you add $15 to the pledge (aka $75 + $15 for the Senior tier + QfG game pack).

However, the QfG pack is only $10 at GOG.com. I suppose there are kickstarter fees and other considerations, but it just occurred to me as a small oddity.

inm8#2 - 20 October 2012 09:56 PM

One thing I find a little odd is that you can get the QfG games in the $50 tier, but this isn’t included with higher tiers unless you add $15 to the pledge (aka $75 + $15 for the Senior tier + QfG game pack).

However, the QfG pack is only $10 at GOG.com. I suppose there are kickstarter fees and other considerations, but it just occurred to me as a small oddity.

i thiiiink what they mean is, you get 1 of the games like the $50 dollar level, but you can also have the other 2 for adding 15 each…. But yeah… its weird.

teme - 20 October 2012 02:41 PM

Well, I’m quite confused now, because Corey said in the Kickstarter comments that the graphic style will be similar to “MacGuffin’s Curse”, which has those top-down 2D graphics, and not isometric perspective like “Bastion” has.

You can have a ‘top-down’ view which is just a camera sitting above the action where not all objects are the same distance, something like this:

and then there’s the ‘isometric top-down’ view which looks more like this, with all objects the same distance from the camera:



It sounds to me like they want to do something more like the second one, but with watercolor-painted style graphics.

its worth pointing out, that a lot of kickstarters tend to have bad saturdays for some reason. So dont panic yet…. though this saturday has been very bad. Hopefully theyv got big media things planned for this week.

(NOTE: A LOT of questions can be answered by reading the early pages of the KS comments thread:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878147873/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/comments )

Wow, I’m not understanding all the faint praise in this thread. I figured AG would be all over this like a rash!

I guess it’s less of an “adventure” game as far as inventory based games go, and more of a true RPG. But I’m really excited about this project.

I think people talking about Lori and Corey milking QFG are maybe a little off-base, the Hero-U game has similarities to QFG, as far as a plot based game that also involves some combat and RPG elements.

Also, for me, the major strengths of both the QFG franchise and the Hero-U “battle plans” are that the emphases are on plot and story immersion, and the Coles’ mantra, FUN, not HD graphics or pretty shiny things or what have you.
(Incidentally, if people are worried about art, Eriq Chang has things in pretty good order. Google or Facebook search him and you’ll be a lot less concerned.)

I’m getting a strong “Dynamix” vibe too, I don’t know if folks liked RotD, HoC, WB but I loved the branches and choices that impacted things in those games, and it sounds very much like the Coles want to create a similar (and more) realistic environment for their Rogue protagonist.

Top-down, isometric, CGA, EGA or Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-GA, I am excited:
- the Coles are making a game
- plot-based
- choice-driven
- similar to QFG
- good team
- multi-part, play as all the styles of character with each chapter geting its’ own focus

I think we need to remember the story focus and not get distracted with art. Let’s face it, that’s not the purpose of the project, as Corey said yesterday, buy the multi-million games like CoD if you want film-budget artwork.

Anyway, semi-rant over. Keep the faith, I think not only will we not be disappointed, but this one could be a better project than all the ex-Sierra alum’s projects. Certainly in the plot department!

Great post, Spikey!

Well I’m one of those hesitating on backing this and have backed a lot of projects recently. I’m not a graphics junkie at all (otherwise I wouldn’t love the AG genre so much) but I want to see the art direction and how it works in this sort of game which they are saying will be a balance between RPG and AG. Bastion was great but was a hack and slash RPG, not remotely an adventure game.

The recent Old School RPG/Shaker KS by renowned old school developers (Wizardry 8, etc.) didn’t offer any definitive screenshots or gameplay examples and failed badly, they have just pulled the plug on it. Thankfully Hero-U offers more information from the off but still lacks the media that I think will sway a lot of people to backing it. Hero-U has raised almost 1/4 of it’s budget so far though, which is a good start, I think they may need to tell us more to accelerate that and I’m sure they will want to go beyond $400,000 so they can add more stuff.