Prodeus "Another retro shooter that looks awesome"
#61 Posted 11 April 2019 - 12:06 PM
If you're making a game where 3D models are being used in realtime and you want to eliminate some of the benefits that they provide, I would ask why you want to do that. The response might be "to evoke a feeling or a style", and my response would be "sure, if you're shallow". Let your game appear retro through your use of style, design, color, level of detail, lighting, etc, etc, etc. That's not even beginning to talk about gameplay. If you already have the models in-game then, frankly, pixels are cheap.
If this game wants to achieve a sprite-like look without the massive overhead of actually rendering and painting sprites, I would support that if they go all the way, such as by also limiting animations to instantaneous cuts between a low number of keyframes. Anything less is poseury.
#62 Posted 11 April 2019 - 01:16 PM
This post has been edited by Zor: 11 April 2019 - 01:20 PM
#63 Posted 11 April 2019 - 02:30 PM
#64 Posted 11 April 2019 - 04:16 PM
Also, is it just me or are some of these retro-style games purposely using the Doom 'D' in their logo somewhere. Or at least that letterstyle on the first and last letters. I've seen it somewhere else too. That's mildly annoying. Once was cool. But if everyone starts doing it....
These retro style shooters are going to be a flash in the pan. It's a good thing Ion Maiden and Wrath were launched when they were. Any later and it would seem like copycatting. Wrath almost feels that way already, honestly. If it didn't look so interesting I might have thought the same about it. At first glance, mind you. Not after seeing it.
#65 Posted 11 April 2019 - 05:44 PM
MusicallyInspired, on 11 April 2019 - 04:16 PM, said:
It has multiple purposes though: you will be able to choose between the 2D sprite aesthetic and the original 3D models in the final game as shown here:
https://ksr-ugc.imgi...t&gif-q=50&q=92
And if you really look at it without being biased towards authentic retro graphics / a retro engine (that happens a lot around here to nobody's surprise ) I think what you'll find is that the visuals make sense in the context of the game. The aim here is not to make a retro shooter but to make a nice indie FPS that mixes the old with the new. The level design is old school with hints of Doom 2016 (mainly the way they seem to handle enemy spawns and monster closets), the shooting is a mix of the "point-and-click" mechanics of old FPS and the ADS focused modern stuff etc., that sort of duality is what the graphics are going for too.
Not everything has to be 100% retro, as you've already pointed out that would get old real fast. I really like that they are going for what they want instead of abiding by the so-called rules. Rules are boring, let's break 'em!
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 11 April 2019 - 05:49 PM
#66 Posted 11 April 2019 - 06:25 PM
thricecursed, on 11 April 2019 - 11:36 AM, said:
11 hours ago
Holy Shit!!! OMG, this makes Ion Maiden look like garbage, I wish I could refund it and give you the money I spent on it. Prodeus looks freaking incredible, you can totally tell you guys are not just Devs but are also hard core gamers for real / legit \m/ it show in the game. Man, the quality is off the chain you guys should be really God damn proud of what you accomplished. I am going to hard core pass the word around as much as I can, the proj deserves massive respect.
I think that "De gustibus non est disputandum", both the games are not completed yet and is too early to let out free considerationss (bad or good ones).Thx to a friend of mine, i had a nice taste of Ion Maiden 1 year ago or so, on his PC, as i remember it was in Beta and for me it was already quite completed and amazing as it was, fast paced, hard to play on the higest difficulty (sorry, i can't remember the name right now) and the Bombs were so damn funny to use and, imho it does not need modern graphics, look at Cuphead, it had a lot of success.
Instead, i had no chance to try Prodeus, but taking in consideration that it is in pre-alpha, it does not look that bad to me; that HUD is pretty big (useless the player is almost blind ) enemies are a bit too slow, sounds and animations can surely be improved (i thought that those animations are less than 30 frames honestly lol).
Then both games can be improved even more (as Pre-Alpha the second one need a lot of improvments), but of one thing i am always sure, unfortunately nice graphics does not guarantee a nice game.
Lazy Dog, on 11 April 2019 - 09:28 AM, said:
Maybe he pretend to be Iron Man? Get back to work you JARVIS .
This post has been edited by The Battlelord: 11 April 2019 - 08:23 PM
#67 Posted 11 April 2019 - 09:27 PM
Zaxx, on 11 April 2019 - 05:44 PM, said:
https://ksr-ugc.imgi...t&gif-q=50&q=92
And if you really look at it without being biased towards authentic retro graphics / a retro engine (that happens a lot around here to nobody's surprise ) I think what you'll find is that the visuals make sense in the context of the game. The aim here is not to make a retro shooter but to make a nice indie FPS that mixes the old with the new. The level design is old school with hints of Doom 2016 (mainly the way they seem to handle enemy spawns and monster closets), the shooting is a mix of the "point-and-click" mechanics of old FPS and the ADS focused modern stuff etc., that sort of duality is what the graphics are going for too.
Ahh. To be honest, that lessens my weird cheap vibes. Having options like that is neat. Sorry, Hendricks, I like it. lol
That link doesn't seem to work, though.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 11 April 2019 - 09:27 PM
#68 Posted 11 April 2019 - 09:58 PM
Not to take shitpost bait, but I'm also not arguing for a strict interpretation of "retro" or "accuracy" to existing retro material. I'm arguing for merit in design choices, and that it's better to try less to appear retro when you're doing it in shallow ways.
Of course, shallow things can be widely attractive for the wrong reasons, and I would not be surprised to get bashed for challenging a general populace who are satisfied by shallow things.
#69 Posted 11 April 2019 - 11:10 PM
It's like doing this to Doom Eternal:
This post has been edited by NightFright: 11 April 2019 - 11:14 PM
#70 Posted 12 April 2019 - 12:00 AM
Anyway, without the garbled graphics it just looks like budget Doom 2016.
#71 Posted 12 April 2019 - 03:25 AM
Sure it doesn't look like it's gonna knock my socks off, but it's interesting enough for me to back it, which makes it the 2nd game I've backed on Kickstarter.
#72 Posted 12 April 2019 - 08:12 AM
#73 Posted 12 April 2019 - 11:43 AM
MusicallyInspired, on 11 April 2019 - 09:27 PM, said:
Oh, here it is then:
#74 Posted 12 April 2019 - 11:46 AM
If the developers really know what they're doing and take off the Doom/BD platform I suppose this could at least turn out to be an interesting take on the genre if nothing else.
#75 Posted 12 April 2019 - 11:57 AM
thricecursed, on 12 April 2019 - 12:00 AM, said:
It's not about that, these options are the result of audience feedback, people wanted them so they got implemented. A 3D indie / retro FPS has to meet different standards than for example the 2.5D goodness of Ion Maiden: retro 3D usually reminds people of Quake so they want their "configs" while in the case of Build people just want the authentic Build engine feel.
#76 Posted 12 April 2019 - 12:00 PM
This post has been edited by Zaxx: 12 April 2019 - 12:00 PM
#77 Posted 12 April 2019 - 12:42 PM
Zaxx, on 12 April 2019 - 11:57 AM, said:
I realize they are there as a result of feedback (gee, wonder why) and I'm saying it looks dumb when you can tone down your original vision like that, eliminating basically most of the "retro" in the process. Really reveals the aesthetic for what it is - a superficial attempt at disguising what would otherwise be a pretty bland looking modern shooter with enemies made of jam.
But, don't get me wrong - if this is someone's dream to make a game like Prodeus then I wish them all the success.
#78 Posted 12 April 2019 - 02:32 PM
I currently fail to see where they are trying to go with this game. A low budget version of a popular shooter you can already buy for a low budget price? With filters that make it look worse but not classic in any way since the artistic approach simply doesn't allow that? A questionable adaptation of the "retro wave" idea for sure.
#80 Posted 13 April 2019 - 05:41 AM
NightFright, on 12 April 2019 - 02:32 PM, said:
Well, the official website says this:
Quote
To be fair, the developers are entitled to interpret "aesthetic technical limits of older hardware" any way they choose, especially since they do not set a concrete time frame. (I mean, someone might like their sound effects at 8 kHz accompanied by bleeper music, who is there to judge them?)
Personally I'm getting more and more convinced that the term "retro" is becoming increasingly inadequate because the definition of "retro" is totally subjective. If anything, the tech that renders true 3D models as low-resolution sprites is a novel gimmick which I gather is getting pretty popular:
That alone however is not a reason to blame the developers of Prodeus though, the desire to try out something new is quite natural. What I wonder is if there are any practical applications beyond simple novelty for this. Perhaps this tech can create sprites that do not suffer from pixellation when zoomed in? I suppose that given enough system resources back when sprite-based first-person games were prevalent, their developers would opt for object and actor sprites at as a high resolution as possible to preserve maximum detail even at extreme close-ups. Maybe the model-to-sprite method could help accomplish this and actually maintain the sprite equally crisp at any distance?
#81 Posted 23 April 2019 - 02:47 AM
This post has been edited by Doom64hunter: 23 April 2019 - 02:47 AM
#82 Posted 10 May 2019 - 09:14 PM
.
#83 Posted 11 May 2019 - 01:58 AM
Commando Nukem, on 10 May 2019 - 09:14 PM, said:
But if a game project successfully combines elements from other, popular games and the result is fun/playable, is it bad that it lacks a great degree of originality in the end?
#84 Posted 11 May 2019 - 07:15 AM
MrFlibble, on 11 May 2019 - 01:58 AM, said:
In this case, yes. It's not blending, it's just borrowing and it doesn't stand out. It's bland. Why play this over one of the Doom games? What does this do that that game series doesn't do?
#85 Posted 19 April 2021 - 02:56 AM
Oh, and there's also this:
#86 Posted 19 April 2021 - 05:57 AM
#88 Posted 19 April 2021 - 11:19 AM
MrFlibble, on 19 April 2021 - 02:56 AM, said:
Oh, and there's also this:
Eh, it still feels way to much like a Doom mod to me, if that makes sense.