[Green]

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Our latest production diary, "Redesigning a Classic World" is LIVE on Machinima!

http://youtu.be/N7iX_gPh6II

In this episode the team at Interceptor Entertainment talks about how we've rebuilt the world of ROTT for 2013!

There will be no extended cut next week - ain't nobody got time for that!

Have a great weekend!

https://www.facebook...405713949518359

[Mr. Tibbs]

That's a great sneak peak. I really like these behind-the-scenes development diaries. I can't wait to play a new FPS with traps and secrets. We haven't seen that fun stuff for over a decade.

[Sangman]

Damn most of this just screams amateurish mod quality. I stopped watching when they were talking about seeing NPCs behind bars in a prison as if that's actually a meaningful feature at all. I'm sorry but the level design I've seen so far looks very amateurish.

[Mark]

I haven't overdosed by playing a lot of modern games so I'm liking what I see here.

[Tetsuo]

The only things that really screams out to me as amateurish is when a secret was activated a pillar clipped through the wall... They should design some way like a slot in the wall for the pillar to slide across to make it look realistic as solid objects don't tend to pass through each other IRL. Also, how they seem to be excited by standard issue stuff like a disappearing HUD. But other than that… great. I'm liking how they are really going for adding in a lot of secrets to the levels.

[MusicallyInspired]

Tetsuo, on 02 February 2013 - 09:09 AM, said:

The only things that really screams out to me as amateurish is when a secret was activated a pillar clipped through the wall... They should design some way like a slot in the wall for the pillar to slide across to make it look realistic as solid objects don't tend to pass through each other IRL.

Exactly what hit me first. And it has a simple solution. The wall could be pushed back a bit first and then slide into the wall. Then it doesn't matter if it is going into the wall, at least it'd look like there's a slot it's actually going into. That was terrible.

[Tetsuo]

Either that or they could slice the pillar in half or however much is necessary and turn it into sort of a facade pillar that can slide in front of a wall like that without clipping through it.

[Kristian Joensen]

I am not seeing the terrible graphics some are claiming, certainly not terrible for a $15 debut title by a small, remote development studio, that has been 1 year in development and that had been 6 months in development when we first saw it. Most AAA games out there get atleast 100 man years put in to them, this may not even have reached 30 man years yet. To me it looks like a fun little, fast paced, action packed old school game with decent enough graphics.

[Jimmy]

I'm with Sang. This game's only hope is that it's really fun. It has nothing else going for it. (Not to say it's ugly or anything like that, it looks just about like everything else these days.)

[Micky C]

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We have NPC sitting in prison cells

Prisoner NPCs? Huzzah! They've caught up to Quake 2.

Hopefully they do more than just sit there and ignore you. And IIRC DNF also had a disappearing HUD.

But generally speaking from a design standpoint of what I've seen, this is to ROTT what DNF should have been to Duke 3D.

[thatguy]

Micky C, on 02 February 2013 - 03:19 PM, said:

Prisoner NPCs? Huzzah! They've caught up to Quake 2.

Hopefully they do more than just sit there and ignore you. And IIRC DNF also had a disappearing HUD.

But generally speaking from a design standpoint of what I've seen, this is to ROTT what DNF should have been to Duke 3D.

Depends, are you talking about the Disappointingly released DNF?

[Kathy]

Disappearing HUD, by the way, is a detriment to immersion since you notice it disappear. Having constant HUD might be somewhat distracting at first but once you get acquainted to it being there it becomes part of the screen without treading on immersion. If you want increase immersion through HUD then consider removing it altogether than try to sneak in a "disappearing HUD", especially in a shooter where HUD is an essential part.

[Spirrwell]

Burnett, on 03 February 2013 - 12:20 AM, said:

Disappearing HUD, by the way, is a detriment to immersion since you notice it disappear. Having constant HUD might be somewhat distracting at first but once you get acquainted to it being there it becomes part of the screen without treading on immersion. If you want increase immersion through HUD then consider removing it altogether than try to sneak in a "disappearing HUD", especially in a shooter where HUD is an essential part.

I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to make something like that an option. I mean that's simple Boolean logic. I mean once the HUD is in place, making it an option as to whether or not it's a disappearing HUD wouldn't even take an hour. Well, it shouldn't anyway.

[Kathy]

You'd be amazed how much these "simple options" are overlooked. Again and again.

[Bloodshot]

I really hate games that have disappearing HUDs. If you have a regular HUD you do indeed get used to it, and if you have no HUD, you can get used to that too since the game is built around that. But with disappearing HUD it goes away then you go to check your ammo or health or whatever and it's not there, then you have to make it come back by doing something.

IMO, pretty stupid.

Also when they talked about secrets it irked me that they didn't seem to mention how they would make them distinguishable. What they showed just looked like they would press in a wall or use a pillar - I really hope there's more to it then that, because with stuff like that you just cause people to press every pillar and wall they come across.

ID was always really good at secrets, they'd have visual cues, especially in RTCW when you had things like a slightly tilted wall torch, or a wall panel that looks pushable. Easy to miss, but they catch your eye if you stop and look around.

[Kathy]

Really? I remember literally pressing every wall in Wolf3d.

[Malgon]

^So Blazkowicz uses his head like in the gif to find secrets? No wonder he's such a badass.

[thatguy]

Malgon, on 03 February 2013 - 11:48 PM, said:

^So Blazkowicz uses his head like in the gif to find secrets? No wonder he's such a badass.

Meh. If it was Chuck Norris, the walls will open in fear! Then again, it'd be kinda scare seeing walls randomly open before you.

[Jimmy]

I've never cared for the idea of immersion anyway. I'm not such a dolt that I forget I'm playing a video game or watching a movie or what-have-you. I wonder what it'd be like to be such a simpleton.

[Kathy]

I doubt anyone "forgets" watching a movie. But no distractions keep you more engaged in the process.

[Spirrwell]

Well, such simple options should at least be changeable via the console or CFG file. I would actually think that having a consistent HUD actually helps boosts performance, not like anybody with a semi-modern computer would EVER notice, but if rendering code was optimized so that nothing behind the HUD was drawn until the HUD is no longer obscuring it then it doesn't make sense to have a disappearing HUD. Although that is a pretty stupid argument, no game would ever need that kind of optimization these days.

[Jimmy]

Burnett, on 04 February 2013 - 07:20 PM, said:

I doubt anyone "forgets" watching a movie. But no distractions keep you more engaged in the process.

Well yeah, but I often find these 'immersion' features often make me less engaged. I like having the HUD up all the time, because it holds information I need to know.

[Alan]

I think my only real problem with its aesthetics are that they retained some of the goofier elements of the original. The hover pads, spike traps, and switchless moving walls look out of place in a modern shooter. Regardless, it looks like it could potentially be fun if it's not taken too seriously.

[DaveyDoomsday]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the comments as well as the criticisms on our latest production diary - they're always welcome. I brought your concerns up with Frederik and Leon to confirm some things before replying to you guys to make sure I'm not spouting BS at ya.

First things first! That wall clipping you saw during the bit of gameplay where Daniel was discussing secrets and exploratory level design was old footage. The way pushwalls currently work is that they will move backward on actual rails that you can see when the wall has been moved. This allows us to still have things as ridiculous as pushwalls but gives us a way for them to seemingly make sense. You know, as if someone engineered these things on purpose! Here's a picture from an unfinished level to show you what I mean:



There are actually three secret areas in that one room you saw in the video. We've got 'em all over the place. Some easy to find - some not so easy to find. Now, in reply to what Bloodshot said:

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"When they talked about secrets it irked me that they didn't seem to mention how they would make them distinguishable. What they showed just looked like they would press in a wall or use a pillar - I really hope there's more to it then that, because with stuff like that you just cause people to press every pillar and wall they come across. ID was always really good at secrets, they'd have visual cues, especially in RTCW when you had things like a slightly tilted wall torch, or a wall panel that looks pushable. Easy to miss, but they catch your eye if you stop and look around. "

Fred is a very big fan of that style of level design (I think we've discussed it on a podcast) and as such there will almost always be a visual cue to let you know, "Hey - there might be a secret here" ...As much as I know you all love "WHERE IS IT" style wall humping to find secrets. It might be a slightly discolored texture, different lighting, a cracked brick - or you may just see the secret plain as day - just not the switch to open the door for it!

As for the disappearing HUD! What Asle didn't point out in the video is that currently you have to be idle for quite a good while for it to fade out. It won't happen often during most levels due to the constant madness taking place, but during levels like "The Room" where there are no enemies and only puzzles and traps - we find that it definitely makes the level feel more immersive. However, there's little doubt that one of the MANY in-game options will be to always have the HUD on. So, have no fear - if you dislike the disappearing HUD - you can disable it.

As for beating up on poor Martin for pointing out that we have prisoner NPCs? He was simply citing one of many small examples of how we've updated the game for 2013 to make the world of ROTT 'make sense' as a modern game. We had to build a world around what was going on within San Nicolas Island because quite frankly ROTT 95 didn't give us much to work with. So now the Triads have a prison, they have torture chambers, they have workshops where they prototype new types of GADS, they even have laboratories that give off a distinctly Wolf 3D Ep 2 vibe. Although Dr. Schabbs has nothing on the dementedness of Sebastian Krist.

As I said, Martin wasn't trying to point out some 'major gameplay feature' - just giving a small example based on the level he was working on. Plus there's one prisoner who constantly does pushups. I like that guy.

In all honestly - your comments and criticisms do help us to make a better game - so keep 'em coming. If we only paid attention to the blissfully blinded ROTT fans who already can't wait for ROTT 2013 and want to give us their money (as much as we love them) then in my opinion we wouldn't be doing our jobs as game developers or doing this IP justice. It's guys like you at Duke4 who remind us that we can always be improving during the course of our dev cycle - even if you hurt our feelings from time to time.

As always, if you ever have any other questions or comments, feel free to ask here or email me at Doshry@gmail.com or find me @DaveOshry on Twitter

tl:dr

- Pushwalls don't clip in the game like you saw in the video
- The disappearing HUD is optional
- Prisoner NPCs are just one of the many small things we put in the game to update the world of ROTT
- We love you guys

-Dave

[Mr. Tibbs]

Cheers for the response, Dave. The game looks great!

[Bloodshot]

Thanks for the update, nice to see you can turn that stuff off

Burnett, on 03 February 2013 - 07:12 PM, said:

Really? I remember literally pressing every wall in Wolf3d.

Hence why i cited RTCW as a reference . They didn't really start doing visual cues for secrets until Quake 1 and on

[ReaperMan]

DaveyDoomsday, on 05 February 2013 - 09:58 AM, said:

If we only paid attention to the blissfully blinded ROTT fans who already can't wait for ROTT 2013 and want to give us their money (as much as we love them) then in my opinion we wouldn't be doing our jobs as game developers or doing this IP justice. It's guys like you at Duke4 who remind us that we can always be improving during the course of our dev cycle - even if you hurt our feelings from time to time.

Uh... well i'm a huge ROTT fan if you cant tell. I'm not going to just hand over my money, i already got burned by DNF, its got to be a good game.

Also, i why is the Machine gun not a MP40 with blue paint anymore? It was so cool like that.

[Person of Color]

Looking good. Can't wait to play this.

[Jimmy]

I always thought the blue on the MP40 was merely bad coloration, not that it was literally meant to be blue.

[Hank]

Ehmm, I thought it was a reference to