Ion Fury "formerly Ion Maiden, launching August 15!"
#4021 Posted 26 September 2020 - 08:36 AM
Credits I've seen plenty, especially once you beat the game. Credits on main menu are not something I've at least come to expect from games as a large majority of games (incl. AAA) don't even provide it.
If you're looking for a readme.txt then the time for those outside of utility programs/etc.. has kind of passed.
It made sense 15 years ago when an internet connection was not so common and your best bet was to contact customer support even by phone in case of issues.
For an indie dev to provide links is a bit strange since you can just use search engines and most you provide will end up being outdated and floating with every copy from there on.
If you run in to issues or have questions, you just return to where you bought the game, there is a VERY high change that you either bought a digital copy or bought it online anyway so you know where to go anyway.
Also remember that many indie games do not initially have a real community & test results before release, they are smaller teams and unfortunately can't afford QA.
This means that any FAQ stuff is most likely something that can only be filled properly post-release.
You no longer need to do a rather system specific TSR / memory / driver dance just to get a very big game working, most games just work.
Basic guides I can agree with, it only needs to be a single screen and I've seen many provide a quick visual keyboard / mouse + labels on them.
Reality is that many just end up reconfiguring these anyway so it's only really useful if you have default binds, otherwise you're looking at extra devtime on creating dynamic screens when you're already busy enough trying to get the base game done.
#4022 Posted 27 September 2020 - 07:21 AM
Just don't say most users today won't read this kind of stuff anymore, or something like that. It doesn't sound like a good excuse for a deliberately retro/back-to-the-roots game to say that something was omitted simply because it's not done nowadays, so nobody bothered.
Even Freed∞m has a manual.
#4023 Posted 27 September 2020 - 10:21 AM
It's not a product with a deadline and can easily have closer 10 years worth of contributions behind it (10 years? Been around for long anyway).
This doesn't exactly make for a fair comparison. I am aware that there are plenty of other examples but there are a lot of games as well.
"Most users won't read" is not an excuse, however it's also the reality. Keep in mind that "most", say 99%, can be 100 out of 10000 but it's still by far the most.
On previous post I explain the actual use of the manual and it's relation to games 15+ years ago, it seems you glanced over what I wrote there.
Saying that nobody bothered is putting words in my mouth, I am merely putting things to context.
I even agreed with help screens and such basics, however any EXEs went away a long time ago (Basically distributed BBS manuals) and actual manuals too since then.
Your point referred to the story portion (Picking out Fury), more on that later.
Big reason is that making actual manuals and side material does take time. You need to proofread it and make sure that information is up to date.
Developers are generally busy enough getting the game out that any "extra" would consume time out of the actual game. Main purpose of a manual is documentation and even back then it was typically publishers that provided this documentation.
In the 90s a manual could make a real difference between a returned product as it contained valuable installation instructions and help, remember that this is the time where people could be playing/buying their first ever PC game and games couldn't even agree on basic control schemes.
If people run in to issues these days, I'd argue that they would google i.e. "duke3d black screen on new game" instead.
Manuals are something you'd see as kickstarter stretch goals more than anything.
FAQ / Documentation / Support is otherwise provided on forums/twitter/ticketing systems (FAQs are just there to curb most tickets).
And now going to Fury, the game probably provides even more story than sw/duke3d throughout, considering that it has voice lines littered throughout, a story/credits screen accessible from F1, Shipped with a NFO on the founders edition complete with ASCII art, credits, personal oneliner "thanks" from devs, hell, it even has demoscene style greetings. Just because it doesn't have a bio telling Shelly's favourite food doesn't mean that it's not told one way or another. We knowingly opted for a more ingame way of storytelling and left many bits open for imagination but did imply many things. (Hint: She seems to enjoy Burgers and Pizza). So I will disagree with your point here
I'd say that Fury did quite a lot there for a game what it is, it provides an initial cutsene (like duke64) and a F1 screen that has the story you'd find on a manual.
And it's really true what I said before: We were so busy making the game that we really don't even have the full know on all enemy names or some extra story details, a lot of it was actually coming together more when we keyed in voice lines
Gamedev isn't as planned and "romantic" as it might sound, some times major changes can happen just based on whatever a mapper/artist/code/etc.. happened to add in to fill in a blank... or decided over a 5min discord conversation. I wouldn't be surprised if publishers just made some random BS up to make enemies/characters/story more appealing in manuals.
In our case, didn't meant a ton of stuff wasn't tossed around all the time but these things evolve and change. Like with a book, each one has their view of something they read up.
Ps. I seriously hope you don't expect every retro game to add a character profiles just because of Blake Stone.
#4024 Posted 27 September 2020 - 11:42 AM
oasiz, on 27 September 2020 - 10:21 AM, said:
I don't of course (but I have to point out it would be a nice touch). But this conversation started as I asked about the official names of the enemies. There are official names for guns and items, so why not for these too? Some are mentioned in the update readme, which I'm assuming are as "official" as this gets.
oasiz, on 27 September 2020 - 10:21 AM, said:
Again, I just pointed out that the in-game storytelling and the bits in the manual (e.g. in case of Doom, Shadow Warrior or Duke Nukem 3D) are complementary, with the latter being able to introduce or elaborate on certain aspects of lore that cannot be easily made apparent with in-game means only.
oasiz, on 27 September 2020 - 10:21 AM, said:
Well, it's never late to update, add and elaborate on these aspects, especially if the Ion Fury franchise is intended to last. I'm fully John Carmack on the role of plot/story in games, but if it's already there why not make it as good as it can be? (mind you, I'm not criticising the in-game storytelling in any way)
For example, ionfury.com apparently doesn't even have a section outlining what the game is about (at least, I just checked and couldn't find one). The most elaborate description of the game that I found is on the GOG.com page. Maybe my view is outdated and modern users don't need this (they watched review videos before buying or something). Well then perhaps I might as well be wrong on all of the above, and also err with the expectations that everything about a retro/classic style game should be as it was in the 90s, including the manual. At this point, I'm no longer sure.
#4025 Posted 27 September 2020 - 12:35 PM
What you find ingame in fury is what you'd find in a hypothetical manual really, except perhaps for item/weapon/enemy descriptions which would likely just be very generic.
We'd probably just fill it with dumb shit like this at most:
"This here is a cultist, he has a nasty gun. Once a promising a goat farmer who lost his cat during summer of 1988 by dropping a sofa on it's head. This Man now swears revenge against humanity and is too dumb to realise that he himself is the problem."
We had a tweet or two about random bios but they weren't exactly that well received before release so we just dropped doing those (don't ask, I don't use twitter).
#4026 Posted 27 September 2020 - 01:06 PM
This post has been edited by Outtagum: 27 September 2020 - 01:08 PM
#4027 Posted 27 September 2020 - 01:52 PM
Same goes for Ion Fury - really, it would be quite difficult to come up with an original story for a mad scientist going berserk and trying to destroy/rule the world. And I'm not sure I wanna read about the motivations why some cultists have just chosen to get robotic legs, while the others went all the way and became damn spiders with human heads How would that even go - a spider type enemy saying "you know, it's like with tattoos - you first just want your sweetheart's name on your arm and all of a sudden you end up with with body art all over your body! I came for a cosmetic teeth replacement, but it felt so good I found out I always wanted to be a spider!".
Another aspect is leaving things for player's imagination - and this is even more important with modding friendly games like Duke 3D and IF. Too much information is somehow limiting the boundaries of modders imagination.
That said, of course there are other games, which actually do require elaborate plots and in fact rely on them more than on the fun factor itself, which is a diversity that I more than appreciate.
#4028 Posted 28 September 2020 - 12:13 AM
oasiz, on 27 September 2020 - 12:35 PM, said:
"This here is a cultist, he has a nasty gun. Once a promising a goat farmer who lost his cat during summer of 1988 by dropping a sofa on it's head. This Man now swears revenge against humanity and is too dumb to realise that he himself is the problem."
We had a tweet or two about random bios but they weren't exactly that well received before release so we just dropped doing those (don't ask, I don't use twitter).
It doesn't have to be "dumb shit". I think a player has quite legit reasons to wonder about some of the backstory. I haven't played Bombshell (yet) but the sequence where she meets Heskel at the White House kind of implied their story went a while back. This is then unfolded in Ion Fury (sort of -- I'm getting the feel that the game distances itself from Bombshell in a way, so maybe this is some kind of alternate timeline or reboot, even?), but here we do have some hits at backstory as well.
For example, considering the cultists, Shelly frequently refers to them as machines, while they appear to be cyborgs. One could wonder if they still retain free will or at least underwent the transformation process deliberately, or were brainwashed or maybe even controlled by some kind of software now? This theme gives me a rather strong Strife vibe where a very similar sort of trans- or dehumanisation happens to the antagonists, albeit under an alien influence.
There's also a recruitment poster of sorts found in the game where Heskel seemingly invites suicidal and sociopathic individuals to join him, in a sort of doomsday cult perhaps. Is this the main contingent of his conscripts?
You can further see no humans in the first levels, apart from a few killed GDF soldiers. Were the civilians taken away or just hiding? Does Heskel harvest human subjects to build his army? Later on there are some dead civilians too (and an entire slaughtered GDF base).
The readme backstory mentions a high level of crime in Neo D.C., in tune with typical portrayal of futuristic urban landscapes from the 80s. One could wonder if Heskel's revolt is at least in part motivated by an attempt to restore social order (kind of like a fascist coup), an aim that would be appealing to some of the citizens who could also become his followers (?).
I think these are reasonable lore questions and there's no real need to dismiss them or come up with ad hoc "dumb shit" for an explanation. They can be left unanswered, but creating a thought out backstory for such elements will only add depth to the game world.
Generally, the motivation of the antagonist is an important part of the main conflict. A concept like alien invasion (Duke3D) more or less handwaves it because it plays on the usual tropes (alien abduction etc.), and in part, this also applies to Shadow Warrior: Zilla is power hungry and corrupt, corporate culture is tied to organised crime etc. But Heskel at least appears to be a more complex, deep character who had once been good or at least tried to do something to improve human condition.
Anyway, I was thinking about some possible enemy names:
#4029 Posted 28 September 2020 - 12:33 AM
This post has been edited by MetHy: 28 September 2020 - 12:33 AM
#4030 Posted 28 September 2020 - 04:25 AM
Aleks, on 27 September 2020 - 01:52 PM, said:
<...>
Same goes for Ion Fury - really, it would be quite difficult to come up with an original story for a mad scientist going berserk and trying to destroy/rule the world.
I have to disagree here. Ion Fury already has more story going on (in-game) where Duke3D is largely still a theme park ride with rather loosely connected levels. There's more coherence in Shelly's journey because the level design is more close-knit, and apparently it was better thought and planned out through the campaign compared to the progression in Duke3D or Shadow Warrior.
Also as I mentioned above, the plot in Duke3D is a lot more generic and trope-based. There isn't a lot to explain about an alien invasion, and besides, it takes place "twenty minutes into the future", in a more or less familiar world. By contrast, Ion Fury introduces us to what seems like a late 80s vision of a dystopian techno futuristic noir world we don't know much about, while Heskel's uprising is more close to the GDI vs. Nod conflict in Command & Conquer (and given that there are direct references to C&C in Ion Fury, the comparison doesn't seem too far fetched). I would not argue that more exposition than there already is is absolutely necessary, but it would be a welcome addition IMO.
An anyway, with what little plot development there is in Duke3D, it still has bits like this:
dn3dhelp_000.png (10.54K)
Number of downloads: 6
I remember reading those descriptions for the first time, already after having familiarised myself with the game, and it was both enjoyable and added some depth to the game world. It isn't played for laughs either, even though Duke3D often does not take itself seriously, and contains helpful hints like the basic Trooper's ability to feign death, the Captains' teleportation etc.
#4031 Posted 28 September 2020 - 05:12 AM
http://thegg.net/int...ent-and-future/
#4032 Posted 28 September 2020 - 06:22 AM
In this case it was about leaving enough nuggets to piece many things together, while not exactly locking which is right or wrong.
We had some dialogue around 2016 in-game via a radio chat but it just felt very awkward and plastered too way much information, plus it was boring.
Opposite of this is Bombshell where you have a lot of backstory/information, where "Washington Incident" refers to the events in this game.
However it's no secret that we went our own route.
That "dumb shit" was not a bad example in reality.
Nuggets we left around are largely the same ones we would use to assemble further information from and could come up with just about anything.
You assume we have written these things down in detail, we don't. It doesn't exist
#4033 Posted 28 September 2020 - 07:21 AM
oasiz, on 28 September 2020 - 06:22 AM, said:
I would say that this is not an unfounded expectation on my part because such was the case with almost every predecessor of IF.
And why not? There's gameplay, and there's game lore, they are separate but go hand in hand. At least, it would be interesting to hear how and why the enemy design took the paths it did but not others. Did you first envisage the roles of the enemies (some obviously echo certain classic monsters from the original 90s 2.5D FPS games), and then the appearance?
Like, why do the cultists wear those hooded cloaks -- was it simply as a reference to Blood cultists or something else? Did you want the sprites to have a specific shape? Or to convey a certain feeling? (e.g. it's frequently raining so they wear those, as impractical as they look)
oasiz, on 28 September 2020 - 06:22 AM, said:
Would it be possible to share a transcript, or maybe even a video of this build?
oasiz, on 28 September 2020 - 06:22 AM, said:
Those descriptions would not have to be in the "bio" format. How about excerpts from classified GDF intel on the Heskel threat? I think that would suit the overall theme more than a "bio" that mentions Shelly's favourite food (who cares? I only remember this kind of info from the in-game readme from Realms of Chaos, were you referencing that one?).
#4034 Posted 28 September 2020 - 08:02 AM
Note that only existed in a very limited capacity, mostly zone3 (as a test) and mainly because we didn't know if we could have voice lines or not. There are initial story concepts specific to z3 that got scrapped around shortly after that. No gameplay existed for those aside from mostly identical geometry as crude blockouts. Roughly about going inside the institute, getting the lockdown, heskel announcing that there are bombs and your squadmates got injured downstairs (All NPCs were scrapped very early). You get up, upload some data, get to rooftop and have a battle there, then escape down the elevator as everything blows up.
These mostly existed as wall-text that told you what would happen. This was when the game was meant to be a prequel as a rushed tie-in on a tight schedule.
However now you're asking for developer commentary, I feel like you're changing the target each post.
Developer commentary and discussing those is another topic and approach on it's own and I'm sure these WILL happen at some point but now we're talking about an entirely different subject.
I'm sure we can tell plenty on how things evolved or design decisions, again a different thing from what you have asked in previous posts.
Not sure what you want anymore, There are no excerpts and never was, this all would be information made up on the spot. Not something that exactly feels genuine now. Hence my example, it wasn't meant to be serious for anything other than making a point.
You are asking for something that does not exist and didn't have a chance to exist. I'll just accept that you have different expectations.
There is a disagreement on in-game storytelling being enough in this case and you will just have to accept that this is how it is. Bluntly put.
This ain't a Lynch movie in the sense that everything has to be shrouded in mystery and a puzzle to be solved but this is a game where we did put in a ton more than we had to
#4035 Posted 28 September 2020 - 08:50 AM
oasiz, on 28 September 2020 - 08:02 AM, said:
Not at all, at least these things seem related to my mind. I think the name of a character (enemy) and the story behind it are inevitably related to how it was conceived and what role it was intended to fulfil.
My question here is, haven't you asked yourselves (during development) who or what these guys are? Or was it simply, we want essentially a Doom zombieman type enemy, an artist will make us a nice cyborg dude and we'll stick with that? If the latter, then of course making a story/description would be extra work, preferably for someone who specialises in creative writing.
I just imagined that as the maps were developed, the mappers themselves would make up some parts of the world/story (at least in their heads) as opposed to simply arranging ambushes, traps and other obstacles. At least, I get a strong impression that this is the case from the levels themselves. Do you have a personal version of the story in your mind? (even if you never discussed this with other devs?) Or was the schedule so tight there was no time for thoughts like that?
I'm sorry if this is somehow private and not up for discussion. I don't want to tread where I'm not allowed to. But for now these seem like legit questions on the user side that I may ask.
oasiz, on 28 September 2020 - 08:02 AM, said:
Speaking of which (thanks for reminding me), I got trapped in the Twin Peaks Easter egg section several times. If I stay put in the corridor when the lights go out I get teleported back to the main part of the level eventually, but if I try to move around as the tiles fall sometimes the teleportation seems not to happen. This is in the patched GOG version.
#4036 Posted 28 September 2020 - 09:37 AM
This is what I referred to. You are directly asking about that. Don't pretend
Answering this has nothing to really do with the story anymore and is instead more about design flow & process.
Anyway, to answer that and your current post: Enemies were designed in a very iterative "rule of cool" way, stuff that would fit the game world. Augmented stuff in this case (as evidenced by posters, heskel's lines, etc..). We just came up with ideas and went on. That's how these usually work. Something that sucks simply gets removed even if it sounded good on paper.
This is what I've been trying to say. These things just happen. Visual design often is dictated by game play (is the enemy recognizable?) and so on.
Mechboss was born because we wanted shit to explode and have something big to fight. It's that simple. And nukage is made out of mutton because I hate lamb/mutton.
We have of course a mind map of ideas thrown around about various things but in many cases we even disagree with each other (or you get a different answer), you might find some in a future product i.e. DLC.
Mappers always had their own ideas and such, which you have in the final product as progression. Some ideas didn't make it but got replaced with something different instead, some got expanded a lot.
Like I said, most of the overall story progression was fleshed out during voice line setup (I feel like I'm repeating many things here).
You seem hungry for answers but there are no magic hidden documents, pre-release stuff or such to really give you what you're looking for.
Even 90% of what "could" be there would not be canon or was implemented in a different way in the final product.
Unlike say.. Duke, Fury was quite consistent with the vision from start to end. However there was still a very iterative workflow.
#4037 Posted 28 September 2020 - 09:38 AM
MrFlibble, on 28 September 2020 - 08:50 AM, said:
I've heard one other report about this on consoles but not on 1.1
Can you repeat this consistently ?
#4039 Posted 29 September 2020 - 12:53 PM
#4041 Posted 30 September 2020 - 05:20 AM
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 30 September 2020 - 05:21 AM
#4042 Posted 30 September 2020 - 09:43 AM
the_raven, on 29 September 2020 - 12:53 PM, said:
She has a perfectly fine arm with her perfectly fine mediocre lager at the end.
#4043 Posted 30 September 2020 - 12:25 PM
the_raven, on 29 September 2020 - 12:53 PM, said:
"Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but its not that important" - John Carmack.
This post has been edited by Lazy Dog: 30 September 2020 - 12:26 PM
#4044 Posted 30 September 2020 - 02:47 PM
#4045 Posted 01 October 2020 - 10:37 AM
Zaxx, on 28 August 2019 - 06:56 AM, said:
I have to agree here. Don't wanna complain about secret hunting -- I enjoy this aspect of playing and every found secret is a source of deep satisfaction (although I have to confess that a couple of times I gave in to the temptation of looking up video walkthroughs). The problem as I see here is that because the levels are indeed very large and detailed, the effort of looking through everything you might have missed can and does become exhausting. I have found often myself down to a couple of missed secrets when I complete a level, and circling around in hopes of finding something I might have overlooked, often imagining clues that aren't there in the process. When you're in the secret hunting mode, it's very easy to find imaginary hidden meanings in the placement of any decorations. I can't help but feel that some of the successfully found secrets are due to pure chance and not by following certain rules or finding subtle clues left by the map author.
Again, I wouldn't like to come across as complaining here, and certainly the placement of secret areas does not always have to follow a strict system for the player to decipher. But the side effect of the levels being expansive and highly detailed is that you really get overloaded with information, up to the point of possibly missing something in front of your nose.
#4046 Posted 13 October 2020 - 01:55 PM
I voxelized cockroaches too, but apparently, since they are aligned to the floor, they cannot be rendered as voxels, what a shame. Unless I did something wrong...
#4047 Posted 14 October 2020 - 08:48 AM
My only (so far) stint with voxel editing happened over a decade ago, and it was playing around with a voxel editor for Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (forgot what it's called but it's easy to look up -- a popular community tool. UPD: it's simply called Voxel Section Editor). Now what I remember is that along with some basic voxel painting, there was a thing called normals which applied some sort of shading to the voxel models, making them look smoother -- for example, a tank barrel or a vehicle's wheel would appear round instead of blocky. Painting them by hand required a high level of skill but the VSE tool came with an "auto normals" option that produced some pretty decent results from what I remember.
My question here is, can this be done with EDuke32 voxels? From the high-res voxels in Ion Fury I get the feeling that there is a similar feature (e.g. the top part of the comfy office armchair certainly looks very smooth and roundish) but I'm not 100% sure.
#4048 Posted 14 October 2020 - 12:09 PM
This post has been edited by Dzierzan: 14 October 2020 - 12:10 PM
#4049 Posted 18 October 2020 - 06:11 PM
but wouldn't voxel shells be a bit much for build to handle
#4050 Posted 21 October 2020 - 05:19 PM
Truck Stop Santa Claus, on 18 October 2020 - 06:11 PM, said:
but wouldn't voxel shells be a bit much for build to handle
It already handles them fine in Blood.