Christopher interviews Cowardly Creations Project Director and Programmer, Tadej Kupčič, about some details behind the core mechanics and design decisions of Uncanny Valley, their first endeavor set to release later this year.
CHRISTOPHER: Uncanny Valley utilizes a Consequence System that will encourage players to not look at failures as reasons to just restart but as elements to overcome as they continue playing, designed to reduce death as an outcome while making player actions have an impact on the world. While an interesting system, how does such a system encourage a player to keep playing rather than restarting?
TADEJ: That problem was quickly solved with two things – with having an interesting pacing and by delaying those consequences for a while. Some things might not happen right after you fail to do a certain thing, and it will take a while before you are in any real danger, meaning most players won’t be bothered to restart the whole game just because they don’t like where things are going. I think it's more interesting if you play through it at least once and learn to deal with the consequences. I hope players will agree with me.
CHRISTOPHER: As mentioned, exploration in the game will be a key element. Players will be tasked with exploring various areas of the facility to find out what is going on. Why would a player want to keep exploring your game world?
TADEJ: The best encouragement I could think of was having the player invested in the story and by creating an interesting, believable location filled with things to see and do, so they will actually want to explore.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
CHRISTOPHER: With an emphasis on exploration comes the need for control, the ability for players to know where they are and where they need to go and to not be hampered by the need to retrace their steps from one area to another. What steps have you taken to limit the frustration of traveling back and forth in the game?
TADEJ: The whole facility is designed in an intelligent manner where you don't have to go through ten areas to get to the one you want - every special department can be accessed through a main hall or conveniently placed elevators.
CHRISTOPHER: As the player explores the facility, they will find various documents, tapes, and similar items throughout the game world. What purpose do these things serve in the game?
TADEJ: Most documents, tapes and other interactable things are there so you can learn more about the rich back story. Those are purely optional, I don't want to force players to read or search every corner of the map. But if they do, they might stumble upon hints on how to progress the story, how to access certain parts of the facility and supplies/goodies.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
CHRISTOPHER: Other than items for expanding on the story, players will also be able to find and equip other items in the environment. What type of items will can players expect to find while exploring your world?
TADEJ: The player will be able to find better flashlights or certain weapons and tools to progress through the facility.
CHRISTOPHER: Will there be an inventory system in the game and will there be limited on what Tom can carry at once?
TADEJ: We didn't include an inventory system or a health system in the upcoming demo, but both will be in the final game. There will of course be limits to what you can carry, both in space and weight, which will also affect the movement speed and the possibility of some actions.
CHRISTOPHER: You mention a health system. What type of health system do you plan to utilize in the game?
TADEJ: The health system is going to be similar to the ones in Metal Gear Solid 3 or Call of Cthulhu, where each part of your body can sustain damage and you must apply the correct medication to it.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
An exclusive screenshot from Tadej. It shows off the previously unseen stealth system.
CHRISTOPHER: For such a new Indie studio, you have made a lot of headway in getting your name out there, from getting Greenlit by the Steam Community to the recently announced partnership with Digerati Distribution to help with distributing the game across consoles. What advice can you give to other Indie studios to find the level of success that you have in getting your game out there and supported?
TADEJ: My advice - just "spam" everyone. Write a good press information email (short, get to the point fast, don't send a wall of text) send it to every blog and website, no matter how small or big it is. Post the game info on every developer and gaming forum you can. Do that after you have something to show, like screenshots or preferably a trailer. It also matters when you do that - try to avoid E3 or other big game events that have tons of announcements and try to contact the press when they don't have a lot to cover. And lastly, just try to create a game you want to play, something you are passionate about, don't do something just because it's popular at the moment and it would sell. If the game you're creating is a good, quality game made with love, it will find success.
Day 12 | Cowardly Creations
EA senior staff has been investigated for sexual misconduct involving female coworkers, and these said people have been named publicly.
Aye just call Phil, i mean he somehow made Bobby Kotick's scandal disappear and gave him a few million dollar high five on the way out.
EA about to go down like Activision and then Phil saves the day saying.this is good for the industry and consolidation will help create competition. /s.
Former Deviation Games developers have formed a new studio at Sony Interactive Entertainment in order to work on a brand new PlayStation IP.
Well that's an awesome and very surprising turnaround. Cheers to the new studio and what they'll build!
It is not about money it is about talent.. get that talent in and they will take care of you and earn you that money
I had picked up on this before the Deviation shutdown was announced. It was pointed out that a senior manager of the team had joined PlayStation prior to the close. It was a little suspicious because from the outside in, it appeared had basically poached Deviation's talent.
Reading some of the other comments it seems this is understood to be the case.
In other news it would be wild if Sony winds up announcing a brand new internal studio.
That's..... confusing, so shut down but just reformed and same employer 🤔 sounds like pretty much what happened to Japan Studio basically just being rebranded as Asobi
It is odd one I don't know how business deals work or the law of that kind of stuff. But is it possible Sony reached out and said hey we want you apart of Sony but don't want to purchase you for what ever reason. How about use disband and we will open a studio and hire you guys type of thing. Is that even possible?
I guess the deviation team fell apart and didn't deliver good progress on what they pitched (they overhyped themselves when the team was announced)so Sony shut them down. They regrouped with a new team and a new pitch so Sony is giving them another shot.
And this time they are keeping it quiet to keep pressure down on the team. So people aren't asking everyday what deviation(or whatever the new team is called) is doing.
Edit: Also Sony never owned them. They just ended their partnership with them. Deviation decided to close on their own.
Good point. You know, i was thinking of Days Gone too. They pitch an idea to Sony for Days Gone 2 but Sony didnt like it do they scrapped the whole thing. Maybe if a good pitch came by...they'd reconsider it.
To be fair, Sony didn't shut them down. Devation was independent. Sony pulled funding on the project they were working on. As a result, they couldn't run so Devation decided to close on their own.
Good for them that they were able to work it out. Hopefully they're developing something interesting.
These days Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s bigger franchises – at least when it comes to RPGs – but that wasn’t always the case. The first entry came out in English more than a year after its Japanese launch, and that was for European fans only.
Would've been yet another whack move on Nintendo. I'm glad they did. It's one of the few games I got the switch for.
I guess Nintendo forgets how boosting sales numbers work. Why lock a game to a certain region or certain regions? You want sales number then flood the market and release the game in every region.
I just don't understand why companies enjoy locking software behind such specific things. Imagine if Minecraft was only available for Xbox 360 and only North America and never again on anything else..
" believable location filled with things to see and do, so they will actually want to explore. "
Now this is awesome ... love the art style
Remindes me of lone survivor
Spam everyone, good thinking
I really like the art style :)
Creative with the 8bit anatomy of privates.