Author Topic: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1  (Read 110449 times)

Offline onyhow

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2013, 12:41:05 pm »
I just noticed that the game was namedropped in the interview with IndieGames.com back in mid-March...

Ah well...sounds interesting! Hope it does explore more on AI War universe...

Offline x4000

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #16 on: March 28, 2013, 12:42:38 pm »
Do you like, ever NOT make games? :P

Acutally, I can safely say that since I was 9 years old, there have only been around 5 years of my life that I wasn't actively making games or working on mods or level packs for other games.  Basically mid-2003 through the end of 2007, and maybe a combined year and a half there in the mid-90s.

I like making games. :)
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Offline chemical_art

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2013, 12:43:11 pm »
Well, don't judge the studio by Valley2.  They were given some pretty tough requirements there.  And SH was intentionally retro; good if you like that kind of thing but I'm guessing you don't.

Anyway, what do you think of the teaser image above?  Specifically, do you like the character's art?  Do you like the background art?

If you don't like either, then this game is probably not going to work for you, but honestly I don't know what would that's at-all within our reach.

I'm not saying that bitterly or whatever, but I figure we should be clear with each other on this :)

I don't put much stock into teaser images, honestly. The teaser pics from Vally 2 were quite different then the finished product.

To reinforce this is my opinion that the style is good. It's just the animation was terrible.

In fact, I would consider the art overall from Vally 2 to be good...except the object you see most often. The player. When I saw the character in the first alpha I literally thought "This must be the alpha, with the slideshow animation" I would have never have guessed that was the finished product.


So to conclude, the teaser looks promising, but I've seen similar promise before so I remai skeptical. Please try to devote more time to make the thing(s) you see the most look good, and it'll be fine.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2013, 12:43:45 pm »
I just noticed that the game was namedropped in the interview with IndieGames.com back in mid-March...

There and also in an earlier podcast with Game Wisdom, yeah.  And they've been on our "upcoming releases" sidebar thing on the main site since shortly after the Game Wisdom mention, too. :)
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #19 on: March 28, 2013, 12:50:05 pm »
I don't put much stock into teaser images, honestly. The teaser pics from Vally 2 were quite different then the finished product.
Fair enough.

The character in the teaser is the asset being used for that character in-game (except the white outline, which was added for this shot to help with contrast).  So it should be more informative than the usual teaser stuff is.

The background was intended as an in-game cutscene shot but will probably be used for the title screen instead as a different style is going to be used for the in-game cutscenes (artist availability changed midstream).  So you may retain your skepticism for those until we have something clearly in-game for you ;)


I agree on the player animation in Valley2.  If I understand Chris correctly we'd have done things very differently (fewer characters, more frames per character) if we'd known then what we know now.

Because we know now, we're mostly avoiding the need for animation of humans in Exodus.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #20 on: March 28, 2013, 12:54:22 pm »
Plus with the style of game this is, the animation of humans really isn't needed terribly much anyhow.  It's just apples and oranges between something along the lines of Oregon Trail versus an action platformer.
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Offline Billick

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #21 on: March 28, 2013, 01:46:30 pm »
As much as I liked the Valley games, I'm glad to see Arcen making another strategy game.

Offline LaughingThesaurus

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #22 on: March 28, 2013, 04:54:55 pm »
Ooooh
I bet it takes place after the AI gets beat up so that the humans can finally live on not a space station for the first time in quite a while. I could absolutely be extremely wrong here.
Also, Exodus of the Machine actually sounds kinda like an AI War expansion name, or an album title for a hard rock band.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #23 on: March 28, 2013, 05:29:08 pm »
I could absolutely be extremely wrong here.
You totally could.
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Offline Greywolf22

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #24 on: March 28, 2013, 06:00:47 pm »
Are you guys going to be running an Alpha for this for folks to participate in?  I'm always excited to get my hands on another Arcen title  :D

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #25 on: March 28, 2013, 06:04:09 pm »
Are you guys going to be running an Alpha for this for folks to participate in?  I'm always excited to get my hands on another Arcen title  :D
As we need testers we'll probably be doing the normal approach, yes :)  But don't worry: we'll let folks know when that time comes.
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Offline Coppermantis

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #26 on: March 28, 2013, 06:47:59 pm »
Well, the thing in the background of that picture looks like a crashed Command Station. Also:

Quote
None can stand before your modern weapons, but where do you use your limited ammunition?  Do you resort to diplomacy, or native weapons?

This part is intriguing to me. It implies that there's an existing civilization on the planet which is probably not human, since all the humans were either wiped out, part of military force the player controls or contained within a nebula. Unless there's a sub-faction which split off and settled their own planet, and thus were not involved in the civil war which became the AI War, all branches of humanity are accounted for in those factions.

If they are humans who split off onto their own planet prior to the civil war, though, they must be capable of space flight and thus must have advanced weaponry. Although "native" does not necessarily mean spears and bows--they could still have space-age weapons, but the weapons that the AI War humans have are even more advanced, as the civil war led to a sort of arms race, quickening the development of new military hardware.

Or it could just be aliens. That would probably be the easier explanation.  :P I'm just wildly speculating based off of very little evidence at this point.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2013, 06:50:04 pm by Coppermantis »
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline Wingflier

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #27 on: March 28, 2013, 06:51:50 pm »
*Hear hear*! Let's toast to another awesome game by Arcen.

I am literally so excited I can't wait.

I'm glad to see that you guys are returning to your strategy roots. I think that's where you really shine :D

Excited to hear more about both games :P
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Offline x4000

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #28 on: March 28, 2013, 07:02:26 pm »
Or it could just be aliens. That would probably be the easier explanation.  :P I'm just wildly speculating based off of very little evidence at this point.

Or it could be something which, surprisingly, nobody has suggested yet. :)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1
« Reply #29 on: March 28, 2013, 07:05:29 pm »
I'm glad to see that you guys are returning to your strategy roots. I think that's where you really shine :D

Excited to hear more about both games :P

I really appreciate it. :)  Yeah, as much as I don't want to be "just a strategy game developer," that certainly is our wheelhouse.  I really love working on all manner of games, but my hunger for working on strategy titles has really grown back over the last two years.  Sometime after these two I really want to get into some truer turn-based tactics or roguelike stuff, though.  That seems like it would also be something we'd excel at, even though we've never made one before; it plays to the same sort of strengths as a strategy game.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself but suffice it to say we're all really excited, too. :)

And AI War is not dead!  We plan another expansion to that later this year.  Neither of these other games step on the toes of it, since each is such a different experience.
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