Author Topic: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?  (Read 14619 times)

Offline x4000

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Original: http://arcengames.com/are-you-kidding-me-chris-raptor-releases-on-the-11th-now/

Yeeaah... sorry about that.  Last week it was going to be the 5th, and then late last week that shifted to the 8th.  Now it's the 11th.

So what gives?

Well, in a nutshell, I'm trying to make sure we have the strongest possible offering right at the start of Early Access.  This whole early access thing (the official system, not doing betas) is new to me, so I guess I'm a bit gun-shy on that.  Plus the Steam store is a really challenging place right now; we just took a beating in the summer sale, so it's very important to me that this launch well.

Let's look at the positive side of this, though, and what each delay has bought us:

Shifting to the 5th:

  • We now have a first-person view in addition to the third-person view.

  • A lot of enhancements have been made to the handling of the third-person view, too.

  • The level editor is waaaay more advanced than I'd ever anticipated for this point in particular.


Shifting now to the 11th:

  • The first procedural level in the EA version of the game is now going to be an apartment building, rather than an industrial area.

  • This is a way more unique and interesting environment as a first experience, because it's so innately familiar to us from real life.  Seeing a raptor in someone's bedroom is freaking cool.

  • This has prompted me to come up with some new cool ways of stringing together level pieces in order to make these levels feel labyrinthine in a good way.

  • This has also prompted further refinement to the feel of the raptor, so that it now can navigate these sorts of smaller spaces as well as the larger spaces like we were testing in before.  The added versatility is really cool.


A bunch of sites just today and yesterday picked up the story about the game coming out on the 8th, and I apologize for that.  I'm just trying to front-load things so that you can see the EA launch trailer and go "wow, a raptor inside residential buildings isn't something I've seen before."  The industrial areas will still be a part of the game (along with 8ish other planned environments, ideally), but they aren't what we should be leading with on our EA launch.  It was actually a random comment on one of the news articles that made me realize this, go figure!

We'll have updated press builds in the next few days, and video around that time, too.

Here's a screenshot for you -- bear in mind that this is in a semi-prefab room that has a variety of things wrong with it.  The windows aren't right, the ceilings are too low, the ceiling panel scale is off in this particular view, the lighting is wrong, and the list goes on.  But it does give you an idea of how things are shaping up:

ApartmentTestShot
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Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2016, 03:45:21 pm »
Release Raptor and Frozen Factory DLC come both out at the same day? Which should I buy D:

Offline Draco18s

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2016, 10:46:08 pm »
Both.  Obviously.

Offline TheVampire100

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2016, 03:27:16 am »
Both.  Obviously.
You are propably right.

Offline Pumpkin

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2016, 08:18:38 am »
More environments? Nice! I'm very curious about which environments you planned. Would you tell us?

A raptor in a jungle? Lame. A raptor in a park? That would be fun. Or in a mall! or... What are the more interesting ideas you can come up with, guyz?
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2016, 08:20:03 am »
Or in a mall!

That somehow made me think of this.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2016, 09:12:10 am »
Jungle: definitely not, for the reasons you noted.  Planned at the moment and with various things partly ready for them:

- Apartments (current thing - contemporary feel)
- Industrial Sci Fi
- Lab Sci Fi
- Office Building (contemporary feel)
- Military Base (contemporary plus sci fi)
- Mansion Interior (contemporary / spooky)
- Hospital (contemporary / spooky)
- Rural Estate (kind of timeless, but with both old and sci fi elements)
- Prison (contemporary / spooky)

Other things that I have some stuff gathered for and have a "maybe" stance on:
- Urban City with alleys, etc (contemporary with sci fi elements)
- Airport (contemporary for the most part)
- School (contemporary / spooky)
- City Park or Zoo (mostly contemporary, and this one is a biiiig uncertainty).
- Suburbs (contemporary)

How many of these will see the light of day?  It depends on how the game sells.  Some of these may be swapped in or out in terms of order of addition (and thus also potential for addition at all) based on player feedback.
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Offline Pumpkin

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2016, 10:24:40 am »
Nice. Thanks!
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2016, 05:21:50 pm »
god damit I was raring to say something here all day and now I've forgotten.
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Offline eoraptor

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2016, 08:03:10 pm »
Well it's been a while Arcen but something about this title got my full attention.  :D

Say, since the velociraptor is so effective at dealing with renegade machines and uppity robots, when the raptor is all done here any chance we could borrow a few for the A.I. Wars? We're hard pressed and I'd trust them at my back more than the Neinzul. I mean, sure, flying spaceships might be complicated, but if the Peltians can figure it out...
« Last Edit: July 13, 2016, 08:06:37 pm by eoraptor »

Offline x4000

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2016, 08:51:39 pm »
Space Raptor!  Nice. :D
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2016, 12:14:27 am »

Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #12 on: July 14, 2016, 03:57:57 pm »
isn't it past the 11 now? unless I got July mixed up with august or you have released it and the worst case scenario has occurred of nobody noticing it 0_0
c.r

Offline x4000

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #13 on: July 14, 2016, 04:52:03 pm »
It got pushed back again.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Are You Kidding Me, Chris? Raptor Releases On the 11th Now?
« Reply #14 on: July 14, 2016, 06:49:24 pm »

 

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