General Category > Stars Beyond Reach... This World Is Mine
Announcing "Stars Beyond Reach," a new 4x coming in April/May 2015.
x4000:
Thanks!
doctorfrog:
I'd also note that for once, the majority of comments on that RPS article weren't negative. Perhaps even grudgingly respectful in some cases.
x4000:
--- Quote from: doctorfrog on November 06, 2014, 04:49:23 pm ---I'd also note that for once, the majority of comments on that RPS article weren't negative. Perhaps even grudgingly respectful in some cases.
--- End quote ---
Ooh, nice! That is indeed a welcome surprise. :)
DrFranknfurter:
I enjoyed the start of the rock paper shotgun article:
"If you’ve pressed your ear to Arcen Games’ door, read their lips through their window, rummaged through their bins and taped together shredded documents, planted microphones to record their nocturnal mutterings, or browsed their forums, you might know that the AI War and The Last Federation developers have been working on a 4X strategy game."
It made me chuckle.
"Strangeblades says:
Arcen Games’ games are Chris Park’s thought-constructs given digital form. “This is my idea,” he says. The strange, bumpy, interlocking-clockwork is put into your hands (our hands). Before we can ask what THIS is, Park is back in his laboratory."
That made me smile, as did this:
"sinister agent says:
I own every game and expansion Arcen have made, which I’m pretty sure can’t be said for any other developer. I love their attitude, and their respect for their customers and craft. Even when they get it wrong, they’re interesting, and always unusual. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with a civ-alike. Too many of them, even the good ones, become too much of a chore after a while."
I'm still reading all the posts both here and elsewhere, but for now I'm waiting for a few more teaser pictures before giving you another barrage of questions. (Plus you have proper games reporters and QAs to deal with now. So I'm looking forward to the highlights from them, hopefully with some new information. I'd feel guilty about hogging your time, even at speed-reader and speed-typist rates)
One question though, with all the recent interest, what are you most nervous about doing well? Art? Diplomacy? Planet mood? Lots of comparisons with other classic games are getting some people's hopes up on specific aspects of the game. I can imagine the interest either as added pressure, or a chance to shine. It's all about perspectives. Is there anything you want to play down? Or are you just encouraged to made sure you do the aspects that grab attention the justice and attention each deserves?
(I know that's 6 question marks... I'm calling it one question... Or one interlinked thought shaped into question form.)
Hope all's going well.
x4000:
All good, thank you!
In terms of where I'm most nervous about us doing things well... it's hard to say, really. The biggest worry is always making sure that things gel together and turn out to be more than the sum of their parts, rather than less. If we nail four great subsystems but have a weak fifth one and plus it all doesn't really fit together well or is too confusing when taken in aggregate... well, then we've still really screwed up.
Regarding art, I'm not worried about it at all because that ship has sailed. We're well into production on that, and I think the style is gorgeous. I think a lot of people will really like it, although I'm 100% certain that some people will hate it to various degrees, some with a passion. Such is life. I personally think this is the best-looking game that we've ever done, and I can't ask for more than that.
Diplomacy is certainly a loaded gun that usually has a tendency to backfire on the bearer, though, I will say that. Based on actually talking to folks and reading about their interests and their complaints with other games in the genre has inspired me in some different directions than I originally had for the diplomatic aspects. So that's been a positive thing, and in some ways took some pressure off because now I have an idea that I'm truly excited about with that part of the game, and which I think is a novel way to handle this in general. Here again some people will inevitably be disappointed because they are going to imagine a system that is "just like game X that I love, but with 3000% more content and a pony," and there's not much I can do about that.
Early expectations are something I used to stress about more than I used to. The fact is, most of our customers won't have heard about the game prior to it launching, so for them they'll just judge it on its merits. For a lot of the rest of our customers, they'll hear about it, and then mostly forget about what their expectations were, then rediscover it. For the others, their expectations may be heightened now, and that's a risky thing for me, but there's not much I can do about it. Either way it doesn't change what my job is, because it's not like I'd slack off if people weren't watching now -- they're going to see it eventually one way or the other.
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