I for one understand and enjoy this hardcore stuff. Yes, people with less knowledge may get confused, so it's somewhat questionable if it should be shown on the "mainstream stream", but at least keep doing blog posts about it.
A question on the pathing, or more specifically the unwrapping to a 2D texture: Can you deal with multiple layers of terrain, like a bridge that units can move over and under? Since it's technically possible to model any kind of planet, it would be a shame if the pathfinding failed.
I agree with willi's comment, I really enjoy the behind the scenes tours. And although I don't necessarily understand all the details about how flow fields work, you made the concepts clear and it was completely obvious to me that you were showing a debug environment, and the cost painting was a debugging tool to demonstrate what dynamically adding cost does to the unit movements.
OK, so admittedly I have a computer science degree, but my world is business applications and databases, so checking out the cool stuff you guys are working on is really interesting. Please keep the details coming! :-)
If you're worried about it turning people off buying the game based on unfinished work, make it backers only, we've already bought it! ;-)
It's great to see people passionate about their work. Looks like you guys are doing a great job. Can't wait for the Alpha! :-)
Same here, I want to shout out to you to keep the Tech livestreams alive. They are soo interesting. Also, I'm a dev, standard corporate business apps, so I understand the difference in debug stuff and the 'end-game'. But it is soooo awesome to hear how this game is being developed, getting an inside look at the debug output and intermediate results.
So I'd suggest to split the streams in 2, different dates, different audience. 1. General status (live)stream Give people an update, some video/screenshots about the current state of visuals, and tech that you have. Really put an audience/marketing person on this. It should be short, max 30 min, I'd even just start with 15min.
From this stream you could show a video of how dynamic the planet builder is, show different biomes. Then follow up with the pathing, take a few planets build in the builder, that can show off some interesting pathing solutions and then just show a video of some of these units finding their way. No tech-talk, just show off the possibilities. The key here I assume is to keep it visual, entertaining and not too technical. With short pre-recorded interviews.
Audience: gamers Frequency: every x weeks (iteration/sprint time) Presentation/owner: not you, give us a hot chick ;-) Style: short, redacted, fluid. (these could end up as chapters in the documentary)
2. Tech livestreams Like the one above, preempt the audience by saying you should be 18+ and/or be passionate about game development/modding. (so maybe you should start the first 5 minutes with some code and maths, that would most likely set the expectation ;-)
Audience: Hard-core gamers, modders, developers Frequency: whenever, but at least 1/month Presentation/owner: you Style: same as now
Anyway, I understand your fears of mainstream people not getting this stuff, not being able to relate it to some game elements and fearing this is how the game will play/look. I also understand that creating another stream is cutting in time/money and you do not want to waste that. So I hope you'll consider the option of 2 separate streams.
Btw: good work to the whole team, aarrghhh the wait, the wait.
I for one understand and enjoy this hardcore stuff. Yes, people with less knowledge may get confused, so it's somewhat questionable if it should be shown on the "mainstream stream", but at least keep doing blog posts about it.
ReplyDeleteA question on the pathing, or more specifically the unwrapping to a 2D texture: Can you deal with multiple layers of terrain, like a bridge that units can move over and under? Since it's technically possible to model any kind of planet, it would be a shame if the pathfinding failed.
I agree with willi's comment, I really enjoy the behind the scenes tours. And although I don't necessarily understand all the details about how flow fields work, you made the concepts clear and it was completely obvious to me that you were showing a debug environment, and the cost painting was a debugging tool to demonstrate what dynamically adding cost does to the unit movements.
ReplyDeleteOK, so admittedly I have a computer science degree, but my world is business applications and databases, so checking out the cool stuff you guys are working on is really interesting.
Please keep the details coming! :-)
If you're worried about it turning people off buying the game based on unfinished work, make it backers only, we've already bought it! ;-)
It's great to see people passionate about their work. Looks like you guys are doing a great job. Can't wait for the Alpha! :-)
Same here, I want to shout out to you to keep the Tech livestreams alive. They are soo interesting. Also, I'm a dev, standard corporate business apps, so I understand the difference in debug stuff and the 'end-game'. But it is soooo awesome to hear how this game is being developed, getting an inside look at the debug output and intermediate results.
ReplyDeleteSo I'd suggest to split the streams in 2, different dates, different audience.
1. General status (live)stream
Give people an update, some video/screenshots about the current state of visuals, and tech that you have. Really put an audience/marketing person on this. It should be short, max 30 min, I'd even just start with 15min.
From this stream you could show a video of how dynamic the planet builder is, show different biomes. Then follow up with the pathing, take a few planets build in the builder, that can show off some interesting pathing solutions and then just show a video of some of these units finding their way. No tech-talk, just show off the possibilities.
The key here I assume is to keep it visual, entertaining and not too technical. With short pre-recorded interviews.
Audience: gamers
Frequency: every x weeks (iteration/sprint time)
Presentation/owner: not you, give us a hot chick ;-)
Style: short, redacted, fluid. (these could end up as chapters in the documentary)
2. Tech livestreams
Like the one above, preempt the audience by saying you should be 18+ and/or be passionate about game development/modding.
(so maybe you should start the first 5 minutes with some code and maths, that would most likely set the expectation ;-)
Audience: Hard-core gamers, modders, developers
Frequency: whenever, but at least 1/month
Presentation/owner: you
Style: same as now
Anyway, I understand your fears of mainstream people not getting this stuff, not being able to relate it to some game elements and fearing this is how the game will play/look. I also understand that creating another stream is cutting in time/money and you do not want to waste that. So I hope you'll consider the option of 2 separate streams.
Btw: good work to the whole team, aarrghhh the wait, the wait.
If I never play the game, but get to watch the development processes, then I will be happy that my backing was money well spent.
ReplyDeletePlease please please continue with these videos and don't hold back on the gory details!
I also really enjoy your blog posts.
Is there a list of blogs/twitter accounts for the development team?
And congratulations on making it this far, it is mind-blowing how much progress has been made in such a short time.