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Indie RPG with ground breaking engine and physics

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Hi, i want to share this Kickstarter Project.

The guy wrote the engine on his own it is looking incredible in both graphics and physics.
They are now struggling to get funded. Only 2 days left.

AAs we are artists here, they also have some tiers for artists heart, especially designing a weapon which will be used in the final game and so. also read the updates for better understanding of gameplay

heres the link. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473965863/sui-generis

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  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    I can't help to wonder if cutting that pitch video down to under a minute would have helped immeasurably. As it stands, to get to the exciting stuff (physics! open world! ace looking combat system!) I have to sit through a few minutes of unskippable intro slides, dialogue, and footage of the editor being used. It's great to show an editor to show progress but don't do it in your pitch video like this.

    Max 2 second logo -> close ups of combat system -> gameplay footage exploring overworld -> physics -> brief editor footage -> closing monologue.
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    So are they developing an engine or a game?
  • CrazyMatt
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    That looks pretty awesome! I'm intrigued very much by the progress shown.
  • chingchong
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    Bigjohn wrote: »
    So are they developing an engine or a game?

    both of them... they are developing a game with somefresh ideas and the engine is a part of it.
    but they agree that the pitch video should hay be done better in terms of showing people first, that this is aa game, not a engine.

    but i think the updates pretty much turned it around.

    (btw in their forums there are geeat comments of the devs regarding graphic approaches for the game. eg they wont use hardware anti-aliasing but a new software approach for that.
  • Sandro
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    Combat reminds me of sumotori dreams a bit :D
  • chingchong
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    yes i think it was mentioned also in the comments, dark souls and sumotori
  • Octo
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    Octo polycounter lvl 17
    Looks really promising. I think I'll do my first kickstarter pledge on this one..
  • chingchong
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    Octo wrote: »
    Looks really promising. I think I'll do my first kickstarter pledge on this one..

    you better then should hurry up...only 2 days left..
    they now did a new update
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473965863/sui-generis/posts/357473
    on Blood/Gore , Shields and Fire

    cheers
  • dpaynter26
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    dpaynter26 polycounter lvl 11
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    There wasnt anything impressive in the demo of the engine. Everything they did is easy to implement. Sorry : (
  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    Jedi wrote: »
    There wasnt anything impressive in the demo of the engine. Everything they did is easy to implement. Sorry : (

    Nothing is easy.

    Go grab an off-the-shelf physics engine like ODE and try and make a 2x2x2 cube reliably fall onto another from a height of 8 with framerate independent motion. Or try and make an efficient, flexible renderer that works on most of the GPUs out there. Or heck importing animation data from modelling packages is a nightmare because the formats are so flexible if it had any more edge cases it'd be a perfect circle. To do this kind of thing in a custom, scratch written engine is very difficult.

    On the other hand, if they're using an engine that does all this already, you might have a point. But I don't think they are.

    I maintain that there's nothing wrong with the project, just their presentation.
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    JamesWild wrote: »
    To do this kind of thing in a custom, scratch written engine is very difficult.

    On the other hand, if they're using an engine that does all this already, you might have a point. But I don't think they are.

    I maintain that there's nothing wrong with the project, just their presentation.


    Look, what they did is easy. You also have to define "scratch written".....does reading books on graphics programming mean you are no longer from scratch? Looking at physics papers? Does looking at ogre/os code make you not from scratch? etc etc. Just calling it like I see em
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Jedi,

    Making the most amazing and high end character model or environment is no problem for an experienced artist, but it takes a ton of time, same with engines.

    It's all about from what perspective, and it doesn't make it any less of a feat.

    There's nothing new about what he does, but it's all about the way he uses them, very few games have managed to pull off any kind of fully physics or procedural based combat.
  • easterislandnick
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    easterislandnick polycounter lvl 17
    dpaynter26 wrote: »
    Melted

    Sorry but creating a dynamic terrain system that textures and retopologises the geometry adding rocks, plants etc which looks like it was hand made by an artist....

    That is hard and you don't know what you are talking about!
  • AimBiZ
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    AimBiZ polycounter lvl 14
    Very drawn out presentation but damn that's a very impressive achievement!
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    There's a Forbes article but nothing on kotaku or any gaming news sites? They are pretty close with 36 hours left.
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/11/27/indie-kickstarter-rpg-sui-generis-combat-shields/
  • uncle
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    £150k for open world RPG? More like 15mil...
    Also I wouldn't call anything ground breaking, but I really like that anyway. Hope those guys hit their goal!
  • Octo
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    Octo polycounter lvl 17
    Im aware of euphoria and all that but I haven't seen a game with solid physics based fighting, please enlighten me.
    I think it makes a huge difference
  • chingchong
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    yes groundbreaking is the use of it ingame, no premade animations , dynamic lightning...etc. and they have also some cool ideas for gameplay, which you can find on their forum.

    so jedi ...if its so easy...show me a Game with that kind of stuff, and which is also looking badass

    ps .... there is also an article now on PC Gamer
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    chingchong wrote: »
    yes groundbreaking is the use of it ingame, no premade animations , dynamic lightning...etc. and they have also some cool ideas for gameplay, which you can find on their forum.

    so jedi ...if its so easy...show me a Game with that kind of stuff, and which is also looking badass

    ps .... there is also an article now on PC Gamer

    Articles in magazines dont mean anything as to the ease of creation. I program graphics all day, every day. I live in code. I can tell right away that this isnt hard.
  • EarthQuake
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    All the tech in the world and the combat just looks slow and mind numbingly boring. I don't care how realistic your flailing arm animations are, that game doesn't look fun.

    Also 150K pounds for an MMO? lol wtf.

    Terrain tools do look nice though.
  • chingchong
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    who said MMO?

    its singleplayer game first.....with option for multiplayer later on
  • chingchong
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    Jedi wrote: »
    Articles in magazines dont mean anything as to the ease of creation. I program graphics all day, every day. I live in code. I can tell right away that this isnt hard.

    well you didnt mention a game again, which has this easy things implemented?... if its so easy, why no one of that big studios ever used it?
  • MainManiac
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    MainManiac polycounter lvl 11
    They would have saved alot of time just using UDK
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    chingchong wrote: »
    well you didnt mention a game again, which has this easy things implemented?... if its so easy, why no one of that big studios ever used it?

    I dont have an answer for that. Honestly I don't follow other studios very much. I don't even play videogames in my free time except if I'm at a party and its Call of Duty or Halo or something. :poly121:
  • chingchong
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    frell wrote: »
    They would have saved alot of time just using UDK

    that woud be for them like a squared wheel
  • EarthQuake
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    chingchong wrote: »
    who said MMO?

    its singleplayer game first.....with option for multiplayer later on

    Ah I guess I just assumed MMO.
  • reverendK
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    reverendK polycounter lvl 7
    Jedi wrote: »
    I dont have an answer for that. Honestly I don't follow other studios very much. I don't even play videogames in my free time except if I'm at a party and its Call of Duty or Halo or something. :poly121:

    wow jedi.

    and yes - the terrain stuff looks nice, but the tech does still look sluggish, especially in the character animations. Also I fear that it will all be very procedurally samey...i hope i'm wrong. I'd drop my dollar in the bucket if there were another week left and I could wait til my pay-check.
  • Shanthosa
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    Shanthosa polycounter lvl 11
    Have to agree with Earthquake. Despite anyone's opinion on the state of the tech, it's hard not to turn a critical eye toward the game. Physics-based melee combat is a fun challenge to take on, but I don't think they have quite convinced me that it is something that is fun.
  • slipsius
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    slipsius mod
    I think the tech looks amazing, but in terms of prototypes, the game looks boring. If they were trying to get it funded so they can release / sell the engine, alright. cool. but i dunno. those top down type games, like diablo and what not.. what makes people interested in them, besides the loot, is the shit ton of guys you fight all at once... I dont see you being able to do that with those physics.

    Though, that being said, if you were using magic, explosions and force pushes and stuff like that. that would be awesome. haha
  • chingchong
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    at least TotalBiscuit and Brian Fargo (Wasteland 2) have confidence in that, they just tweeted about it....hope the best now
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    Threw some pennies at anyways, looks promising.
  • KarlWrang
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    KarlWrang polycounter lvl 6
    I do think that the presentation should have been cut into several parts, one for the technical side and how they plan on making it happen, and another for what they plan on making happen, something about the lore etc.

    As of now I'd say that it feels more like a overgrowth-esque situation where they add information as the kickstarter progresses, which admittedly does work great for overgrowth, but less great for a kickstarter project.

    And saying that the game will be like GTA meets Morrowind does not suffice for lore.
    Jedi wrote: »
    There wasnt anything impressive in the demo of the engine. Everything they did is easy to implement. Sorry : (
    You're obviously a man with experience and raw knowledge coupled with some mad talents, can't wait to see what you've been marinating in awesomeness.
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    KarlWrang wrote: »
    You're obviously a man with experience and raw knowledge coupled with some mad talents, can't wait to see what you've been marinating in awesomeness.


    hahaha ok, Mom :poly124:
  • Mask_Salesman
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    Mask_Salesman polycounter lvl 13
    Mmm that looks super tasty, I would nom nom nom on the pretty env till I was walrus sized. :)

    The entirely physics based anims need alot of polish tho, the characters being suspended from the waist and pulling themselves along with their legs kills alot of the nice effort they put into everything else tho :/
    Same with the combat, like watching two toddlers slap each other with live fish.

    But its early days and what they've got is still impressive and more than what alot of kickstarter's bring.

    Would have been nice to see abit more about the game experience itself; its one thing to create a beautiful place to look at and another to have riveting questline/immersive interaction etc.

    I wish them luck with it either way. :D
  • chingchong
  • ceebee
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    ceebee polycounter lvl 14
    I think the combat looks pretty fun, I don't know what you guys are talking about. Honestly I'd prefer a slower paced combat lately after playing a bunch of ADD riddled games. All I picture when I see this engine is a top down Dark Souls, if you've ever played it I'm sure you can see what I mean.

    Just because there's not a ton of effects and magic and super fast gameplay doesn't mean it won't be an engaging experience.
  • Shadownami92
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    Shadownami92 polycounter lvl 7
    I know that the procedural physics is interesting, and the concept looks cool.

    But couldn't you technically do something to a similar effect with more creative control using UDK or Unity by setting up a system of balancing between ragdoll physics and pre-made animations? I feel like I remember seeings some experiments with this from Wolfire on Overgrowth a while back (though that is a custom engine). I also remember seeing stuff about motion builder balancing between the ragdoll physics and premade animations and viewing it in real-time in one of it's feature presentations a while back.

    I also agree about the video. If they just had essentially a trailer at the beginning showing off the highlights of the project fast and clear then had other videos that would go in depth of different portions of the project, I think that it would attract a lot more people supporting it.
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    I know that the procedural physics is interesting, and the concept looks cool.

    But couldn't you technically do something to a similar effect with more creative control using UDK or Unity by setting up a system of balancing between ragdoll physics and pre-made animations? I feel like I remember seeings some experiments with this from Wolfire on Overgrowth a while back

    They may be able to get close BUT they would be crippled using UDK. You need source code access instead of only a scripting language so you can do advanced things :). Last i checked this cost 500k for unreal :)

    This is why a lot of developers extend on Ogre/os engines instead of using udk/unity where you are going to feel very very limited using javascript only (uscript is 99% javascript) if you are a "advanced programmer".

    My $0.02 of course.
  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    It's nothing to do with that. With the right APIs, it almost makes no difference which language you use as long as it's not something like BASIC. (which isn't a bad language, it's just not suited to large projects) Even if UnrealScript were "99% JavaScript" (it's not, it's about 60% Java, 10% C#, 30% Visual Basic - look at the syntax for DefaultProperties for that last one. Javascript is weakly typed and so on, Java is strongly typed. Big difference in how it's implemented and how you approach designing a codebase) the big brick wall is that none of the functionality you need is exposed to it from the engine.

    To demonstrate the diamond-square algorithm recently I quickly smashed together an implementation in UnrealScript, but because the only arbitrary geometry drawing API I have available is drawing debug lines, all I can do is draw it as a grid of lines.
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    JamesWild wrote: »
    It's nothing to do with that. With the right APIs, it almost makes no difference which language you use

    No. You're wrong. They NEED source. I need it as well.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Jedi wrote: »
    No. You're wrong. They NEED source. I need it as well.

    As he said, it's all about what is exposed to the developer.


    With that said: this is 10k away from funding, it would be a shame if it misses its target this close to funding.
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    eld wrote: »
    As he said, it's all about what is exposed to the developer.

    What?
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    Jedi wrote: »
    What?

    It was your choice of words when saying "Just a scripting language",

    What you can and cannot do is entirely up to what is exposed to the developer, not weither it is a scripting language or not. Which in this case something is not exposed in UDK and they would need the sourcecode, yes.

    Unity for example is very expansive with its scripting languages and most often you'll find that developers are perfectly fine without the sourcecode, and they'll do some crazy stuff.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    so the OP went a bit overboard by calling it "ground breaking" do we really need to spend so much time arguing whether it's easy or not?
  • Jedi
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    Jedi polycounter lvl 12
    eld wrote: »
    What you can and cannot do is entirely up to what is exposed to the developer, not weither it is a scripting language or not. Which in this case something is not exposed in UDK and they would need the sourcecode, yes.

    I think about it in terms of "merging in completely different stuff".
  • Noodle!
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    Noodle! polycounter lvl 8
    I think the physics based fighting is an interesting enough concept that I'm going to back this. If it comes to nothing, it's only 10 bucks, but it's a novel enough idea or an interesting one at least.
  • WarrenM
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    so the OP went a bit overboard by calling it "ground breaking" do we really need to spend so much time arguing whether it's easy or not?
    Agreed. What in the world is going on in here? Damn.
  • Octo
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    Octo polycounter lvl 17
    Can we please push this sucker through? It's gonna be so close...every pledge counts.
    I put in £60 myself..
  • reverendK
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    reverendK polycounter lvl 7
    if there were another 7 hours to go I totally would. :/
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