Joust3D no more?
polycounter lvl 18
just checked the site.. no explanation there. 
what happened?
www.joust3d.com
ah well, there's always Eon
http://www.coronaleonis.com/eon/main.html
what happened?www.joust3d.com
ah well, there's always Eon
http://www.coronaleonis.com/eon/main.html
Replies
Foxed, perhaps?
[ QUOTE ]
Joust 3D - STOPPED
After discussing this step with Igrok our coder I feel that carrying on would
only delay the inevitable.
I feel depressed that this is the scond project I am part of that didn´t work
out. Why? Hard to say. One major problem defintely is the fact that today
computer games are geting better and better- in all aspects. What is a lot of
work for a professional development studio simply cannot been done by a handful
of people working in their sparetime. Especially if it is limited. Realizing
this is depressing and I sure hope there are execptions but I see less and less
of those. Hobby developers cannot hope to meet the expectations in the same way
studios do. Back in the 80ies every ambitious kid could cook up a game. Even the
Super Marios of the early 90ies were easy to pull off. But making something that
doesn´t feel and look inferior to Doom3 really is another sort of thing. With
both quantity AND quality needed to create a 3d title it really needs tons of
time.
Creating a custom engine is a huge amount of additional work that many studos
try to avoid. Last but not least we also discovered problems concerning the
transfer of the classic gameplay to the third dimension. What might appear
simple at a frist glance turned out to be full of problems when you take a much
closer look. We faced the alternatives of either having a game that differed
completely from what gamers remeber or creating a game that is highly írritating
and confusing. Just imagine you being chased by multiple enemies in a rather
tiny map without seeing it all from a large distance. Utter chaos! And that was
but the beginning of the problems internal tests revealed. The AI would have
neded a lot of work too.
Well so much for problems. I just felt that I owed an explanation to all those
people involved at some point. It really saddens me to write these words but I
learned a lot of things these last years while working on the two projects that
now have failed. I have acquired a number of friends and I have had a great time
with moments of triumph when I saw that a person´s ideas can indeed be turned
into reality. Creating game content is a form of art to me and I will keep
dedicating some part of my future sparetime to it. To all those that helped me I
feel really grateful and I hope that only a handful will think of this project
as wasted time. Mentioning only some names is unfair but there are two people
that I especially owe a lot. Hurricane who always helped out with astonishing
art whenver I chose to have some stupid idea and Igrok who worked a miracle when
he finally allowed me to see my static objects moving in a rich 3d environment.
To all others who helped with ideas and work I say again thank you! My thanks
also go to Bobo_the_Seal who actually is the one who had the idea and Android
who donated some terrific artwork.
Since many of the people involved in Joust3D were also part of ChronosV or at
least knew about it I feel happy to say that both projects together helped
almost a dozen young artists to get a job as professional game developers at
various well known companies (Epic just being one of them). The art submitted as
part of their resume featured some of the best stuff created for these games.
I will keep the Joust3D homepage "online" for 2005 and will upload a gallery
showing some of the very best work done for the game. Please check back in a day
or two - I´m sure you´ll like what you see there.
Thanks for all your support.
MrD
2005
[/ QUOTE ]
web based games are fun and totally doable in a bedroom-coder ethic
But using a open source engine instead of programming your own would have been probably also a better idea.
Well guys, you made some amazing artwork, and it's defintiely something to be proud of.
doesn´t feel and look inferior to Doom3 really is another sort of thing. With
both quantity AND quality needed to create a 3d title it really needs tons of
time.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think this person has mistaken looks over game play as the core. People weren't after a super normal/displaced/per pixel lighting set-up for something like this. They were after the rush and fun of playing something classic in 3d. It sounds like this project Director had an idea this was competiting with AAA titles. With that mindset. He already lost.
And yes,Im also confused (Shockwave 3d being one of them) why he didnt use a pre built engine? Well.. Maybe someone else will take up the Joust...
Joust 3D was built on a new engine, something that even 'real' game dev houses have a lot of trouble with. other aspects of the development were also too ambitious... the sad reality of it is that even the stuff that seems simple can end up being pretty complicated, so you need to hedge your bets whenever possible.
not that indie game devs have to 'think small'... they just have to emphasize the advantages they do have, rather than exacerbating all the ways they aren't a big dev house.
but as Mr. D writes, it's not a complete loss by any means. People cranked out some really great looking art assets for that project, and it seems to have helped people get jobs in the industry. none of that is a 'loss'. i just hope that other hobbyist developers and modders take some lessons from both Joust and ChronosV... if you're looking to actually get the game out, you've got to play up your strengths, not your weaknesses compared to big dev houses.