Procedural Cities in Next Introversion Game

[BigJKO]

So, introversion + new game + procedural content =

Sure, procedular content isn't the almighty solution to development problems. It's tremendously cost-effective, but might not produced as elegant world as artist might. But given that in most cases, in my humble opinion, games don't always feature the most compelling and/or beautiful game world even with artists working their ass off trying to so something worthwhile, I'm loving the concept of procedural content.

And you have to admit, those very early development shots of Subversion look pretty awesome. The possiblity of this within GTA, for example. You'd start the game creating a city for yourself, ala Animal Crossing, and then you'd get a slightly different experience than anyone else in the world. Silly example, maybe.

[juv3nal]

still early days, but this subversion video looks amazing:

http://vimeo.com/17297917

Heh

the player characters in the demo are

two independent game development superstars (VVVVVV's Terry Cavanagh and Love's Eskil Steenberg) and one video game journalist (Kieron Gillen)

Edited November 30, 2010 by juv3nal

[Nachimir]

still early days, but this subversion video looks amazing:

http://vimeo.com/17297917

I was just about to post that, because I shot it. The people they named in the demo were all other speakers at the event

I'm pretty excited about Subversion. They've bit off an awful lot to chew on in making it, and I hope they can do something as iconic as Darwinia with the heist gameplay. In the time since Chris first showed the city generator publicly, entire companies have sprung up and started belting out middleware to do exactly the same thing.

[thorn]

The video in this post shows the process close-up. And it's only 2 minutes long, in case you don't want to watch the whole talk.

[Orv]

The video in this post shows the process close-up. And it's only 2 minutes long, in case you don't want to watch the whole talk.

I watched the whole thing because damnit, it's interesting.

If they can pull this off, even sans major graphics, I would be not only impressed, but thrilled. This looks like something I could chew on with my brain for a long, long time.

[MrHoatzin]

They desperately need an artist. They don't have to make the assets they despise so much, but just someone to tighten the color harmonies and think about usability and feel who isn't a programmer.

I am afraid the game will be chewed over and spit out in the current pretty indie renaissance.

[Orv]

They desperately need an artist. They don't have to make the assets they despise so much, but just someone to tighten the color harmonies and think about usability and feel who isn't a programmer.

I am afraid the game will be chewed over and spit out in the current pretty indie renaissance.

I dunno. I was playing DEFCON with Thompson last night, and was reminded quite forcefully of how well a cut down art-style can work. Admittedly, I'm not sure it would work as well for Subversion (in fact, I would prefer graphics in the range of, say, Jagged Alliance?) but I do agree that things are a little muddled in the art department currently.

[MrHoatzin]

DEFCON is the only one of their games that worked because the art was so clinical and matter-of-fact.

Darwinia, with all its pretensions to retro purity, could really have used someone in charge of thinking about how things looked—at least for 15 minutes, in the last sprint of production. It was a charmless-looking game that thought it looked gorgeous when it was merely unconsidered and random.

Uplink worked without art because it is basically Menu Hero.

I think Introversion makes the mistake of equating what artists bring to the project with gigabytes of models and textures that costs money to make. They got a lot of shit from Microsoft with Darwinia+ and from what little I can piece together from their blog, it sounds like thems were some valid shits.

There are so many indies out there now, and they all look gorgeous. I hope they can survive just flat out refusing to consider the visual side of things on a fundamental level. I wish they weren't so stubborn.

[juv3nal]

DEFCON is the only one of their games that worked because the art was so clinical and matter-of-fact.

Darwinia, with all its pretensions to retro purity, could really have used someone in charge of thinking about how things looked—at least for 15 minutes, in the last sprint of production. It was a charmless-looking game that thought it looked gorgeous when it was merely unconsidered and random.

Uplink worked without art because it is basically Menu Hero.

I think Introversion makes the mistake of equating what artists bring to the project with gigabytes of models and textures that costs money to make. They got a lot of shit from Microsoft with Darwinia+ and from what little I can piece together from their blog, it sounds like thems were some valid shits.

There are so many indies out there now, and they all look gorgeous. I hope they can survive just flat out refusing to consider the visual side of things on a fundamental level. I wish they weren't so stubborn.

I dunno, the stripped down visuals could be okay.

It doesn't seem to be horrible for Frozen Synapse (although I've no idea how that's doing sales-wise).

[Erkki]

This seems really promising, although I'm a bit worried that most of it is just fantasy.

I mean, that was probably the most easy to rob bank anywhere, ever. Though they did say not to expect anything there to be final ...

[brkl]

Basically I don't think they could afford an artist if they wanted one.

[ThunderPeel2001]

They desperately need an artist. They don't have to make the assets they despise so much, but just someone to tighten the color harmonies and think about usability and feel who isn't a programmer.

I am afraid the game will be chewed over and spit out in the current pretty indie renaissance.

Totally concur. It doesn't matter if it's stripped back, that's fine, but it needs to look somewhat attractive to the eye. They really need an extra guy with an eye for design and UI in there to do a "Jake" on the thing.