Sui Generis

[Psychomorph]

 

 

Yup, another Kickstarter, but one totally worth backing.

 

Think of a low-fantasy RPG, with a combat and interaction system based on actual physics and not animations and health bars.

 

It's more of an open world game where you are cast out into the world to explore its mysteries, so it's more of an adventure game rather than a fast paced slasher. Kind of a bit like the Ultima games.

 

 

People asked if there will be a stealth element. Because the great lighting system is real time and accurate, I also asked to have a slow movement mode and the ability to go stealth in darkness or in general. Great project, I hope you guys support it.

[Springheel]

Hmm, that's pretty damn impressive. Just two criticisms:

 

1. I can't believe, given how bloody impressive everything else is, that they couldn't get better music.

 

2. Why would you want to have such incredible detail and then restrict the view to being twenty meters off the ground?

 

Pretty awesome boss fight though. And those table physics made me green with envy.

[Sotha]

*Watches the video part where the guy draws a detailed river and a detailed road onto the ground in 2 secods.*

*Takes a deep breath*

*Throws the TDM Road Tutorial into the trashcan.*

 

Heh.. Nice looking stuff there, although the music and sound effects were rather hideous at times. Also the combat seemed interesting at first, but further monitoring made it look a bit like silly drunken flailing. (But that's probably what real melee combat looks like, I suppose.) Overall I like the modern trend of making everything alive with physics.

 

The technology looks very impressive, but games need more. It's a RPG: balanced character generation and progression? Does the world/monsters scale with the player or not? Is it a nethack with millions little details? Or is it a diablo with eternal "Go here, drunkenly flail this guy to death. Then go here and drunkenly flail this guy to death. Then go here and.... save the damsel in distress... But only after you drunkenly flail these guys to death." quests.

 

Best of luck, I hope they succeed!

[HMart]

Looks very good indeed, i'm not a fan with the way the characters fighting is based on physics thou, that makes the animation very strange, but all the rest did managed to catch my attention thanks for the video.

[Diego]

It's an impressive technology but I'm skeptic about that physics battle system. It's the common realism pitfall, in terms of gameplay all that does is create a randomness factor that takes control away from the player, and some pretty weird movements.

[RPGista]

It really looks like a labour of love kind of thing, Im hoping they manage to take it to completion. The physics based world has great potential, and to me the movement problem probably comes from still early stage animation work - having combat be determined by physics (action and reaction) sounds really good, but still players and monters should have fighting "technique" which means some kind of animation guide to the free flow of action, for attacks, defense and overall movement (even when you fall or get up, you should do so "heroically", not like just a ragdoll). A fighting system based on accurate collision detection also invites you to see if from up close, not the Diablo-like pov; it feels like you should be closer if you want to really control the swords, look for openings, etc.

[Psychomorph]

The animations were sort of a place holder, done by the person who coded the engine, means he is no animator (impressive considering this) and this has been said by the devs a couple of times already. People have been nitpicking about the animations all the time. They are just to stubborn to see beyond that. Of course they're gonna to hire a professional animator.

 

The result of the KS is open yet. It looks not too good, but there's still a chance. So I hope you guys back it.

[Psychomorph]

Guys, don't forget about this one.

 

[7upMan]

Nah, just gave it the minimum amount. I save my money for Limit Theory, a procedurally generated sandbox Elite style game. This is a one-man project as well, and since it totally hits home for me, I canceled my pledge for Elite: Dangerous to free up more money for LT.

[Psychomorph]

But, but how can you resist this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks that you still pledged for this.

[7upMan]

What puts me off a bit (after the beautiful screenshots and the promise of realistic physics and the Morrowind pitch hooked me) is that you control a tiny character from the bird's eye view. I'd like to always be closer to the action and rather tilt the camera a bit to be able to see what's in front of me (as is possible in Ground Control). That's mainly the reason why I usually don't play hack'n slash games like Dungeon Siege, Diablo and the likes. Sui Generis promises to be much slower paced, which is good, and hopefully, if the project gets funded, the dev will enable free camera positioning.

[demagogue]

I actually like the bird's eye view *sometimes*. It's not done much anymore, but with the nice graphics we have, it could be fun. You engage with the gameplay differently if its bird's eye vs. FPS.

[Psychomorph]

Very interesting update regarding equipment, inventory, healing and weapons:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473965863/sui-generis/posts/355023?ref=activity

 

[Diego]

The whole visual department of this project is breath taking. That or I just miss medieval fantasy without women with metal bikinis and wizards in pointy hats throwing particle effects all over the place (probably both). Maybe this is the game of thrones of video games lol

Edited November 24, 2012 by Diego

[Psychomorph]

The whole visual department of this project is breath taking. That or I just miss medieval fantasy without women with metal bikinis and wizards in pointy hats throwing particle effects all over the place (probably both). Maybe this is the game of thrones of video games lol

 

I like your thinking.

 

 

[Psychomorph]

[Psychomorph]

Have to mention this. A comment made by the lead dev / engine programmer (guy in KS video) in reply to my hailing of Thief:

 

I loved the original Thief games. Awesome gameplay. I really hope we can capture some of that in SG. Hiding in shadows, being careful not to make loud noises, hiding bodies etc. These are definitely things we'd like to have in the game. I personally find stealth skills in RPGs quite silly but the stealth gameplay of the Thief games was great.

Edited November 27, 2012 by Psychomorph

[Baddcog]

Looks pretty awesome.

 

Our hero got destroyed by that orc with the flail though.

[7upMan]

...which teaches him to use a bow/crossbow from the shadows next time.

[Diego]

Hey, they might even make it! £108,388 pledged of £150,000 goal and 63 hours to go, it's not impossible.

[7upMan]

As the huge surge in pledges for Maia a mere three days before the end of its campaign has shown, if the right outlet (Total Bisquit, in Maia's case) announces the campaign to the world, even hopeless looking campaigns can make it. I wish Sui Generis good luck and hope to be able to play a finely polished game as soon as it's finished.

[Diego]

I thought it wasn't much but it is a third of all they made so far though.

 

What bugs me is that browsing around I found much less interesting projects with much more success. There's the one by the makers of Baldur's Gate, about making another rpg supposedly as good as Baldur's Gate, which I don't know, unless it's Tim Schafer I find it hard to buy these projects that are fueled by someone's name.

[7upMan]

I don't go for name but for information. Of course, a famous name might get me to check out a project, but if it's ultimately uninteresting for me, I will hardly back it (my pledge for Star Citizen was based purely on the publicly available facts). Likewise, I canceled my pledge for David Braben's Elite: Dangerous, as the man has a horribly lackluster way of running his campaign. Back when it started, there was no video and basically no information. It ran on pure Elite nostalgia. It took days to even post a KS video for them, and even that showed very little footage from the game's prototype.

 

When I discovered Limit Theory, a kind of uber-Elite, all the money I pledged for E:D went to LT, and then some. Josh Parnell (LT's creator) does not have a name, but he has a lot to show. And he has enthusiasm. This assures me more than any big industry name. Likewise, while I love god games, I pledged for Maia but will stay the hell away from Peter Molyneux's GODUS.

[Psychomorph]

A name can mean a lot on Kickstarter and I think for a good reason. The head of Obsidian worked on the Baldurs Gate games (probably others from the team, too), so when they announced Project Eternity people knew what they'll get. This is how you raise millions. Star Citizen and others have proven that. imagine the top ex Looking Glass guys would form an indie dev company with the goal to make a real Thief game as they did before, without publishers to dictate the way. I'm sure we all would have chosen to believe. Thief is not so famous like Baldurs Gate or Wing Commander though, but still.

 

£113,311 so far. Roughly 35k to go and still two days of time.

[Psychomorph]