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They Came.. From Hollywood
Thanks to GMicek for pointing to the DIYGames.com site, which has an interview with Octopus Motor, the developers of They Came From Hollywood. This real-time strategy PC title allows you to control giant B-movie monsters as they maraud through major American cities, and you can even play as one of the monsters from those classic Harold Haxton movies. The project is also an interesting model for today's independent games, as the official site explains the game has only 2 developers, and the title will be self-published when it's finished later this year.
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From looking at the screen shots both the graphics and gameplay (and you can get a good idea of the gameplay from looking at the screen grabs provided) seem to be extremly poor.
It looks like they have spent quite a bit of time on the roads/buildings/people, which is good, but I'm certain there are a lot of alternative ideas for gameplay that would be able to sell this underlying engine better than the idea they currently have.
I think it's perfectly possible to come up with good ideas that don't rely on 3D, but for a game with the concept this one has (which relies largley on the coolness factor of destroying things) it would seem to cry out for cool 3D graphics and alpha blended explosions - *something* to keep the player entertained (as I think the minor amusement of destorying things as a big monster in the current environment will wear off before the first level is complete).
There are hundreds of small time developer outfits producing great games (like Ambrosia Software), I fail to see the point of an article about a game that, quite frankly, is crap, when there are plenty of small time developers turning out good low budget shareware and freeware titles (in particular there are many excellent games in this category for Palm OS and Pocket PC).
I appreciate that harsh critisim is hard for the developers to hear, but:
There are free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-speech games out there that have more appealing graphics and gameplay premises.
I think that when people spend time writing god awful software it's only fair to call it as it is, it's crap and no one in their right mind is going to want to buy it.
How many non A/C account holders think this game is cool and would buy it, really?
A Fun PS2 game
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9th post!
Played it on the C-64. Took 30 MINUTES to load and had a 50% success rate. When your monster got killed you had to RE-LOAD the game. The fact that we played it and played it is a testament to how good it was...
but i certainly wish he was. Mars needs Chicken, Gravy and Women? Once they get everything they need, that there red planet would a nice place to settle down.
You can easily tell a lot about the intended gameplay from looking at screen shots of a game, that should be blatantly obvious, and there are quite a lot of screen shots avalible on the site (as well as from the gameplay movies provided on that site).
Even the developers of this game think it's possible to get an idea of the gameplay from looking at images of the game (that's why they have 'gameplay movies' on the site).
You can see what the player is being asked to do and the type of objectives they will be asked to meet, what obstacle's they will face, and what the good and bad points of the game will likely be, simply by paying careful attention to the information avalible to you.
For example, you'll take the form of various B-Movie monsters and have to destroy a series of buildings and mouments (outlined at the start of the level) before you get killed by various helicopters, planes and other assorted defense forces. You'll be able to destory other buildings and vehicles and use special charecter specific moves along the way. You won't have complete freedom of movement as all graphics are pre-rendered, and you won't be able to switch to a first person viewpoint. The gameplay will be limited as the potential for havock will be constrained to what's possible in a 2D isometric game. It doesn't look like you'll be able to zoom in or out, or fly above builings. Other mission types may well be avalible.
Look at the Half Life 2 screen shots and movies, you don't have to have played or even know about the previous title to see from the information avalible how much time, thought, and creativity has been put into this game and that if even a small proportion of what's been shown is present in the finished title that it's shaping up to be a really good game, and there is arguably much less information about Half Life 2 avalible than about this game.
So how can you tell what something will be like from still images and movies? By looking and using your noodle
"The gameplay will be limited as the potential for havock will be constrained to what's possible in a 2D isometric game."
See... visuals aren't gameplay, they're visuals. For me, gameplay is strategy, tactics, the necessity to think ahead, resource management, and so on. I think you're confusing gameplay with special effects, here.
If all the graphics are pre-drawn isometric 2D, you have a seriously limited level of interaction and immersion, for a start you can only face and move in directions that have been predrawn for you. This goes for every element in the game.
Which is the obvious point you don't seem to grasp, you also don't seem to understand how much this limits gameplay.
That's why new games tend to be in 3D, if you hadn't noticed.
But if you think this game looks like winner don't let me stop you! You must be one of those smucks that hang around the bargin bins in PC World looking for 4.99 stragegy games ('Yeah, the graphics are 10 years out of date but I love the gameplay!' 'Why no actually I don't play many games, why do you ask?').
Only an idiot would state that 3D is the best thing about games. Lots of games have 2D prerendered background-- predrawn. Did you forget about Resident Evil?
Confucious says: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
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This looks like a 2D version of Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters Melee for the Gamecube. Or like the GBA version. both were really cool, so I guess this may be pretty much fun, too.
Yes, this has been done before. In fact, they list quite a few games like this in their FAQ. The style is different, though, and they think they can make another fun game for the monster genre.
They know their roots. Do you know that they know their roots?
You zap the moderators with a wand of humor! The moderators resist!
You're an ass. Read the fucking post before you again. Wait, let me sum it up for you, ahem
JUST BECAUSE THE GRAPHICS DON'T NEED AN ATI 9700 TO PLAY DOESN'T MEAN THAT GAMEPLAY IS GOING TO BAD.
GRAPHICS != GAMEPLAY
You stupid fuck.
Only an idiot would state that 3D is the best thing about games
Nobody did, your just spoiling for a fight.
Lots of games have 2D prerendered background-- predrawn. Did you forget about Resident Evil?
No, but it seems like you did...Redident Evil's level and style of interaction would not be possible if the environment was 2D - the player has 3D movement avalible to them - can you imagine how much atmosphere would be lossed if the entire game was isomentric 2D?
Sure, Manic Mansion was great but it's hardly as atmostpheric (or, I'd argue as much fun as) as Resident Evil.