I'm not sure Aliens go well with tropical environs.

 

Aliens sipping Mai Tais is pretty frightening.

How dare Obsidian develop their own engine? What kind of backhanded crap is this?

We are developing our own technology for Project Connecticut (Aliens). I saw our first rendered level with some fancy effects today.

How disappointing. Using an established game engine will save development time on the game, plus any quirks or bugs are usually worked out.

 

Yes, because using a pre-existing engine worked so well for Bloodlines. Or Torn for that matter. Please give me one example of a RPG that used a pre-existing engine not designed for RPGs that was any good.

 

(and no, the IE doesn't count)

Deus Ex (using the Unreal Engine :D)

J.E. what physics engine will your engine incorporate?

Hey, they have plenty of time. I'm sure they are developing it themselves as well. And I'm sure they are also developing their own programming language. They have plenty of time afterall.

Engine development does take a long time, Source Engine was 5 years in the making -- Obs better have a foundation to work off of or this will take forevah!

We are developing our own technology for Project Connecticut (Aliens). I saw our first rendered level with some fancy effects today.

How disappointing. Using an established game engine will save development time on the game, plus any quirks or bugs are usually worked out.

 

Yes, because using a pre-existing engine worked so well for Bloodlines. Or Torn for that matter. Please give me one example of a RPG that used a pre-existing engine not designed for RPGs that was any good.

 

(and no, the IE doesn't count)

Morrowind, Oblivion, Dark Age of Camelot

 

http://www.emergent.net/index.php/homepage...ents-and-titles

Edited February 23, 200718 yr by Tale

I guess maybe it's a good thing Obs are developing their own engine as U3 will not be cutting-edge anymore in late 2008.

Sure; it may need a few modifications... but I doubt it will be "outdated" late 2008

 

Just look how long the Unreal Warfare (UE2) and Unreal engines have hang around.

Unreal: 1998-2003 (but even with UE2 released games still used the first engine)

UE2: 2003-2007

UE3: 2007-2008? Not a chance...

We are developing our own technology for Project Connecticut (Aliens). I saw our first rendered level with some fancy effects today.

How disappointing. Using an established game engine will save development time on the game, plus any quirks or bugs are usually worked out.

Sega is giving us a reasonable amount of time for the development of our technology. The designers and engineers on the game are all very realistic and level-headed about what we are doing.

Ok, I don't mind Obsidian using their own technology. If Sawyer has that kind of faith in the programming ability of his team, then so do I. I do, however, worry about that last sentence. Realistic and level-headed? That usually translates into "we are realistic so we set our goals low". The reason I was hoping for the Unreal Engine 3 was not because of its fancy graphics capabilities. I was hoping Obsidian would be the first team to take advantage of the supposed streaming map ability of the engine.. Since Sawyer has said earlier that he likes his games to be open for exploration, I thought that boded well for this game. With their own technology and level-headed programmers, I'm afraid we'll have to endure more maps of the Neverwinter Nights 2 quality. 30 second loading times because you entered a one room store and all that..

 

I really hope I'm wrong about this, but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Just tell the programmers that it's not that difficult to make an engine to take advantage of all sorts of snazzy new effects. What's difficult is to optimize the crap out of said technology and make it run smoothly on standard PC equipment. That's the part that takes 5 years to polish up. I have a feeling that Shader Model 4 (shiny aliens!) will have higher priority than big maps and freedom.

 

By the way, Sawyer, since you're developing the engine from scratch (I think?), could you please add CO-OP (over the Internet and/or LAN) into the design papers somewhere? It sometimes seems as the only few people left on earth not knowing about the huge added value a good co-op function gives a game.. are game developers!

Morrowind, Oblivion, Dark Age of Camelot

 

http://www.emergent.net/index.php/homepage...ents-and-titles

 

Cool, I didn't know that.

 

Nice to know that a licensed engine doesn't have to be detrimental to a RPG.

I would second a design decision to support coop.

 

My roommate and I pretty much buy every Coop game simply because it's coop, so you'd get two guaranteed purchases for that feature alone.

mkreku is right, 'realistic and level-headed' sounds like cop out.. I hope this turns out good.

We are developing our own technology for Project Connecticut (Aliens). I saw our first rendered level with some fancy effects today.

 

Blargh? :confused:

 

I thought you guys are using the Unreal engine?!?!?

 

:confused:

Not for this project, no.

:confused:

 

Then what CRPG are you using the Unreal Engine for?

 

:confused:

Edited February 23, 200718 yr by Sand

Do we know if it's an RPG?

Obsidian's Alien IP (Project Connecticut) is an RPG, yes.

Coop would be awesome. Since you're going console as well, also include splitscreen. Or I fire you.

Obsidian's Alien IP (Project Connecticut) is an RPG, yes.

I was asking in response to sand's post

Do we know what kind of game they're using the UE3 engine for?

mkreku is right, 'realistic and level-headed' sounds like cop out.. I hope this turns out good.

Well if you put it that way then it's the greatest engine you've ever dreamed of. Wait... it's better than your dreams.

 

We're developing the engine to do exactly the things we believe are important for the game we're making. We aren't developing it as a middleware engine or to do everything in the world well. "Realistic and level-headed" means being focused, not pessimistic.

Obsidian's Alien IP (Project Connecticut) is an RPG, yes.

I was asking in response to sand's post

Do we know what kind of game they're using the UE3 engine for?

 

Project Georgia... and possibly Project New Jersey if that one is still in the works.

After playing a recent game which was ported from a console(Rainbow Six: Vegas to be precise), I'm going to ask a very important question:

 

Is the game primarily designed for a console in mind or a PC? Meaning will the game simply be ported over with all the console interfaces, designs, optimizations, memory limitations ect to us PC users?

 

Rainbow Six Vegas is one of the worst ported games I had ever played with terrible optimizations, interfaces and even in-build support for the PC. I'm concerned that the Aliens RPG game will share the same problems as many other ported console games due to being a straight port. What is Obsidian's thoughts and perhaps, solution to this problem if you think it is a problem at all?

 

In short, will the port be similiar to Morrowind (Game based from PC and then to be ported to console) or Oblivion? (From console port to PC)

After playing a recent game which was ported from a console(Rainbow Six: Vegas to be precise), I'm going to ask a very important question:

 

Is the game primarily designed for a console in mind or a PC? Meaning will the game simply be ported over with all the console interfaces, designs, optimizations, memory limitations ect to us PC users?

 

Rainbow Six Vegas is one of the worst ported games I had ever played with terrible optimizations, interfaces and even in-build support for the PC. I'm concerned that the Aliens RPG game will share the same problems as many other ported console games due to being a straight port. What is Obsidian's thoughts and perhaps, solution to this problem if you think it is a problem at all?

 

In short, will the port be similiar to Morrowind (Game based from PC and then to be ported to console) or Oblivion? (From console port to PC)

Im also interested in the same question however I will be purchasing the Aliens rpg and fps in developement on the xbox 360 as I dont think my PC will be up to the performance.

 

As for the engine for the rpg, I look forward to seeing the results on the engine work and graphics when gameplay clips and screenshots begin coming out (possibly at the end of 2007 and into 2008).

Is the game primarily designed for a console in mind or a PC? Meaning will the game simply be ported over with all the console interfaces, designs, optimizations, memory limitations ect to us PC users?

My guess is that the focus will be on the consoles, and then "translated" to the PC. I've rarely seen that it works good the other way around. Morrowind or Oblivion are the exceptions, but those games had loose design, just big world, so that was just a question of memory amount, not interface restrictions etc.

I don't hope Alien turns out to be some Kotor clone. I can even live if the PC version takes longer, but gets some special attention it deserves.

My guess is you are guessing.