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World Exclusive: Love, The First Video
Written by Jim Rossignol on October 15, 2008 at 11:08 pm.
Those of you who were reading the site in February will recall my astonishment at Love, the forthcoming procedurally-generated moderately-multiplayer online world by one-man studio, Eskil Steenberg. Steenberg is a man of remarkable talent, both artistic and technical, and what I saw on his laptop screen at GDC impressed me more than any high-profile release of recent years. A wondrous, impressionistic MMO world that facilitates player creativity and encourages co-operation, that looks incredible and sounds too ambitious to be true. It’s a bold, brave project of independent game development. We’ve got the first moving images of Steenberg’s project after the jump.
[If you see "this text will be replaced" you need to turn off your adblocker.]
You can see the smoky visuals, the player-editing landscapes, the combat, the abstract entities of the Love world. We’ll be asking Steenberg to explain his game in a little more detail in the coming weeks. In the meantime read my previous conversation with Steenberg, and visit his site.
The game, naturally, will be done when it’s done.
Related Stories:
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts 128__________________
« Steamy Peggle Nights (For Half The Price) | Cyclopean: The Lovecraft RPG »
nabeel says:
Oh shiiiiii I can’t contain myself, and I haven’t even watched it yet.
nabeel
October 15th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
sana says:
I fear that the engine capabilities and art style are the only interesting things about that game. Looking at that small combat bit: Edgily looking, poorly animated.. uh, things shooting lasers at each other in some kind of mediterran town? What? Come on.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Bas says:
There’s still time to fix things. This is just one guy working on it, and when he realizes he’s not happy with it, he’ll change it (probably.) Looking forward to this!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Stupoider says:
This game looks very interesting. Keep an eye on this, folks!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
thesombrerokid says:
where’s the video!?
October 15th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
cyrenic says:
“This text will be replaced”
You big tease!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
treaclepeople says:
Seems to work in IE but not Firefox for me.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Sandoval says:
It seems to me that the quality of the graphics has actually gone down (significantly) from the last batch of screenshots. Those were smooth and stylized, while these look jagged and jumbly. Compare:
http://www.quelsolaar.com/love/screens/me_gdc_screen_4.png (old)
with
http://www.quelsolaar.com/love/screens/love_city5.jpg(new)
Maybe the new filters just lose something for me, but the first thing looked like a really neat handpainted doodle, while the new one looks like a low-tech 3D render with a semi-transparent funky overlay. Ah well.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Sam says:
Works in Firefox here, in Linux no less…
(I also have slight dissonance with the laser/medieval styling conflict. But it does also look lovely, so…)
October 15th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
cyrenic says:
Looks like adblock was causing the missing video issue. Apologies to the RPS overlords, I run it at work :P.
The game looks very interesting. The character graphics will probably need to be a bit sharper for gameplay purposes, but even at this early stage things look pretty good.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Corbeaubm says:
That looks so different from anything that I’ve ever seen in computer gaming. The description of what he’s hoping to create is something that I’ve been wondering why nobody has done before, and always sort of assumed that it was impossible. We shall see, but for once I’m actually seriously interested in an MMO (and a subscription-based one at that).
October 15th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
thesombrerokid says:
it’s bloody beautiful!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Theory says:
That was really quite something. The screens made me worry that it’d be impossible to tell what was happening on-screen, but as soon as they start to move everything falls into place. Bravo!
I thought the combat was OK. It’s not strictly one “setting” – it only looks Mediterranean because that’s how the voxels (are they voxels? Look like it.) were placed.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Theory says:
Looks like adblock was causing the missing video issue. Apologies to the RPS overlords, I run it at work :P.
Good catch. The appropriate whitelisting code is:
@@http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ads/swfobject.js
October 15th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
kyrieee says:
It’s neat but will it be fun?
October 15th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Flint says:
I must be the only person in the world who doesn’t see the big fascination of this game. It looks nifty and all but so far there’s been nothing of any substance to actually draw my interest to it.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Maximum Fish says:
I don’t know what i’m looking at, but it looks cool.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Martin says:
I know what I’m looking at and it’s just plain text, not even blinking or anything. :(
October 15th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Quirk says:
I’m not getting the love for the art here. There are some funky smoke effects over crude, blocky landscapes reminiscent of some of the early PS2 games before coders learned how to use the hardware. Texturing feels, well, mostly missing. Maybe this is early stuff as yet, but I’m not sure why he’s releasing video of it if so.
And that linked last conversation with him just has such an overwhelming Peter Molyneux vibe… I can’t help but feel that hyping this is only going to bring inevitable disappointment.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Horatius says:
I get the same sense of adventure and wonder from this as I got when I first saw Magic Carpet.
Thumbs up, indie FTW!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Martin says:
Aha! Bad adblocker! Leave RPS alone.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Simon Jones says:
It does have occasional moments when it feels like a “my first colour grading session”, but otherwise this looks quite intriguing. Though I was a bit disappointed to see laser-explodey-gibby combat – given the game’s innovation I was hoping for something slightly more unusual, or even a move away from combat altogether.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Aubrey says:
This… this is almost too hard to believe. I feel I need to pinch myself.
Huge well done. That is so strikingly different… it makes me want to give up!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Kadayi says:
Visually looks like something Turner would of dreamt up, how the game is whose to say. I’d of thought with all the positive coverage in the press the guy has received he’d have garnered a few more people to help him out by now tbh.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Willem says:
You can shape the land? How long before the entire game’s surface is covered with giant cocks and naughty words?
October 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Therlun says:
Looks great.
Now if he drops the combat and focuses on the cooperation part… first successful second generation MMO!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Butler` says:
Definitely interested.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Sam says:
@Sandoval:
I agree; the style of the old screenshots was nicer. Maybe you’ll be able to choose between different filters/effects in-game, though?
Anyway, this looks very nice. It reminds me of Darwinia mixed with Noctis.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Stick says:
It is bloody beautiful… but then I imagine setting Internet Humans loose on it. And I am afraid.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Pishtaco says:
That is gorgeous. Thank you, Mr Steenberg.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Gorgeras says:
It could potentially shut up the ‘games are not art’ crowd for good. Games have always been art and we’re about to finally reach Impressionism. The game isn’t content with trying to accurately represent the aesthetics of landscapes, objects and living beings and instead is aiming to represent the idea of them.
Some might say that this has already been done, due to technical limitations in early games; bats and a ball had to be represented by a square and two rectangles in Pong. But the maker of Pong wouldn’t have done it if they knew how to make them look more like bats and balls. I’m optomistic about Love, a sort of surreal Gary’s Mod where imagination is a horrible weapon.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Serjn says:
How I wish Eskil would be more open to the community, at least concerning the game. I guess there is a large risk of disappointment, but isn’t adequate information a counter to that? I mean, his “news” blog is, more accurately, a personal blog, with 4 out of 5 posts dealing with his views of the world, with rare tidbits of info on LOVE here and there. The insight is valuable, but still..
October 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Gylfi says:
wonderful…. “this text will be replaced”… what an ingenious work of art, so thick of indipendent-kind of artsy-fartsy nihilism expressionism nonsense.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Paul says:
I don’t want to play it with anyone else! I want my own beautiful world, not one filled with Spore cocks.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
StalinsGhost says:
Simply amazing. Definitely be getting this one.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Ian Dorsch says:
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in an mp3 of the soundtrack music, you may grab it here: http://www.willowtreeaudio.com/media/Love01Trailer.mp3.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
brog says:
Peaceful music, dreamy landscapes..
It felt so wrong when violence entered the world. Begone with your filthy laser explosions! Away from my Love!
October 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
eyemessiah says:
Looks interesting to me I, for one, like the current art style and I also agree with the magic carpet comment above.
Looking forward too it, fingers crossed it plays nicely.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Scribe.of.Terra. says:
A working link would be much more welcome.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Cowbane says:
yay! I was just wondering where this game went. I am so excited for it.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Tom says:
god this one sounds awesome. time sponge.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
andy says:
hmmm, are we sure its not derek smart?
October 15th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hoernchen says:
“This text will be replaced” ?!?!
October 15th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
gasp says:
i think i’m in love.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Rob says:
Amusing to see an enormous number of people around who are just canny enough to install Adblock but far from canny enough to read the comments section before posting complaints to it.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Fat Zombie says:
Eh. The trailer was good, but that was mostly down to the beautiful music that for some reason reminded me of the MIDDLE EAST music from M2:TW. The concept is pretty interesting, and it’s executed in a fairly quaint Impressionist\Naive style.
But in an online game where the user is responsible for major aspects of the content (and the landscape is a fairly major aspect), there will either need to be VERY strict rules in force to prevent silliness (which would probably go against the loviness feel), or chaos will reign.
File this under ‘curio’, methinks.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
MeestaNob! says:
Looked amazing, but there’s still no game for us to really analyse yet. I was a bit worried by the appearance of combat, I guess I had other ideas about what the game was about.
That said, somebody license this engine NOW, can you imagine Magic Carpet 3 looking like this? I know I can.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Dinger says:
Looks like Q2 2010.
He’s got some sort of 200-player-server idea, and a community approach (so it’s always team-vs-AI/aka perpetual coop). Serjn, I understand your frustration, but even the vague sketch he gives on his website is too much for where the game is now. Even if you’re not going to have PvP, you are going to need some system for the 200-odd players to express a social order (imbue certain things/behaviors with social value, rebel against those structures, sanction the outliers) and in a healthy way. For me, that was the problem with The Sims Online: they built this world, but the “built-in” social mechanisms were too limited/unconvincing, so the players developed their own rules that were detrimental to the Sim-society as a whole.
Anyway, the point I want to make here is that a developer shouldn’t detail features that are not in the game yet. It takes far longer to develop features than to communicate their existence. Curious fans apply enormous pressure on developers, and developers sometimes, foolishly, want to communicate their enthusiasm and their love.
So, the video looks cool: it shows a clear artistic vision and hints at a game that looks like the orphan child of Spore and Multiwinia raised in the Musee d’Orsay. Yes, look closely, for we are gazing into the Origin of the World.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Nitre says:
I really liked that. Sort of…melancholy.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Fat Zombie says:
The important question(s):
How will it be made available? Will it be free, or will it be shareware, or will there be a publisher? I doubt that I would pay a monthly sub for it.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Thiefsie says:
kind of interested, but kind of not. The shooting looks a bit gash, and yeh the graphics seem much less impressive than I imagined from early screenshots. I’ll be watching this but fear it’s a little too left of field for my ‘gaming’ tastes
October 15th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Serjn says:
Thanks for the reply Dinger, I see your point.. The only problem is, we don’t know what functionality LOVE has at this moment, nor a rough idea of when testing will begin, and this adds to the confusion. It’s actually funny how much it mirrors the project that I am partaking in (name links), especially the aspects that you mentioned. I guess patience is the best course of action, here..
October 15th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Tom says:
Can’t stop watching this freakin’ vid. It’s beautiful. I just wanna go for a stroll through that world. Stunning.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
fruit_machine says:
This will either be an oddity, a diversion and a blip that “could have been”, or something absolutely spectacular that subtly changes the way games are approached by both developers and players – the sort of thing we’ll tell stories about, “Were you there when-?”.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Kadayi says:
Cheers for music link Ian. Was going to say it’s rather beautiful.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Shadowcat says:
I was a bit disappointed to see laser-explodey-gibby combat – given the game’s innovation I was hoping for something slightly more unusual, or even a move away from combat altogether.
Likewise. It made the game suddenly seem awfully generic after working so hard to distinguish itself.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:21 am
noom says:
I’ve been keeping a close eye on this one since you first posted about it, and I’m certainly happy with the look of the video. If I remember rightly the landscape editing is only possible in given areas, and all players in that “zone” are able to edit it. Hopefully this – combined with the strictly player vs AI gameplay – will give the game a strong community and ability to effectively police any potentially disruptive players. With only around 200 players per server hopefully there won’t be too many of those.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:30 am
noom says:
Also, I think I remember mister Steenberg mentioning his dissatisfaction with the combat elements of the game at some point, though it possible I’m just imagining that. Have to agree the combat looks clunky at best, but then I don’t think it’ll detract from the point of the game too much if it is…
October 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Thayil says:
In Love the story is not something that is “Pre-scripted” but something that is organically created while you play. By using Procedural algorithms the game can constantly generate new events and content for you to explore. By being generated while you play, the experience can be tailored to your play style and respond to your actions. This is not a game where you are being lead down a path, this is a game where you decide the direction of the story.
For me, the appeal of this game is almost entirely dependent on the above paragraph. Removing the flowery description it sounds like a random mission generator. Random stuff is fine as a kind of spice but i’m yet to be convinced it can replace actual story. Although to be fair, “lack of purpose” is my main complaint of all MMO games. I really couldn’t care less if player198 created a city called bum_cheeks. I guess perhaps there’s just not enough separation from real life because it’s far easier for me to be immersed in the lore of some fictional character. Of course, factors of character continuity play a part… but it always comes back to overall purpose.
“Find a water chip” – it’s so simple but it allows for every other action you do in the game to revolve around it and give what you’re doing some purpose… no matter how boring it might be. MMO’s are like those dreams you have where your day doing some mundane task gets stuck in an infinite loop.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Dinger says:
another rule of reading video game hype: What they have is what you see. Eskil can talk all he wants about a completely deformable terrain that can be shared across a server with up to 200 other players, but so far he’s only shown us the first part. That “200″ number may change drastically. Likewise, we saw things shooting each other, and bits of terrain, but that may not make it in there either.
He talks a good game, and has some great ideas; but those are inexpensive. What I see right now is a distinctive and cool-looking engine. Keep to the aesthetic and the game will present itself. And, like I said, Q2 2010 at the earliest. Go ahead and prove me wrong.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Eli Just says:
OMFG that is about the only MMO besides APB I would ever pay for. So cool looking!
October 16th, 2008 at 2:06 am
MindBrain says:
Like the idea of building stuff and shaping the landscape, looks cool
October 16th, 2008 at 2:24 am
kreali says:
Looks and sounds like an excellent toy. There’s no way I’d pay a subscription fee but could probably be persuaded to part with some cash for a normal free-to-play copy. Plenty of FPSes nowadays have dozens-of-players, official servers and at least a small amount of persistence. Plus, I want the option to run my own server to ensure that all the virtual dongs look like mine.
Doubt it’ll come out, anyway. This dude has “hired by Team Ico” written all over him.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Hypocee says:
So everyone who can’t read the ‘pre-alpha’ in the video is an illiterate knuckle-dragger, then? OK, just so long as that’s clear. Nobody read this to them, please.
Imagine an MMO with only your guild in it.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Echo says:
Might just be me, but “/ads/” seems like a strange place to stick your movie player flash thingamabob.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:29 am
futage says:
I’m really looking forward to this. It looks beautiful.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Noc says:
You know, screw the multiplayer . . . this is actually a world I wouldn’t mind wandering about by myself. I imagine that other people would only hinder the experience.
Hmm.
. . .
Note: This is my . . . fourth, or so thought. My first three were “Holy shit this is the prettiest thing I have ever seen in a video game.” Developers: THIS IS THE WAY TO MAKE PEOPLE REALLY, REALLY WANT TO GET THEIR HANDS ON YOUR GAME.
MAKE IT LOOK UNIQUE.
DON’T JUST CHANGE THE ARMORED SPACE SOLDIERS INTO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY ARMORED SPACE SOLDIERS AND THE ALIENS INTO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ALIENS.
Make the GAME look different.
. . .
That will be all.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Yak Jazz says:
This is the first MMO I’m even barely interested in. I’ll keep an eye on it.
October 16th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Xander says:
Looks great, but somebody needs to tell Mr Steenberg that blatant use of the possessive credit for himself (it’s not okay when Michael Bay does it, either) + cuts that are timed to the music = amateur hour.
Sorry, but those two things ruined the trailer for me. Marketing is hard, I guess.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Alex May says:
The violence looked odd to me too, but reading the original preview having to defend your town was mentioned. Maybe it’s the blood effects?
October 16th, 2008 at 7:42 am
SwiftRanger says:
Somewhat low-res but trailer’s very good for the rest.
“cuts that are timed to the music”
Eh? Have you ever watched a good trailer without those?
October 16th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Mathieu says:
I already found another video of Love way back in april (third post). You can see the game running on a Macbook (?).
October 16th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Ian says:
I can’t honestly say I’m looking forward to the game. First things first, I’m looking forward to the moment I understand what the hell this game actually is.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Aftershock says:
SOOO MUUUCH FOOOOOGGGG.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:37 am
ILR says:
The Dwarf Fortress guys need to combine forces with this madman and generate the ultimate procedural miasma game.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Biscuitry says:
Hah. I didn’t have the Adblock problem because I’ve already granted RPS a sitewide exception. Sites I like get to keep their ad revenue.
The game looks kind of cool, but lots of things look kind of cool. I’m going to reserve judgement for now.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
A coin says:
Would love to see more, really, because honestly talk is a bit cheap. Sounds like it’d be an interesting experiment if nothing else, and its hard to complain about people trying to advance the MMO genre, eh?
October 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Confidence interval says:
/adblock off
Wow, not only is that a cool-looking game but apparently I’ve been selected as a possible Audi A3 winner!
/adblock on
October 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Streak of weak lemon drink says:
Our minds can do a much better job of convincing us we’re elsewhere than any artist/modeller/animator. Seems this guy knows our strengths and his limits. I wonder if there’s enough going on behind the scenes to make this truly shine.
Will play like Wurm?
Also, I’m with ILR on a Dwarf Fortress/Love collaboration.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
fishmitten says:
I’ve still not seen or read anything about this game that explains the hype surrounding it.
Looks like an interesting aesthetic, but that’s about all I’m seeing unfortunately.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:26 am
groovychainsaw says:
I love the art style – reminds me of shadow of the colossus on the ps2 (a bit) – massive environments, not too detailed, slightly impressionistic. That,for me, makes the graphics seem all the more realistic, much prettier than the latest unreal-engined spectacle…
October 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Richard Beer says:
I admit I’m a bit of a jaded, cynical old gamer these days, but what’s all the fuss about? It just looks like an nVidia technology demo from several years ago. The premise (what little information about it there is in this and the previous article) seems mildly interesting, but… well, so?
Actually the only thing that will make me keep an eye on this game is the fact that it’s got Jim Rossignol so excited and he must be at least as jaded and cynical as me.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hypocee says:
The fuss is about two things – first, the collaborative terrain-building in service of a small, and purely cooperative, MMOFPS – one you’re likely to play either with IRL friends or at least with a stable group low in Internet Men. Something like Battlefield/DC ten-to-one botfights – one of two games ever to keep me, personally, up until dawn.
Second, Steenberg keeps talking about story, story, story – the game is almost an afterthought in front of his intended… ‘coherency generator’? It’s an ambitious goal and a weird approach to take, but unlike many who talk big, his released software at least proves that he can reach ambitious goals by weird routes. And in terms of game size and success, he stays very modest indeed.
So he talks a fascinating talk, walks the walk so far, and has actual running code.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Duckhead says:
Looks very sweet and reminds me a little of that old PC game “Outcast”.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
ADamnFox says:
I’m hoping for something like A Tale in the Desert with guns.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Acosta says:
I’m in love, I would pay for it even if it was “only” a explorer of procedural worlds (In fact, there is a chance I would like more that than the real game, exploring is a so under developed concept nowadays…).
October 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
The Shed says:
Do the pillars of lights reaching into the sky remind anyone of the post-Collossus skybeams in Shadow of the Colossus?
Byline, how gracefully, beautifully slow is that blood.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Richard Beer says:
Outcast! I couldn’t remember the name of it, but it reminded me of exactly that, too, Duckhead. I really loved that game.
And thanks for the extra info, Hypocee
October 16th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
jph wacheski says:
I lov these “I don’t get it, whats the hype about?” comments,. you people are funny. I hope to see more games that many people just don’t get,. that is a good sign that games have grown into a more expresive artistic medium,. like painting, or music.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Hypocee says:
Duckhead – Noctis, just in case you haven’t messed around with it already.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Richard Beer says:
jph wacheski, it’s not that we “don’t get it”, it’s just that neither the video linked in the article, nor the article itself, provided enough information to inspire much excitement. Sorry, but I prefer to form my own opinions rather than get excited because the cool people are excited.
Thankfully there are some constructive posters here. I just don’t now enough to form an opinion yet, either way.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
oxycope says:
massive delusion of grandeur
October 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Meat Circus says:
You can get therapy for that.
The video looks amazing, but it clearly tells us very little about what we’ll be doing.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Helmholz says:
I agree with Richard Beer. Let us know when there’s something actually exciting to see, like gameplay, and then I might jump on the hype train.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Shortbread says:
Sweet mother of god, I need this game
October 16th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Victo says:
I just shat myself.
If you’re just going to bash on the game for not being another typical mmo, just don’t comment, the game clearly isn’t for you and your criticism will only slow it’s development down, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Marcin says:
I like the looks of it. Will add to the list of “must watch and see”.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
cossak says:
As the Lemon Drink mentioned, this looks like Wurm Online 2.0.
Which is a good thing
October 16th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
mashakos says:
holy #$@%
the designer nailed the concept of procedural story telling perfectly. From what I generally know about procedural engines, he has a tough road ahead of him. That’s one of the reasons why Spore and Left 4 Dead took so long to develop, and L4D isn’t half as complex as what this guy’s trying to do.
Good luck to him!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
fishmitten says:
Richard Beer nailed it. I really hope this game is every bit as amazing as certain people seem to be willing it to be. I just have no reason to believe it will be, other than how vehemently a small, vocal group of people are hyping it up.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Orange says:
Absolutely:)
October 17th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Orange says:
Oops messed up my quote, was agreeing with the person who said this dev should group up with the dwarf fortress guys. Would be perfect :)
Looks a lovely game, colour me interested.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Chaz says:
Watching that video reminded me a bit of my days playing the original Populous game. Can’t say I was that inspired by it though. Whilst it’s certainly got a unique art style, it does very little for me. I suppose that’s one of the risks you take when giving your game a very bold art style, is that you could turn off potential customers who’s tastes it doesn’t appeal to.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:14 am
DC says:
Looks good so far. It’s a bit shallow on gameplay from what I’ve seen. But the city generation is nice (nothing as fun as walking around/exploring indoor). Nothing wrong with the shooting either, but I’m wondering if there are adventure elements to it, collection objects and such..
October 17th, 2008 at 11:29 am
jph wacheski says:
Richard Beer- I was refering to those who commented that they “didn’t get it” lol,. not sure how that translates to blindly following the cool kids. I can see from some comments that a portion of people will not like this game, largly due to the art style,. while others will enjoy it in part because of the style,. like we don’t all enjoy the same music styles, food,. or painters. Posting “I don’t get the hype” is funny,. as those that do, do.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hmm-hmm. says:
This could be very very awesome.
Although I agree with some that the violence seemed out of place. And, well, there’s no telling what the final product will be able to present to us.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Fat Zombie says:
I retract my earlier, cynical-ier comments. This looks like neat on toast.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
N says:
[Swearing is clever!]
October 18th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Nick says:
Well, that’s RPS put in their place. Might as well power down the blog guys.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:14 am
N says:
Already on it, I was just about to start making my rounds…
but seriously…
A bit too brash for the esteemed, elevated crowd of rps I have no doubt; even so my point still stands… let them prove it first, then go ballzcrazey…
October 18th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Noc says:
Yeah, another “grand” indie hipster game, another indie hipster game that proves there’s no difference between mainstream and indieland, look at the crap that’s written about this game “it’s the next jesus I tell you”, hype is shit and it’s in every nook and cranny, even on rps I see… stop getting a boner over these misleading endeavors, and just let the indie hipsters *prove* they deserve your little unwanted devotion first… before you go so cockhungry for ‘em
And please, stop presenting these wanna be designers as the next breed of fucking intellectual philosopher kings you have such a retarded third grade lust for. Gamedesigners, we need game-designers, not artfags.
The above poster raises several points in an indictment of the above writer’s excitement of this game. In the interest of being comprehensive, I will address his points one at a time, and cite appropriate sources where necessary. Shall we begin?
Yeah, another “grand” indie hipster game, another indie hipster game that proves there’s no difference between mainstream and indieland…
To start with, the poster opens with a cutting, sarcastic paraphrasing of the article’s content, replete with bequoted adjectives to underscore the depths of his ire. What he fails to note is that no such point had been made in the article itself. In fact, a perusal of the previous articles on the subject (1) (2) (3), reveals that no such point was brought up either. While all of the articles in question clearly convey the writer’s interest with and excitement for this game, none of them even approach the subject of independent games being analogous to those of the mainstream.
It’s possible that the poster is working from the assumption that independently produced games aren’t commercially viable ventures, and are entirely encapsuled by the realm of Flash-based tower defense games and physics puzzles and the like. It’s even possible that he’s forgetting the tremendous commercial success enjoyed by many independent game developers; for instance, Audiosurf, a one-man venture,(4) was the best selling game on Steam in the month of February, 2008,(5) selling more than Valve’s own high-budget and decidedly “mainstream” release of the Orange Box. It’s pretty clear, at least from this evidence, that a sufficiently clever independent game is both commercially viable and critically competitive with mainstream games.
So while the poster may open with a plethora of vitriol, he strikes out as far as all of his facts are concerned. Let us move on.
…look at the crap that’s written about this game “it’s the next jesus I tell you”…
After a strong start the poster begins to lose coherence, disregarding such things as punctuation to drop contextual misquotes in with nary a break in phrasing or pacing. However, his ill-phrased hyperbole aside, he raises a vaguely relevant point: the writers of Rock Paper Shotgun, or at least Jim Rossignol, don’t seem to be tremendously sparing with praise for this game.
Could it be because it looks tremendously pretty in a way nothing else being produced now is? Could it be because the developer is talking about putting together honestly clever ideas in a way that’s not being discussed anywhere else in the game industry? It could. It could also be because of the homosexual tendencies the poster imparts to Mr. Rossignol later in his post. Though I believe I am getting ahead of myself, all reports indicate that Mr. Steenberg as a very attractive man.
However, on this point, the poster is actually correct. RPS does praise the game. We’ll see how the poster misapplies this information next.
hype is shit and it’s in every nook and cranny, even on rps I see…
This segment is even less coherent, following the previous assertion with barely a pause for breath. Disregarding the poster’s misapplication of an ellipsis at the end, there, let us examine his argument itself.
“Hype,” as defined by Dictionary.com, means “To create interest in by flamboyant and or dramatic methods; promote or publicize showily.” Further definitions clarify this, adding a negative connotation by defining the word as “to intensify…by ingenious or questionable claims, methods, etc,” and “to trick.”(6)
Using this definition, the poster is not strictly correct in referring to these articles as “hype.” The application is hardly flamboyant, and only in the mind of an Angry Internet Man is an article expressing praise equivalent with the wide-scale and heavily-funded marketing campaigns conducted by larger companies. On the other hand, spreading praise word-of-mouth is often a desirable marketing strategy for companies,(7) so it’s not entirely out of the question to consider journalists praising an upcoming title as unwitting participants in a word-of-mouth campaign to generate hype through positive press. Yet in a Google search for the terms”love video game,” the only relevant article in the first 100 results is this article itself, at position 11.(8) So there’s no “hype” campaign going on for LOVE.
If we assume that the poster is being less specific in his allegation, and believe that he’s using the word “hype” to mean “any positive or optimistic opinion on a game,” his assertion that “hype is shit” is patently ludicrous. The idea that positive opinions are inaccurate and misleading by nature is, well, it’s silly. If we give him the further benefit of the doubt, and assume that he means “Silly and misleading optimism is shit,” then he’s simply presenting a circular argument. It’s roughly the equivalent of saying “bad movies are bad,” or “Unfounded statements are unfounded.”
stop getting a boner over these misleading endeavors, and just let the indie hipsters *prove* they deserve your little unwanted devotion first…
The poster continues with a colorful allusion comparing Mr. Rossignol’s optimism with sexual arousal. Then he starts getting less coherent. He refers to the praise languished upon Mr. Steenberg’s work as “unwanted devotion,” which is frankly baffling. It’s not a tremendous stretch to imagine that someone who makes a presentation at the Games Developer Conference,(2) and enters into an interview with a games journalist,(3) is looking for positive press. It’s rather unclear how this makes the positive press “unwanted.”
I can only assume that this is an extension of his attempts to disparage Mr. Rossignol as a grasping fanboy at the exclusion of making anything more than a superficial statement of caution.
He also makes the accusation that all of Mr. Steenberg’s talk is, well, just talk, of a man spinning an elaborate fantasy out of nothing. On the other hand, the coverage of LOVE began with him [i]giving a demonstration[/i] at the 2008 GDC,(2) which apparently made enough of an impression on the audience to warrant the praise it was given. While we’ve seen admittedly little coverage and fewer hard details upon the game, [i]giving a demonstration[/i] of something is usually what’s entailed in providing “proof.”
Thus, the poster’s assertion that the praise Mr. Rossignol offers LOVE is completely unfounded is, well, completely unfounded.
Let us move on.
…before you go so cockhungry for ‘em
And please, stop presenting these wanna be designers as the next breed of fucking intellectual philosopher kings you have such a retarded third grade lust for.
There is nothing particularly concrete in this section, other than the previously noted assertion as to Mr. Rossignol’s praise as a function of his homosexual tendencies. Again, I feel that I must mention that all reports note that Mr. Steenberg is a very attractive man.
The poster follows this with the comparison of this praise to the sexual lust of a presexual child. Which is both externally and internally inconsistent.
Between these vaguely coherent and frankly juvenile examples of vitriol is the assertion that independent game designers are being heralded as “intellectual philosopher kings.” This is even less well founded than the poster’s previous statements, and I am force to conclude that it’s a function of the poster’s own insecurity with his own faltering intellect.
Gamedesigners, we need game-designers, not artfags.
I’m going to spare you all a list of all of the game-design positions that derive from the artistic field, and instead present you with an anecdote.
During my high school years, I knew a fellow student who was not the shiniest apple in the tree. He was something of a meathead. I was talking to him one day, during our senior year, and he mentioned his desire to go into game design. I professed a wish to work for a really good game company, like EA.
I expressed bemusement at this. “But EA,” I said, “just churns out shit year after year!
He looked at me like I had grown another head, and replied, “What are you talking about? The graphics on Madden NFL are pretty good.”
- Summer Glau
(1)”Love in the City,” written by Jim Rossignol on June 29, 2008 at http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/06/29/love-in-the-city/
(2)”For the Love,” by Jim Rossignol on February 20, 2008 at http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/02/20/for-the-love/
(3)”A Brief Chat with Eskil Steenberg” by Jim Rossignol on April 27, 2008 at http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/27/a-brief-chat-with-eskil-steenberg/
(4)”Audiosurf” at Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiosurf
(5)”Audiosurf tops February Steam Sales” by Brandon Boyer on March 5, 2008 at http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17735
(6)”Hype” at dictionary.com at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hype
(7)”Word of Mouth – Word of Mouth Marketing” at wikipedia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_mouth#Word_of_mouth_marketing_.28WOMM.29
PS: I can kill you with my brain.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Ted says:
Noc, The gaggle of irony contain in your verbose self absorbed diatribe hardly conveys any more coherency than anyone else posting, and an abysmal grasp of psychology. I’m forced to say, its just simply flame bait as you’re looking to have an internet fight; out to prove whatever said insecurity that you blast others for having. So feel free to insult away, I won’t even check to see if you reply.
That said, the game visually looks interesting. The gameplay? Hell if I know and I’m unsure as to what to make of it. The idea that you’re supposed to define your existence as there’s no story in this game’s world sounds like code for, “there’s really no point to the game thus you need to generate your own”. Also after the initial difference wears off of the game, I wonder if the visuals will really be all that interesting? Hmm.
October 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Noc says:
Actually, Ted, my post was me bungling a joke. It’s a reference to this. Unfortunately, I refreshed the page before I posted and failed to notice that my commenter name had been reset, and consequentially the comment was posted under my own username rather than the name of a well-known science fiction actress.
This spoils the joke somewhat, but with the edit system down there’s nothing I can do about it. In fact, I accidentally included the post I was mocking in my own comment, which may have caused further confusion.
If you do, by chance, check back and notice this, you’re welcome to trawl through the other comments threads on here that I’ve participated in. If you do so, you might see that, while I routinely participate in discussions here, the sort of extensive and insult-filled post you see above is tremendously atypical of me. In fact, you might even notice that I’m replying to you now with a post entirely empty of invective, flaming, or all of the other hallmarks of futile Internet Arguing.
. . .
As for the game, the way I understand it, the gameplay is supposed to be less “undefined” as it is “procedurally generated.” The idea is that, instead of being faced with pre-scripted quests and missions, you’ll be presented with situations which contain all of the same gameplay elements, but in a much more varied and unpredictable way.
The point still stands that we haven’t seen very much of this procedural gameplay generation in action. But that, at least, is the goal.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Maxieman says:
Shit looks awesome
October 19th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Kavika says:
Nice one, Noc. I got your reference =)
October 20th, 2008 at 3:04 am
N says:
Ah, fun times, let’s see, whadda’ we have here…
Uuuu, a little derrida in the making I see *gasp!* He took the time to dismantle the statements of a creature he could only picture as a drooling moron, all for the sake of humour… what dedication! Yep, you don’t see too many fine lads like this these days, eh?
Sadly, his efforts are nothing short of trying to find peanut crumbs in a steamy turd. Yes, I do know the value of my venting streak young sir, har-har, wink-wink.
Sorry kids, swearing may not be clever, but it is, without a doubt, quite liberating.
As far as my knowledge in indieland games goes, let’s just say (leaving financial success tales such as audiosurf or the-soon-to-be-made-wii-cave story) I was playing triumph or pencil whipped way before the all-mighty indieblog uproar craze.
On the subject of the game itself…
“As for the game, the way I understand it, the gameplay is supposed to be less “undefined” as it is “procedurally generated.” The idea is that, instead of being faced with pre-scripted quests and missions, you’ll be presented with situations which contain all of the same gameplay elements, but in a much more varied and unpredictable way.”
Waw, sounds like pretty fucking revolutionary stuff, yeah, cool… hey by the way, tell me something, have you ever heard of a little game called TETRIS? It’s quite old, Iron Curtain old. I don’t know why I felt the urge to mention it, but I thought I’d just throw that there for no reason…
I’m also amused at how such a worthless bait of a post would throw you into an “atypical” fit… and one made by a new comer at that, heh…
P.S. you may be able to kill me with your mighty cerebrum, but I’m afraid your abysmal digital media works might get me first…
October 20th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
synthil says:
Noc says:
Actually, Ted, my post was me bungling a joke. It’s a reference to this.
You know, when I read, or rather, skimmed briefly, throughout that megalithic essay of utter drivel, the first thing I thought of was that xkcd comic!! I have to say I’m quite relieved to see that it was a joke! What motivated you to write it… alas, who am I to question creativity!
I am quite concerned about Love from an administrative perspective. So many people have ‘hacked’ the likes of WoW and other MMORPG’s, and spend a significant amount of time spoiling the game for others through griefing and other malice. Eskil has mentioned nothing about co-operative administration with collaborative users, possessing varying levels of administrative power – something which any MMORPG, let’s face it, needs in order to survive. WoW is a commercial enterprise run, and of course administered, by a group of both professionals and devoted volunteers. Eskil is one man – he cannot be expected to maintain every single Love server whilst improving the game, the business model, the media, the website, neverless ensuring that no griefing and spoiling occurs. What implications the open-source nature of everything apart from the game platform itself will pose towards the game’s ‘hackability’, I don’t know.
This is a wonderful, ambitious, refreshing and inspiring project. It captures humanity in a way that RPG’s simply never have done. I just don’t see how it will survive unless Eskil reaches out to developers and administrators on a professional basis. His staunch singularity in fostering this title is both admirable and also very telling of his ability as a programmer, but he will need help, and he will need help soon. You can’t hide underneath a blanket of procedural generation.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Yakri says:
This game looks great, and I’ll probably play it when it comes out.
For all those complaining about the graphics if games like world of warcraft and runescape can be as successful as they are with the graphics that they have, then this game shouldn’t have a hard time filling up a 200 man server or two. And as for those who only want super high tech graphics, check out gears of war two, COD 5 and Mirrors edge, those should be right up your alley.
As for the game play, the two things I want to see is the tools for manipulating the world to be very free form and easy to use, and for the bad guys to have a very good AI. Because 1) I want to be able to build a mountain fortress with a huge labyrinth and escape tunnels and various other defenses. And 2) I want the bad guys to be smart enough to attack it, and maybe even destroy it.
By playing games like Shadowbane, NWN1, and Runescape, when there are now many games out with graphics along the lines of halo 3, GoW2, and various recent MMO’s. I’ve found that graphics aren’t such a big deal, I found Shadowbane to be much more fun then many other recent MMORPG titles, and NWN1, well what made that fun was the great challange in making a good character (I played a level 20 pvp server a lot). Because they are/were open and their were so many ways to do things.
Awesome graphics are worthless with out cool and innovative game play, but not the other way around.
LOVE I think has a great idea, what annoys me a lot in other MMO’s is how hard it is to make any impact. It was a little bit possible in Shadowbane, since as a powerful nation leader, you could destroy other players precious city’s with impunity, and more or less take control of the server.
The reason I think love will be very fun to play, is that you can make an impact, that’s more fun then nearly anything else I can think of. You can build, and destroy, and your only limit is your imagination. Well, maybe the game won’t live up to expectations, and maybe it will, maybe it will surpass them. It’s all irrelevant, as we will find out one way or another. Now this is far more long and rambling then it needs to be so I’ll try and make some points.
1)The graphics are fine, they are artistic and will not stop this from being a good game
2)The actual combat doesn’t matter so much as the things that lead up to it. The AI, the terrain deforming, the items you can find or create. If those are good (and in the case of items, numerous), the the combat it self only needs to live up to the average shooter type game.
3)It’s impressive. This is a game made by one guy, and it’s and MMORPG, AND it’s innovative, trying out new ideas. That means that this is a whole can of awesome. Doing something like this takes talent, vision, creativity. Over all, the fact that it’s being made is really cool by it self.
4)Other games with similar or worse graphics have done well. Because they tried something that others hadn’t.
5)This isn’t like other MMO’s, as such it fits a niche. I think it will be a game that enhances what actually makes MMO’s fun, playing with other people. The graphics and quests, and monsters, and all that crap isn’t why MMO’s are fun. It’s because your playing with other people. And this opens up great opportunity for things that the developers never intended to happen, to happen.
There is nothing quite like hack and slashing your way through a dungeon and jumping up on a railing because it looks cool. And then someone asks where your pet is, so you press the button to tell it to return to you. Seconds later it round the corner with a massive horde of frothing and the mouth baddies thirsty for your blood. Or falling into the pit of death for the third time, this time because you were laughing your ass off at the previous two times.
Things like that are what really what make MMO’s fun to play.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
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Teal_Blue says:
Looks Very Very Interesting! :) What I personally like about Indie titles is that these people, men, women, this particular guy with his one man show, is the “Difference”!! We have shooters, RTS, RPG and any number of other commercially produced works that are in fact stunning, but they largely follow a pattern. What is commercial, what is sellable, what is intriguing for any given particular audience. But here is one man, making something not yet seen, the graphics are different, the approach is different, the mindset is different!! That to me is a joy, its like watching a painter who isn’t Monet, or Pollock, or Picasso, or Rembrandt, doing his own thing, making his own style, And he is making it because he “wants” to. Because maybe his mind is wrapped around trying to solve a problem, or to do something with his own approach instead of going committee and having decisions or approach or style dictated by a group that have money concerns, or market percentage concerns, or we have to make this bigger than the current biggest hit concerns. And it is something i would love to play when he finishes it. Just to enjoy all that singularity, that individuality, that sense of newness. I’m not a critic, i’m not a hard core gamer, but this looks very enjoyable, and beyond just enjoyable, it looks like it has some depth. I haven’t seen anything this original since MYST. It may not be every gamers cup of tea. But for me, it looks Fantastic! :)
Just my opinion.
-Teal
January 15th, 2009 at 1:35 am
akvaryum says:
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June 1st, 2009 at 10:06 am
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Really looking forward to this one.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:53 pm