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.
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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.
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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.
I like the looks of it. Will add to the list of “must watch and see”.
As the Lemon Drink mentioned, this looks like Wurm Online 2.0.
Which is a good thing
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!
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
I retract my earlier, cynical-ier comments. This looks like neat on toast.
[Swearing is clever!]
Well, that’s RPS put in their place. Might as well power down the blog guys.
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…
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?
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shit looks awesome
Nice one, Noc. I got your reference =)
Yeah that was one epic parodical analysis Noc. Love it
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…
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.
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.
world exlusif,,….thanks for the information
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
wooooowwww its veryyy goood
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I enjoyed the music just as much as the viz ewe als. Talented geez.
I cant get the video working T_T I unchecked popup-blocker in firefox and also tried the same in IE but none of it worked.
Any help?