By Alec Meer on September 3rd, 2012 at 9:00 pm.
Maia, the procedural, Dungeon Keeper-esque space management/god game from newly ex-Mode Sevener Simon Roth, is right up there in the top branches of indie games to stare at with creepily unblinking desire. A procedural world, taking a few notes from the likes of Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft, and a highly ambitious proprietary engine to realise it all in. And, now, a first person mode, straight outta Dungeon Keeper. Here’s the trippy view from behund the eyeballs of one of Maia’s IMP bots.
My eyes. My brain. My already fragile sense of reality. All endangered. But I think I like it. Here too is a look at the game’s lava simulation, from last month:
There are some more development odds and ends, including the lighting system and prospective character designs, over on the Maia site. Meantime, I really must kidnap Simon Roth and force him to talk into a microphone about his plans for this game. And, before you say it, apparently he’s never played Startopia.
03/09/2012 at 21:12 Shivoa says:
No hexes tag?
This is certainly looking really cool.
03/09/2012 at 21:14 DanDeath says:
A first person mode is one thing that’s lacking in most Dungeon Keeper-like games, which is one thing that I really liked about Dungeon Keeper.
03/09/2012 at 23:36 bakaohki says:
Oh god, yes. Create tons of low level creatures, throw them at the AI, posess a dragon thingy, go forth and attack the dungeon heart – for one thing Dungeon Keeper was sometimes so devilishly hard (especially the bonus levels) it didn’t feel like cheating at all.
03/09/2012 at 21:46 Tuggy Tug says:
THANK YOU ALEC MEER!
Startopia…. for at least 3 years I’ve been trying to remember the name of that game.
The things I typed into google…
I remember “space, ring, botanical gardens” being a common one…
04/09/2012 at 09:56 MadJax says:
Why not just check the forums? Usually one of us ends a thread by remembering it fondly :)
04/09/2012 at 15:13 JiminyJickers says:
Funny you should mention it, it just appeared on gog today.
03/09/2012 at 21:47 Bhazor says:
Sod Dungeon Keeper, that fluid test just really makes me want to play Wetrix.
03/09/2012 at 21:58 Belsameth says:
Still not?!
After all the prodding in that direction he got on the Maia forums. Shame on him! It’s brilliant!
Startopia that is.
I must add that I am sure this’ll be equally brilliant at least! :)
03/09/2012 at 22:01 Donncha O Caoimh says:
Was that a 48K Speccy at 0:32?
03/09/2012 at 22:23 minerwilly says:
Looked like a Spectrum. With a nice attention to detail, they’ve got my money right there.
04/09/2012 at 07:34 Vurogj says:
Nah, the rainbow flash was over the wrong corner. Probably some shady (insert dubious country of choice here) knockoff.
03/09/2012 at 22:02 Gonefornow says:
Well I was just playing Dungeon Keeper and it’s still a looker.
So is this.
03/09/2012 at 22:18 gorzan says:
As far as I’m concerned that first person footage was beautiful.
04/09/2012 at 05:08 simoroth says:
Thank you. :)
04/09/2012 at 08:20 LionsPhil says:
It made my brain repeatedly scream “put your spectacles on and focus your eyes”.
03/09/2012 at 22:25 Muzman says:
Crazy great ambient music too
03/09/2012 at 23:07 Bent Wooden Spoon says:
Looks brilliant.
03/09/2012 at 23:10 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Have this completed by next Monday, there’s a good chap.
03/09/2012 at 23:19 MythArcana says:
There are only two Dungeon Keeper games out there; DK1 and DK2. All the rest of these Gleam clone games offer the depth of a botlecap. We won’t ever see a DK3 unless someone invents the time machine first. Bullfrog is dead, alert the media.
04/09/2012 at 02:30 Dilapinated says:
My, someone’s cranky.
04/09/2012 at 02:41 fgjfgjg says:
http://xib.me/ake
http://xib.me/ake
04/09/2012 at 03:12 dontnormally says:
When you talk to him, bring him Startopia.
04/09/2012 at 08:21 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, I was going to say:
Alec, you clearly need to kidnap him and force him to play Mucky Foot’s masterpiece.
04/09/2012 at 09:19 Jams O'Donnell says:
If you can find the bloody game, that is. It’s criminal that it’s not available on any download services.
04/09/2012 at 09:38 Voltaic says:
It’s actually available in the Square Enix store.
https://store.eu.square-enix.com/emea_europe/pc-windows-download/StarTopia.php
04/09/2012 at 10:17 John Connor says:
I can think of at least one “download service” it is most definitely on, though I believe it’s blocked in the UK…
04/09/2012 at 13:17 saregos says:
gog.com has Startopia for $6.
You’re welcome.
04/09/2012 at 07:01 Jackablade says:
I think all that pixelation and chromatic aberration would give me a headache pretty quickly. Regardless, if we can finally get a worthy successor to Dungeon Keeper I’ll be all over it.
04/09/2012 at 09:36 valz says:
First person mode in this game looks almost as awful and confusing as first person mode in Dungeon Keeper. Everytime I got to the point at which I had to use it in that game, I just quit playing the game for months, sometimes a full year, even though I love a lot of FPSes and do well in them multiplayer. I hate FPS DK so much.
04/09/2012 at 10:20 AngoraFish says:
I can’t see why so many people pine for first person mode in DK. That was always the weakest and least tactical part of the game.
04/09/2012 at 14:49 The Magic says:
You can’t see it because you dont understand it. Possession wasn’t about “tactics” (And personally i find the idea that Dungeon Keeper was particularly tactical to be a bit absurd since almost every battle was a mad scrap.) It was about running around in your own dungeon, seeing your creatures up close, getting into that mad scrap, doing your own bit of exploration, and adding what little finesse could be added to such a cudgel of a battle system.
04/09/2012 at 15:21 LionsPhil says:
It was useful to snipe traps from beyond range, or to get imps to power their way through a gold seam just leaving it to fall on the ground for later, rather than making lots of round trips.
Which is kind of annoying, since such micromanagement was the only way to achieve it. A kind of get-out clause for iffy minion AI.
04/09/2012 at 11:04 Crosmando says:
Well, the sad fact is: For all these “spiritual successors” to Dungeon Keeper or Master of Magic or whatever, none of them have been managed to be as good as the originals, despite over a decade passing since they came out.
04/09/2012 at 12:15 PelegrinuX says:
Nice timing XD:
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/startopia/
04/09/2012 at 15:19 LionsPhil says:
Why isn’t this a whole article on RPS, with a flashing red border and JavaScript sparkles?
04/09/2012 at 15:11 Contrafibularity says:
Ooooh! This looks very promising.