Game Development: Salem & Haven

[Daji]

How are you going about choosing the Alpha testers? Will that just be friends and people in the company or will that be open to the public to apply?

dzorby anal friend only

Oh.. that's make me sad

[ewlol]

I think Salem looks very unpolished.

Part of the beauty of nature is the non-uniformity and almost amorphous quality to it. At first glance, this game really looks too rigid. The tiles themselves, especially the pavement, look sloppy and hap-haphazardly done. I think the essence of Salem should be aura of creativeness that surrounds it in two ways: the creativeness of the players, and the creativeness of the world that the players inhabit. Part of achieving this goal is making a fluidity to the world--a more Earth-like quality to it. Yes, I know that it is impossible to translate real-world nature into a virtual environment, but what I have seen here almost looks like a lack of effort.

The ovens and houses and that windmill thing, all of them are elementary and uninspired. The grass tiles, pavement, fallen leaves?, dirt, etc. all are "blocky" and unchanging. All of these provide a sterile environment--one that contrasts harshly with your vision of a frightening and unpredictable world like that created in "A Nightmare Before Christmas". A sterile environment will not and can not evoke the emotions that make players so enthusiastic and excited about their game. There is no excitement and death and ugliness and beauty and adventure and risk and loneliness and community and most importantly, surprise when you create a world that falls so short in mimicking nature.

There must be a balance in this game, first and foremost. A balance between rigidity and amorphousness. A balance between what the player creates and what the world/developers create. A balance between safety and vulnerability. A balance between nature and civilization. A balance between life and death. Harmony between these aspects is essential. Harmony is everything. Harmony is what creates a game that evokes the player's powerful emotions and therefore succeeds and becomes one of the greats. Right now, the scales seem very tipped to the side of player flexibility and not balanced with world flexibility ( I hope that makes sense, there seems to be exciting new abilities for the players, like the baking tables, but not a exciting place for the players to do it. This means a lack of motivation to do the tasks in the first place ).

[burgingham]

You are aware of the fact that these are first designs in a pre-alpha state? Often placeholders?

What you should be critizing is gameplay flaws or such if you see them, not the graphics at this point. I quite like the colouring, the leaves on the ground, the very unusual creatures btw. They are IMO creating exactly the kind of atmosphere you are asking for. Also, note that the game is in kept a caricaturistic style.

[Joe69]

I think for pre-alpha it wasn't so bad they did say they were missing a lot of textures.

Things I liked the sound of.

No bestiality (lol).

Terra-forming (sweet).

No walls (no vaults is good but nothing to stop any thief this could be crazy. Or do you just make a hut and then surround it with mountains and hope for the best?).

Bigger world than we have seen in haven.

You cant port home with your pockets full.

The mining system as a whole is rather interesting, I can see how having more people working as a team on that will save a lot of time and phlegm.

Using black bile to learn skills.

All in all i was impressed with what I watched.

[Jackard]

What you should be criticizing is gameplay flaws or such if you see them, not the graphics at this point.

see here. also keep in mind the issues that jorb acknowledges still need work in the video

[gork4war]

Hope they have another stream soon, still have some questions.

How does the terraforming work?(don't think we also get a trolol skill in the starcraft menu)

With the terraforing, isn;t it possibly to just fill up al the rivers and lakes?

Are there going to be personal beliefs?

[Robertzon]

Why the hell did you add guns goddammit..

[hereticrick]

Typing this as I listen to the last 30 or so minutes of the video. Looks good so far, though some of it sounds overly complicated (maybe it won't be when I actually play it, though). I don't really get how the 4 element thing is going to work, and the leveling. Did I hear right, and once everything is full you can just eat and eat and eat? No Overstuffed debuff? And do you level all 4 elements, or just Black Bile? I'm sure this stuff will get clearer to me later....

Sad about not being able to teleport with stuff in your inventory since I never leave home without at least a couple things in my inventory...so even if I went out and didn't find anything to bring back, I'd be stuck walking home.....thank god they've got horses

I wonder if they're will be seasons, since the demo is clearly Fall. This could just be for the demo, or maybe certain areas, or maybe the whole game looks like Fall all the time. Seasons would be interesting, though. ^^

I wish I was better at understanding accents. I couldn't understand most of what Fredrik said

I found it interesting (as someone who's never worked on graphics or programming, etc...except maybe a little RPG Maker) that 3D creatures were easier to make than 2D...I would have assumed it was harder..though, again, based on really no experience ^^.

I like the Boston teleport idea. And that your HF/claim were combined. I wonder how that all works with the whole "inventory must be empty to teleport" thing. Afterall, if you're going to Boston to trade, you're not likely to leave or return empty-handed. I'm excited that I'll be able to get domestic animals without taming/trading.

Native Americans should just be in the game in the same function as Dryads XD. At least at first, maybe. I like the idea that they could be friendly or not...either randomly or based on your actions or something. Maybe the friendly ones will have stuff you can trade with them. Kinda similar to the wandering merchants in the Fable games, except probably with fewer items for sale (maybe only 1 or 2), and it would be for barter instead of money. Just an idea.

Still no bridges. I wonder why it's impossible...lots of games have bridges...ah well. I'll just get a horse instead. ....now where's my dog....

[Robertzon]

No bridges becouse of the map generator loftar has made.

[sabinati]

the no bridge thing has to be a joke