Comments - -Farflame-

Nice. Is it Alien Cube 2? :)

Its good.

It seems you have wide selection of pretty good looking (for an indie) 3D characters with different clothes and armors + horses too.

I hope you will work soon on coherent story and meaningful quests.
And locations - to avoid big bland flat spaces and focus on some special locations like palace(s) exterior or front gate (behind gate) or some temple etc.

Asnwer to the question about boss and a fort:

The boss shouldnt be there if you casually visit it! He should appear after you got the quest. Dont put too much unnecessary work on yourself. Imho you should focus on important main elements like story, quests and exploration of game world.

Anyway good luck with the game. Its interesting and has potential. :)

Guys, you improved lighting, but make the overall look worse. It looks too grey and blurry now.

Amazing work, congratulations. Those dark streets are haunting. Nice atmosphere for a little creepy detective story.

Can I have few suggestions or questions?

- Despite great graphics and atmosphere the environment is little static.
I think you need small animations or events there in order to unnerve the player.
Something like shadow of a figure in a window, drools rolling over street like someone topple them.... Or someone running into a house (afraid of something?). It doesnt have to be real jumpscares just small things to make it more alive and tense. Otherwise players will get impression that the town is safe and static and the atmosphere will drop.

- player should talk a little more to the policeman near the victim to make it look more realistic/immersive. Real detective would ask him who found the body, if there is any witness.. also coroner should arrive later etc.

- I would suggest to put some beggar or drunk person somewhere in town and
make him/her disappear later. So player would think - what happened to that person?

- Do you plan simple linear dialogues or shorter/longer branching dialogues? Some branching would be useful for some interrogation (but of course, its not necessary).

Good luck with development.

It looks nice, but is the setting going to be pretty much standard medieval world? Initially I hoped for more oriental art style or mix of styles.

Try to contact PCGamesN (www.pcgamesn.com). Also Ars Technica is not lapdog of big names.
And I think that RPG sites likes RPGCodex, RPGWatch or Gamebanshee wont have problem with publishing similar news. :)

---
RESPONSE - Bethesda claims its coincidence:
Escapistmagazine.com

I was looking for different game and stumbled upon this... Really intriguing concept, congratulations. And I like Europa too. I hope it will be greenlit.

I have questions:
- Is it story-driven?
- Can the rover perform small tasks? Like pull or push something.. dig a hole in bright wall... Just small tasks, small puzzles.

:-) We dont want to make him angry. Our ship is already damaged without his aid. :-)

Banners - now when I look at them, I think you should use different image. For example "Image 1" in image gallery here.
Game's name could be on the right side.

Nice acronym. :)

Best banner is 2.
Worst banner is 3.
Ultimate banner is Bruce Banner. :-)

Interesting project. Is this game kind of roguelike with randomized events? Do you plan story mode like in normal adventure?

Anyway, good luck with the game. :)

Hello, Dylan. Is the game puzzle heavy/horror adventure, moderate puzzle/horror adventure or horror walking simulator?

The link doesnt work.

Fine. But I think that the movement should have some impetus to imitate zero gravity movement. Like you push off ground/walls and move for some time until you slows down and push again. Impetus could be stopped by pressing key for "move backwards".

Interesting game based on good idea.
- Does scenarios has some story (the same set of events)?
- You said that "The Old Ones do have their own events". Are these events randomized or influenced by your gameplay or the same for every game?
- If the game is about intrigue and influence does it mean that your agents could be befooled by heroes or agents of competing Old Ones in order to give you bad info? It would be probably too tricky...

Thanks for any info and have a nice day

Nice videos! It seems that you work pretty fast. (Its usually said that russian developers are fast and efficient. :-))

My small feedback:
- Id probably put some railings (handrails) in corridors and rooms for easier walking/jumping when there is no gravity in the ship. You will not need them to walk, it would just look more realistic if you assume that the technology is not extremely advanced so forced gravity doesnt work for the whole space journey.
- What about some small gym-like room in the ship? Astronauts need to train their bodies. Again small realistic feature.
- Id like to hear some female computer voice in case of emergency situation. Its a little cliché, but lovely cliché. :-) For example you can make some console interactive so player could use it to see status report and what he could do about it.
- That fire burst looks like its triggered by player. It doesnt look credible. It screams "Im simple scripted event" (it also needs more noise). I think that fire should appear sooner - when you open the door.
- Alarm is bad (in the second video). :) Star Trek alarm is MUCH better so please use something similar to this alarm.

Anyway its nice and thumbs up for using Star Trek alarm. :-)

P.S. Can I have one gameplay suggestion for this opening part of the game? Im not sure if its suitable for your game...

Is it used for intro sequence?

There is one mistake on this screen IMHO. Trees and grass field shouldnt be so close to launch pad.

Great looking projects, especially Invasion Sim. My small feedback:
- Please dont make Abduction usual "walking simulator". Give it a plot.
- Human terrified by unknown force or person would try to contact police and other humans. I think it could be interesting if you meet some few humans in first parts of the game and have some chat with them about the situation. But later it will seem like they disappear or run away or communication (phones) is cut down so you will be suddenly alone. This change in the course of the game could intensify the nightmare.

Ok, thanks.
And to return to my initial question - could we expect some (extensive?) info about Mars in ship's computer? Or some history about travels into space? I dont know in which year the game takes place.

BTW Merry Christmas and happy New year to the team :-)

Nice graphics. But if the floor is so clean and everything working, I wouldnt expect there any loosely placed cables. :)

Oh, so Moon will have some role there too? Our little celestial brother... :-). Ok, Im interested.

I hope it wont be too similar to movie Mission to Mars. :)

So the gameplay will be mostly realistic survival + story will be mostly mythical/sci-fi. Am I right?

Promising project. I look forward to how it will shape up. Good luck with your future indiegogo campaign.

When I read sentence "alien, dead planet... associated with so many legends, stories, hypotheses, hoaxes and just hope" I wonder if you (devs) will present many of these hypotheses in game, for example in ship's computer database. I mean both known scientific hypotheses and possibly your own new theory(ies) (more unreal).

You are welcome.
Ryse - yes, its good inspiration. But dont use roman soldiers as strong inspiration for some greek soldiers. :)

Also dont use common wooden barrels (similar to barrels in Amnesia). I think I noticed some of them in a video. Its not correct. Different kind of big pottery and (willow) baskets were used for storage purposes in ancient times. The game needs similar details to look more plausible and original - not as "another clone of Amnesia and Outlast".

Medusa could be something like horror + stealth archery + dark myth.

The best combination: wall texture from Minos + the portal from Ryb.

BTW Art from Ryse is great. Hopefully Medusa will have some nice too. :)

Nice job, the game has potential and slight System Shock feel is good thing. Im glad you improved your AI. It looked really weak in some video. I have few questions:

- Please make sure that AI is not completely deaf (at least when there is water on the floor, or when opening doors etc.). Nowadays in some stealth games you see players running just few steps after a guard like phantom or ghost who makes no sound. Its unconvincing and shallow. Also when AI notices you and you hide again in the dark its imperative for AI to be able to search for you. To be convincing is more important for stealth games than for most other genres.
- Could we expect more sci-fi gear, some hi-tech scanners like movement scanner or heat (Predator-like) vision? Invisible laser barriers? Spectral illusions/suits? Very fast small drones? Id like to see sci-fi areas or guards that use such things. So to hide in the dark wont help you when your enemy has heat vision in his helmet. You will need some gear to supress your body heat (there can be different types of gear with different efficiency). But this gear could make you slower and vulnerable to some other type of scanner etc.
- Please make AI cooperative to some degree. Every guard should communicate with central hq or his commander, everything can make global alarm. It would look stupid if guards would report nothing to others, lost their minds and search for you mostly alone.
- If Im correct the game takes place on station that should be destroyed and closed. But in video it seems like the guards come there to guard it. So I hope that its just my incorrect impression and all events are explained and logical in the game.

Anyway I wish you luck with the game. Have a nice day.

Hello, Simon. Your posts about production and post-production are very nice. I didnt read all of them but I will. Its good to learn a little more about that. Thanks.

Im concerned with one thing. Do you try to make most puzzles related to the story and settings? Some puzzle-heavy games tend to have very little story and too much puzzles which can be pretty overwhelming after some time. So Im curious how do you balance these things.

Immersive game, impressive video. :-) Congratulations. I hope you wont stop development if KS will fail.

Few questions:

- How much do you want to sim bridge command? I would like to see some communication with other commanders or other races on the bridge - as in Star Trek. :)
- Is campaign structured as "mission after mission"?
- What about optional secondary targets or goals in missions?
- Could we expect some strong short-range abilities for the flagship? In order to motivate player to lead (risky) attack with his flagship. In this case he could enjoy close distance view on all the combat mayhem. :)
- What about different upgradeable scanners and gunsights that affects aiming and amount of info on 2D map on the bridge? Basic scanners can provide only basic info...

Thanks for answer, friken.
- Could you name at least one of these differences?
- 1 vs 1 SC combat - I see but it feels very staged and arcad-ish. Maybe we have different visions about SC-genre - for me its not pure action game.
- I dont find this idea "rock paper scissors vibe of picking which ship is best against which enemy" appealing so much. Its based mostly on trial and error, not skills or tactics. Learning stage may be fun but after that fun factor goes down IMHO - because you already know the best solution (which ship to pick) and combat came to be much easier and all the same. Just my opinion.
- Maybe you could make wingmen optional feature. In wingmen mode you would fight more numerous enemies (with better AI). But it would need more work and testing. I dont know if its doable for you.

Note - what about some corrupt higher ranking police officer who would try to detach our hero to other location? That would also explain small police activity in the area. :)

It looks really nice and interesting, congratulations. Revive gameplay of Star Control and similar titles is good idea, but Im worried about one thing. And that is lack of innovation or improvement. To make basically the same game as SC may be enough to make some fans happy (and the outcome may be good) but I think there is room for improvements (well, there always is...) that can make the game even better.

For example combat system - devs of SC doesnt have many options when they were designing combat. Nowadays it can be enhanced into small fleet combat without the need to completely change core gameplay. Imagine one main ship (classic SC-style) + few (just few) AI wingers. Wingers listen to your basic orders (attack X, help me attack, defend, fight on your own...) and consist of different types of ships (defensive, support, anti-fast enemy...) depending on players choice (or they can be upgraded to have such roles). You start the game as lone ship but in the course of a story you may recruit some alien captains as winger(s) or get support (ships and ship upgrades) from alien races. So player will control one ship like in old games and wingers will add another tactical layer. More aggresive player can prefer support wingers so he could fight mostly alone, while others may play more defensively and use aggresive wingers. Enemies will have different preferences too so it will make combat more diversified and engaging (closer to real fleet combat).

So I dare to ask - what is new or improved in StarDiver? What is different from SC?