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Yes, it's been ages - literally, ages - but I've finally found the courage to do this. Please read if you care for Zeitgeist and have spent the past three years wondering what was going on.

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Dear friends, fans, foes and haters of ZEITGEIST,


it's the news.

The news we've all been waiting for, however probably for different reasons.

It has been three and a half years since our last update - and, frankly, three years since the last work on Zeitgeist happened, and now is the time to open up about ZG - since we need help. ALL THE HELP we can get (please scroll down to the end of this novel if you want to see right away what this means).

It has taken me that long, too long, honestly, to pick up some courage and explain where it all got utterly, utterly cocked up.

Although this is not, I repeat: not a post-mortem, I want to explain thoroughly what happened on the way between the summer of 2009 and the summer of 2016, so expect some reading to follow.

My name is T. A. Sichel, sometimes known as "Albatros", and I am the author and creator of "Zeitgeist".

THE BEGINNING.

Back in 2009, we started out with a concept, a bag full of flies, fantastic ideas and some talent.
Not much more than that, really.

We had:

- a name, a good name as it is a loan word in many languages, easy to pronounce and expresses a lot.
- a setting in the past, in a period of time with extremely fast progress in technology, design and culture
- an enthusiast with no experience in game design other than casual modding.

In the following three years, things escalated quickly.

At first, my goal was to establish the game's name at the ModDB so it would not be taken away anytime soon. In order to substantiate my claims to the title, I published my ideas - mostly images, screenshots and sketches, along with some lines of text.

Unexpectedly, people asked if they could join the team.
I was pleased, and together, our progress drastically increased.

And this is where the escalation started.

Within the next couple of years, a story was written - a real story, a real book, 700+ pages, my personal life aside from "Zeitgeist" came to a complete stand-still. More artists joined the project, and all of a sudden, the idea had turned very, very serious. We received applications from people working on actual TV shows, radio stations, and eventually, a master's thesis was written on the subject of game design, taking Zeitgeist as an example (interestingly on how-to-do-it. One can't help but beg to differ in hindsight :P).

We were featured in several magazines with a total reach of several million readers, and the ideas just kept popping up.

And this was when we ran into problems.

The simple, mundane kind of problems, to be honest.

None of us - by now, a team of six people - was heir to a fortune.

In fact, all of us had very limited funds.

None of us had any prior industry experience OR connections into studios or companies.

And, above all: the SOURCE engine turned out to be a catastrophic obstacle, and the one, big reason that Zeitgeist could never be realized the way we planned to:

- Zeitgeist deserved high-end graphics to deliver the grade of immersion promised by the story and the setting. Instead, we had to cope with texture resolution, shading, animation and workflow concepts of the early 2000s.

- Our open-world-philosophy with functional vehicles, a public transport system, several continents to travel to was severely limited by the technological limitations of SOURCE. Of course, we got it to work, sort-of, but we all knew that we had to severely reduce our expectations if we were willing to go through with it and build the game for this engine.

- The final nail in our coffin: licensing fees for SOURCE were in the ball park of six digits. Absolutely impossible for us to come up with, then and now.

It was then that a different mod team promised us to help us with our struggle to modernize the engine and overcome the
licensing issues. Unfortunately, after becoming commercially successful, they wouldn't even answer our questions anymore, and we were back to square one, or worse.

This was in 2012.

We kept on working, but it was obvious that, without a budget, we would get nowhere. We needed a server infrastructure, motion capturing hard- and software, we had to pay for content that we could not create ourselves, and above all, we had to find a way to turn the mod into a game and get the game published and promoted for any engine licensing to become even remotely possible.

So I decided to get a job, and I did, joining two former VALVE-people (Minh "Gooseman" Le and Tony "Omega" Sergi) who were working on the unofficial successor of Counter-Strike, "Tactical Intervention" (also here somewhere on the IndieDB), which was stricken with hundreds of thousands of bugs and glitches. I gave as much of my creativity to the game and created scenarios, but these things take time, and it wasn't until today, four years later, that the first batch of really decent, exotic, Zeitgeist-like scenarios is about to become part of the game.

Anyway, now at least I made some money while everyone else was still in university, but what little cash I could spend on ZG, quickly turned out not to be a great help at all.

To the contrary - my output decreased immediately, I was working 70+ hours a week, and I lost control over the team and the whole concept.

And none of our showstoppers were solved - not even close...


THE MIDDLE AGES.


In late 2013, we decided that, in order to get Zeitgeist funded, we'd have to make a small game that we could kickstart and gather experience, in order to do the same with ZG at a later time.

AS YOU CAN IMAGINE... we started out very small, with a SOURCE-based, medieval sword playing game set in the early 1300s.

And then, things escalated, again :)...

Within half a year, we had hundreds of pages of storyline, research on architecture and equipment (we're all experts on Staufian castles now), and thousands of images as references.

Concept Art


In-Game 1...


... and 2


However, as everybody had grown older, time had become an issue, and our progress slowed down - obviously, new showstoppers had arrived at the scene, and this project, too, was put on hold in 2014.

We had discovered one thing, however.

There was an engine on the market.


Free.


AAA-worthy.


Really good looking.

And did I mention - free?


And insanely hard to learn for people who had done nothing other than command line compiles and BSP-Editor work throughout their professional lives :P.


UE4 was released by EPIC in 2014, and this was the greatest discovery we could have made: a free, state-of-the-art video game engine, requiring nothing but a small royalty share to be paid, with a market place slowly filling up with content, and blueprint-coding that, eventually, could be learned by anyone interested to spend enough time on it.

Unfortunately, with the unavoidable end of our "gap filler" game, our team had dissolved. Some of the guys are still with me and will definitely be up for a reboot, but I can't force anyone to spend their leisure time any more, even though I am aware that some of our talent is more than eager to give it another try.

But with the end of our medieval game, the team basically disbanded.

TODAY.


Today, I am still Art Director over at FG, working on "Tactical Intervention" - but with a much more relaxed schedule and, finally, enough time, patience, connections and game design experience to really start over with Zeitgeist; not to mention that, since the appearance of UE4, the game will finally stand a chance to deliver the content that matches our label.

Step by step, this is our plan:

- Build up a team of experts and volounteers to tackle all that is needed for Zeitgeist to become a proper game.
- Create a Demo of "Zeitgeist" on UE4 to send out to publishers and interested parties
- Translate Zeitgeist, Vol. 1, to English, so it can be released to the public.

As I said in the beginning: I will need all the help I can get, from each and every one of you!

- are you an artist, especially one with UE4 experience or the ability to learn to use that engine quickly?

- are you part of a bigger studio or a company and fancy a joint-venture or cooperation of some sort?

- are you skilled in languages with a solid ability of translating from German to English (no worries, you will probably be assisted by a very well-spoken veteran along the way)?

- are you an expert on finances?

- on crowdfunding campaigns?

- OR, do you feel you could contribute in ANY OTHER WAY to making the game become a reality after all those years?

IF any of this is the case, please contact me via PM or directly through "tasichel at gmail.com".


I want to do this, I need to do this, but I definitely can't do it on my own.


As I explained before, there still isn't a budget available, which we will need; and creating the game will require MUCH work. Yes, I am on my own. Yes, we all have to expect long hours, the compulsory blood, sweat, tears, and quite a bit of suffering ahead of us. But hell yes, we can do it.

This is the first time in seven years that I see a perfectly clear way to succeed with this project, and letting it die... well, to put it this way, it has never been less of an option than today.

Again, SORRY for all the waiting and the unfulfilled expectations - it just turned out to be the best idea at the worst point in time, and I can completely understand if you take this opportunity to click the "stop tracking" button on Zeitgeist.

But I do hope you won't - instead, we can make this thing happen yet.

Best regards to all of you and thank you so, so much for your patience.

Til "Albatros" Sichel

Post comment Comments
monster_urby
monster_urby

I can't remember how long I've been tracking Zeitgeist. I really wish I could help. Sadly, with no UE experience, all I can really offer is my voice.

I wish you the best of luck.

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Rakym
Rakym

Good luck with this project, I think it's worth pursuing it.

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[MC]Pimpão
[MC]Pimpão

I can't think of a way to contribute to your project but i gotta say that it always warms my heart to read about the persistance of people dedicated to bring quality innovations to our gaming experiences.
May you always find the strenght to carry on

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drvgbugz
drvgbugz

What was your medieval mod called?

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Albatros44 Author
Albatros44

We started out as "Sacrifice" and ended up with another, very similar Title.

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drvgbugz
drvgbugz

Is it possible to see the mod?

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DevinShadowV
DevinShadowV

So this title is going from Source to Unreal 4?

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Guest
Guest

Yes.

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Blue199
Blue199

I wish I could aknoledge this game's 'existence' in a different way, under different circumstanses :/ No, I didn't spend last 3 years waiting for it, but now that I found it I see it's a very ambitious projet, I think even too ambitious. Anyway, good luck on TI and this, eventually, I hope it will turn out good :)

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Albatros44 Author
Albatros44

We can't do it the modding-style with on-and-off-participation, that much is absolutely true and I acknowledge it. However, we're all much older, much more experienced and much more realistic now. Some of us already have company backgrounds, myself included, and on the long run, a cooperation with a bigger studio will be the only way to go the full distance with ZG.

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zwieracz
zwieracz

Typical thing for big mods on Source :(
How many mods ended like this already? Like Raindrop for example. Really a shame, but well... that's life.
Good luck for ya mate!

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Albatros44 Author
Albatros44

Yeah, 100% agree with you.

Some of our team members have correctly stated that SOURCE wasn't the only reason for our failure, which is definitely correct.

But it DID contribute a lot, and it has been a concrete block tied to our feet in many ways.

The thing is though, back in the day it was the only engine widely available, thoroughly documented and "OK" looking, too... so, all alternatives were actually no alternatives.

Anyway, we'll keep at it - see you around :).

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Mr.Walrus
Mr.Walrus

I was actually just looking at this page a couple days ago and bemoaning seeing such a great mod go out of development. What a wonderful surprise to hear that not only are you still in business, you're transferring to UE4 and translating the 700+ page book into English! Absolutely thrilled to hear this news, if you start a crowdfunding campaign I (and hopefully many others) will be there to back you. Good luck, can't wait to know more!

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MindRiot
MindRiot

Something i would like to point out Unreal Engine isn't all that hard to learn. If anyone here was willing to help out it is well documented and learning blueprint which as someone who is terrible at programming i found so much easier instead of scripting and it is possible to program the game with it. Another thing for those people who are level design orientated the editor works in a similar way to Source. Bsp tools are a little bit clunkier but easy enough to get the hang of.

Good luck to you on Zeitgeist always looked like an interesting project. At the moment i am too busy to consider helping till i can get a stable income and the time to help i would certainly consider it then if you have the need of a 3d environment artist.

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SPY-maps
SPY-maps

I am so very pleased to read this new update !!!
Zeitgeist.
Wow, that is long ago!
Ofcourse will i keep tracking, seems things only now really start to get interesting! It was pleasant to read the whole development process over the years, and all the problems you were facing. I myself am a long time mapper/modder with source and other engines. And as you said is Source not the engine anymore to work with, for many many reasons.
UDK, i only have been mapping with that for a week or two, 15 years ago. But, it is a great engine and indeed not that hard to learn working with, (when you put in enough time and effort).
I really hope you will succeed, and that this child of yours will come to life one day! I will keep tracking for sure. About helping, i just stopped with source modding and have a lot of plans on my own. And when i promise to help out i also want to keep that promise. I will think about it for sure though!!

Leon

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Commissar1032
Commissar1032

Do what you gotta do, take your time, make the game right and get it out. If I could help I would, hell I am glad to even see this.

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chsignal
chsignal

I'm so glad you are alive.

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jjawinte
jjawinte

What a pleasant surprise ! Been here from the start and will continue to support your efforts. I personally love U4 and hope it will do your visions great justice. Sally forth !

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TKAzA
TKAzA

Those unreal 1 shots are amazing!

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