Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong Pre-Release Discussion [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Kem0sabe]

I had no problems with saves in DMS or in DF.

Of course you didn't, the game didn't launch with save anywhere feature, it was only added later with the release of Dragonfall.

 

[Sykar]

Of course you didn't, the game didn't launch with save anywhere feature, it was only added later with the release of Dragonfall.

It had autosave, which was good enough for me. So no, I never missed a save feature, could have never cared less about it.

 

[tuluse]

I really hope they will but who is going to back this who hasn't backed it already? The mainstream gaming sites don't give a shit any more so I don't think new people will find out about it.

Adding extra rewards to the $35 was a smart move but unless more of the $15 pledges raise to $35 I just don't see how they'll make it.

Have you ever watched a kickstarter before?

Lots of people wait until the last 3 days to pledge.

 

[Arsene Lupin]

A playable epilogue would be fantastic. Too many RPGs these days have terrible dénouements, or don't even try.

EDIT: Also, I'm one of those people who won't donate until near the end. I've spent too much money on too much nonsense lately.

 

[Kem0sabe]

It had autosave, which was good enough for me. So no, I never missed a save feature, could have never cared less about it.

I wasn't speaking towards the merit of an auto save or save anywhere feature, but to the technical expertise of the team.

 

[Gord]

Not much of an defense, but I always considered the technical explanation an excuse for them not willing to do a proper save system initially.

 

[Infinitron]

Banner Saga also lacks a "save anywhere" feature. Doesn't seem like very many people cared, though, which is why it's still not there.

Anyway, I suspect that pretty much every Kickstarter project of sufficient complexity had a broken save system after just 15 months of development, which was how much DMS took.

 

[Bubbles]

Banner Saga didn't have more than one or two actual "game over" outcomes in the entire game. Reloading only mattered for finding the optimal outcome, so it's not like quick saving would have been a great convenience for the average Vince-style immersion fag.

 

[almondblight]

They seem quite content with the funding they've got to be honest.

Yep. They could delay the game to make it longer, but it's possible they don't want to have the release be too close to the holidays. I suppose they could do a February launch, but then you're talking about an additional 6 months of development time. They could hire extra people, but they're already going to be doing that and hiring/training new members will suck up a lot of time and energy in and of itself (and becomes wasteful when most of the new hires have to leave when the temporary funding is gone).

If HBS just wanted as much cash as possible, we'd probably be seeing 50k or 100k stretch goals. The mini-campaign seems to be more of a "since you asked..." type thing. A company that has a good enough sense of production time and budget to know not only what it needs but also what it doesn't need is a pretty rare thing on Kickstarter.

 

[twincast]

Eh, after all those little steps, suddenly a 300,000 $ jump? It's highly unlikely they won't make it, but still, there should at least be one goal to conquer in between. For dem feelz.
(Almost from the very beginning I'd been saying that it'll make 1.5M +/- 0.3M $, and it's right on track for anywhere on the lower half of this.)

And the beefed up 35 $ tier is nice and all, but I'm not sure it's enough to entice me. I just want the new sourcebook, but I simply can't afford giving them 75 $ anymore.
(Damn you, E.C.B., on top of other recent expenses.)

 

[GarfunkeL]

As others stated, it's highly likely that they didn't really anticipate going beyond $700k.

 

[Sykar]

It had autosave, which was good enough for me. So no, I never missed a save feature, could have never cared less about it.

I wasn't speaking towards the merit of an auto save or save anywhere feature, but to the technical expertise of the team.

Have you worked on a game with the Unity engine?

 

[Kem0sabe]

It had autosave, which was good enough for me. So no, I never missed a save feature, could have never cared less about it.

I wasn't speaking towards the merit of an auto save or save anywhere feature, but to the technical expertise of the team.

Have you worked on a game with the Unity engine?

No, but apparently another mobile developer (inxile) didn't have much of a problem implementing saves. It was their choice to move to Unity was it not?

 

[V_K]

No, but apparently another mobile developer (inxile) didn't have much of a problem implementing saves. It was their choice to move to Unity was it not?

W2 was released roughly a year after SRR, despite their kickstarters running concurrently. By that time HBS already made Dragonfall, which fixed the save system.

 

[KazikluBey]

I think the problem in SR:R was the way area state is handled (or isn't, to be precise). This made modding cumbersome in SR:R/DF as you have to keep area state manually in global variables, it's not like in the Infinity Engine for instance that keeps track of what's changed in an area in a "diff" file and automatically applies the changes upon re-entering or reloading the area.

I don't know how WL2 handles area state, but I imagine they chose a more elegant solution from the start.

 

[Infinitron]

The early versions of the WL2 beta did have save/load issues.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

How did NWN / NWN2 handle saving?

 

[APGunner]

How did NWN / NWN2 handle saving?

Both had quicksaves.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

How did NWN / NWN2 handle saving?

Both had quicksaves.

I know, from the start. I was just wondering why other RPGs just don't have this problem. Could be due to size of the SRR team?

 

[Infinitron]

What an odd comparison. Bioware spent years making their RPG-specific engine(s). HBS had to hack together an isometric RPG out of Unity in 15 months.

 

[KazikluBey]

NWN built on the Infinity Engine when it comes to things like saving and area state, I believe.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yeah, Aurora engine was built on Infinity. Apparently even DA:O engine used parts of Infinity still.

 

[Arsene Lupin]

Yeah. There's a big difference between an engine built specifically for RPGs and one built for, well, anything. Especially if you made the former yourself and are licensing the latter. Its really telling how, after two years of development, the PoE team is still saying they don't know Unity all that well.

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

A playable epilogue would be fantastic. Too many RPGs these days have terrible dénouements, or don't even try.

Agreed, but shouldn't that be a designed part of the game, rather than saying "OK, you can have one if you give us an extra $300,000, which, by the by, is 3 times the amount we were asking to get the big game completed."

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Agreed, but shouldn't that be a designed part of the game, rather than saying "OK, you can have one if you give us an extra $300,000, which, by the by, is 3 times the amount we were asking to get the big game completed."

Brilliant work, SU. Color it the way you want. HBS have said that the kickstarter is a co-funding one, so it's not 100k to complete the full Hong Kong campaign. What about the other 600k and assorted stretch goals past the initial goal? All that's not part of the main game?

How about providing an argument for why the mini-campaign should be part of the main Hong Kong campaign so we can understand your perspective better?