Game News The Alien RPG status update

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment

J.E. Sawyer, God bless his open soul, has shared some <a href=http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=45854&st=300&p=762690&#entry762690>Alien RPG info</a> with the eagerly anticipating community:
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<blockquote>Things are going pretty well, but please understand that we're still very early in development. The game is many months off and we're still doing a lot of prototyping/core technology development. The design staff is refining a lot of early work on the project right now. Chris Avellone is the Lead Creative Designer on the project and he has been helping develop our dialogue tool and banter system. We want something that feels "natural" in flow and delivery but still gives the player a great deal of control and good options to take relationships in different directions. Paul Boyle joined us a couple of months ago as our Lead System Designer. Paul previously worked at Maxis on Sims titles and on Spore. He's been working a lot with me on our core system designs. We have good <s>arguments</s> discussions on ideas and he has been building a top-down 2D prototype for our tactical combat systems which is giving us great data on interface and AI/pathing issues. It's also allowing us to do rapid iteration on the crunchy numerical aspects of the game. Finally, Mike Stout joined us from Insomniac as our Lead Level Designer. He worked on several Rachet & Clank titles and as the Lead Multiplayer Level Designer on Resistance: Fall of Man. Mike is working with the art team to develop our level pipeline and establish building metrics. He's also been doing research on different types of non-linear games to see how they handle various aspects of revealing areas, opening up quests, scaling difficulty, etc.
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As for me, I'm re-learning Flash to implement several prototype interfaces. The last time I had anything to do with Flash was when I made <a href=http://official.planescape-torment.org/>this</a>. Yay!</blockquote>Yay indeed.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Volourn]

Was this worthy of a 'news update'? L0L

 

[Whipporowill]

Was this worthy of a 'news update'? L0L

Was this worthy of a "Post"? L0L

 

[Volourn]

Touche.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yay indeed!

Sounds good, very good... let's hope it turns out to be good, too.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Was this worthy of a 'news update'? L0L

Sure. First of all, you see who's doing what, which is important. Second, some quotes show the direction, which is, I guess, JE's way of saying something without saying anything directly.

"...dialogue tool and banter system ... that feels "natural" in flow and delivery but still gives the player a great deal of control and good options to take relationships in different directions."

"...tactical combat systems..."

"... research on different types of non-linear games to see how they handle various aspects of revealing areas, opening up quests, scaling difficulty, etc."

Needless to say, a non-linear game with tactical combat will be sweet.

 

[Kingston]

A promising start... But then ofcourse, they all start promisingly.

 

[Jed]

Sure. First of all, you see who's doing what, which is important. Second, some quotes show the direction, which is, I guess, JE's way of saying something without saying anything directly.

Volourn's inanity was worth a reply?

 

[Volourn]

Only by sweethearts like you, Sweetcheeks.

 

[Joe Krow]

Good news! This game has a lot of potential. I wonder if it will take the horror route (one alien, many victims) like in Aliens 1 & 3 or the war against the aliens as seen in Aliens 2 & 4? Good stuff either way.

 

[JarlFrank]

Good news! This game has a lot of potential. I wonder if it will take the horror route (one alien, many victims) like in Aliens 1 & 3 or the war against the aliens as seen in Aliens 2 & 4? Good stuff either way.

If it takes the horror route, you would either have only one combat in the whole game or you play the alien.

 

[Monolith]

Was this worthy of a 'news update'? L0L

Sure. First of all, you see who's doing what, which is important. Second, some quotes show the direction, which is, I guess, JE's way of saying something without saying anything directly.

"...dialogue tool and banter system ... that feels "natural" in flow and delivery but still gives the player a great deal of control and good options to take relationships in different directions."

"...tactical combat systems..."

"... research on different types of non-linear games to see how they handle various aspects of revealing areas, opening up quests, scaling difficulty, etc."

Needless to say, a non-linear game with tactical combat will be sweet.

Somehow I have the weird feeling that he's trying to draw us in - poker style.

 

[Ion Flux]

A promising start... But then ofcourse, they all start promisingly.

True, but these guys have actually produced really good games in the past, so even if it's not exactly what's currently envisioned (which is almost a certainty) it's still likely to at least have some really good elements.

Considering what we've had to choose from lately, I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

I still have a hard time seeing how you can make an RPG out of the Aliens franchise and still remain true to the franchise.

 

[JarlFrank]

I still have a hard time seeing how you can make an RPG out of the Aliens franchise and still remain true to the franchise.

Who really cares about staying true to the franchise when this could be a promising RPG which will possibly not turn out to be total crap like most of the stuff made nowadays?

Really, I'd rather have a game like PST in a setting totally untrue to the Alien franchise than a game like Oblivion in a setting which stays true to the Alien franchise.

 

[Texas Red]

Tactical combat? haha what

Well, I guess you can call Halo-like combat tactical. Just as you can say that Halo is an RPG since you play a role .

Yay! Alien franchise is just pure gold for the RPG genre! Whee! Obsidian could have chosen from the ridiculous amount of P&P games but instead went with a stupid "horror" movie. Oh yes, I would like to play a game that is based around the very original and noncliche concpet of a bunch of people stuck somewhere and being hunted by a monster.

 

[sabishii]

Tactical combat? haha what

Well, I guess you can call Halo-like combat tactical. Just as you can say that Halo is an RPG since you play a role .

Yay! Alien franchise is just pure gold for the RPG genre! Whee! Obsidian could have chosen from the ridiculous amount of P&P games but instead went with a stupid "horror" movie. Oh yes, I would like to play a game that is based around the very original and noncliche concpet of a bunch of people stuck somewhere and being hunted by a monster.

Since you've obviously played the game already, care to give us a more in-depth review?

 

[vrok]

Hell, I'd be satisfied if its straight up Alien Swarm with dialogue. Alien Swarm is the shit and sci-fi RPGs are always welcome.

 

[Elwro]

Chris Avellone is the Lead Creative Designer on the project and he has been helping develop our dialogue tool and banter system.

Good. Some inside-party dialogues were the best parts of NWN2, I think, so it'll be nice to see MCA play a bigger role in the development of the new game.

 

[The Dude]

I still have a hard time seeing how you can make an RPG out of the Aliens franchise and still remain true to the franchise.

Depends if they limit themselves to the core movie franchise. I remember reading some Aliens and AvP comics in the early-mid 90s. In my recollection some of that stuff would fit in an RPG. I might remember wrongly though as I obviously was a lot younger back then.

 

[Inziladun]

Hell, I'd be satisfied if its straight up Alien Swarm with dialogue. Alien Swarm is the shit and sci-fi RPGs are always welcome.

Alien Swarm? That UT04 mod? I remember playing that a bit, although I got bored of it. I thought it was going to be a horror game, and was a bit taken back when I found out it was a Top-down shooter.

Very impressive they made it out of the unreal engine though.

 

[sportforredneck]

Oh yes, I would like to play a game that is based around the very original and noncliche concpet of a bunch of people stuck somewhere and being hunted by a monster.

Yeah, and they completely give a shit what you think about it.

 

[Roqua]

I hope this is as good as I heard the last gauntlet was.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Who really cares about staying true to the franchise

That is Bethesda talk!

 

[Dhruin]

Stay true to what? The movies are pretty limited in scope so there's plenty of room to develop the rest of the universe. I just can't see that this is a serious problem.