V_K
Arcane
WTF are you talking about? It's essentially stuff that should be in the manual.
I understand that MRY wants to build up hype for the game
MRY's about to make you his bitch:
You'll enslave nations with necromancy!
600 hours of gameplay!
Over a million words!
Nubile maidens!
And more, much more!
A game made with tender loving care by passionate and dedicated developers who live and breathe originality. A once in a lifetime opportunity for all and sundry to play the pinnacle of gaming. Dare to hope, dare to dream, dare to play... FALLEN GODS.
For some weapons (the bashing ones), blood would not necessarily make sense. Since we use only one death animation, I thought it was better to skip blood. Also, I think gore is sometimes a crutch (my adolescent love of Vandal Hearts notwithstanding), and sometimes a turn off.where's muh blud?
e: looks great but why minimal blood and gore?
A typically thoughtful and nuanced take. I guess the one thing I'll say (and this is also in some ways a reaction to Infinitron's description of the game as having an "amoral" take on violence) is that I ultimately wouldn't say that a "heroic and moral view of violence" is necessarily wrong, though it may be incomplete. The use of violence is hazardous, and one hazard is the hardening of your own heart and sullying of your soul, but many times it is a necessary hazard. I think we need moral boundaries, and for boundaries to be real, they must be guarded. "If you go past this point, we will meet you with force. And if you go past that point, we will meet you with ultimate force," is, I think, a message that society has to be willing to send lest it disintegrate. I count myself fortunate to live in a world where not many people are put in the position of delivering that force. But I think those who help guard the boundaries of decency at the peril of their own physical, mental, and spiritual well-being are heroic, at least the ones who aren't do it because they're closeted sadists or whatever.Again, short it is not but you have definitely produced another high quality update. As a recommendation to all readers, always go for the original at www.wormwoodstudios.com.
It can be said that in our modern "civilized" society exposure to violence has become commonplace. Not first hand, but the newspapers and media present you violent deeds every day, with a high frequency, let alone movies or even relative "benign" video games like PoE, in which you easily loose count of how many intelligent creatures you have killed.
This level of exposure was not present in the medieval ages. It is no coincidence that back in these days a book could be described as evil or having a bewitching influence on a person, and locked away. It says something about a civilization like the Norse that they cultivated a literature about heroic deeds that dealt with the theme of violence.
The fact that we have such a high exposure to violence today says something as well. It's a bit like in The Matrix that proposed that people would not accept a perfect (virtual) reality in which everyone is happy because humans define themselves by struggle and coping with challenges. But then this may be a subconscious reaction to the wholesale destruction we see today, that entire ecosystems and pristine forests are burned away to make place for plantations, or the threat of nuclear holocaust as a "viable" strategy.
What you describe as the concept behind the treatment of violence in FG is ultimately a bold call to step beyond the heroic and moral view of violence, and make the people see it for what it is.
If you see violence as a means to shape reality, and refrain from casting it in moral terms, you are one step closer to see the reasons why the societies within living memory have always defined themselves by the way they treat violence. And yes, much of this comes down to the people's love of Justice and Peace.
But there is one more thing, there is a reason why people readily believe in chains of events that restore justice and peace that goes beyond their love for it. They doubt that reality is simply shaped by cause and effect but that there is a higher intelligence that shapes reality.
Last but not least, that's an absolutely brilliant piece of music!
IMHO the samples of your writing that you have presented here are outstanding. It is a rare treat for a video game to feature prose poetry throughout. Plus artists have to enjoy creative freedom to realize their vision, with critics helping in the process. The voice overs are also great. The one problem I have, for example with the VO in this update, is that it is sometimes hard to take the gravity of it all, particularly if it is delivered so expertly. But with a piece of art of this complexity it is practically unavoidable, and as the consumer you have to learn to navigate it. It is part of the process to get to grips with the thematic undercurrents.All the texts that I've posted are final, so alas you should temper your expectations for the game accordingly. You should see what they looked like before the cooler heads!
EDIT: That's not to say your criticism isn't valid; it probably is. But ultimately, there are three factors here that prevent revisiting: (1) it is time consuming to revise, finalize, and record texts, so redoing recorded texts is out of the question; (2) it is time consuming just to write the texts, and I have so little time that over the years there has been stylistic drift (requiring wholesale revision), so to the extent I can just keep things at the current style, I sort of need to do that to see the game finished; and (3) I like enjoy writing like this and ultimately the only way to finish an expensive, time-consuming hobbyist game is to enjoy doing it. Hopefully some people will like the writing as is, or at least tolerate it.
Thanks a lot. The key problem in a society's treatment of violence is that what is decent is blurred by policies and command & order. Many books have been written about the conflicts that burden those tasked with using force, but the regular citizens are not free of it neither. Because technically it's the entire citizenry that backs for example the US $700 billion annual war bills, with all that that entails. In principle there is a risk that our current society is slowly tearing itself apart, because we are not understanding sufficiently what the consequences of our projection of force are. Or how policy blurs the line. Thus the hardening of hearts is not something the common citizen is immune to.A typically thoughtful and nuanced take. I guess the one thing I'll say (and this is also in some ways a reaction to Infinitron's description of the game as having an "amoral" take on violence) is that I ultimately wouldn't say that a "heroic and moral view of violence" is necessarily wrong, though it may be incomplete. The use of violence is hazardous, and one hazard is the hardening of your own heart and sullying of your soul, but many times it is a necessary hazard. I think we need moral boundaries, and for boundaries to be real, they must be guarded. "If you go past this point, we will meet you with force. And if you go past that point, we will meet you with ultimate force," is, I think, a message that society has to be willing to send lest it disintegrate. I count myself fortunate to live in a world where not many people are put in the position of delivering that force. But I think those who help guard the boundaries of decency at the peril of their own physical, mental, and spiritual well-being are heroic, at least the ones who aren't do it because they're closeted sadists or whatever.
Good call to change the presentation. It makes more sense to see FG as a roguelite. As an RPG you have a stronger identification with your avatar and there is a fair chance that the harsh world and themes get you. In contrast in a roguelike you are up against the odds and it's easier to take an antagonistic approach.Fallen Gods - upcoming roguelite from Wormwood Studios inspired by Norse sagas
Hell if I'm gonna temper my expectations, I'm still furiously about this. What I pointed out are minor nitpicks, the writing is great as it is right now.All the texts that I've posted are final, so alas you should temper your expectations for the game accordingly. You should see what they looked like before the cooler heads!
EDIT: That's not to say your criticism isn't valid; it probably is. But ultimately, there are three factors here that prevent revisiting: (1) it is time consuming to revise, finalize, and record texts, so redoing recorded texts is out of the question; (2) it is time consuming just to write the texts, and I have so little time that over the years there has been stylistic drift (requiring wholesale revision), so to the extent I can just keep things at the current style, I sort of need to do that to see the game finished; and (3) I like enjoy writing like this and ultimately the only way to finish an expensive, time-consuming hobbyist game is to enjoy doing it. Hopefully some people will like the writing as is, or at least tolerate it.