sNeaksieGarrett on 11/3/2011 at 18:59
Stumbled upon this article from (
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/10/hawken-the-indie-mech-shooter-set-in-an-astonishing-sci-fi-megacity/) PC GAMER regarding an indie mech game:
Quote:
Whaaaat. The team behind Hawken, this ridiculously good-looking futuristic shooter, are a tiny indie studio who made what you see here in just nine months. TIGSource say Adhesive Games are only nine people, including an artist from the similarly gorgeous aborted fantasy game Project Offset. What they’ve accomplished is ridiculous.
The game’s going to be a first-person multiplayer shooter – most of what you see here is taken from a third person spectator mode, but we do get a glimpse of it being played in-game at the end. The movement of the mechs looks a little rough in places, but we don’t know how far out this is yet. All we know is that its environments are already more artistically and graphically exciting than most mainstream games. Come on, guys, give the multi-million dollar triple A studios a chance.
Koki on 11/3/2011 at 20:14
That looks... pretty damn good actually. So good that I was slightly disappointed it's a multiplatform release.
Eldron on 11/3/2011 at 21:01
Quote Posted by Koki
That looks... pretty damn good actually. So good that I was slightly disappointed it's a multiplatform release.
What does that have to do with it looking good?
june gloom on 11/3/2011 at 21:04
By being multiplatform that means it'll suck.
Am I doing this right?
Eldron on 11/3/2011 at 21:17
Quote Posted by dethtoll
By being multiplatform that means it'll suck.
Am I doing this right?
Oh yes,
And since it's indie it'll probably be yet another artsy game.
Renzatic on 11/3/2011 at 21:18
Yes. Porting a game destroys everything good about it, and forces the developers to pander to the lowest common denominator.
At one time, the original PC exclusive rev sported crisp textures, 1080p resolution, 16x anisotropic filtering, and antialiasing. It looked something like this...
Inline Image:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3018396/PC_Hawken.jpgBut after Micro$haft forced them to release an Xbox360 rev, they had to take all that away, and give us an interface designed to be seen on a TV 50 feet away. It now looks like this...
Inline Image:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3018396/Xbox_Hawken.jpgI HATE CONSOLE KIDDIES AND I HATE CONSOLES FOR RUINING MY HOBBY! KEEP YOUR CASUAL SHIT OFF MY PLATFORM!
Eldron on 11/3/2011 at 21:25
Good artists do good art, not hardware specs.
Renzatic on 11/3/2011 at 21:27
Good artists press A to win game.
Eldron on 11/3/2011 at 21:36
So you wouldn't believe me if I told you that their visual spec target isn't far off from consoles?
And that the preview video is at 720p
Eldron on 11/3/2011 at 21:39
(
http://kotaku.com/#!5780912/nine-guys-giant-mechs-and-2011s-sexiest-indie-game)
Taken from an interview:
Quote:
One thing a lot of people were wondering after seeing the trailer was how did a small team get the game looking so good? Simple: they're cheating. In a smart, effective way.
"As far as mech design goes, I love the old clunky look of MechWarrior. I like a machine that feels like a machine."
"When we started this project, my biggest technical concern was world building", Le says. "With such a tiny team, it's really hard to compete with the big boys. To solve this dilemma, I went with the 'kitbash' approach we'd used for the mechs, and applied it to world building."
"Everything in our game gets reused many, many times. If you watch the video carefully, there are not that many unique props. They are just put together in unique ways. Even our weapons get thrown into the building architecture sometime, if you notice carefully once the game is out. We try to waste nothing."
Another trick is that the game's first-person perspective allows them to "fudge" the fidelity of Hawken's graphics. Built on Epic's Unreal Engine, it only employs DirectX 9 (as it's hoped they can port the game straight over to Xbox 360 and/or PS3), and for most textures doesn't even use normal or specular mapping. "That's just one example of what we do here to cut corners without sacrificing visual fidelity. In the end, it's about the overall view and not the close up details."
