• 3May 13

  A Call to Alms [sic]

  Regular followers of my ramblings will be fairly used to my promotion of gaming projects that fall outside of mainstream coverage. My usual tendency is to merely provide exposure in the hope of garnering interest, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions and, in the case of those projects actively seeking crowd-funding, to make their own decisions regarding donations.
  
  Sometimes however, a project comes along that simply cries out for support... this is one of those projects.
  
  This particular example exceeds superlatives. The quality of the art direction, animation and sound design demonstrated so far, provides stark contrast to much of the efforts of the "AAA industry" - the latter needs this game to be made, in order to raise the bar of game design and production.
  With a mere 10 days till the campaign ceases, help is desperately needed to get this off the ground. Please give some serious thought to investing in the further development of this project and/or (at the very least) helping to spread the word about it's existence, in order to encourage increasing excellence within the gaming industry. (links follow)
  
  Without further ado, may I present...

  
  

  "Ghost of a Tale"
  
  Well, my name is Lionel Gallat but I usually go by Seith when I'm online. I've been working as a supervising animator in the movie industry for more than 15 years, first at Dreamworks on many movies ("The Prince Of Egypt", "The Road to Eldorado", "Spirit", "Sinbad", "SharkTale", etc...), and more recently as the animation director for Universal Studios' "Despicable Me" and "The Lorax" (yay for the Macguff team!).
  
  "Ghost of a Tale" is a work of love and a one-man project (at least so far). It represents a lot of work. About a year ago I decided to get really serious about it. In consequence I started working full-time on the development. It's a bit scary of course, but I do believe in this project, and it's now time for me to find out if I'm the only one. Which is also pretty scary in itself...
  
  At this point it might be good for you to take a look at the video, if you haven't done so already. It's a bit rough, with missing assets, temporary animations and incomplete gameplay of course, but it should give you a feel for the project.
  
  

  Among the inspirations I could quote Disney's "Robin Hood", the fables of La Fontaine, "Redwall", "Winnie the Pooh", "The Secret of Nimh", "The Dark Crystal", the paintings of Alan Lee, John Howe, Paul Bonner, John Bauer, and many, many others...
  
  Game-wise the inspirations could be found in the early "Zelda" games, "Ico", the "Gothic" series and "Dark Souls". Of course those are mere inspirations; this project can obviously not expect to compete on equal footing with those amazing games.
  
  But my goal is to craft a small yet beautiful game with environments that look a bit like movie sets and characters that have a sense of stylization in their design, while retaining a certain simplicity and immediacy as far as gameplay is involved.
  
  I know it sounds hockey [sic] but I'm really trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when I discovered the games from the 80s and early 90s. But with a AAA quality (as far as I'm able) that's very much up-to-date.
  
  You play as a mouse on an adventure set in a medieval world. At the beginning of the game, you get to the Island of Periclave. Now what is the mouse looking for? What happened on the island? Why are there undead rats roaming around? That will be up to you to discover.
  
  What's known is that the island has long been a disputed outpost for the Army of the Rats. But today, it is reputed to be haunted. And tales are talking about a fabulous treasure high up in the Tower of Periclave. But it would be folly to try and get there. Even for a mighty warrior. And this little mouse certainly doesn't look like one...
  
  * * *

  
  

  Further links:
  Indiegogo
  Greenlight
  Coverage via VentureBeat

  • Posted May 3, 2013 3:03 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 19Apr 13

  Knock, knock!

  
  Awaiting Greenlight

  
  
  Further info:
  http://knock.ice-pick.com/index.html
  

  • Posted Apr 19, 2013 5:17 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 9Apr 13

  First look: Strike Vector

  (inb4 Gamespot )
  
  Strike Vector
  
  

  Further information can be found at http://www.strikevector.net, to wit:
  
  "We are a small team of independent developers and we are very proud to announce Strike Vector, our first game developed with the Unreal Engine 3.
  
  "Strike Vector is an intense, multiplayer third / first person air combat game.
  With a distinct old school feel, reminiscent to games such as Crimson Skies, Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, Strike Vector will let you test your reflexes and skills against your friends.
  
  "Strike Vector unique gameplay allows you to switch between two movement modes:

  • Quick reaction Jet Mode ability which allows you to quickly reach your foes, engage the fight and fast evade if its necessary.
  • Hover Mode offers an experience closer to a classic FPS gameplay with increased precision, ironsight and strafe based evasion moves.

  * * *

  Further links:
  https://www.facebook.com/StrikeVector
  https://twitter.com/strikevector

  • Posted Apr 9, 2013 2:51 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »