It has to be soon Surely !?...Why so quiet ?

(zakmanjones) #1

I work at a games company and have worked in the past at THQ and Auran. 14 years now.
I know the game development cycle and how it all comes together at the 11th hour.
This game seems to be taking a very long time from announcement to Beta to release.
I am a huge fan of everything you guys have done and definitely not complaining.

But I would like to see some kind of updates or announcement details .

Is there some place you keep fans up to speed with progress that I am not seeing.???
Fcebook or the main site ?

I love the style and the Feel of it. Just itching to get into a game here in Australia and never seeing a soul
online, on any servers ever. Very frustrating.

(RasteRayzeR) #2

[QUOTE=zakmanjones;492517]But I would like to see some kind of updates or announcement details.

Is there some place you keep fans up to speed with progress that I am not seeing.???
Fcebook or the main site ?
[/QUOTE]

As you said, the game is still in development. Since you know the industry well, you can surely understand that SD wants to make sure the game is well defined before going public. Nothing worse than saying to everyone something and modify it 2 weeks later … Also the web site is currently being reworked, so I guess the first public announcements and previews will happen there when it goes live again imo, but I could be wrong :wink:

As always, the holy god John Carmack said : “it will be ready when it is ready”. Amen

(Snotling) #3

[QUOTE=RasteRayzeR;492536]As you said, the game is still in development. Since you know the industry well, you can surely understand that SD wants to make sure the game is well defined before going public. Nothing worse than saying to everyone something and modify it 2 weeks later … Also the web site is currently being reworked, so I guess the first public announcements and previews will happen there when it goes live again imo, but I could be wrong :wink:

As always, the holy god John Carmack said : “it will be ready when it is ready”. Amen[/QUOTE]

Sometimes I think you should be the community manager, you’re way more present on the forums than the actual one! :smiley:

(RasteRayzeR) #4

Haha, the actual community manager has a lot of work to do, poor badman is working too much … :eek:

I try to keep an eye on the public forum, give some answers when I can.

(Korpblast) #5

It seems like you’re the only one keeping this thing alive XD Ty for that btw.

(Rex) #6

It’s the silence before the storm. :wink:

(Korpblast) #7

:open_mouth: Tell us more! ;D

(acekiller345) #8

Its been silent for a while… and its always silent before the storm! :slight_smile:

(RasteRayzeR) #9

Well, he asked for more, you gave it to him … You troll :smiley:

(jazevec) #10

It’s possible the game is just a flop. The footage released a while ago was a visually underwhelming back then. Or maybe they’re switching to a new engine. Don’t forget FPS games is an extremely competitive market and many players will reject your game on the basis of visuals alone. It started as Dirty Bomb, then Extration, why not Extinction ?

Only two FPS games have passed the test of time - CS and TF2. They polished the formula to the extreme and it almost can’t be improved without turning it into another game. Counting on Extraction to reach the same status(because how else can it succeed without stellar visuals?) is hubris. Extraction doesn’t even offer anything fundamentally new anymore. It’s not the next Day Z. Splash Damage can’t even take much credit for their first (and only?) big success - Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It was strongly based on Return To Castle Wolfenstein (game of the year), which was developed by legendary id Software and had class-based objective-based multiplayer designed by Nerve Software. Splash Damage merely built upon an established framework.

(RasteRayzeR) #11

[QUOTE=jazevec;492742]It’s possible the game is just a flop. The footage released a while ago was a visually underwhelming back then. Or maybe they’re switching to a new engine. Don’t forget FPS games is an extremely competitive market and many players will reject your game on the basis of visuals alone. It started as Dirty Bomb, then Extration, why not Extinction ?

Only two FPS games have passed the test of time - CS and TF2. They polished the formula to the extreme and it almost can’t be improved without turning it into another game. Counting on Extraction to reach the same status(because how else can it succeed without stellar visuals?) is hubris. Extraction doesn’t even offer anything fundamentally new anymore. It’s not the next Day Z. Splash Damage can’t even take much credit for their first (and only?) big success - Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It was strongly based on Return To Castle Wolfenstein (game of the year), which was developed by legendary id Software and had class-based objective-based multiplayer designed by Nerve Software. Splash Damage merely built upon an established framework.[/QUOTE]

Have you played XT ? Because personally I cannot get a clear opinion about a game without actually testing it.

I could play on a game that has the visuals of 10 years ago games, as long as the gameplay is fun. Also XT is kinda made so you can get a high frame rate for better playability rather than stunning graphics at 15 fps (competitive configs, etc.) … Also look at TF2 : the graphics are far from top notch, but the community is big and sticking to it for its gameplay.

And the market of the FPS is saturated with AAA titles that all look the same. Xt is way different, but yeah … NDA :wink:

Also, this was the team in 2002 that worked on W:ET. No wonder they needed a framework lol

(jazevec) #12

I haven’t, but these days no one keeps quiet about a good or intriguing game. FTL, Terraria, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress had a lot of buzz before they came out. Overgrowth looks fun even as an unfinished prototype. These are games that are fun to watch on youtube once in a while even if you have no desire to ever play them. If Splash Damage keeps quiet, it’s quite likely they don’t have much to show.

I think you’re underestimating TF2’s graphics. Its visuals are not made of polygon count, lifelike textures or light effects. It has a ton of polish and style - that reminds me of Sacrifice, which also looked unimpressive on screenshots.

The best Extraction can hope for is a loyal and enthusiastic but small, niche community. The landscape has changed over the years. There was a huge influx of ‘casual’ players who don’t want games with a lot of depth - they can’t see depth. They don’t have patience for mastering a game, either.

Remember Quake Live ? Same good, old, refined Quake 3, supposedly one of greatest games of all time. Carmack’s favorite. Quake Live was improved and for free. For something like that you’d expect it to attract more than a handful new players.

It will be very hard for Extraction to distinguish itself once it comes out. Mechanics and setting it uses have become tired over the years. It’s like trying to take over the world with a zombie shooter. I don’t expect anything fresh from Splash Damage - they’re iterators and optimizers. Anyone who has paid attention knows exactly what to expect from them. It’s a hybrid game in terms how the shooting feels, somewhere halfway between Counterstrike and oldschool arcade FPS. There’s more movement than in CoD and mainstream FPS, but less than in CS. And maps are choke point-based. It has no style of its own, it’s “more this than X, less than than Z”

(RasteRayzeR) #13

Well, all these games were once in alpha and beta development, and they chose when you first heard of their game. XT has alpha players which lead to a very early release of a trailer, but don’t forget the game is still in full development. The only difference is that they went public faster than other games, thus the impression that no communication is happening.

XT is visually really better than TF2 … and this exactly proves my point : graphics don’t make a game good, they only contribute to it.

I think you would be surprised to see how many players are tired of playing COD 220 and BF 100 (yeah, they ended up failing sooner than COD :D). Right now the market misses a good FPS that can support meaningful competition level and accommodate regular (“casual” if you prefer) as well. Also I don’t believe that XT is aimed at 13 years old kiddos but more at the 20+ who can enjoy actually doing more than pressing a single button to perform an action. There is a nostalgia about these old games where you had to practice a lot to be good at. And you know, XT “captures the magic of ET” - DarkangelUK (sorry man, couldn’t resist :cool:)

I’ve been playing Q3 since it’s release (mostly CPMA), and I feel like someone used to Q3 might find some good fun playing XT, at least I do. Q3 is really a niche game nowadays because it’s way too tricky for players that have not known it at the “right” period imo, that’s a very specific type of game, hence the lack of people for Quake Live.

Well, as much as I’d want to go over each of these points, I cannot do it without breaking my NDA. Again, you will have to try it to know what it is like.

(acekiller345) #14

I know its not that important, but heres why the name was changed:

What’s the difference between Dirty Bomb and Extraction?
In short, the game’s the same. Fun fact: Extraction was Dirty Bomb’s original name and the reason we didn’t stick with it for the Closed Alpha was that we weren’t sure if we could secure the worldwide trademark for it. We’re confident we can achieve this with Nexon’s help, so we’ve decided to go with the name we’ve always wanted for the game.

^ Not under NDA, public post here: http://www.splashdamage.com/blog/1047/extraction-be-playable-pax-week#.Uy27x_ldWSo

(acekiller345) #15

[QUOTE=jazevec;492760]I haven’t, but these days no one keeps quiet about a good or intriguing game. FTL, Terraria, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress had a lot of buzz before they came out. Overgrowth looks fun even as an unfinished prototype. These are games that are fun to watch on youtube once in a while even if you have no desire to ever play them. If Splash Damage keeps quiet, it’s quite likely they don’t have much to show.

I think you’re underestimating TF2’s graphics. Its visuals are not made of polygon count, lifelike textures or light effects. It has a ton of polish and style - that reminds me of Sacrifice, which also looked unimpressive on screenshots.

The best Extraction can hope for is a loyal and enthusiastic but small, niche community. The landscape has changed over the years. There was a huge influx of ‘casual’ players who don’t want games with a lot of depth - they can’t see depth. They don’t have patience for mastering a game, either.

Remember Quake Live ? Same good, old, refined Quake 3, supposedly one of greatest games of all time. Carmack’s favorite. Quake Live was improved and for free. For something like that you’d expect it to attract more than a handful new players.

It will be very hard for Extraction to distinguish itself once it comes out. Mechanics and setting it uses have become tired over the years. It’s like trying to take over the world with a zombie shooter. I don’t expect anything fresh from Splash Damage - they’re iterators and optimizers. Anyone who has paid attention knows exactly what to expect from them. It’s a hybrid game in terms how the shooting feels, somewhere halfway between Counterstrike and oldschool arcade FPS. There’s more movement than in CoD and mainstream FPS, but less than in CS. And maps are choke point-based. It has no style of its own, it’s “more this than X, less than than Z”[/QUOTE]

Also, as raste is saying, dont judge the game until you play it. You cannot get a full picture of Extraction, or any game, by a trailer or two.

(Snotling) #16

Right, therefore these are old trailers now. Just wait and see! (or play ETQW and join a clan able to provide beta keys to its members…)

(Rex) #17

taw? …

(Snotling) #18

Nooo, hush, don’t say names!!

(acekiller345) #19

Possibly… :slight_smile: