Finally watched this all the way through today. Looks great even at this early stage. 

Will you be doing mostly realistic layouts or go for more Quake style fantastical levels?

Gameplay feels like Doom, looks like AD mixed with Hexen. Nice! 

WRATH. I keep going back and watching the video again. Keep it up killpixel. 

So I just watched your test compilation video. One thing I've noticed is that the game seems to require items (soul tethers) to allow saving. IMHO free (and perhaps more importantly quick) saves are preferable in an FPS, especially if you're aiming for oldschool. 

@Qmaster - Levels are fantastic/abstract, much like Doom and Quake, since gameplay largely dictates the shape of the level. I'm refraining from writing 4 paragraphs detailing the enemy mechanics, weapons, artifacts and level design as I think those are the coolest aspects the entire project :P Just be assured that gameplay is the core pillar of Wrath and everything about the game is designed to that end. Glad you dig the project!

@Mugwump - Yeah, I realize that is a bit weird. As someone who uses quicksaves liberally and appreciates the option, I do think unlimited saving has a couple problems: 1) quicksave spam or 'save scumming', which fundamentally undermines the game itself and 2) saving is fairly disintegrated from the game, especially for being such an intrinsic part of it. My solution to this is to integrate saving both thematically and mechanically.

In Wrath, there are two forms of saving: Shrines and Soul Tethers. Shrines are checkpoints. When a shrine is 'illuminated', progress is saved and the player receives a boon (such as full health). Depending on level size, there can be 1-3 shrines in a given level. Soul Tethers are item-based quicksaves and are one of the 8 artifacts found in the game. Their rarity is such that the player will have enough to save when needed, but not enough to savescum. They are also valuable items that further incentivize exploration and completion of various areas/challenges. I think this is a reasonable fix, though I understand why others may feel differently. 

That is fine, but you should still allow the player to save whenever they want, it is about giving the player a choice like old school shooters 

That is fine, but you should still allow the player to save whenever they want, it is about giving the player a choice like old school shooters

I'd say include a hard save option at least. Some of us have to play in short spurts when we can grab a few minutes here and there. You could limit the amount of saves or give the player a budget of soul tethers to begin with. I'd be very careful with making players frustrated. 

I'd be very careful with making players frustrated.
My point exactly. The soul tether system could be fine, provided these items aren't too scarcely distributed. This will require a fair amount of balancing for each level and difficulty setting. 

I hear you guys loud and clear. Just to reiterate: saves are limited, not removed entirely. The player will have the to option to save, just not 15 times in the space of a couple minutes.

It's too early to tell how well this will work. We're doing more testing. Player feedback, once they get their hands on the demo, will help out here as well. 

you are just limiting the number of saves, not their location, or number of loadings, so i think it work well for your objective. 

I think that will work. Plus it spurs actual progress 

Do cheat or developers only quick saving? ;) 

Basically, I need to confirm no more bugs are left before the map is released.

It will be quite hard (but cheating is fine). 

vulgaris 

^^madfox that looks awesome! Venus flytap?

I've got a gallery of a couple new screens from my AD map. I've been playing with the fog settings to give some ambience. The colour changes based on locations in the map, having triggers everywhere gets tricky.

Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/Enpt5

Its really tough to get an idea of how lighting looks based on screens, and my own monitor. I have a waterfall that was being turned into a grey mess by the fog. Its func_illusionary with _minlight, _minlight_color and _lightignore set. This makes it more visible despite the fog. Any suggestions let me know. 

 

plumivitius fluctuarish.

It's a model mfx was looking for his deepgreen serenades. 

That plant looks awesome Madfox

and even if you can't extract the chasm monsters, hopefully you'll use them as inspiration for when you create new monsters! 

is that a vulva on a stick ? 

That all looks good. Fog is generally fine, the bright room is a bit bright but that's probably deliberate.

One thing I would say is try to put more design interest into the overall shapes and layouts of the rooms as well as details and structures inside them, if that makes sense? 

Sorry, I'm very late to the party. If no-one's interested any more, then the TLDR version is "Yay Killpixel, that looks awesome, keep going!". Otherwise:

Are you interested in retro-styled FPS games?
Yes, and your demo video looks great; can't wait to see more.

If so, what is something you want to see in this type of game?
Simple game mechanics (like in Quake) that are easy to grasp and intuitive, so you can just pick up the game and start playing.

And secrets/easter eggs to encourage and reward optional exploration.

Also (maybe this is not a direct answer to the question) that the final game is cross-platform, incl. running natively on Linux.

What is something you do not want to see?

Cutscenes, a heavy-handed story, voice-acting; anything that ventures in the direction of B-Movie rather than game. A "story" told by/revealed in the levels themselves during gameplay is fine of course, but the focus should be on gameplay and not narrative.

And as a corollary to what I wrote above, complicated game mechanics, e.g. RPG-style elements etc.


About the soul tethers: I'm kind of in two minds about this one. On the one hand, I like the fact that it's creative and new, and I kind of like the idea of in-game saving for the same reasons I like in-game difficulty selection in Quake start maps.

On the other hand, I have never felt that the ability to save was a bad thing in any game I've played, and have often wished that I could in games where it was not possible. I kind of feel that the soul-tether idea could be implemented well enough so that it does not become a huge problem, but that I'd always feel that unrestricted saving (like in Quake/Doom etc.) would be better.

Honest question: why is it important to prevent the player from e.g. save-scumming? The way I see it, either the player won't because they don't like playing like that -- in which case the soul tether/save limit system is not really necessary -- or they would want to because that is their playing style, and then the save limit system becomes frustrating.

Is it not a little like using invisible clip brushes to prevent players from reaching an area that should be out of bounds, but that could be reached with plenty of patience and skill were it not for the clip brushes? I mean, is not better at some point to give the player the freedom to play the game the way they want to, even if it means they might not experience it exactly the way the designer envisioned?

I guess I'm explaining this badly, but is it not tempting when you've made a level or an entire game and you've poured all this time and effort and passion into it, to want to (metaphorically) grab the player by scruff of the neck and say "Look at this! Now go here and look at this!", whereas the trick is ultimately to let go and just allow players to roam and do their own thing? I kind of worry that the soul tethers might be a case of the former... 

https://i.imgur.com/aBhNIoY.png
https://i.imgur.com/U59qE2D.png 

 

Second shot has major Hadley's Hope vibe. Gonna get Fox'd! 

Hadleys Hope is sth. i didn't know of until now. Thx!