Leonard Q&A@Hardwired

Odin

Odin

Carbon Dated and Proud
Admin
Another site who caught the screenshots of Troika's post apocalyptic RPG in the works was Hardwired and they decided to ask Leonard Boyarsky of Troika some questions about it:<blockquote>Q: There is a significant gap amongst these type of games nowadays, and the adorers of the theme are just starving for an excellent, cunning post-apocalyptic RPG. What are the publishers point of view in this matter and how hard is to breathe life into a genre so close to your hearts, but mostly neglected due to current market trends? Did you have success finding a publisher so far?

A: Most of the publishers we approached with this idea weren't interested in a post apocalyptic RPG because they "don't sell". We did have some interest when we were trying to get a publisher to license Fallout for us, but that never panned out, as you know. It's very difficult in these license driven times to convince a publisher a great post apocalyptic RPG would be a good investment. As I said above we haven't got a deal with any yet, but we're talking to a few that seem really interested in making the game and share our views on what would be a great RPG in this genre.</blockquote>And the sad part is of course this:<blockquote>Q: Do you have a turn-based or real-time game in mind?

A: We'd love to do another turn based game, but that's an even more difficult sell than a post apocalyptic RPG. If you put those two things together, publishers run screaming from you. We've been talking about some sort of variation on a real time system with a pause option.</blockquote>When will the publishers realize that a TB games doesn't mean less sales figures..Thanks to Andraz Izsof (Editor in Chief @ Hardwired.hu) for informing us.
Link: Hardwire Leonard Q&A
 
We've been talking about some sort of variation on a real time system with a pause option.
Click to expand...
Eek!

Ah well, as long as they make a decent RPG. Combat isn't the most important part of a game if the game is done well.
 
Sander said:
We've been talking about some sort of variation on a real time system with a pause option.
Click to expand...
Eek!

Ah well, as long as they make a decent RPG. Combat isn't the most important part of a game if the game is done well.
Click to expand...

Aye, while I prefer turn based combat, I'm willing to settle for Real Time if the rest of the package is there.
 
pausable? arg, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased, make it turnbased

pompidom

/me rereads the newspost

OH DEAR GOD

/me runs away screaming

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
 
Temple of Elemental Evil was Atari's top selling RPG last year. Silent Storm has sold pretty good as well, with an expansion pack out already. That whole "turn-based doesn't sell" argument is bullshit, it's more like "EA is the most successful company in the business and they don't make turn-based games - we must follow their lead!"

Edit: In case there is any confusion - that comment was directed at publishers, not Troika.
 
It's not a question of whether it sells or not, it's a question of whether the publishers think it sells or not.
I suppose they just don't want to spend much time or effort on finding a publisher willing to do their game.
 
That's truly sad, but i think if you wrote "TURN BASED GAMEPLAY" in big letters on the box cover, it would probably scare away the whole softcore demography (damned be they and their PS2 wielding ways). But the fact is, this kind of people tend to buy a game without much thinking, and if you didn't say it, most would only find out after buying and installing, and even then, i'm certain many could like it.
 
:?:

In wonder if Troika could try to work with Stardock.com regarding the distribution. It sounds like the RPG that we love is a smaller market than the big distributers would approach (no comment needed about what "they" feel we should want to play). Stardock.com released Galactic Civilizations through stardock.com as well as retail. I bought from Stardock because they got 100% of my money and they returned the 'favour' by giving me free expansions/updates for one full year after release. Clearly it worked financially because they released a 'for pay' expansion after that.

Thoughts?

TTU
 
From what I've heard, Troika have a habit of demanding a lot of money from a publisher for any game they make, which makes getting funding for such a niche product difficult.
 
Montez said:
Temple of Elemental Evil was Atari's top selling RPG last year. Silent Storm has sold pretty good as well, with an expansion pack out already. That whole "turn-based doesn't sell" argument is bullshit, it's more like "EA is the most successful company in the business and they don't make turn-based games - we must follow their lead!"

Edit: In case there is any confusion - that comment was directed at publishers, not Troika.
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head (yes, I'm well aware I am currently employed by the "evil empire" - but I don't like it and hopefully it'll change, soon). As long as big publishers call the shots, they'll dictate what everyone else makes. I'm afraid our future of CRPG's will be relegated to niche devs like Spiderweb and the like, or the occasional European dev. I wish it were different, and I hope one day it will be, but for now it's a sad reality that turn-based CRPG's are pretty much a thing of the past. And Troika knows this, that's why they are hinting that their future CRPG's would be pausable real-time combat.
 
EA suck. I am respectful of you needing money, Puuk, and I am no way getting at you, but my experience with EA is that they really, really suck, and I hope you find a job that you like.
As for Troika, I still have some hope that they will change their stance and make it turn based. I always saw them as a company that could make a lot more money if they wanted to doing mainstream products, but prefering not to (yes, this includes Vampire on the HL2 engine). I hope this isn't going to change.

Maybe they need to change the way they fund themselves a bit. Saint_Proverbius was telling me how they are in one of the most expensive parts of America, and they seem to pay quite well (offering $40k for an office manager). Who knows. But they might be asking for a lot of funding for what would be a 'niche' RPG, in which case I can see why a publiusher would be unwilling to accept turn based.

EDIT: I should point out that after further investigation, my speculation about Troika's funding is a bit innacurate, from what I can see they are pretty comparable to any game developer in terms of money required and paid.
 
I prefer turnbased, but am not averse to other combat systems. The biggest problem I have with realtime with pause is how it was handled in the Infinity Engine games, mainly because it borked combat-related rules regarding the transition from turnbased to realtime.

But outside that, I can pretty much tolerate RTWP, or 'vanilla' realtime.
 
I always wondered, why not make such games similar to FOT, if they really can not ''afford'' to make TB only game. I mean, it's TB mode is exactly the same as in F1,F2 and it has real time for those who can't live without it. That's it. I know FOT is bashed a lot including it's combat system which is IMO quite ok. Could you explain why? I always played it on squad turn based mode and never bothered to switch to real time (well, except in some random encounters), so I never felt a difference between fallout RPG and fallout tactic's used TB combat system. Is there one?
 
Gnidrologist said:
I mean, it's TB mode is exactly the same as in F1,F2 and it has real time for those who can't live without it.
Click to expand...

No it's not.. FOT was balanced for the CTB mode and not TB mode and hence it was unbalanced.. Read around the various threads in the Fo3 forum and you'll get the idea why it won't work..
 
Re:...

I liked the arcanum system (in turn based mode). I mean, it was not like there was any use for turnbased combat in arcanum since combat was imo the most boring aspect of the game (it was totally deviod of any tactics or strategy). but the system looked nice to me, add a grid so you can see how much AP walking costs, make the AP cost of aother actions clearer to and you have a good system. Why not use that?
 
Ack, the Arcanum combat engine was awfull. It was one of the reason I put down that game, long before finishing it.. Now the TOEE combat engine on the other hand, now that was a piece of art...oh and of course Fallout's combat engine also ..
 
Arcanum would've been unplayable in a lot of situations for me without the turn-based mode. Enemies simply moved across the screen faster than I could click on them in Realtime. The only time I could get an attack in was when they attacked and stood still.

You also can't select targets, particularly when using projectile weapons or offensive spells, unless you're lucky, or they're right in your face, which makes projectile weapons useless.

The combat will suffer for not being designed exclusively turn-based, but its not like they have to make it realtime with pause.
 
Not talking about the whole combat engine (as i said, combat in arcanum sucked), just the system with a turnbased mode an half-turn based mode (or whatever fancy name the had for that) and a realtime mode, only optimized/balanced for turn-based. That way they can tell the publishers that they have a realtime mode, and say that they're trying to reach as many people as possible by having multiple modes. And still make a turnbased game :D . Cause that was what i thought they tried with arcanum...

Although i didnt realise the realtime mode was that bad in arcanum (didnt use it myself). That probably would go over wel with many people. so the balance issues are probably going huge when they try something like this again... ah well... they just have to make sure its balanced for turnbased and then add the realtime moed in 2 days so the publishers will be happy :? or something....

can someone explain me the basics of the TOEE system? (didnt play it yet :oops: )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top