The Fall developer diary on RPG Vault, part 3

[Brother None]

RPGVault posted the 3rd part of their ongoing the Fall dev diary and this part of the series is by Sebastian Tusk, technical director on the Fall. Amongst a lot of other details, he offers us such bits as these:<blockquote>Of course, we also coded some nice special effects into our engine. The world of The Fall is full of desert wastelands, so Heat Blur was an obvious choice for us. You're also going to notice that kind of heat-induced reflections on the ground one can witness on a hot summer day. In addition to all that, sand blown by the wind intensifies the desert feel of the game. I'm pretty sure you're also going to like the weapon effects we implemented.

(...)

Did I already mention Inverse Kinematics? Probably not, but it is certainly another noteworthy part of our code. IK, to offer a brief description, is about modeling character motion and how they interact with the environment. For instance, the position of the feet will be calculated exactly and depends on the terrain you're on. Picture your character standing on a hillside. Now, thanks to IK, you're not going too see the leg closer to the top clipping right into the hill. Another example would be the way characters are aiming. Their weapons point precisely at the enemies they're currently targeting and follow their movements. It's not based on a set of pre-made poses. And your characters can turn their heads to look at particular objects (Grim Fandango-style).</blockquote>
Link: the Fall dev diary on RPGVault

Spotted on RPGDot

 

[Will_c]

The heat and sun effects sound good, although the "kinematics" bit doesn't sound like anything new or exciting realy.

so far though this game sounds much better than the screen shots are currently showing.. Send us more screen shots!

 

[Brother None]

so far though this game sounds much better than the screen shots are currently showing..

Exactly, that's a case of "you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?"

Proof is in the showing

 

[Murdoch]

What I realy want to see are some animations. Real, moving captures of the action. As I stated on SSE's forum, the whole world looks rather angular and lacks the sense of day-to-day activities that Carsten et al remark on.

But, maybe they'll get it right and it'll be an amazing game. Of course I said that about Lionheart too, so...

 

[Tannhauser]

It's always been demos which have really decided games for me, I wished more games developers released them (though quite a fair number do already). I'd like to see a demo of The Fall before it comes out, see how things hold up.

You know, I saw Lionheart at Best Buy the other day, now going for $10.

 

[Brother None]

I'd like to see a demo of The Fall before it comes out, see how things hold up.

Carsten already stated no demo. It'd take too much valuable dev time away from the game.

 

[Will_c]

I would be happy with a gameplay video. the character animation ones were nice, to see how it was coming along. If the game looks as good in its actual setting as they are telling us I would be quite impressed.
It's a shame about the screen shots as it does make it look, like many people have said, like a game from like.. 5 years ago or somthing.

 

[SumsoluS]

But, maybe they'll get it right and it'll be an amazing game. Of course I said that about Lionheart too, so...

ARGHUHHH LIONHE*RT ARGNHHHHH WHAT A WASTE OF MY TIME FOSSD ARGHGHHHHH

pardon me im still scarred.

 

[Tannhauser]

I know that there won't be a demo of The Fall, thus my little lamentation about how there should be more demos.

Did you buy Lionheart, SumsoluS? I would say it would be more of a waste of money myself. Though the stores I've checked are just trying to move the boxes out.