rip off from d3?

[Krugar]

Re: rip off from d3?

It's too bad. HG:L had such potential.

There's still potential. Mythos, and especially Hellgate: London may still see a comeback.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23027
http://hanbitgame-espresso.************/2009/01/hgld-updates.html

We will see. In any case I'm always up for a new playa in da hood. Thumbs Up to HanbitSoft.

 

[Firvagor]

Re: rip off from d3?

There's still potential. Mythos, and especially Hellgate: London may still see a comeback.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23027
http://hanbitgame-espresso.************/2009/01/hgld-updates.html

We will see. In any case I'm always up for a new playa in da hood. Thumbs Up to HanbitSoft.

As much as I'd like it to make a comeback, the rumors are a bit old (Namco Bandai was always getting in the way) and the news on it has died down.
There's a team of developers working on recreating it with the Torque Engine, dubbing it Hellgate: Revival.

 

[sreda]

Re: rip off from d3?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwz6jP9Qz60

It's so cute, everything is more cartoony. It's definitely a rip from D3, the same monsters, environment, and skills of the barbarian ripped off.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

It's so cute, everything is more cartoony. It's definitely a rip from D3, the same monsters, environment, and skills of the barbarian ripped off.

I actually don't mind the graphics...it's the gameplay that concerns me. I played Mythos enough to not want to play it again. But I plan on checking this game out when it releases sometime later this year.

 

[Hratli]

Re: rip off from d3?

Hey guys,

I personally know a bunch of the guys on this team and have been able to play it recently, and wanted to clear up a few things. I have a ton of respect for Flux's work on diabloii.net and also thought Med Dragon was the best of the crew at diablofans before coming here, so I thought that it was worth the effort, in terms of this being a quality site (though the servers are really f'in slow).

Anyhow, first the negatives:

"A rip-off of D3" - Well, anyone who got to play the game at E3 for more than 5 minutes will tell you how bizarre that is. This game is all about the pets, your character can spend half of his time fishing, the art style is a hundred times less realistic, your character gets a gun (!) early in the game, there's absolutely no over-the-top gore, and, most crucially, it really is just as cool a title as a platform for modding as it is a game itself. Of course, it has the Schaefer brothers on it as well as Matt Uelman on the music, so it will have some of the qualities they brought to their earlier titles. But it doesn't have any of the other 50 or so people that helped develop Diablo II in the Bay Area, or any of the guys in Irvine who helped on it.

"I can't trust the guys that made Hellgate" - That's also really stupid. 90% of the team on this had almost nothing to do with Hellgate. The Schaefer brothers and Peter Hu are the only guys on the team who were at the SF Flagship office. Almost all of the game is being developed in Seattle by a team led by Travis Baldree.

"It looks too cartoony" - That's a valid point, the art style is definitely not as dark and bloody as the original Diablo, and some people won't be truly happy at anything less gross-out than the original Butcher's room. Runic wants a really broad, global audience, and I think this is a conscious choice not to damage that with a gore-fest. Personally, I think the gameplay is so good that even people with this reservation will enjoy it, and also think that the music of the Diablo series gave it more of a dark, horror feeling than anything else, and that is definitely in the mix on this title.

Now, the easy part, the positives:

- The game already rocks:

http://www.rpgfan.com/features/e3-2009/awards/index2.html#pc

- It will almost certainly be out in 2009

- It will cost less than half of your average new game release

- The modding kit built-in sounds like it could be even more popular than the game itself (and may well lead to some awesome player-created mods very quickly).

- The community already shows signs of being super-cool, with tons of interaction from the team itself.

http://www.runicgamesfansite.com/

May the spirits of Skatsim watch over and protect you,

Hratli

 

[Mackan]

Re: rip off from d3?

"It looks too cartoony" - That's a valid point, the art style is definitely not as dark and bloody as the original Diablo, and some people won't be truly happy at anything less gross-out than the original Butcher's room. Runic wants a really broad, global audience, and I think this is a conscious choice not to damage that with a gore-fest. Personally, I think the gameplay is so good that even people with this reservation will enjoy it, and also think that the music of the Diablo series gave it more of a dark, horror feeling than anything else, and that is definitely in the mix on this title.

Just curious, what kind of broad audience would this game get that the Diablo series could not? Looking at the success of the Diablo series, you would think it's successful enough, i.e reached out to an enough audience out there. How come the Shaefer brothers like to shift their focus from Diablo's more horror-like style to Torchlight's more generic 'kids can play this'- style?

With that said, this kind of game is probably the only one that you can develop in one year, their options might have been limited, being a new startup company.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

Hey guys,

I personally know a bunch of the guys on this team and have been able to play it recently, and wanted to clear up a few things.

Hratli

Does it play like mythos? Because it looks like it does.

 

[Funkopotamus]

Re: rip off from d3?

I think I can agree with this art style, even though I've complained about the D3 style and this is even further away from D1 or D2. From the knowledge I gained from one of Flux' posts about the Shaefer brothers' age when they conceived Diablo 1, when I was that age I drew a lot of similar gothy stuff. Maybe that's one of the things that hooked me. And nowadays I still doodle but it's usually more silly stuff. Sometimes I combine the two! That just gets confusing though.

 

[Firvagor]

Re: rip off from d3?

Almost all of the game is being developed in Seattle by a team led by Travis Baldree.

I think he was (or at least seemed like) the main PR guy on the HG:L forums, debunking rumors and giving us an inside scoop what was really going on. Hopefully this won't change.

- The community already shows signs of being super-cool, with tons of interaction from the team itself.

That's something I loved about Mythos. There was a lot of community interaction, letting us know that they're at least taking our thoughts into consideration.

Does it play like mythos? Because it looks like it does.

I'm interested in this as well.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

I think he was (or at least seemed like) the main PR guy on the HG:L forums, debunking rumors and giving us an inside scoop what was really going on. Hopefully this won't change.

Oh yeah, he was scopes, wasn't he? Was that his handle? I don't remember. He was a really awesome guy, if it's the same guy. He'd even come online to announce stuff and then play with us in our parties.
Really nice, funny guy.

 

[Firvagor]

Re: rip off from d3?

Oh yeah, he was scopes, wasn't he? Was that his handle? I don't remember. He was a really awesome guy, if it's the same guy. He'd even come online to announce stuff and then play with us in our parties.
Really nice, funny guy.

Well, there was him, too, but I'm pretty sure his username was something like TBaldree. Same personality, anyway.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

Ah, yeah, that's right. Scopes was kind of like a nice version of GFrazier then. "Community manager" or whatever.
I never had any interaction with Travis.

 

[Hratli]

Re: rip off from d3?

"Just curious, what kind of broad audience would this game get that the Diablo series could not?"

Well, the Diablo series, I believe, was rated "M" throughout, so that automatically means a limited audience. This is less true in the US than in places like Germany and especially China. I think the idea with the single-player game is to make it a guilt-free download for everyone. A guy who played it at E3 mentioned to me that the game's mod-friendly aspect would be a really cool way to get his kids into game design. Even though I personally loved the horror stuff in the original Diablo, I can see how you would be a little less excited about your 8-year old spending all day making his own dungeons if impaled bodies on spikes were an option.

"...With that said..."

Yeah, I think the idea is to get something out there with a little bit of the pressure that comes with a smaller budget and less time. It is ironic, but there is such a thing as too much time to make a title... What is the name of this site again?

"Does it play like mythos?"

Well, it has a bunch of guys from that team, including the lead. I didn't personally play mythos - the year the beta was up was at a time where I couldn't do much gaming - but I did play a decent amount of "fate". This game seems like it has elements of Diablo and Fate, but has its own style and pacing. On the whole, I'd say the action is more like Diablo than D2 or Fate - it is really about trying to get you whacking skeletons and piling up loot within the first minute.

"Oh yeah, he was scopes, wasn't he?"

I think you guys are mixing up Evan "Scapes" Berman

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-"scapes"-berman/5/682/745

and Travis Baldree

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,130074/

Travis has appeared on forums many times and done some interviews, but he's really more a programmer, designer and team lead than a PR person. Insiders in the games business have always been impressed with his range (he even has an art and audio credit on "fate"), and I think many industry insiders see this game as being exciting in terms of being his first game with a real full-fledged team.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

On the whole, I'd say the action is more like Diablo than D2 or Fate
"Oh yeah, he was scopes, wasn't he?"

...aaaaaaand, sold. Diablo I is my favorite game of all time.

I think you guys are mixing up Evan "Scapes" Berman

Scapes. That's right. I have a horrible memory, thank you.

Yes, the dungeon editor is what has me the most excited. It's never really been (successfully) done in an ARPG that I've seen. Should be great.

 

[Firvagor]

Re: rip off from d3?

Travis has appeared on forums many times and done some interviews, but he's really more a programmer, designer and team lead than a PR person. Insiders in the games business have always been impressed with his range (he even has an art and audio credit on "fate"), and I think many industry insiders see this game as being exciting in terms of being his first game with a real full-fledged team.

Yeah, I knew he was a "jack of all trades" of sorts, but I guess what I meant was that he was also one of the announcers with inside news. With the mention of Scapes, I also remember him quite clearly, also being active on the forums posting patch notes and such, the one who joined games and took part in server crashing attempts (portal spamming in particular).

 

[amerikhan]

Re: rip off from d3?

In regards to the OP it looks like Torchlight is a D3 single player clone which plans to release before D3 and even turn to develop into a MMORPG 1-2 years after its initial release. Even if Torchlight is a cartoony D3 clone I have no doubt that this game will become a competitor (mainly in its MMOG stage) with Diablo 3. Die hard fans of Diablo probably won't choose to play Torchlight over Diablo 3 at the time both games are released but I can defiantly see gamers choosing to play a D3-esque game that's out before D3's release.

 

[Risingred]

Re: rip off from d3?

In regards to the OP it looks like Torchlight is a D3 single player clone which plans to release before D3 and even turn to develop into a MMORPG 1-2 years after its initial release. Even if Torchlight is a cartoony D3 clone I have no doubt that this game will become a competitor (mainly in its MMOG stage) with Diablo 3. Die hard fans of Diablo probably won't choose to play Torchlight over Diablo 3 at the time both games are released but I can defiantly see gamers choosing to play a D3-esque game that's out before D3's release.

Torchlight does have a huge leg up over diablo 3 in that it has a world editor. It also appears to be very powerful and flexible as well, so that will bring in a lot of players, I bet. That's what I'm most interested in.