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The Chronicle: Dev Journal and 28 Screens
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
This week we get a one-two punch from Rapid Reality. Nathan Knaack returns for his sixth (and final - see below) developer journal and the company shows off a refined graphical look with twenty-eight new screenshots!
;) Since the inception of the FPS, theres always been something lacking in terms of melee combat, close quarters engagements with hand-held weapons. The first-person shooter is great for realistic ranged weapon combat with projectiles, explosions, and cover, but whenever two combatants get within arms reach of each other, the game boils down to pointing at your enemy and jamming the pistol whip button over and over again. Seeing as the Kaneva Engine intends to serve as a hybrid between the classical FPS and RPG models, its no surprise that we here at Rapid Reality are fully exploiting that into each of our games. |
You can read the full developer journal here.
...or take a gander at the twenty-eight new screenshots here.
Finally, we at MMORPG.com would like to send a special thanks to Nathan Knaack for all his hard work in getting these journals to us. This is his last as a member of Rapid Reality. The former Designer and Lead Creative Writer on The Chronicle has parted ways with Rapid Reality and will no longer be working with the company.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
all I can say is... absolutely amazing!
I am so amazed by this. I know it has always been possible, but theyre finally taking the time to do it. I cant wait!!!!
Screens look amazing. The style of the art is very interesting. Cant wait for this game to come out.
I posed before Caesars Ghost--Your losing your edge!
i would gladly pay for this game for the combat alone. this is very exciting for me because this is the kind of combat i've always craved in an online rpg. I Will Be Getting This Game.
Guild Wars 2 is my religion
Sounds great! I wonder how the controls work. For a sword maybe multiple different kinds of swings. Swing over head and if the monsters head is in the way you win.
Well written article too.
Ehm, the trees are 2d... whats up with that?
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
What is this about our trees being 2D? We are useing the NatFX package for our trees and foilage. If you think those are 2D trees, I am afraid you are sadly mistaken.
http://www.bionatics.com/
So what does NatFX mean to the games of Rapid Reality.
Well for one we will be able to have a wide veriety of the same type of tree. Unfortunatly this is not something we have had a chance to implement on yet. So far you will only see 1 style of oak tree and 2 styles of pine trees. Back to the point at hand. To create a tree with NatFX you select a seed type. You then fill in the age and season of the tree. Now everytime you hit the button to build a tree off the specs, you get a different result based on the age and season.
The next bonus is quality and preformance. The original high polygon trees are around 20,000 to 100,000 polygons, far to much to be used realisticly in a game. NatFX software has options to use the high detail version to render lower detail versions for use in games. We have setled on around 1,200 to 800 polygons for our highest detail trees. NatFX also generates all of the Level Of Detail versions of the tree as well. LOD is a way to improve preformance by swapping out versions of the model based on distence from the object. As you get farther from the object, it decreases in detail.
With this technology we will be able to bring the players full lush invironments, packed full of trees, shrubs and plants.
Thank You All
Yoshitoshi
Alan Carter
Rapid Reality DEV
http://www.mmocenter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=558
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
I'm curious, why did Nathan Knaack part ways with them? Was it an amicable parting? Creative differences or something? Also, I notice that he was described as a Game Designer for them as well as CM, but according to the below post on MMOCenter's announcement forums, it's essentially denied that he was anything other than a Community Manager. Am I reading it wrong?
http://www.mmocenter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=531
Here is the portion of the post I'm talking about:
" Let it be understood that Nathan was neither a game designer on The Chronicle nor any other current MMO Center games under development. Nathan was our community manager and the communicator of our game designs, concepts and game play features to our community. Nathan did provide input and his opinions on several game features, as every team member of Rapid Reality is encouraged to de as is our community. "
That doesn't jive with this tagline (here on this site):
"Developer Journal #2: Fame
Nathan Knaack, the Lead Creative Writer, Game Designer and Community Manager for MMOCenter's The Chronicle checks back in with his second article. This time he talks "fame". "
Some fans raise some concerns about the same question in this thread on MMOCenter:
http://www.mmocenter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=530&highlight=nathan+knaack
The Chronicle has caught my interest, so I've been reading up on it lately. I'm quite curious about this though, and it's been bugging me. Was this ever explained in more detail? Did Nathan ever say anything about it publicly? Sorry if it reopens any old wounds, or brings up anything unpleasant.
-Gobbo Knight
"Tie two birds together...they have four wings, but cannot fly." -Blind man, Circle of Iron