HL2.net Interviews Decadence

[Ennui]

I've just posted a brand new feature in the form of a lengthy interview with our very own forum member Henrik "Majestic XII" Alfredsson, game and level designer on the team for the upcoming mod Decadence.[br]

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When creating something unique art-wise we believe it’s important to set the visual style before we actually start creating the stuff that goes into the mod. Therefore we created a level that works as a template and inspiration. We also use this to define the color palette, architecture and the overall feeling of the mod. The reason why we do this is because we want to create a unified look that is easy for future team members to follow, this is especially important when people contribute from abroad and communication is limited.

Check the interview out here.

 

[Yorick]

Goddamn right.

 

[63]

I approve.

 

[Majestic XII]

I do too!

 

[<RJMC>]

it feels like gears of wars,just whitout brown

 

[Dodo]

It looks great ! Although the concept art has more plants etc growing out of the city.

-dodo

 

[qdog]

Looks promissing. I wish this team all the best, since there are about to start the great adventure of modding.

One tipp though: it is good to lay down a concept, set scenes and lay rules for the game design down. Thats very important. But you will notice that a lot of things will get kicked out later down the line. And all the gameplay ideas you guys come up might just not work down the road. So my tipp: Stick to your buttom plan but also throw something out if it doesn't work. And after laying out the buttom plan, spend a lot of time setting up a basic gameplay, a test map and get the game running so you can test it and tweek it. Establishing the gameplay is an important key and I would spend most of the development energy in this before you guys start working on a lot of art work and all that stuff.

I wish you all the best for your team and your project. Looking forward to see the progress!

 

[Majestic XII]

Looks promissing. I wish this team all the best, since there are about to start the great adventure of modding.

One tipp though: it is good to lay down a concept, set scenes and lay rules for the game design down. Thats very important. But you will notice that a lot of things will get kicked out later down the line. And all the gameplay ideas you guys come up might just not work down the road. So my tipp: Stick to your buttom plan but also throw something out if it doesn't work. And after laying out the buttom plan, spend a lot of time setting up a basic gameplay, a test map and get the game running so you can test it and tweek it. Establishing the gameplay is an important key and I would spend most of the development energy in this before you guys start working on a lot of art work and all that stuff.

I wish you all the best for your team and your project. Looking forward to see the progress!

Thanks for the comment. The team alrady got a couple of games under the belt, so we know full well how the cycle of design goes. I'm sure we'll be hitting some bumps along the road with this project aswell, but we're more experienced in handling those problems thanks to our previous games.

The very first thing we did, before we even had artists working on concepts, was to try out the gameplay. We had a complete level (with five arenas) complete within the first weeks, the same for some of the most critical features like revival, the capture system and regenerative health. All of those was up and running within the first weeks. The capture system back then was scripted in the levels for testing reasons, but is now getting implemented in the source code.

The stuff I said on the interview and the things you'll find on the site are only things that are announced. You should see what we really want to do with this baby along the road (if we have the time/knowhow and if valve is good enough to support it!)

 

[Crispy]

Voted on Moddb since it's genuinely an interesting concept. I'll be interested to see how it's pulled off, especially balancing it so just 1 player dying doest mean the other team can take advantage of one untimely mistake to steamroll to victory. 2v2 is always going to make each player crucial, so it will be a challenge making sure games aren't too short-lived.

 

[Ennui]

Doh, and there's a perfect question I should have asked; whether or not there's any way to revive your fallen teammate (think Gears of War).

 

[FriedchikenCamo]

I was under the impression that the website mentioned a revive teammate feature. The devs should probably correct me, but supposedly you only stay down until your teammates revive you. I can imagine that it will cost you to get wounded, but that your teammate could either quickly revive you and let the enemy advance, or maybe gimp one of them so they have something to worry about other than potentially steamrolling you. And I imagine that being a lone wolf rambo will REALLY cost your teammate if you fall.

As my wild speculation suggests, I'm genuinely excited for this mod. The gameplay description and interviews secured my ModDB vote.

 

[Crispy]

Doh, and there's a perfect question I should have asked; whether or not there's any way to revive your fallen teammate (think Gears of War).

This was in the interview:

Other features to help convey a heavily teamplay oriented gameplay are a regenerative health system and revival of fallen teammates among others.

But even if revival is possible, it could still mean a major disadvantage. What's to stop the other 2 players moving out in a pincer movement to take out the last man while he's desperately trying to revive his fallen comrade? This is why think it'll be tricky getting the balance just right. Without knowing the inner workings of the gameplay, there is every indication from the core gameplay mentioned that this could play out like a 2v2 competitive Counter-Strike game, simply because losing 1 player would totally disadvantage your side and spell almost certain defeat.

Of course there are possible workarounds. E.g. If only 1 melee and 1 distance weapon were permitted per side, but either one could be picked up by the fellow teammate if he perished. This would mean the two teams would still have the same arsenal, and the team with double the players would have to use tactics, not sheer overpowering weapons to finish off the other guy. (This doesn't necessarily have to work with weapons, it could be applied to the 'unique items' mentioned in the interview, just as a method of keeping both teams balanced in terms of equipment).

 

[Coulianos]

FriedchikenCamo:
You are correct in your statements, and you pointed out one thing that really matters in decadence; too stick with your team mate, or risk losing her.

Crispy:
Pincer movement would be a very efficient tactic in such a situation, but it requires very good cooperation between teammates. During our game tests we noticed that there are many factors that affect the outcome of this specific situation, such as cover, line of sight, distance and elevation differences.
Without revealing too much information about things that are still under testing I can state that one versus two players may not at all be disadvantegus if the sole player is smart enough.
Both teams will have the same arsenal to ensure balanced core gameplay.


Its really fun to see theese discussions arise. If you have any specific questions to us in the about the mod i would like to direct you to our forum for best response at www.decadencemod.com .