Some Thoughts

[Old School Gamer]

Hey,

I wanted to give some thoughts on the game after playing the demo for a couple of hours now:


First, I think that the closest parallel that can be drawn in terms of the nature of the gameplay is to that of Ultima 7; Similar rewards for exploring, similarly interesting and varied things to find in exploring. But Eschelon does this I think even better than U7 did - the puzzles are more intricate, and the pacing is better, in terms of finding little things here and there as you explore the world.

Second, I think that the character generation system and the positive results of developing your character feel very rewarding, like the dude said in the review that was posted a couple of days ago, you don't feel like you've made bad choices in developing your character.

Overall, it's a great game and it definitely does have that old-school appeal to it; I think that in some ways it does things better than any previous RPG has - specifically in terms of rewarding exploration. I'm going off of only a couple hours in saying this, but the game feels very coherent so I'd imagine that this continues throughout the game. I'm very interested to see what other environments there are beyond the burned out town at the start of the game.

I want to say too that I think that the text windows describing your surrounding environment as you travel around increase the immersion hugely. If only the majority of game developers realized that imagination itself is the best creator of immersion, not flashy graphics or sounds. Good writing can make the experience of playing a computer game similar to that of reading a book. You have the information which is onscreen, but at the same time the game is being experienced by the player within the realm of imagination, which I think is probably a huge part of what made the original old-school RPGs fun - there is some kind of a great feeling in this type of gaming. Anyway, kind of a different topic, but I thought it was interesting. It takes a person back to the days when imagination was part of the experience.

Side note: It's running slowly on my computer.. I've got an Athlon 4000+, 2Gb RAM, etc, the only thing that I think could be slowing it down is that I have onboard video, Geforce 6100/430. I have 256Mb of RAM dedicated to the onboard, but this is a huge bottleneck for my system so this could be the reason. Other games which are similar graphically play smoother, so it could be a bug, but I'm not sure. My score on the options screen is around 50 for game performance, on low graphical settings.

I do have a video card on the way though, coming in the next couple of days, so I'll know for certain if the onboard video is the cause.


Another note, question for the devs: I've heard that you've used Blitz to program the game; I was considering trying to make a game a few months back, and decided that Blitz would be the most flexible and powerful tool to design the game with. How would you say it's been using it to make Eschelon? Are you going to use it for your next games?

And how much of the "base" code for book 1 are you going to use for book 2? I'd imagine that for book 2 you will have a much more solid base to work with from the start. Part of what made me decide not to make a game was that it's more than just a creative thing, it's also a logic/programming thing, so it's out of my realm really.


But Eschelon - really a great game, and while there have been comparisons to Spiderweb's games, I think it's much better crafted and way more immersive (but I'm not really a fan of spiderweb).

I think a much closer comparison is to Ultima 7; I'm very much looking forward to seeing the later parts of the game. Good work on making a great game, I think it's going to be a success for you guys.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Thank you for the kind words, OSG.

As for game speed, try setting the game on OpenGL, or 16-bit color. It really can make a big speed improvement on some people's computers, and 16-bit color makes very little visual difference.

BlitzMax is really awesome for programming, but it doesn't quite have the global support that C++ or C# has. Still, it is an enjoyable system to work with.

Book II is in early planing stages. We will use a lot of the rules code (version 2.0) but much of the engine will probably be updated. We'll talk more on this in early 2008.

[Old School Gamer]

I just wanted to say, I set it to OpenGL and it's scoring around 1 or 2 now. The effects/atmosphere of the game are great; It feels like a more solid game than Oblivion to me (I felt like oblivion was essentially just a big empty), definitely the most solid indy RPG I've played.

I'm more of a party-based RPG kind of gamer, but this game has that Fallout kind of appeal to it, I'm not sure exactly what it is that makes it and Fallout feel similar, but it's good. You can tell that people who enjoy games and care about the game have made it. It's got soul.

Once I've got some cash I'll get a copy of the game.

A question, (anyone who knows the answer feel free to answer): If you buy the downloadable version only, how long do you have the rights to download it for? They don't expire, right? I'm 99% sure I'll buy the CD version with supporting indy devs in mind, but I was curious about this.

Also - If you have plans to advertise a lot or to spread the word in some way about the game, I'd say go full bore on it. It's definitely going to sell well to people who dig old school RPGs.

It feels like a polished version of a 1990s RPG, more production values, better interface; just as immersive as those RPGs were, but updated to today's gaming standards. Which is really what gaming needs today. No fluff, lots of soul, and that's what this game delivers. Just some words of encouragement.

And don't count out the sales that will come over the next while, I think that word of mouth will make this game known. How long has it been since a good RPG like this has come out? A lot of people are waiting for RPGs like this one. Keep up the good work!