Super Sache, 108 Sterne Danke für das Interview. Ich hoffe, Retro Sumus finden hier die Beachtung, die sie verdienen.

Zur Umfrage: Solange ich nicht mehr über Ameba erfahre, kaufe ich es "blind" nur für meine Lieblingskonsole, den Saturn Saturn Homebrew MUSS unterstützt werden, zumal Ameba eine Art Schlüssel darstellen könnte.
Die gezeigten Artworks sind sehr hochwertig, das Stück auf dem Piano klingt wunderschön, trotzdem brauche ich hier für echte Euphorie mehr Input.
Ich hoffe, dass sich genügend Fans des Genres finden, egal für welche der beiden Konsolen.

Xenocider finde ich, ebenfalls ohne viel gesehen zu haben, thematisch sehr viel reizvoller, zudem finde ich die Musik bisher hervorragend (dieses "oriental theme" aus dem Devblog). Ich bin gespannt, was Chui technisch aus dem DC ' rausholen kann. Ich bin mir recht sicher, dass ich das unterstützen werde.

Ich bin ja froh, dass er Geschmack bzgl. SEGA Konsolen hat

Du als Nintendo-Fanboy kannst das nicht wissen, ich sehe nur ähnlich aus

Kann mal noch jemand 108 Sternes Post als news markieren?

Done

Wäre gegebenenfalls (und sofern die Kasse es dann zulässt) auch bei Beidem dabei

Die Space Harrier-Hommage wäre ja sowieso schon mal ein Blindkauf

Hey there, I'm Carlos. I'll be checking out these boards more often now. I'm afraid I only speak very little german for now, though, but I'll try to answer any more questions you guys have.

Thanks again for the interview, Daniel!

Hi Carlos,

thanks a lot for registering, the games and the interview! This is not Sega related, but do you have any idea yet if the PC (Linux, Mac, Windows) versions will also be released in physical form (or even be included on the Dreamcast disc like Elansar / Philia did)? I'll buy the Dreamcast versions anyway

Iggi schrieb:

Hi Carlos,

thanks a lot for registering, the games and the interview! This is not Sega related, but do you have any idea yet if the PC (Linux, Mac, Windows) versions will also be released in physical form (or even be included on the Dreamcast disc like Elansar / Philia did)? I'll buy the Dreamcast versions anyway

Quite honestly, we are not sure yet. I guess it can be done, as the manufacturing is basically the same price. It would all depend on how many orders are estimated, as always. Anyway, if there's a physical PC release, I think it would contain all 3 OS versions in one disc. If I recall correctly, that's the way Pier Solar was done as well.

Welcome to NeXGam, Carlos! Good to have you "on board"

pseudogilgamesh schrieb:

Welcome to NeXGam, Carlos! Good to have you "on board"

Thank you! I'm glad to be here too. And I was really glad to talk to Daniel again after a few years. I only knew him briefly during my time as a translator for Pier Solar and I think we hadn't really talked again since then


Just in case you guys feel like checking these out, here are our previous interviews, one of which features some early concept art, the other one the first screenshots for both Ameba and Xenocider:

retrosumus.com/2014/11/our-fir…aracter-designs-revealed/
retrosumus.com/2015/06/ameba-x…ts-interview-dc-junkyard/

Also, Daniel was kind enough to feature these videos, but if you want to learn more about the development/creative process...
retrosumus.com/2015/10/dev-diaries-01/
retrosumus.com/2015/10/dev-dia…-ameba-music-composition/


There's another chapter of our Dev Diaries coming (REALLY) soon, by the way

I have undergone a similar development of feelings towards those bitmap-scaling railshooters. Nowadays, with the wisdom of age, i'm finally able to love and appreciate 'em!

However, I remember me playing it frequently on my GG, simply because it was the first and only game, i bought

Yet, i also remember me failing in this game over and over again; sometimes, i heard our hero scream (with the exact awful sample-quality) in my worst nightmares

Thank god, my playingskills have developed a little, since then

Welcome!

Ameba is looking nice from what i can tell, but regarding Xenocider: you should imo, if i may, either go the bitmap route (never mind my nick) or, if you prefer to stay polygon: try something more abstract like purely polygon meshs akin to Rez or something.

Not to sound rude, but in it's current form it's looking -ahem- slightly dated in a not so lovely retro way by now

108 Sterne schrieb:

I always liked you Carlos. Especially after you reviewed Pier Solar for that magazine, made me proud you enjoyed it so much.

Now here is a funny thing: 5 years ago when PS came out, Xenocider would not have interested me much. Ameba yes, but Xenocider? No.

Becoming older my gaming habits are changing. I never liked Space Harrier, I told Zebbe back in the day how crappy it was. Those simple arcade games were not my thing.

But... simple arcade games have since grown on me. No idea why that happens, because I still enjoy modern games with big stories and stuff too. But I also learned to love games from the golden age, like Robotron or Paperboy, up to the fancy Sega Super Scaler games.

Now, with a homage to the classic rail shooters, I am excited.

pseudogilgamesh schrieb:

I have undergone a similar development of feelings towards those bitmap-scaling railshooters. Nowadays, with the wisdom of age, i'm finally able to love and appreciate 'em!

However, I remember me playing it frequently on my GG, simply because it was the first and only game, i bought

Yet, i also remember me failing in this game over and over again; sometimes, i heard our hero scream (with the exact awful sample-quality) in my worst nightmares

Thank god, my playingskills have developed a little, since then

Heh, I've been feeling the same way for the last few years. And it's not that I love Space Harrier now (actually I suck!), but I do appreciate better how groundbreaking those games really were back then. On the other hand, Out Run and After Burner have always been highly addicting to me...

Bitmap Brother schrieb:

Ameba is looking nice from what i can tell, but regarding Xenocider: you should imo, if i may, either go the bitmap route (never mind my nick) or, if you prefer to stay polygon: try something more abstract like purely polygon meshs akin to Rez or something.

Not to sound rude, but in it's current form it's looking -ahem- slightly dated in a not so lovely retro way by now

I completely understand what you mean. To be honest, we considered 3 options last year when we began work on Xenocider. One was pure pixel art, but this was quickly discarded as Abel is a 3D designer and he wanted to contribute to the DC legacy from his professional field; another option was the retro-looking polygonal graphics, aiming for a late 90s / early 2000s style, with all the risks we know it could bear (as your comment makes it obvious, early 3D games have not aged well); and the third was using cubes instead of pixels...

This would be closer to the abstract, Rez-like style you are talking about, but with more recognisable forms/figures/terrains and everything. Actually, our WIP title for the game was Project Q because "cube" sounded somewhat similar to "Q"...

Our friends from SegaSaturno.com and Dreamcast.es saw our very first concept demo using cubes. After RetroBarcelona last year, we ditched this idea, as the graphics were a little confusing even for our friends who were used to retro games.

Long story short, we decided to try, even if we knew Xenocider would not be for everyone (neither is Ameba). But the game is what it is, we are not hiding the style or the age we are trying to homage, and users will decide if they like it or not. I can assure you one thing though: we will never show PC gameplay footage claiming it's a DC, we will never use any kind of false advertising. And, when we release the game for PC, it will still feature the same style, but with much higher resolution and the possibility to add filters, scanlines and/or "CRT monitor dirt", as Locomalito did for Maldita Castilla. This is an arcade game and we want it to feel that way.

That being said, I (honestly) appreciate your opinion. There's still tons of work to do left before Xenocider looks as it should, though. So I hope we can earn your trust and enthusiasm before it's finished

108 Sterne schrieb:

It is all a matter of taste, I guess. The Xenocider Screenshots are very early afaik, so we did not publish them in our interview. I think they are on the right path though, as the Dreamcast was made for pushing polygons; and something asbtract like Rez would completely put me off personally, I'd even say it would be a total dealbreaker for me.

A matter of taste, simply put. But yeah, those screenshots are indeed early. Personally, I love Rez, but that style just wouldn't allow us to design the kind of diverse enemies and distinct-looking worlds we intend to use.

Bitmap Brother schrieb:

Welcome!

Ameba is looking nice from what i can tell, but regarding Xenocider: you should imo, if i may, either go the bitmap route (never mind my nick) or, if you prefer to stay polygon: try something more abstract like purely polygon meshs akin to Rez or something.

Not to sound rude, but in it's current form it's looking -ahem- slightly dated in a not so lovely retro way by now

Ich bin da eher bei Herrn Sterne. Die veröffentlichen Screens sind soweit ich weiß "proof of concept"/alpha, wichtig war in dem Fall, dass das Gezeigte auf Originalhardware läuft. Hätten Carlos & Co jetzt entschieden, dass es bei einem reduzierten, abstrakteren Look bleibt, und das Ganze überzeugend mit einem eigenen Touch garniert, hätte ich auch nichts dagegen gehabt. Aber ein Rez gibt es ja schon und somit würde damit keine Lücke auf dem System geschlossen. Für Bitmap-Scaler hab' ich die Yu Suzuki Game Works, dürften auch schwer zu toppen sein. So wie es jetzt ausgerichtet ist, wünsche ich mir eigentlich nur, dass Chui soviel wie möglich aus seiner Lieblingskonsole herauskitzeln wird. Wenn das heutzutage jemand kann, dann er (und Roland Graf) soweit ich das überblicken kann. Alle anderen müssen erstmal abliefern

@Carlos: Thanks for the insights it's very interesting to learn more of the history of origins of Xenocider. I know that you are yet in an early stage of development, but could you already reveal what framerate and resolution you are aiming at?