Plan for Ian 'Omroth' Hardingham
by Ian Omroth Hardingham · 09/16/2005 (5:15 pm) · 7 comments
Good morning everyone.
It's been a hectic month here for Determinance. Getting the final beta finished for submission to IGF took a huge push, but it's fantastic to finally get to that stage.
Our musician and sound engineer Paul Taylor has been getting us a lot of exposure, some of which you may have seen. His Music4Games article has been particularly popular, getting us links on GameDev.net and Joystiq. And with this new exposure, we thought it was time to get some current screenshots up on our website. Here's a couple:
The rest are in the screenshots section of the Determinance Website.
Now, we're just working hard to have Determinance basically finished for it's launch at IGC. Everyone who goes will get a chance to play the basically-complete version, and we're confident you'll all find it as original, compulsive, and as un-put-downable as we do.
Determinance is big.
Determinance is (very) soon.
Ian Hardingham
Mode 7 Games
It's been a hectic month here for Determinance. Getting the final beta finished for submission to IGF took a huge push, but it's fantastic to finally get to that stage.
Our musician and sound engineer Paul Taylor has been getting us a lot of exposure, some of which you may have seen. His Music4Games article has been particularly popular, getting us links on GameDev.net and Joystiq. And with this new exposure, we thought it was time to get some current screenshots up on our website. Here's a couple:
The rest are in the screenshots section of the Determinance Website.
Now, we're just working hard to have Determinance basically finished for it's launch at IGC. Everyone who goes will get a chance to play the basically-complete version, and we're confident you'll all find it as original, compulsive, and as un-put-downable as we do.
Determinance is big.
Determinance is (very) soon.
Ian Hardingham
Mode 7 Games
About the author
Designer and lead programmer on Frozen Synapse, Frozen Endzone, and Determinance. Co-owner of Mode 7 Games.
#2
09/16/2005 (6:42 pm)
one of the few games that would be cool on nintendo revolution 
#3
Anyways, I'm actually really excited about this title if you guys pull it off well. But what makes it the first?
09/16/2005 (8:00 pm)
A true sword fighting game sounds great. I'm glad you guys are giving it a shot. But your claim on your website about being the first true swordfighting game... what about Die By the Sword? That game had a rabid following.Anyways, I'm actually really excited about this title if you guys pull it off well. But what makes it the first?
#4
Anyways, i'm not going to be at IGC (unforunately) but I hope i'll be able to try out some form of this game at some point- it looks quite interesting :)
09/17/2005 (12:00 am)
@Andy: I was actually just going to mention Die By The Sword. That game had the most awesome sword handling system ever, and i've always wondered why it hasn't been implemented in other games.Anyways, i'm not going to be at IGC (unforunately) but I hope i'll be able to try out some form of this game at some point- it looks quite interesting :)
#6
We better put something about Die By The Sword on the website, as we're getting a lot of this. The reasons we proclaim to be the first "true" swordfighting game are as follows (deep breath, prepare for an essay):
(1) Determinance is actually a duelling game, based entirely on swordplay. Now, the people who played DBTS most had the most fun in multiplayer, which was much more of a duel. However, in Determinance there aren't any shields, and effective blocking with the sword (more on this later) is as important as effective striking.
(2) In Determinance you have *complete* control over your sword, and by that we mean angle as well as position. DBTS had a couple of pre-set "blocking" poses, but in Determinance you have the ability to angle your sword in *any* way you choose. For instance, in IRC last night someone asked me if it was possible to hold the sword "like Rutguer Haur in Blind Fury". I asked him to remind me exactly how that was, and he said
If you want to fight like that in Determinance, all you need to do is hold down a modifier and press down for maybe half a second (if you want the sword angled all the way down). From now on, you'll be fighting with the sword at that angle, wherever you move it. A quick tap of the modifier again will return to normal.
As well as this complete angle control, there are two other modifiers which change the sword angle in other "intelligent" ways, that are easier for a new guy to use in the heat of battle. As people improve, they can start taking maximum control of their sword, doing even more complex and cool things.
(3) People who only played DBTS for half an hour didn't like it. Those who persevered found a game that was deep and will probably give them nostalgia for years. The point is, that while it seems like using the mouse to directly control the sword should be something that's very intuitive, when you first started using DBTS' sword it felt uncooperative and eccentric. Pretty much our first priority when prototyping Determinance was to actually take advantage of the direct control, so that non-gamers can have fun swinging the sword the second they start playing. We're pretty confident we've achieved that, with very positive focus tests on non-gamers (and especially the female segment), but you'll all have to judge for yourselves at IGC :)
So, that's why we feel it's fair to pronounce Determinance the first "true" swordfighting game. I'll be putting something (a lot shorter) on the website though.
Bit of trivia: DBTS is not the only previous game to offer mouse-sword control. A pretty basic freeware arena combat game called Forge also has it.
Ian
09/17/2005 (3:57 am)
Hey everyone, thanks for the comments.We better put something about Die By The Sword on the website, as we're getting a lot of this. The reasons we proclaim to be the first "true" swordfighting game are as follows (deep breath, prepare for an essay):
(1) Determinance is actually a duelling game, based entirely on swordplay. Now, the people who played DBTS most had the most fun in multiplayer, which was much more of a duel. However, in Determinance there aren't any shields, and effective blocking with the sword (more on this later) is as important as effective striking.
(2) In Determinance you have *complete* control over your sword, and by that we mean angle as well as position. DBTS had a couple of pre-set "blocking" poses, but in Determinance you have the ability to angle your sword in *any* way you choose. For instance, in IRC last night someone asked me if it was possible to hold the sword "like Rutguer Haur in Blind Fury". I asked him to remind me exactly how that was, and he said
Quote:"lot of the time he holds the sword so instead of the blade going up to the sky, it points down to the ground. i dont know, but it looks like it might be more defensive or used for slashing attacks."
If you want to fight like that in Determinance, all you need to do is hold down a modifier and press down for maybe half a second (if you want the sword angled all the way down). From now on, you'll be fighting with the sword at that angle, wherever you move it. A quick tap of the modifier again will return to normal.
As well as this complete angle control, there are two other modifiers which change the sword angle in other "intelligent" ways, that are easier for a new guy to use in the heat of battle. As people improve, they can start taking maximum control of their sword, doing even more complex and cool things.
(3) People who only played DBTS for half an hour didn't like it. Those who persevered found a game that was deep and will probably give them nostalgia for years. The point is, that while it seems like using the mouse to directly control the sword should be something that's very intuitive, when you first started using DBTS' sword it felt uncooperative and eccentric. Pretty much our first priority when prototyping Determinance was to actually take advantage of the direct control, so that non-gamers can have fun swinging the sword the second they start playing. We're pretty confident we've achieved that, with very positive focus tests on non-gamers (and especially the female segment), but you'll all have to judge for yourselves at IGC :)
So, that's why we feel it's fair to pronounce Determinance the first "true" swordfighting game. I'll be putting something (a lot shorter) on the website though.
Bit of trivia: DBTS is not the only previous game to offer mouse-sword control. A pretty basic freeware arena combat game called Forge also has it.
Ian
#7
09/17/2005 (6:45 am)
Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast had a fantastic lightsabre system. It used canned animations, but had a different move for every forward/backward, left/right, jump/stationary combination, and you could control the direction/angle of the sabre with the mouse. This was probably after DBTS (i've never played that one), but I put many many hours into this game JUST for the mp dueling :). Cant wait to play Determinance! Looks more along the lines of what i'd like to be playing. 
Torque Owner Bob
Looking forward to seeing it at igc!