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So, turns out I am the lead writer for a videogame now, The Detail to be specific. Since this is by far the most interesting thing I've done with my life in the recent past, I thought I might share something about it with you. Here's the official line on the title: The Detail is a new adventure game from Rival Games that takes the player to the streets of a crime-ridden city and into the shoes of Reginald "Reggie" Moore, a veteran detective grown frustrated with the lack of justice, and Joseph "Joe" Miller, a former confidential informant now dragged back into the life of crime he barely escaped. The player will need to investigate criminal activity, scenes of murder, arrest suspects and interrogate them for information, all while trying to navigate the pitfalls of an underworld where every choice holds consequences. Inspired by classic adventure games from Westwood and LucasArts and new series from Telltale Games, combining HBO's cop drama The Wire and with hand-drawn graphic novel art driven by the Unity engine, The Detail promises to raise the bar for dramatic interactive narrative. Due for release in 2014 on most popular tablet devices, as well as PC, Mac, and Linux. There's a fresh trailer too, all pretty and whatnot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD4YKsp6KyM So we are in point'n'click territory here, but we don't think pixel hunting equals detective work, so don't worry about that now. Also, that whole 'rub a skunk onto a ferris wheel to receive bacon' kind of puzzle solving is a bit old hat, so we've been investing more in the story and the characters here. This of course puts a bit of pressure on me, but hey, guess that's what they pay me for. I fancy we actually provide the players with more meaningful choices than Telltale has in the recent past, making things a little more interesting for everyone. We'll see how it turns out. We are going for the Greenlight now, so hey, if you fancy what we got going on, maybe leave a comment or give a thumbs up. Reckon everyone would appreciate it at this end. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=270003945 If you got some questions for me in particular, then I can of course answer them here as well, that's what threads like these are for I figure. Oh, and if you are hankering to know more about the studio, we got a page for that too: http://rival-games.com/
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Jun 22, 2014 17:44
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| # ? May 24, 2024 05:17 |
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I think it's kind of pretentious to compare your narrative to the "The Wire" when the dialogue in the trailer is so full of hardboiled cop drama cliches.
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Jun 27, 2014 15:48
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In a post Demon Rush world he could just copy and paste the script from a Final Fantasy game and I'd still be down with the writing. This does seem pretty cool. And honestly today most people in the target audience for something like this are going to think "The Wire" when they think cop show, so it seems a fair enough way to advertise.
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Jun 27, 2014 15:53
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"You keep asking youself if you would've gone down another path...but you don't... because that's who you are" as the music crescendos and images of violence and crudely drawn characters splash across the screen. This isn't comparable to The Best Television Show Ever, or one of the best adventure games since the the 90s. From all appearances it's trying to be Gritty Hardboiled Cop Drama: The Game. Come the gently caress on, Telltale has made some amazing games, and trying to tout your shoddily made title as being somehow better reeks of desperation and poorly conceived PR. You've told us almost nothing about the game and spend half your pitch comparing it to studios that pioneered the point and click adventure genre, a highly critically acclaimed TV show, and a critically acclaimed recent point and click game. But hey, maybe your story isn't poo poo, maybe the characters are actually complex and flawed in realistic ways that make them engaging to the player, but your attempt to sell it to us, plus the really, really lovely trailer has made this a joke.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:03
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More games should invest themselves in police procedural territory, but I'm really not digging the art-style.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:04
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Writing and design is tough. Good luck!
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Jun 27, 2014 16:10
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I like the setting and the story potential but the visual approach doesn't seem to work. Seems like something like Phoenix Wright approach to the scene interaction would have been better.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:16
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xutech posted:Writing and design is tough. Good luck!
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Jun 27, 2014 16:17
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This looks like Heavy Rain but somehow more crap
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Jun 27, 2014 16:28
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Looks bad, sounds bad... turns out you are the lead writer for a bad videogame now
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Jun 27, 2014 18:05
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So when do you fight the cow? All good adventure games have a fighting cow. That and this really doesn't seem all that advanced compared to the anime visual novels. Like the Walking Dead had fully 3D environments. The trailer makes it look like you're getting your hand held as you are dragged through the story with minimal interaction from the player. The Taint Reaper fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 18:08
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A proper Law and Order style police procedural game sounds like a cool idea, but this seems like a newgrounds flash game. If your marketing is based around character and story, you need to show them off properly. Get the target audience pumped for the product - show us the complex characters and difficult moral choices the characters will have to make. There's a potenial for a good game here, the presentation needs work.
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Jun 30, 2014 18:18
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Thanks for the encouragement guys, it is the warmth that I've come to love and expect here over the years. But yeah, we're going for our first game here, so there's no doubt that we've got a lot left to learn. Telltale didn't exactly produce winners in the beginning either though so, we're hoping to improve the way they did. I admire the gently caress out of their more recent games, but they constantly annoy me with their lack of actual choices, so I am hoping to give that to players myself. Admittedly it is a lot easier when we don't have voice acting. It probably should be pointed out again, that not all of what you've been seeing so far is final. Still plenty of polishing left for us to do. Also, I don't really handle the marketing side of things, and it does focus quite a bit on the graphics. Still, it is pretty hard to give you character and story without spoiling too much of the game. Something that we learned recently is that making interactive trailers for Youtube is a horrifying chore. Still, I am sure you'll enjoy the fruits of our labor just as much as you have so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVHUo75ezoA
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Jul 3, 2014 17:19
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Please, for the love of god, if you're a writer for ANYTHING, not just video games, if you're about to spit out some tired cliche, just try and think of something else. Don't be that guy.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:24
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