Concern over RimWorld's development [Kickstarter]

ConcernedBacker · January 10, 2018, 05:59:07 PM

Tynan gave this reason for why he originally ran the kickstarter with a goal of 20,000 CAD;

QuoteWhy Kickstarter?

The game is getting to the point where I (Tynan Sylvester) can't do everything it needs myself. It needs audio, and it needs art. This means I need to contract people to do these things, which takes money.

4 years later, and 250,000 CAD raised, where is the art and audio the Kickstarter was for?

OverlordMark · January 10, 2018, 06:18:46 PM

The information is on the website ...

https://ludeon.com/blog/studio/

There are a couple of people on there that are listed as working on art and audio.

dburgdorf · January 10, 2018, 08:46:57 PM

Quote from: ConcernedBacker on January 10, 2018, 05:59:07 PM4 years later, and 250,000 CAD raised, where is the art and audio the Kickstarter was for?

The obvious answer is, "In the game." Or have you somehow not noticed that the game in fact has art and audio?

If you're not a fan of the style, that's fine. Not everyone is. But to imply, as you do in your post, that Tynan is somehow ripping off the community and not producing what he promised is, at the very least, an insult to Tynan himself and to the game's creative team.

Dashthechinchilla · January 10, 2018, 09:12:28 PM

I started playing with A16. Was the audio and art massively lacking in previous alphas? Off the top of my head, the in game music including the song when you launch the ship is very good. Rimworld is one of the few games where I don't all but mute the music.

BlackSmokeDMax · January 10, 2018, 09:47:02 PM

Quote from: Dashthechinchilla on January 10, 2018, 09:12:28 PM
I started playing with A16. Was the audio and art massively lacking in previous alphas? Off the top of my head, the in game music including the song when you launch the ship is very good. Rimworld is one of the few games where I don't all but mute the music.

Nah, it's been in since very early. At one point I believe the current art style was was planned to be replaced, but I think the art style grew so much on people it stuck and most now prefer it to anything more "realistic." I know I do.

When you are dealing with stories, keeping some of these things more abstract keeps you in the story rather than the game having to hold your hand for your imagination. I liken it to how many times a book is so much more enjoyable than a movie, and that is likely due to your imagination bringing everything to life. Of course, some movies hit it out of the park so well that it'll sometimes go the opposite way, but I find that to be fairly rare.

Harry_Dicks · January 10, 2018, 11:29:21 PM

Quote from: BlackSmokeDMax on January 10, 2018, 09:47:02 PM
Quote from: Dashthechinchilla on January 10, 2018, 09:12:28 PM
I started playing with A16. Was the audio and art massively lacking in previous alphas? Off the top of my head, the in game music including the song when you launch the ship is very good. Rimworld is one of the few games where I don't all but mute the music.

Nah, it's been in since very early. At one point I believe the current art style was was planned to be replaced, but I think the art style grew so much on people it stuck and most now prefer it to anything more "realistic." I know I do.

When you are dealing with stories, keeping some of these things more abstract keeps you in the story rather than the game having to keep hold your hand for your imagination. I liken it to how many times a book is so much more enjoyable than a movie, and that is likely due to your imagination bringing everything to life. Of course, some movies hit it out of the park so well that it'll sometimes go the opposite way, but I find that to be fairly rare.

I am 110% okay with Tynan focusing more effort on content, systems, and qol improvements rather than art and animations. I think the art style is perfect, and a progress bar is seriously all I want. I'm fine using my imagination for what's not being shown. I grew up playing the 8 & 16 bit games so just having sprites is fine with me. I suppose if I was born years earlier and grew up with an Atari/Commodore, rather than SNES/Windows, I could enjoy DF's ASCII but I just can't man, I just can't. I really, really want to, too. Even with sprite packs, I don't know. Maybe if I could just see the sprites transition from one cell to another, or something, but I'm not sure what it is. But I'm okay with all of that... because I now have RimWorld

RyanRim · January 11, 2018, 08:17:33 AM

I think the current style sticks, nothing to develop really here. He already has a lot of freelancers, and contributors so its not a problem.

Jibbles · January 11, 2018, 02:18:32 PM

I like the current style too.. Though I wish there were more animations and effects to spice it up. I hope to see something like the "facial stuff" mod in vanilla some day.

magicbush · January 11, 2018, 06:33:18 PM

Quote from: Jibbles on January 11, 2018, 02:18:32 PM
I like the current style too.. Though I wish there were more animations and effects to spice it up. I hope to see something like the "facial stuff" mod in vanilla some day.

This. It just needs more animations and facial options badly.

Jibbles · January 11, 2018, 07:50:35 PM

It does need its animations. Not just for some eye candy but it can actually be helpful to the player. One thing that annoys me is that I have to shift through the health tab to see the status of my pawn about everything. This not only applies to pawns but raiders as well. It's funny that the most interesting effects to me are repairing buildings, and pawns head getting shot off.

Drugs.. You don't see any effects. When pawns take something like yayo, it would be neat to see them hop around acting hyped. Go-juice has some serious effects, the only indicator is when you wonder why this certain pawn is able to absorb all this damage. There's also the addiction.

Missing body parts/bionic parts. You don't know till you look at the health tab. Missing leg, pawn should be limping. etc

You got through an intense battle that went wrong. You can't tell the difference from the pawn who is about to bleed out than the one who's in no critical danger.

Is this pawn just chillin on this chair, or is he actually watching tv, playing chess?

Most explosions look and sound the same. (Sound is important in case you weren't staring directly at the scene) The list goes on but those are some of my main complaints.

Harry_Dicks · January 11, 2018, 08:13:07 PM

Quote from: Jibbles on January 11, 2018, 07:50:35 PM
It does need its animations. Not just for some eye candy but it can actually be helpful to the player. One thing that annoys me is that I have to shift through the health tab to see the status of my pawn about everything. This not only applies to pawns but raiders as well. It's funny that the most interesting effects to me are repairing buildings, and pawns head getting shot off.

Drugs.. You don't see any effects. When pawns take something like yayo, it would be neat to see them hop around acting hyped. Go-juice has some serious effects, the only indicator is when you wonder why this certain pawn is able to absorb all this damage. There's also the addiction.

Missing body parts/bionic parts. You don't know till you look at the health tab. Missing leg, pawn should be limping. etc

You got through an intense battle that went wrong. You can't tell the difference from the pawn who is about to bleed out than the one who's in no critical danger.

Is this pawn just chillin on this chair, or is he actually watching tv, playing chess?

Most explosions look and sound the same. (Sound is important in case you weren't staring directly at the scene) The list goes on but those are some of my main complaints.

Besides the animations, almost everything you said is already covered by multiple mods. Moody, MedicalTab, Numbers, I'm sure there is more. I agree vanilla does a terrible job of conveying pawns conditions, but hey for right now, mods are what we have to work with, and they are working very well for me! That's why I would rather have Tynan focus on adding more new content and systems, rather than building something up from scratch that is already covered by mods.

Jibbles · January 11, 2018, 08:46:34 PM

You list mods and I'm familiar with them. I should clarify that I rather not have to look through menus to see these effects/conditions. I spend enough time there as it is. I want too see it in my pawns, not through notifications or icons for a change.

I also don't want Tynan to get pulled away from adding new systems/content too but... this kind of thing matters to most players, and to be honest I think it would be awhile before it gets done the right way (if ever) without the team working on it.

Harry_Dicks · January 11, 2018, 10:56:31 PM

I agree I don't want to have to open a huge window to see updates on all of my pawns for certain things. That's why I think Moody is great. Now if only it would allow you to add custom things to it, like the Numbers tab does, but only in the smaller window. Would be great if you could maybe have a small window like moody, but just have specific things for certain pawns showing in it. That way you could see the mana bars on just your magic users (TMagic) or the vitae of your vampires (Rim of Madness) or if you are vanilla, you could have the mood showing for your pawn that is a nervous wreck with neurotic and volatile. There's also the mod I think it's called Colonist Bar, but I haven't checked it out yet beyond a few screenshots.

Jibbles · January 11, 2018, 11:51:09 PM

Moody is great. The colonist bar is my favorite. It's all about preference. Should definitely give a try when you get some time.

Kirby23590 · January 12, 2018, 05:24:32 AM

I think agree with what everyone is saying...

I like the art style of Rimworld too... Since i played Dwarf fortress and Prison Architect. I was fine with ASCII and loved the rough style with PA.

What Rimworld needs is some animations. Little things like colonist playing in the billiards table with pole cues ( From a mod if i remember. )
And hands with colonists. Like circle round hands to fit the style! ( Which is also a mod. )

And maybe TV playing shows or a giant flashing light for pawns to watch? Maybe there should be Radios that's plays simple music or sound when being used or as long it's on to add joy.

As long if it fits the style of Rimworld. I guess i'm stuck with it too.