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Age of Decadence - June Update, Video

Time for a new Age of Decadence update, with lead artist Oscar posting about their recent progress. The headline items are a new "civil animations" system, which provides ambient animations such as merchants, workers and the like, a new composer and a new GUI under way. There's a video that shows off the new animations (and new music) and screens over at the AoD forums:

Quote:

A new month, and a new update about AoD! Sorry for the late post, but we've been working hard to show you something you have been waiting to see for quite some time… In this past month, we've been working hard on the civil AI and animations. Merchants selling their goods, people walking around, interacting with each other, workers carrying crates and other stuff. Nick created the system needed for this and now we are creating distinct civil AIs, like merchants, workers, tavern patrons, blacksmiths, beggars, librarians, miners, etc. We are still working on them, right now we don't have many, but now that the basic system is down we'll continue creating more in the following month. You will also hear some great music from a new composer that is working with us. He really nailed the style and mood we want for AoD, and we are very happy to have him on board.
Also, our great 2D artist is working on revamping the interface. The goal is to make an interface with a distinct style, that shows more of the gameworld, and that works better with multiple resolutions and aspect rations, plus some customization options. It's still a work in progress, but here are some screens that shows the style we are aiming for. Any opinions and suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks GhanBuriGhan on our forums!
More information.

Although its ultimately window-dressing, the new animations add a lot of atmosphere - nice!

The ITS people also seem to be more and more confident that the Demo is nearing release. Oscar mentioned that an (undisclosed) internal deadline has been set, and promised that it would be out before November.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan (Post 1061075503)

and promised that it would be out before November.

2012 or 2013?

/joke

The game is starting to look really nice, starting to look really polished.

this game sounds like its years away.

The UI looks a lot better than the old one. Animations are nice too.

The animations are a bit fast (walking), but they certainly enliven the environments nicely.
A pity they need to redo the UI, I really like the old one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkadia7 (Post 1061075515)

this game sounds like its years away.

Thursday, late 2012 I´d say.

Looks like a nice city builder. I wonder how much time PCs are supposed to spend on this plaza. Quite risky as the large bird view allows to see if NPCs spend their time loading/unloading the same cargo from the same place to the same place. Quite an effort.

I can't even believe I am seeing this. I really have to wonder what they are thinking.

A different skin is no big deal but a whole new interface style isn't going to make the game come out any sooner. Its style also reminds me of games like dungeon siege and dungeon lords, and any number of crappy action RPGs, which is to say completely awful. Even though the old interface needed work I think it looked really nice for an indie game and fit the setting.

I know many people here will tell me the game is already done but it's had no real progress in years as far as I'm concerned, and they've been saying that since this thing got announced. I see them polishing the same couple quests, reworking the same few art assets, a demo that feels very raw and unfinished with a simplified game system and GUI that needs extensive redesign (but it can't be thrown out if you want to actually finish some day). Now it's not just moving at a snail's pace but going backwards at warp speed.

I finally realized the release date would be the 5th of never a while ago, but seeing this it seems that was an optimistic estimate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManWhoJaped (Post 1061075602)

I see them polishing the same couple quests, reworking the same few art assets […]

That's because you aren't looking very hard and have made your mind up. The differences are tangible in every screen/video release.

I would accept that several years ago they jumped the gun and gave the impression of an imminent release but ever since then, they've been very careful and more information has been released than practically any other game in existence.

I could also understand some people disagreeing with their decision to go back over and polish the game but, as Vince would say, they only get one chance to release the game. Much as I'd like to play it now, it only makes logical sense.
The hardcore cRPG market will be the same size in 6 months (or whatever), their tech is already "old", so age isn't a real issue and they have no publisher to answer to. What reason do they have not to polish it further?

Same discussion as every update. You can find out what they are thinking on their forums, they are quite communicative. Its true that this is taking far longer than anybody anticipated - but there definitely has been progress, on all fronts. So IF (rather when, I have no doubts it will come out) it comes out it will be a far more polished game.