Basilisk Games - Studio Update

Couchpotato

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Basilisk Games has a new post on the company's forum with news on the studios future, and why the developer has gone silent. Don't worry though it's not all bad news.

I'm quiet because this is a transitional period for Basilisk. I am trying to secure future promotional agreements for Book III (bundles and spotlight promotions), and I am switching the studio machines over to new software- Unity3D is replacing BlitzMax, Blender is replacing 3DSMax. There is much to learn, and the next game will require a new design process since I will be working with additional people.

Not to mention that I will likely need to secure additional funds for the next game since Book III is probably going to fall a bit short of our first year estimate by about 20%. This is, coincidentally, how much Book III's sales were down our first week compared to Book II). I dislike Kickstarter, so I am looking into private financing.

And yes, to a lesser extent, I am pretty burned out on Eschalon. I regret promising three games from the start. I should have switched over to a new engine after Book II and made a different game, and only now be starting on Book III with a fresh engine. I am sorry to all you hardcore fans that I did not do this- it would have been a great way to end the trilogy.

So...I will likely be quiet for a while, but I do come by the pub every couple days and read through the more active comments. I still do a lot of email support and correspondence, so that is another way to quickly get in touch with me if you need something.
More information.
 
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wow another game? that is great news.

I'm content with the ending of eschalon, it has fulfilled itself, and there are plenty of re-runs to play all three games. I've finished them all as warrior, and finished first 2 as mage. so this is a huge series with tons replayability which is something extremely rare these days.

I'm sure he can come up with something even more cool. but the mind and inspiration must have rest, so no worries. we old gamers here aren't going anywhere.
 
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Wasn't too impressed by either of the games. But they weren't too bad either. Was worth my money and will probably also buy future games. But it will be interesting to see in which direction they are going.
 
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Unity? That likely means full 3D - which is a very different way of creating graphics.

I've stayed away from that myself, because I know my visuals would suck big-time.

Here's hoping they can keep some of that old-school charm of the Eschalon visuals.

Also, I've yet to see a fully developed Unity game that didn't run like an old dog.
 
Also, I've yet to see a fully developed Unity game that didn't run like an old dog.

Did they ever fix that overheating bug yet? As my video cards fans always go ballistic with unity games, and from what I read I'm not alone.:thinking:

As for Basilisk Games I wish them success, and hope the studio survives after the launch disaster of Book III earlier this year.
 
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Did they ever fix that overheating bug yet? As my video cards fans always go ballistic with unity games, and from what I read I'm not alone.:thinking:

Hmm, never heard of that one. But you could probably just use a frame limiter?

As for Basilisk Games I wish them success, and hope the studio survives after the launch disaster of Book III earlier this year.

Disaster? I guess I must have missed that one… I thought it was relatively well received?
 
Disaster? I guess I must have missed that one… I thought it was relatively well received?

I was referring to when the website went down for a week, and cost them a lot of sales. The post mentions the sales were off 20 % less than what he estimated.

This is not a good sign as he admitted he needs to find more funding also.
Hmm, never heard of that one. But you could probably just use a frame limiter?

I probably will as Unity eats up my CPU also, but that's probably due to the poorly optimized released Kickstarter games.
 
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I was referring to when the website went down for a week, and cost them a lot of sales. The post mentions the sales were off 20 % less than what he estimated.

Oh, that's unfortunate :(

They deserve better, imo.
 
I probably will as Unity eats up my CPU also, but that's probably due to the poorly optimized released Kickstarter games.

I suppose so, but I don't think it's all down to the developers. Even something like Wasteland 2, which is made by some pretty competent people, struggles with performance.

I know some people claim that's not true, but it really is.

The advantages of Unity are more about portability and fast development - but I'm not sure that's the case if you don't have sufficient experience with 3D graphics.

I certainly have no intention of moving away from XNA - which is more than adequate for the kind of game I'm trying to make.
 
I just purchased the entire trilogy a few weeeks ago when it was on sale at GOG.

Started a character in Book I and briefly messed around for a bit. I like what I've seen so far, but I wish there were resolution options higher than 800x600 and that everything wasn't so small.

Seems like a poor man's Divine Divinity, but that's not such a bad thing. :)
 
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I'm still waiting for the Steam edition of Book III to be updated to the most recent version after experiencing several nasty bugs in my first few hours with the game some weeks back.

A couple of quests were broken, a main quest npc was hostile, plus the ominous sounding "void of slimes" bug, made my early experiences with Book III a complete contrast to my bug-free times with Book I+II. Reading this article and the comments on the third game by the author, compound my experience somewhat.

I've plenty of games to play in the meantime however, so I'll wait until the issues are fixed, the experience more stable.

@JDR. I think the combat differences between DD and Eschalon make them poles apart; but I can kind of see where you're coming from.
 
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While Unity is a 3D Engine, you can do 2D games with it as well. Afaik they even optimized creation of 2D games within version 4.3.

@Pessimeister: Afaik there is a workaround for hostile Quest NPCs: You can use a spell to make hotiles friendly temporarily. This might also help with the quest.
 
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@JDR. I think the combat differences between DD and Eschalon make them poles apart; but I can kind of see where you're coming from.

Well I certainly wouldn't compare them combat-wise with one being real-time and the other being turn-based. But the world design and exploration are very similar in a way that not many games are.

I've always been disappointed that there weren't more games like DD, and Eschalon is one of the few I've discovered that strongly reminds me of it. It seems like the vast majority of isometric RPGs are focused almost entirely on combat and loot gain. It's nice to see a series that puts more emphasis on questing and exploration.
 
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I've always been disappointed that there weren't more games like DD, and Eschalon is one of the few I've discovered that strongly reminds me of it. It seems like the vast majority of isometric RPGs are focused almost entirely on combat and loot gain. It's nice to see a series that puts more emphasis on questing and exploration.

well there is fairy tales II:halls of the undead. its pretty damn old, but its graphically better than the last ultima games. it has a huge world and very cool combat/magic system(very much like the original dungeon master if you ever played).
 
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