Sui Generis - Development Update

Couchpotato

Couchpotato

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I almost forgot about this funded kickstarter my humble apologies about that. The game was called Sui Generis and the project has a development update post.
THE BIG PICTURE

During our Kickstarter campaign we were criticised for showing a lot of technology but not enough of a game or story. This was frustrating for us because actually the dynamic story is one of the aspects of the game we're most excited about. Technology is just a tool to support that vision and make the world more immersive.

We talked about a "dynamic story" but that could mean anything. Because we don't know how much we can accomplish it's been difficult for us to go into much detail, and we couldn't promise things we weren't sure we can deliver. Now we're actively working towards this goal and we need to tell you what we're working on. Still this is a complex topic that is difficult to explain concisely so please bear with us as we try to convey our ideas.

The kind of roleplaying experience we dreamed of and hope to create is one that hasn't been possible without a human game master who can intelligently respond to all your actions. We want your actions to have meaningful effects, not as pre-scripted "choice and consequences" over which we have no real insight or control, but as a world that is affected realistically by everything you do. We want you to be able to make mistakes, to fail and to feel that your successes are your own. We even want you to accomplish things that we as designers have never foreseen. We want a world capable of supporting your most creative strategies, where hypothetical scenarios turn out to be real. We're talking about roleplaying, immersion, being master of your own character in a world that can make you believe it is real.

Can we really do all this? As we've said before, we have to try. It is difficult, we ourselves have to occasionally remind ourselves why it might be possible. We are committed to it and actively working towards it. To us this is the only way worth doing it. It’s the same attitude we have with everything. We're doing combat using physics because that's kind of how it works. It might be far from perfect but it's a lot better and infinitely less boring than comparing a couple of numbers.
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Thanks go to Lemonhead for bringing this post to my attention.
More information.
 
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Looks really good. I'm glad that got funded, and thanks for the update. As far as their ideas about story, everything they describe wanting to do can be done. Other devs have tried it before. For instance, Bethesda started out wanting an emergent environment when they made Arena, I think. In the past devs have taken the easy way out and randomized crap to make it seem like it was emergent when it was actually just a dice roll. I guess they figured it was too much effort and nobody would notice that it was just faked and not based actors reacting to environmental factors. Of course, people do notice. I hope they succeed in taking this idea further than others have in the past. In any case, just based on the quality of the game engine I'll be trying this when it ships.
 
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Still sounds impossibly ambitious to me. That said, I'm really curious to see the results.
 
DArtagnan said:
Still sounds impossibly ambitious to me. That said, I'm really curious to see the results.
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Yes. I funded this one not so much because I expect a great game for myself to play, but rather becasue I really wanted to fund them to try out their ideas. They definitely have impressive programmer talent and even if they should ultimately fail to make a great game (of course I hope they won't), I am pretty certain some interesting systems and ideas will come out of it for future reference.
 
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Yes, that kind of ambition is all too rare in this industry - and you never actually know until you try it.

Maybe they really ARE that good. Some people have to be - or we'd never have games like System Shock :)
 
GhanBuriGhan said:
Yes. I funded this one not so much because I expect a great game for myself to play, but rather becasue I really wanted to fund them to try out their ideas. They definitely have impressive programmer talent and even if they should ultimately fail to make a great game (of course I hope they won't), I am pretty certain some interesting systems and ideas will come out of it for future reference.
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As did I. I don't have the slightest idea if its going to be as fun as they claim, but Sui Generis is without a doubt an intresting project to follow and they do have that programming talent to do remarkable things. Time will tell if its going to be enough.

Maybe they will fail, but Its heartwarming to see someone actively pushing the genre forward and trying out ambitious ideas.
 
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Dez said:
Maybe they will fail, but Its heartwarming to see someone actively pushing the genre forward and trying out ambitious ideas.
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Completely agree. Project Eternity/Wasteland2/Original Sin sound great but they aren't really trying a lot new things or pushing the genre forward. They are just refining a great formula that's been left by the roadside for a few years. Nothing wrong with that though.
 
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Good at game development, bad at KS-campaign marketing. The groundbreaking new systems look beautiful. Can't wait, how Sui Generis turns out gameplay-wise.
 
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Well they haven't posted since March, so there wasn't much to see anyway. :)

It does look gorgeous. Hoping for the best...
 
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This certainly is a high-risk/high-payoff project... hope they make it.
 
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Sounds a bit like Trespasser. Innovation no matter the risk. I hope they fare better.
 
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Cacheperl said:
This certainly is a high-risk/high-payoff project… hope they make it.
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They were funded. Risk is low. It will provide more insight on what is possible to make, what can be expected.
 
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Yah, I know they were funded. Doesnt mean they will succeed. They promised a game in their campaign, not a design study or something similar.

I completely agree that even a failure might give interesting insights or be a starting point for promising follow-ups. But that doesnt mean the project (as funded) is a success. A failure is a failure. Ask the poor guys who pre-ordered, err… backed a project like that.

And the risk of that happening is far from being low, especially with their goals and ambitions.
 
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What would you consider a failure in this case? I'm pretty sure that we'll get a playable product down the line. Getting the game out is a measure of success in itself. I'm also pretty sure that the game will be interesting. That's another measure of success. Will it live up to expectation? Deliver on every promise? Probably not, considering how ambitious the project is.

Given what Bare Mettle is trying to accomplish, there is of course a sizable risk that we'll get a more or less buggy mess. But let's hope for the best. If they achieve even a fraction of what they aim for, Sui Generis will be great. In this uncharted direction lies the future of RPGs, and I'm happy that one developer dares venturing forth. I haven't been this excited about an upcoming game in ages.
 
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I like to contrast these guys with Crate. Crate has taken their sweet time making a Titan Quest follow-up with basically an already complete engine. They've tweaked some graphics but there is basically nothing new in the gameplay beyond what existed in TQ. It is still taking them ages to bring something to the table and all they're serving is leftovers. Sui Generis is taking several common ingredients and mixing them a different way to make a unique meal. It may not taste the best, but at least I won't be eating the same old, same old again.
 
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Well, Grim Dawn is also not just a bunch of ideas in the cooking pot. It's an actual game that's getting close to being finished.

To my ears, Sui Generis sounds like some cool tech with a design that's still in the brainstorming stage. I don't see anything remotely resembling a game as of yet.
 
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