Cyclopean - Canceled

Dhruin

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Sad news from Cyclopean's lead, Scott:
Cyclopean Canceled.
There it is.

A couple of months ago, I had to look at where I was at with Cyclopean. I felt that five years was a reasonable amount of time to develop a turn-based indie CRPG and August marked my first two years working on the game. I asked myself: Is the game 40% complete? No. Is the game 20% complete? No. Surely the game must be at least 10% finished? Perhaps, but entirely on the writing side. What I've got is basically a ton of writing and nothing else. And Ted, still the only other member of Team Omega, just isn't able to dedicate those 20+ hours/week to keep things rolling. Vince has got a relentless, driving ambition to see AoD completed, but I need to know my investment of hundreds-into-thousands of hours is actually going to result in a finished product, and I don't have that confidence in Cyclopean, in fact nothing near it.

So a big thank you to all the people who liked the writing, who like Lovecraft, and who support ITS generally! Vince really gave me a great home here while it lasted. I have another less (much less) ambitious project in mind, one that I can actually anticipate will see the light of day, in part because I don't need to recruit anyone else to do it. But I'm not going to reveal it until I have an Alpha build and need testers. I don't want a reputation for stringing people along.

One more thing: good luck to the other teams and their talented members under the banner. Go indie!
Vince posts further down that he hopes the ITS team can revisit this with Scott once The Age of Decadence has shipped. Fingers crossed.
More information.
 
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That's a real shame. I thought it was an interesting, excellent idea. Still looking forward to Age of Decadence, though.
 
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This is one of my most wanted games and really want to play it so please continue this after AOD is done. Even if it takes 10 or 20 years I will still be patiently waiting for this game.
 
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That's really sad. Scotts writing is top and very lovecraftian. I was really looking forward to a "literary" game, maybe a bit like P:T. However it was notable for a while now that the forum had gone pretty silent, and that there wasn't really a team behind the project.

The link above is dead, btw - seems the forum has been removed.
 
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Well, this was something of an expected turn of events, actually.
Indie development always starts with ambition over the top, then it goes to a slow, and painful death. Heh, I was the same naive guy 20 years ago, and hey! now I'm a cynical pro game developer. :[

Trust me, I've seen lots of stories like this -- sad, but true.
Bottom line: we need more Jeff Vogels. NOW!
 
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Gutted!

Fingers crossed AoD is a massive success and more keen developers with programming skills but limited writing ability want to get involved and can provide Scott with the support he needs.
 
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Problem is that indy developers take on too ambitious projects.

They should learn to tone things a bit down.
 
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Problem is that indy developers take on too ambitious projects.

They should learn to tone things a bit down.

Or keep quiet until it's at least in the alpha stage.

I do not follow indies that are announced in the beginning stages of development, unless there are other contributing factors that give it better odds on being finished.

I follow Frayed Knights because of the constant updates and overall attitude of the developer. I was skeptical of AoD for a long time and refused to get my hopes up or follow it until it really started looking like Vince was going to finish it. Dead State has some great talent behind it and even though there is no release date announced it's defiantly not in the beginning stages anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if they release it next year or at the latest the year after that.

I've seen too many mods/indies that bit off more than they could chew. Anyone remember the one thousand and one mods for Ultima being developed years ago? How many of those actually saw the light of day? There are a ton of problems that can go wrong with any mod/indie project especially with rpgs.

I'm not speaking from experience, but I have read a lot of "Canceled - I'm sorry" messages in my time and two things always stick out. First the technical side and second people. I believe the biggest issues that always seem to occur are communication breakdowns and staff flaking out.

So we'll just add this to the list of vaporware titles unless Vince resurrects it after AoD is finished. I would have more faith in this actually getting released if Vince was making it.
 
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Ouch. This is really sad news. I was looking forward to a Lovecraftian cRPG with with writing that could do the setting justice... :-/
 
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darth_vader_nooo1.jpg
 
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I would have more faith in this actually getting released if Vince was making it.

Fingers crossed . . . the engine will be pretty well there by the time AoD's finished and Scott's probably already done most of the writing, it must be easier to resurrect than some projects would be.
 
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Ah, that's unfortunate! I've really been looking forward to something Lovecraftian - esp after CoC:DCotE (god I hate acronyms...but people here always use them, so in your face ;-) I really hope that this is revived at some future point. Is anyone aware of any other games in this milieu? I'd really love a crack at them.
 
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booboo:

The Penumbra series has a Lovecraftian feel to it. I can only really recommend the 2nd game (Black Plague). I've read that the combat in the first game (Overture) kinda ruins it...but there's bound to be a trainer to just god-mode through those parts. Black Plague has no combat at all. No idea about the third game (Requiem) but apparently it's all puzzles.

http://www.penumbragame.com/ageGate.php
 
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Here's a list of games with some lovecraftian elements. Another list from Mobygames.

If you're willing to go back in time I highly recommend Alone in the Dark (the first one only) and Shadow of the Comet.

I loved Quest for Glory IV. That is the best out of all of the QFG games (after the patches :)) It has a great dark setting mixed with humor. I wouldn't say that it's the best lovecraftian game out there, but it's definitely the best rpg/adventure game on that list (also the only one ;))

Unfortunately, there are not that many available.
 
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booboo:

The Penumbra series has a Lovecraftian feel to it. I can only really recommend the 2nd game (Black Plague). I've read that the combat in the first game (Overture) kinda ruins it…but there's bound to be a trainer to just god-mode through those parts. Black Plague has no combat at all. No idea about the third game (Requiem) but apparently it's all puzzles.

http://www.penumbragame.com/ageGate.php

I can highly recommend both the first and the second game. Their stories are closely tied together, and ended in the second game. The third is just puzzles as you say.

There isn't really any actual combat in the first game. I think the intention is that you should avoid all the dangerous creatures, but when I played the game I ended up killing off the creatures using other means than weapons :)

I'm playing their newest game "Amnesia" at the moment. Also seems really cool so far. Overall I'm a huge fan of these guys - both because of their products, but also because of the genius of their game design. Perfectly designed for a very small indie developer with limited resources for producing expensive assets.
 
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A bit of surprise that no one mentions Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

Yes, it is on GameCube, but you can play it on Wii, so all is not lost.
Do yourself a favor, grab your girlfriend's dusty Wii (good excuse: honey, I want to try out that exercise game, y'know, I wanna get rid of my beer belly, darling), buy ED used for $3, and immerse yourself in one of the finest Lovecraftian game ever published.
 
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I forgot about Eternal Darkness. Yes, anybody with access to a Wii (and likes horror games obviously) should play it.

Now that was a game that knew how to do sanity effects. Prepare to have the game mess with YOU, not just the character in the game. :)
 
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I'm really sorry to hear this as I was quite anticipating it - and even more sorry for Scott for whom this must be devastating, even if it sounds like the right decision given the circumstances.

I very much hope they revisit it after AoD releases!
 
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