Fallen Earth's art director talks about updating the apocalypse
by Krystalle Voecks 
Sep 27th 2009 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, New titles, News items
In all, it's a great post, offering up some frank "making-of" type information for those who are curious about how this indie studio is moving forward with their work on Fallen Earth. Also included are a series of interior and exterior images showing before and after - updates that will help to improve the overall look and feel of the game. For an apocalypse, we think it looks pretty cool, and can't wait until we ride into Embry and see all new, less memory-intensive buildings.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Venekor said on 1:18PM 9-27-2009
They really need to work on animations which you'd have thought would have become easier over the years seeing as it hasn't changed much but the animations with small developers always seem to get ignored. The thing is the animations are what will keep people around because it adds to the feel of your character in the world. Also reloading animations in the game are horrible and if they got them right then combat would not only look better but feel better too. The running animation is so stiff it's like they've got a rod up their arse.
That and the character models are the main reason why I never gave it more of a chance after 30 mins. They've tried updating the character models already but it's like polishing a turd...
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The Claw said on 5:16PM 9-27-2009
I don't think that animations get "ignored" by small developers, as such. It's just that it is by far the hardest part of the graphical work to do a good job on, and most small developers simply don't have the talent in their teams that you need to do good, realistic, expressive animations.
I'm sure the Fallen Earth team are quite aware of how bad their animations look, but it could literally take a couple of years work by a team of artists more experienced than they can afford to fix them all up.
bmurphy said on 3:13PM 9-27-2009
Leaving an mmo because of the character animations? Really? I guess every gamer has different priorities that determines their desire to play a game. For me its all about the actual gamplay. Animations and graphics in general are rather far down on my list of things that keep my playing an mmo. Its like watching football. Sure, I would rather watch every game in HD, but I would rather watch the Pats and Steelers in black and white than watch the Lions and Browns in HD. If you want a gorgeous, shiny, graphically pleasing mmo with no depth, then I am sure you can find some Asian mmo to get off on. If you want an independent, sandbox style mmo that has a deep crafting system and no tab targeting, then welcome to Fallen Earth.
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Myria said on 5:06PM 9-27-2009
If a game wants a microscopic playerbase, inevitably leading to servers shutting down and doors closing, ignore things like animation smoothness and graphical quality.
Looks count, if they didn't we'd all be playing MuDs on 286s and not giving a rat's behind about what the next big thing in graphics technology might be.
Looks won't make your game, no, but the lack of them will sure the hell kill it.
And, frankly, "independent, sandbox style mmo that has a deep crafting system and no tab targeting" is not a list of reasons FE will succeed, it's a list of reasons why it needs to try twice as hard if it wants to even have a chance of surviving.
starmonkey said on 8:26PM 9-27-2009
Personally I think it's less about "graphics" and more about "atmosphere". Stilted character animations can kill the mood pretty quick.
Very interested in FE, but am waiting for a free trial or similar before I dive in.
Bhagpuss said on 3:47PM 9-27-2009
It's a sliding scale, isn't it? If the graphics are gorgeous, the gameplay can be bland. If the gameplay's compelling, the graphics might get away being ordinary. At some point, though either can be off-putting enough that no degree of brilliance in the other department can offset it.
No real reason, of course, why we can't expect great gameplay and great graphics in the same game.
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CindyL said on 4:07PM 9-27-2009
This is good news. I think I'm going to wait and see how they do housing before getting this one, but it's definitely another mmo I want to get into eventually. What's scary is I said that about Tabula Rasa too.... >
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Mig said on 6:17PM 9-27-2009
There is only one server, so there will be no "servers shutting down" issue. The developers are on record stating that they only need 50k subscribers to turn a huge profit. This is not a huge AAA mmo. This is a niche mmo developed by a very small team. Some of us would rather have solid gamplay and crappy graphics that can be upgraded later like Eve did, than bad gameplay and uber graphics like Warhammer and Age of Conan. But of course the rest of you can keep drinking the AAA kool-aide shouting "OOOH YYYAAA" at every big new shiny mmo that launches (Aion anyone?). I will happily be playing a game that caters to my niche desires and not the needs of the least common denominator.
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Aganazer said on 6:40PM 9-27-2009
Agreed! I'd gladly take FE warts and all over another genre clone like Aion. I would assume that I am not the only one who wants a new experience from their MMOG rather than more of the same (plus a well marketed twist to make it sound new).
I think we can be reasonable sure that FE will have a strong niche of hardcore fans. There is enough meat on its bones that I don't think it will be going away anytime soon.
rheric said on 9:36AM 9-28-2009
Exactly. I've played both, and I have to say FE is far and away the winner. Sure, Aion is pretty, and that held my interest for a few hours. Yes, you can fly in Aion, but I can fly in Champions Online, for indefinite periods of time.
Aion is about as vanilla as you get. I don't care how much work and thought the translation and writing teams put into the content. Compelling writing doesn't make the "Kill X of Y" grind anything better. And that's about all Aion has to offer - nothing new in gameplay, in story, nothing new in anything.
FE is definitely on my list. The graphical updates just make it more appealing.
CindyL said on 11:32AM 9-28-2009
@ Mig Angry much?
We all have different reasons for getting into MMOs, if Aion hadn't been coming at the same time as this I would be playing this game, but that's not what happened. There's features of an mmo I care about you probably don't and vice versa. That doesn't mean those feautures are less important just less important to you or me, and will weigh in when making a decision on what to play. :)
For me, I'm sorry if you think that's irrelevant but I am big on graphics, much more then gameplay. I don't even need high end graphics but I do appreciate a dev who wants to improve the visual experience.
IMO an MMO should be always updated in all respecs too. For people saying FE offers something different, I didn't see it just like Aion it's just a mash up of old designs. What's nice is they took a very adventure-like approach to MMOs, the whole survival thing is very neat.