Dynamic Survival In A Prehistoric World

What makes immersive gaming great?
Zombies and guns? Creepers and diamonds? Or is it a feeling of connection to the world around you?

Our ideal is the 3rd option. Immersive environments are kind of what we do here at Ignoble. Fabricating a world and a game around the player.

In recent months we've been working on various projects which we hope to make apparent in the near future. However, this project saw its inception at the beginning of the year. So, without further ado:

• One game world.
• The largest ever created for an official title using the Unity3D engine.
• Set in a story that took place 8,000 years ago.
• Complete crafting system. Design, gather materials for and build whatever tools, traps and mechanisms you desire.
• Players fight for their lives against all adversary. The weather, the wildlife, the human population and even the vegetation. (don't eat

Deathcap!)

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Details! Part of immersion (well, the main part) is believability. For that reason every shiny imaginable has been worked in:

• 100% real-time Dynamic Global Illumination.
• Volumetric lighting from all sources.
• Volumetric clouds and fog.
• Algorithm generated vegetation.
• Fauna with their own individual characteristics and behaviours.
• Flora with growth and distribution characteristics mimicking the way the landscape changes overtime.
• Realistic passage of time. Seasonal change of the game-world will force players out of their comfort zones constantly.

The most important (and most time consuming) thing is the game-world. Instead of jumping in the deep end we created a zone only 10 miles square to give you an idea. Remember that freedom is key to the success of a game like this. That means no invisible walls or ceilings. You can climb every mountain, dive in every lake and explore every cave... Beware though! Smilodon don't take kindly to trespassers encroaching on their territory.


We have suffered yet more delays on the images promised, namely transferring them from one hard drive to another as it keeps corrupting the files. In the mean time here is one of the simple concept paintings made for this project. More to follow.


Please take note that this is not a traditional WIP post. We started this thread to see what you guys think. Suggestions, questions and constructive criticism are encouraged! If this should see release then its because of your reaction. At the moment it's just a concept.

To find out more about us and this project, please visit www.ignoblearts.com

 

it looks very impressive and the landscapes are very pretty, but you dont give us much to go on other than those pics, the website games page is empty, no extra info on the news page, so far it looks just like some very nice small stills of landscapes.

 

Cool, but those screenshots aren't from the unity engine. Those come from the Valley Benchmark from Unigine
See for yourself:
http://unigine.com/products/valley

this post is very misleading, and you are claiming work that isn't yours

 

It would appear so.
Turns out the images from the 10 mile square world created for a pitch video to a funder were switched with images in a presentation for the quality of this benchmark.
I will now personally take this post over from the guy who started it. Simple misunderstanding, apologies to those who feel mislead.

In the mean time the images will be removed until such time as the correct ones can be replaced

 

Actually if there aren't any progress of the game, then it's not wip, it's only a concept i think.
Anyways if you decide to do it, good luck

 

Hi Kirby,
Yes it was specified at the foot of the original post. To be honest however a bit of a hash had been made of this entry.
I'm considering taking it down until we have a little more to go on. The correct images should be up soon but still, seems a bit pointless if it came off to a start this bad.

 

If I was a moderator, I'd ban everyone who starts similar threads...

 

If you are going to try and claim credit for something that isn't yours and lie to the community, at least use the right game engine /fail

 

As i just explained to you the images claiming to be from the project were actually from a presentation outlining the benefits of Unigine and the quality of the benchmark. If you would like to see a copy of the presentation i would be more than happy to send one your way.

It would seem then, that the correct images actually exist and were mistakenly not included in this post. We would not claim someone else's work as our own unless we had permission.
We are a regesterd company, what do we stand to gain from plagiarism?

If you have any further issues i'm happy to talk to you over a phone or Skype conversation.
Thanks

 

New concept piece up in original post. More to follow.

 

Personally I think this concept sounds really good. I love open world survival games but I think there needs to be more games in this genre that are good. Many people who create games in this genre do the exact same features as any other game such as: Base building, weather, food hunger etc... If you were to create this game, make something that nobody has done before.

Also, listen to your community. They are your best bet for suggestions

 

Hi there Georetro,
The idea behind this concept was to demonstrate that there are games which go back too the roots of creative storytelling. The trend in major studios has become more and more displeasing (excessive monetization, lack of freedom for the player, dodgy character development and a general disregard for the people who don't want a story forced down their throat. Rather sprinkled here and there so as to coax you out of your shell).

This was our solution, a world that lets the player create his/her story without giving them too many freedoms. If you can do whatever you want things quickly become boring. Rather in our ideal you would be forced down from the northern most reaches of prehistoric France not because you "can" but rather because events have stacked up against you and its the only reasonable course of action.

Naturally you could make you own way whenever and wherever you want but why forsake a stream of fat salmon in high season when you don't know when your next meal might be? Of course, you might find yourself as the next meal for something else...

Yes, that was the idea we want as many opinions as possible. Who knows, this might become something?

 

Sounds a lot like my game (see sig) : p
I will follow this with big interest : )

 

Wow Virror,
Haven't seen your work before, amazing stuff!

Yes, I see the similarities, interesting. If ever you require some sort of collaboration perhaps in the environment and/or design department please hit us up.
The concepts demonstrated here could easily be translated depending on the general "genre" of your title?

Cheers

 

I personally love this game genre the most, if you can call it that. Unfortunately, it is very lacking in actually completed games and I hope there will be made some good games for this genre.

Procedural content is always an interesting subject, even as the developer yourself, you don't know what kind of end results your algorithm will bring (you can predict it's general behaviour, but not in detail). This is what fascinates me the most and keep the replay value for games alive. Way better than endless score grinding or pointless achievements.

Those two are the major reasons why I am making my own game. I hope a lot of other developers are able to roll out more of them, like you and virror. I've seen more good examples on the internet, but none of them really finished (or either not entirely the genre I'm thinking of, such as Don't Starve, involving magic, strange creatures and similar over-done stuff)

 

There is good reason for the high rate of unfinished projects that aim for this sort of thing.
Massive amounts of time have to go into it, we're talking years. Unless of course you or your studio has some money to splash about on the project, this is usually acquired one of two ways:

1) Some sort of crowd-funding campaign. The problem here is once you've pitched your idea and its been funded there is very little room left for innovation because your funders have a strong preconceived idea on what they have just backed. If you suddenly decide that an online mode is impractical then chances are a lot of people will be very upset and this (obviously) will hurt sales.

2) A revenue from previous titles/projects. The issue here is you're staking a significant portion of your business on a concept that may well prove ineffectual.

"Zombies" are an excellent example of this effect, the topic is very popular now but this wasn't always the case. A few studios had obviously broached the subject but for the most part it was relatively untouched. Now of course there are popular games like "DayZ", "7 Days to Die" and "The Last of Us".
This means its very easy for any company to pitch this sort of thing. Investors and backers know that its likely to be popular even if the words "flogging", "dead" and "horse" are mentioned by critics.

Its a shame but a reality nevertheless of this industry.

 

A quick heads up.
We're pulling the plug on this post for the time being. A pile of problems have presented themselves but the good news is we have had an expression of interest from a larger studio! Hopefully we'll be back in a month or two with more news in this.
If you interested in another of our mini-projects check out: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/212023-Tern-Isle-Environment-v0-4
Thanks.

 

How do you make a post... claiming that you are going to make a game that is so amazing it will blow your socks off.. Then a week later.. pull the plug on it before it even takes off or gets developed. That is why this is a "Work In Progress" board and not labeled "Ideas". Please don't post if you have nothing to back up your claims of a game being worked on and developed. Until you reach that point, you're just like the millions of other kids who have ideas and concepts. Just a "dreamer".

 

Because this is a work in progress. Paintings, sketches, running technical tests and game-play design is work.
When we say "pull the plug" we mean no more content will be posted for some weeks. Possibly months.

If you clicked on this link expecting months of development and thousands of dollars in investment then sorry to disappoint.
I suggest you don't make the assumption that every post is "so amazing it will blow your socks off" and not yet at a solid stage in development.

There are developers who:
1) Are "dreamers" and post nonsensical rubbish that nobody could hope to achieve on an indie budget.
2) Are quiet devs who work hard and show nothing until just before a release and amaze this entire community.
3) Actually want to hear from the community its-self in a constructive criticism format. Then perhaps release a title based on those efforts.

Blatantly we are the in the third group.

Any further clarifications you may require can be referred directly to me or another team member by phone or email. Thanks.

 

Damn not a good start for your game I would say. I think your rep might have been a bit damaged by the controversy.

 

I agree, its a bit of a shame but no worries, we have some more projects upcoming that might interest the more open minded ones

 

Sad to hear, was really looking forward to see were you could take this. We need more prehistoric games out here!

 

+1

 

bad start but im sure you are set in the right place i used to live in auckland great place best of luck

 

Yeah what are you doing guys?

You are big enough to have several projects going on and to have misunderstandings between teammembers posting what isnt even from your projects, but transferring files between computers cripples you? You seriously need to organize, and I hope you do, because this sounded like a great idea.

 

ExDeaDguY is right. Work in Progress is to actually show something. There are other threads for 'smaller' things.
Paintings, sketches, running technical tests and game-play design is almost work. What you enumerated here is included by default in any project.
You can't really expect people to give you feedback on your paintings and sketches(which you didn't share with us) or on technical tests.
Except for the game-play design part (which takes around 15 seconds to outline the major ideas of the game and another 3 hours to flesh them out enough to be ready for production) you didn't share anything else.

Constructive criticism in the WIP section (at least) is given for actual work. Visual and/or measurable, not gameplay features (which even 12 years old can do, no offense, is just a truth).

Please take a look at other well established threads in this section as reference for future endeavors.

 

So, to clarify, we aren't taking this project outside and shooting it between the eyes. We are simply saying that there wont be content posted for some weeks. Reason being we're looking into working with a bigger studio to bring this thing to life.

Its not dead, merely being kept secret.

On bad communication: Yes, it's not uncommon when half your studio is on the other side of the world. If you googled us you'd see we haven't yet released anything officially This is because we are only about 6 months old! Rest assured though that this isn't some haphazard group of people with a dream.
Between all of us there's almost 20 years in experience.

 

I don't normally jump into these kind of threads but I think it's only right to question some things here.

You talk the talk, which is fine. Passionate people with big ideas are great, you get people excited and interested. But there are a couple of things that concern me, having looked over your website...

Firstly, you have "profiles" for 2 very well known artists on your website. Granted, you state in the small print that neither of them are actually working for you - however it looks a little strange for an unknown studio to be hosting profiles of artists they do not work with.

Secondly, you have a donate button? I'm relieved to see that it doesn't work. Asking people for donations when your website has exactly no information on what they might be donating to, is pretty shady.

 

There seems to be an unfortunate consensus that a studio can't exist if it doesn't perfectly categorize:
1) Fully functional studio held in high esteem.
2) Small group of 12 year old's with a passion but little experience.

Starting up a studio is incredibly difficult and time consuming. You need advice, partners and significant funding. There's a difference between banding together a crew from the internet and working from home on your PC and organizing an office, workstations and so on.
That's whats happening.


Truly we apologize to anyone who feels mislead here. That was not the intention. We simply wanted to see who liked this kind of thing, bandy about some ideas and concepts. By no means was the intention to begin a debate on the credibility of our studio.
Yes, the website is obviously unfinished.
Yes, we actually have written (in some cases verbal) permission to support those artists on our site.
No, we are by no means a massive and successful studio.
No, we aren't all listed on that site, actually none of us are yet.
Yes, we exist.


Thanks a million to those who appreciate this, your support means the world to us.

 

Sure nothing wrong with having internet based team. Office doesnt mean more proffessional attitude and dedication on all cases, there are plenty indie games with teams that had good success on internet collaboration. But what bothers me is that you have put some strong words and splitting developers into two "sections" while there is no evidence that you and your team really belongs to the one you want to or do belong to. Just saying even if you have indie version of GTA 5 ready to be realeased, this is still indie development forum no need to sort people as there are many newbies here and they have to start somewhere.