Development / Technology Questions

[Frederick]

Hi,

first of all let me say, that I tried Penumbra Overture and I am really impressed by the technology you created and your artistic talent.

I looked at your game mainly because I am a german cs student, who is interested in indie development.

If you don´t mind, I would like to ask you about a few question, how you achieved such a highly impressive game.

1.) I noticed you used collada, I am also looking at this format at the moment. It would be great if it would work, but I am not fully convinced it does at the moment. What content creation tool did you use to create the collada files ? I have a few skills in Blender, and I try to get into XSI at the moment. Blender could not import your files, and it seemed that XSI did not load materials and animations properbly. NVidias FX Composer had also problems with materials. So maybe it would be easier to stick with a custom converter. I am really excited to hear about how collada did work for you.

2.) Did you have any problems with cg ? I would like to use it also, because it is supported by XSI out of the box. People are complaining that there are problems with ATI cards.

3.) How big was your development team, and how long did it take ?

4.) Did you use any scripting language ? This is what I am really interested in the moment, because scripting allows for easier story telling and level creation. This is one of the reasons I consider to move away from C++ to Java, which behaves more like a scripting language.

Thanks for that great game - I´ll probably buy ... although I did not manage to open the stucked door in the underground basement... hmmm I ´ll try again tonight =)

Frederick

[Yuhaney]

3.) How big was your development team, and how long did it take ?
Frederick

4 people. Isn't it? I remember that it was 4. Cannot be 100% sure...

[Thomas]

1) We used various 3d tools when creating the collada files. Collada is pretty nice, but there is a bit work required to load all data. Escpially skinning and animation,

2) It has worked on almost all cards. Only cards that still have some issues are ATI HD, and Cg might be the cause of this. But that is not confirmed.

3) The core team was 3 people and then alot of folks did imporant contribution work (music, all text, porting, sound programming, etc).

4) We used and are using AngelScript.

[Yuhaney]

OK, I was little bit wrong.

[Frederick]

Hi Thomas,

thanks for your answer!

1) We used various 3d tools when creating the collada files. Collada is pretty nice, but there is a bit work required to load all data. Escpially skinning and animation,

Oh yes, I am experiencing that too... =)
Also lots of irrelevant stuff finds its way into the files, like physics
information. Which is bad, when you have no use for that. I am still unsure if its worth the trouble. Maybe it is easier to concentrate on a single modeling tool.

2) It has worked on almost all cards. Only cards that still have some issues are ATI HD, and Cg might be the cause of this. But that is not confirmed.

I think Cg is still superior to GLSL, because of CgFX, ColladaFX, the NVidia Composer etc, tool support like from XSI. Also it supports older hardware.
But here and then, there are complaints.

3) The core team was 3 people and then alot of folks did imporant contribution work (music, all text, porting, sound programming, etc).

Okay... so some sort of a bigger team. Kinda thought that, because your game looks so polished and has great artwork.

4) We used and are using AngelScript.

Okay, did not see any files, maybe because you have hidden them.

Thanks a lot,
Frederick

Spoiler below!

and btw. I did not manage to pass the first two rooms in the underground basement, and i am not sure if this is my fault.
I found I could remove wooden plank behind the two cubboards, but I was not able to either move or destroy the wooden one. I think solution is to move or destroy the wooden cubboard, because the player character gives an advice, that it looks rotten.
If I look in direction of the wooden cubboard, the hand icon does not appear, although it does appear, when I looked at the metal one. So I can´t do anything with the wooden cubboard. Hammering is also not an option =)
I don´t think it is my mistake, I tried for half an hour.

[Thomas]

As for your problems, you must move a shelf and smash some planks behind it to find a secret passage.