Interstellar marines, kickstarter and a running man

[WALP]

Intruduction
First of all.
http://kck.st/VKkH3K
Since theres a lot of text here some music for your own safety:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC030B9D7966EBBCF


Some of you have proberly already seen that there already is a thread on interstellar marines and their kickstarter, so you are proberly wondering why I would put up another.

I have been following interstellar marines for a couple years now , and things sure havent been easy for the guys at Zero point software(the creators).
So after all that time, this kickstarter really has my hopes up and I have therefore been keeping a close look at how things were going and what people where saying about the game. unfourtunately it appears theres been a lot of skeptical and doubtfull comments about the game, and it seems that FGforum was no exception since the post was almost completely ignored.
This is not very surprising when you think about it though.

because at the surface IM really dosent look like that an impressive game.

For that reason I have decided to try and properly express to you why I think IM will be an amazing game, and hopefully also get you to take a second look at it.


For this I am actually not gonna talk to much about the actual game, since that would only be speculation, but about the Running Man protoype available on their community web-site, which I have experienced myself. It was also what convinced me of IM's potential.

What is Running Man?


Running man is the 3rd prototype for IM created by Zero Point Software and in my opinion the most impressive one to date(Deadlock is the 4th and newest one but in early alpha stage currently). Running man is all about movement since its prequel bullseye was all about shooting at targets and had no movement at all. In Running man you enter an underground training facility where you must train against agressive combat robots/drones(which only use close range attacks) in order to qualify for the interstellar marines, where only the elite will be able to join.

When you look at Running man's feutures it appears even less convincing actually:
-You can run around,crouch,jump,and sprint
-You can shoot,aim,reload and switch between 3 attachesments for your gun(supressor,close range scope, and longrange scope)
-You can play 5 different missions, which are replayed at higher and higher difficulty through the RM storyline if you can even call it a storyline

Theres not really that much content in running man, not a lot of variety in assets in it either, since a lot is recycled the four different robot/drone types look very simular and only things such as color,size and slight changes in the model seperates their appearance.
Running man is a game(prototype) with little content and therefore relies heavily on its design, but this is also where it shines.

where Running Man Shines

Immersion:

Spoiler below!

Everytime you start Running man, regardless of your progress, your helmet closes down, reminding you why there are icons displaying your health and ammo, as well as some highlights around the edge and something that looks like a compass, you also see the helmet itself slightly when looking at the bottom of the screen.
When you move your gun feels heavy, this is done with having it be close to the player to display its size, and having the animation in sync with your footsteps....did i say footsteps?, of course you can see your feet, fitting perfectly with the screen movement and as mentioned before the gun animation. When sprinting the screen moves wildly, together with the smooth animation of the gun this is a great feeling and you begin to understand the name Running man because you will love( and have )to run in this game(prototype).

(damn I even dare to say that the movement in RM is a bit better then amnesia in my opinion)

When a mission starts, music will start playing. You will soon be hearing the eager robottic legs and footsteps moving towards you. Even a little before they actually appear. The levels are designed so the robots come from these little corridors with red lights in them, and theres quite a lot of them placed around. Even in the introduction mission theres 2, and theres no telling which one the robot/droids will come from. Combine this with the music and sounds mentioned earlier and you can create a lot of anticipation in the beginning of the mission and make the player feel surrounded and vulnerable.
When you go from mission to mission you dont enter loading a screen, instead you walk into these bridges I guess you can call them, that connect the different training areas, its a good reminder that you arent just shooting robots in your little closed traning spaces, but actually competing to join the interstellar marines inside a secret training facility.

Easy, But thats not how it feels:
I have played Running man many times, but I have only died a few, So you would think that it would get boring really quick since it sounds so easy....except Running man is only technically easy. Running plays in a very intense way, because you need to run a lot as said before. You will rarely have enough time to shoot all robots/drones heading towards you, and the robots walk faster then you(theres also one robot that is extra fast), so you will have no other option then to sprint so you can get just enough time to shoot a few robots/drones while walking! , no standing still in Running man. In some missions you will have to stay alive within certain limited areas, meaning that you wont have space to run away, so you will either have to be very fast on the trigger or in most cases manuever around a robot standing a couple meters from you, so you can shoot it. Some areas will have certain angles where you will have to move back and forth to keep yourself orientated where the robots/drones are coming from. overall you can be sure that Running man will give you an intense experience.

And yet they manage to squeeze in a tiny little bit of story:
During the training days you are accompanied by sgt. Berry who will be guiding you on the radio in your helmet. But actually he is primarily commenting how you are doing as well as talking about himself. Its incredible that they can put so much character into a Berry only through comments which i think might be random actually. Other then that there is also these short, kinda cut-scene like conversations between Gen. Travis who seems to be in lead of the Interstellar marines project and a women who monitizes the health and performance of the participants, these conversations are short but theres a lot of power in them and you will proberly learn the most story from them, so I ont spoil anything(even if its only this tiny little bit).

How Does this Reflect the full game?
The quality of Running man is outstanding, even if its only this tiny little bit of content.
It shows ZeroPointSoft. amazing skill in design and what they have been lacking all these years has been content, So if the kickstarter is a succes I cant wait to see what they will do with their resources.
The level design shows they have what they take to make the non-linear design they have been promising,
The immersion speaks for itself, and in the newest prototype deadlock we are already seeing things such as rain creating blur on the helmet, which can now be switched on and off as well as a new and more advanced sound system. The Immersion of the final product will be outstanding and in some areas exceed amnesia, that is what I belive.
The dynamic attachments that can be switches at any time hints the deph of their RPG elements slightly though I will say that they still got some things to prove at that part.



Ah thank you reading to the bottom, I hope you will give interstellar marines a look or a second change if you already knew it.

Running man is free to play(IN YOUR BROWSER!), and i highly recommend you at least give it a try:
http://www.interstellarmarines.com/

For the love of the game

[WALP]

Bumping, this thread.
One reply is not that much to ask for.

[WALP]

-*follows indie-game for years*
-*believes in it*
-*goes slowly downhill for game*
-*watches Developers dissappear until theres only 2 left*
-*2012, crowdfunding suddenly being a normal thing*
-*community suggest kickstarter, and developer goes for it*
-*kickstarter dosent go well*
-*tries to share the game around to give it some attention*
-* game gets labeled as just another shooter by many*
-*things are getting desperate*
-*spents 2-3 hours writing long article on the one forum, that one has the most respect for*
-*article gets ignored*
-*things getting really desperate*
-*adds game to ones avatars across muliple media*
-*bumps thread in confusion about what to do*
-*finally gets a reply*
- " Where is the option "This sounds retarded"? "
- " this sounds retarded "
- " retarded "
retarded....

[Juby]

......

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I don't quite get yet, what the unique selling point of this game is supposed to be. It looks like a pretty standard shooter to me. Like a normal UDK mod or something. Yeah there's this thing that you can see your body which is nice, but that's hardly a new idea...
Metro 2033 for example already implemented immersion much better with the whole HUD being objects that you carry in your hands (a note for quests, a compass, a lightmeter) and with having you check for the amount of ammo you have left by looking at the clip of your gun.... that sort of stuff.

So yeah, could you maybe explain a bit what exactly sets this game apart from similar shooters? Because even after reading through the whole text and looking at the video, it still looks like a standard student-project-UDK-mod to me. (even though its probably not made in UDK... but you know what I mean )

[WALP]

Simply put Interstellar marines is a game about being Interstellar marines, truly being Interstellar marines, thats all.

All that blablabla like co-op realism and rpg elements is really the things they do to truly make you feel so.

Co-op because its about interstellar marines not interstellar marine, a real marine would not be on his own either.

RPG elements because interstellar marines are soldiers of the future with a lot of different and new eguipment and weapons, which cries for RPG elements instead of the usual get stuff when the game wants you to, which you usally see in games like Call of duty and battlefield.

Immersion because you need to know that you are there, in that training facility being chased by combat drones, in that lab surrounded by mutant sharks, on an alien planet representing mankind.

The developers might not have said this but everything adds up to it.

Interstellar marines is a game about being interstellar marines, and as simple as it is, thats awesome and truly unique.

[MyRedNeptune]

I'm not sure if setting alone is enough to qualify as a unique selling point. It would have to be something truly new and unexplored to be so, and there are many FPS games with a space theme already.

For AAA titles, it is important for them to be somewhat average, otherwise they will not appeal to a broad enough audience to justify the production costs.

Indie games are there to fill in the gaps left by this conservative strategy. If they're not unique enough, they will flop, even if it's comparable to an AAA title in quality, simply because they do not have the money for good marketing like the big developers do.

[WALP]

I barely described the games setting, I desbribed how they will make you believe you are part of it.

[MyRedNeptune]

Ok, I got the impression that you presented the "interstellar marine" concept as the unique selling point.

So what is the main selling point then? What separates it from other games? If it's immersion, I think my point still stands.

I'm sorry if our replies might seem harsh - I just think you might have the wrong forum. People here won't scoff at an FPS, but they might not all be that interested in one, either. And from what I've seen, FG's idea of immersion is quite different from what you have presented us so far. It's just a different genre of games here.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Indie games are there to fill in the gaps left by this conservative strategy. If they're not unique enough, they will flop, even if it's comparable to an AAA title in quality, simply because they do not have the money for good marketing like the big developers do.

I couldn't have said it better I don't think the game looks bad at all, in fact it looks pretty solid. But I don't really see the point of funding an indie project if it doesn't bring something entirely new to the table. The beauty of indie is that it tries out things the mainstream developers and publishers are afraid to try.

Now adding RPG-elements or Co-op to a shooter is a neat idea, but its hardly new and by far not interesting enough to me, to make me back that project. There are enough games out there that let me play as a soldier in space, enough FPS with RPG elements and enough Co-op FPS, too.

Maybe I can't name a game right now that combines all those three elements... but that doesn't mean its making me jump out of my chair yelling "genius!", y ' know? I guess this is the kind of idea that only appeals to a very specific target group. Which is perfectly fine of course, but I'm afraid it will have trouble raising all that money it needs :/