Today, few people would say that the indie industry is unworthy of being on the gaming services market. After all, every day projects appear that either take your breath away or brighten up countless evenings, putting simple but entertaining mechanics, colorful pictures and intricate plots into the hands of players.
The lone wolf of modern indie development Sergei Noskov belongs to just such intricate plots. Sergei already has two of the most interesting projects, in my humble opinion, made on the recently wildly popular Unity engine: “Light” and “Train”. “The Train” even fell into the hands of YouTube lesplayer PewDiePie.
Now his new project “35mm” is approaching, which in just a few days received Greenlight on the Steam service.
I decided to ask why post-apocalypse is so attractive in the modern gaming industry and what it costs one person to create a new universe.
Is it difficult to make a game alone??
Creative areas such as film production, cartoon creation or computer game development require very large-scale labor and time expenditures, since they include many components: visual, artistic components, work with sound, music, script work, plot presentation, programming and much more. It is extremely difficult to master all these areas alone, and ideally it is simply impossible.
How the idea of 35mm came about?
The idea for the game was formed gradually. I have always been interested in the topic of post-apocalypse. I am fascinated by the atmosphere of loneliness, silence, abandoned corners of our planet, where life once flourished, but now only memories remain. For me, dim, foggy images of desolate, dilapidated cities and villages are very bright, they carry a lot in themselves and are able to convey a lot to the viewer, so the desire to create something in this spirit has been present for a long time. At some point, almost suddenly, a picture appeared in my head in which two ghostly figures wander across a field and disappear into the fog. Surprisingly, this is exactly where my thoughts began about the plot of the new project “35mm”. Gradually, like a snowball, this blank began to acquire a storyline. The beginnings of a story have appeared: who are these two figures, where and from where are they wandering, and how will it all end?. The plot cannot be called twisted and multi-layered – it is quite linear and it is more like a chronicle of events. However, the ending of this story may be extremely unexpected and ambiguous for many.
Briefly: what the game is about and how it can hook gamers?
In short, it’s a game about human values in the face of a disaster. Having parted with their usual life, some strive to find their “oasis of calm”, reconsider their views on life and values, while others, as before, continue to go over their heads for their own benefit. Some people just survive. In terms of gameplay, I can’t say that the game brings something new to the quest genre, however, it cannot be called a quest in the usual sense. It contains many elements of different genres: there is action and puzzles, elements of horror and interactive cinema. I tried to fill the world around me with events as much as possible, so that even simple wandering and exploring locations would be interesting. Some events are random, they may happen, or they may not manifest themselves at all.
To be honest, when watching videos and screenshots, I had the feeling that I was seeing some kind of spin-off of Stalker. Where and from what did you find inspiration for your new project??
I have repeatedly encountered reviews that after getting acquainted with the materials of the project, an association arises with Stalker: both with the well-known game from the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, and with the wonderful film by Andrei Tarkovsky. These are very nice comments. The comparison with the game STALKER is not surprising – the franchise is so iconic in history that now any locations with abandoned cities, villages and rusty cars will be associated with it. Regarding the film, I really drew the lion’s share of inspiration from it. I watched it several times and each time I admired how competently the author presented the visual material, drawn-out scenes and frames that can last several minutes and in which practically nothing happens – it’s not boring to watch, you want to peer into them, study the details. In my project, I tried to get closer to this, tried to adopt that atmosphere of mystery, but at the same time simplicity: nature, magical ambiance, the noise of foliage, the unknown, etc.d.
In addition to examples from art, real life is full of colorful references on the topic, especially in our country. It is enough to go further outside the perimeter of large cities.
In your previous games "Light" and "Train" you placed the main emphasis on telling a story that was deep and thoughtful, rather than on any innovative gameplay. Has anything changed in terms of gameplay?? Can you surprise the players with something never seen before??
The gameplay has become more varied, the player has more freedom, more opportunities. During the passage we will be able to shoot, run, and ride on some types of light transport. During the journey, you will have to maintain your health level and replenish supplies, find food and medicine, and some items will no longer be found in the usual places during the second playthrough.
The player will also have a film camera in their inventory, which can be used to take pictures. In some cases, pre-taken photographs can make life much easier when passing through. According to modern traditions, several endings await us in the finale. They are not too varied, but each, I hope, will create a certain mood in the viewer.
Have you thought about multiplayer for 35mm??
No. I believe that multiplayer in most cases kills the atmosphere of the game and its “bookishness”. At least for the genre I work in, this is not suitable.
How soon will the game appear on Steam??
It’s hard to say. I already tried to plan the deadlines, but, as usually happens, they moved. Initially, I tried to keep the pace of work, but then I realized that in the field of indie development it is better not to rush anywhere and do everything according to the dictates of inspiration. Now the game is in its final stages, minor improvements and testing are ahead. I hope the product will be released on Steam in the spring of 2016.
What do you play when you have free time??
Nowadays I rarely find time to play. The last new game I played was The Last Of Us. Basically I prefer a mixture of quest-shooter-horror. I like to wander around, get scared, knock off the heads of evil spirits. I’m not chasing super “graphonics”. Not long ago, Cry of Fear took place, which brought a lot of different emotions. Then I was once again convinced of how important soul and attention to detail are in working on a project. But how many polygons a character’s face has and what resolution its texture is are not the most important thing.
Nikita ILYASH
Especially for Stopgame.ru
Best comments
Well, yes. We make a character: we just come up with a concept, a character, a story, a history of the environment, an appearance that depends on all this, then we model it in Zbrush, then we transfer it to Max or Maya, we do a retopology of the low-poly model, we remove normals from the high-poly model, we spread it onto the low-poly, we do a UV-unwrapping, and we test it in FS or Substance, then we go back to Max or Maya, we do a rig, we do animations, we throw it all into the engine SDK, prescribe the frequency of this appearance, prescribe the reaction of the surrounding world to the actions of the character, write text phrases and voice them, and we also throw all this into the game.
Ready. You are amazing. All that remains is to repeat all this 100-200 times. Easy, right?.
Well, and, of course, this is all done from the first approach, because only the suckers do not have figurative and abstract thinking in their heads, do not know anatomy, do not know how to model, remove texture maps and draw the same textures, do not understand the basics of a skeletal rig, do not study animation in kindergarten, do not program in C#/C++, do not have exceptional literacy and an expressive voice with good equipment and clearly defined diction.
And if you don’t yet https://gamblingdata.net/casinos/mad-slots-casino/ have the innate skills of a game designer and screenwriter, then why the hell were you born this way, untermensch?
drumdrumdrum.
Ahaha, I’m delighted with you, I sat reading with such a smile)) I don’t even want to explain anything about the difficulties of development, about how much nerves and time it consumes, how much moral strength it takes, how much skill leveling it requires, etc.d. I think it’s useless here.
This is just a bomb) Now probably all talented screenwriters and music workers have a pounding in their hearts :)
They carried Mitya’s shoes. They’ve crap on everyone) The current musicians are the bottom) The screenwriters are the bottom) The game makers are the bottom). But the commentators seem to be the most talented and smart at the present time) Sitting on the sofa, picking at your ass with your finger, waiting for some news to express their opinion and show that here I am, an expert, sitting on the sofa feeding the bedbugs..
I picked up a guitar for the first time in my life at the age of 25, within six months I knew musical notation and wrote the first track.
If you didn’t say this, no one would have asked you, BUT YOU HAVE ALREADY BRAUGED that you are not a dick from the mountain, that you have knowledge and the fruits of this knowledge. Accordingly, it is not difficult for you to make 2 clicks and confirm the words that no one pressed from you. And if it’s difficult, then your opinion is perceived solely as pi***bola a demagogue who doesn’t even believe what he says.
Where did you get the idea that my laziness? AND WHY DO YOU THINK THAT I HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS GAME??!
I picked up a guitar for the first time in my life at the age of 25, within six months I knew musical notation and wrote the first track.
Drop it, let’s listen. If you really think that this is not difficult, and your music is really on the level of Frank Klepacki, Mick Gordon, Joel Nielsen, Tom Stoffel – I will take everything back.
I’ll see you don’t dare. The environment for games is made according to the EXACT same principle, without perhaps rigs, animation and voice acting. It’s still a shitload of work.
The most pissed-off and inferior 2D game requires at least 100 man-hours. Same 3D game – minimum 1000. Laziness is inappropriate here.
You can create a game without professional training on any AGS, RPGM, GHM, Construct2, drawing all the objects on the tablet screen in Paint with a stylus.
Do you really think music and script are something complicated?? Writing and reading, as well as musical notation, are studied at school. It doesn’t take much time or brainpower to master these two activities.
There is a very popular phrase: “Easy to learn, hard to master”. Initially it related to the gameplay, but not the essence. For music and script this principle is fully revealed.
Dude, as already written above, demonstrate this to us in practice. Post a blog, demonstrate the result and tell us how long it took you to do it all. Suddenly, you are actually an unprecedented genius – a thunderstorm in the gaming and music industries. And then everyone here, no, even the whole world, will bow to your talent. I’m serious now. Otherwise you won’t prove anything to anyone.
But you are looking for the truth? They communicate just to expand their horizons and find new truths. And how can you, seeing so much refutation of your opinion, claim that you know what you are talking about?. The only option that comes to mind is that you learned all this from personal practice? And what’s so wrong with wanting to see this result??
Well, in groups, the main difficulty is not to play these tabs, but to play them in sync with the others, and coming up with tabs out of nothing for a song is also not an easy task. Although, again, you apparently know what you’re talking about, which means you don’t need to say it. But since you know, since you went through it and since you are confident that you are right, then why can’t you demonstrate it to us?? After all, it will be much simpler and nobler on your part to enlighten us.
Oh, that’s not what I said. I said that what these guys were doing was well done. And everything else was done at a very average (or even mediocre) level, because a person cannot be good at everything, and even if he can, he must waste half his life studying.
That is why the incorrect comparison of the same Undertale and, for example, The Witcher – these are games of completely different levels of not only perception, but even approach. And the crux of the matter was that the author of 35MM approaches the game the way one would approach the creation of The Witcher (which is what I described in the first comment in this thread), rather than the creation of Undertale or any other two-dimensional pixel game.
The same music, what you call “mastery” is nothing more than a jerk off to high-speed technology.
… to which I replied that music is not an art with a high barrier to entry. Keyword – entry threshold. I said anyone can learn music.
Again.
Learning to play an instrument is easy.
Learning to play an instrument well is a matter of time and practice.
It’s easy to write melodies that don’t hurt your ears.
It’s difficult to write melodies that give you goosebumps when you listen to them.
If you learned the latter in six months, congratulations, you are talented.
I don’t post my creations simply for the reason that I myself am not happy with them, because at the very moment when I began to get involved in music, I began to hear these repetitions and self-repetitions everywhere, even in popular soundtracks for games. And I myself don’t know how to solve this crisis. Well, those who are not interested in music will never admit that all the music has already been written.
Well, here I am certainly an uneducated rabble, because, despite the fact that I could hear the rhythms and structure of the composition somewhere else, the music is quite satisfactory. I perceive all these templates as the same tools for self-expression; for me, complaining about their repetition is the same as complaining that all fonts are similar to each other and in each of them the letter has approximately the same shape. But, I repeat, I’m a fool and I may simply not understand a lot of things, that’s why I’m asking :)
Not always. You can’t get by with free assets alone.
Again, the script.
Even without taking into account that what I included in the quotes is “pixel Mr.,” all of the above are 2D games and RPG quests. And in these games, what the authors emphasized, they really succeeded. But all other game components, objectively speaking, even by the standards of the release dates of these games, are hopelessly outdated and generally rudimentary.
I somehow joined his Light. It seems that even in the archives a version of the toy is still lying around.
It will be interesting to look at the new project, and if it comes out on Steam, I’ll throw in a pretty penny.
The question arose: on what means does the game maker live?? Light and Train seemed to be free, or am I confusing something?? And if they are still free, then he works on pure enthusiasm?
That moment when the asshole in the comments read without looking, and sometimes even re-reading, unlike the article.