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  1. #16
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    It's such a minor thing but I love how you can use super-speed to just run through Metropolis instead of just flying.

  2. #17
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    It's such a minor thing but I love how you can use super-speed to just run through Metropolis instead of just flying.
    You could do that in Returns! It was fun! The thing is, if you can make a good Superman game, you can then take that and make a good WW or Flash or GL game much much more easily because of the overlap in powers.
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  3. #18
    Incredible Member Lvenger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    It's such a minor thing but I love how you can use super-speed to just run through Metropolis instead of just flying.
    It's neat that Factor 5 included Superman's running at superspeed as well. I imagine they borrowed that from the Superman Returns videogame which allowed Superman to run at superspeed as well. Though I think flying was the faster way to travel.

  4. #19
    Black Belt in Bad Ideas Robanker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    Wonder why DC/WB didn’t like the 40s aesthetic, I remember Superman Returns’ depiction of Metropolis having a very “retrofuture” vibe to it.
    Retrofuture is how I envision Metropolis most of the time so that works for me!

  5. #20
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Dev answered some questions on the Superman Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/co...tm_name=iossmf
    We were definitely aware of Prototype and were keeping an interested eye on it at the time (I still have a couple of gdc trailers from it saved in my work folder from this project).
    TO be clear - the point was that the visuals were not important for what we were prototyping.

    Normally something this early would NEVER have been seen by the public, it is just material I have archived away. We were in the process of staffing up for full production when the crash hit. So the only thing remotely real in terms of art were the models for Superman and Zod, and even then don't have the 2ish years of improvement and polish that would have normally been invested into them with the rest of the visuals. Superman doesn't even have a cape here yet because we were budgeting an entire major character's worth of art budget just to get the cape right. In terms of production, Superman was 2 characters for us - him and his cape.

    The earliness in production is why we did the target render video as well - to give an idea of what sort of visual target we intended in a pre-rendered version until the in-game art could catch up.
    Thank you for the kind words (someone on Twitter mentioned that my thread had been posted here - I am not on reddit often).

    I am touched to see both here and on Twitter that folks seem to really appreciate the approach we were taking in regards to the game. It may sound weird to say about a game that never shipped, but this project was one of the proudest highlights of my career. We had something magic going, and we all knew it.

    And we tried like hell to save the project even after our publisher died, but for those that went through everything in late 2008... Well you can remember the panic banks and investors were in. Everything froze up.

    Anyway, thanks again - I will try to keep an eye on this thread, but as I said I only pop in to reddit infrequently normally.
    Oh yes - SO MUCH work, lol. At this point it was more "proof of concept" for core mechanic concepts, satisfy WB/DC on character design direction, and to prove out that we could make technical details work like the game engine - which could support over 100 city blocks even on a Wii, but we scaled back gameplay spaces to 20-25 blocks because in practice 100 blocks just felt too big even if the engine had no issues.

    But agreed - tons of work was still to go.
    No, we never had a large built out Metropolis at this stage.

    It's been a while, but I think you might be describing the EA Superman game that came out a 2-3 years before this?
    Good observation. There was a health bar, flight and basic attacks or using super strength required no special energy, there was a power meter that would recharge to power special ability attacks, which special ability would be toggled via button press (so switch between heat vision or cold breath).

    There was also a combo meter that would fill up via combo attacks to enable more devastating physical attacks - basics in brawler genre.

    If you were engaged with minions (parademons or what have you), they would just have a small health meter over their heads when targeted. Targeting a boss (any major character) would put the boss's health, power, and combo meter on the opposite side of the screen - just as it would be in versus mode multiplayer.
    This.

    I am sure there are still rules, but also clearly the rules have changed.

    Opening weekend of Man of Steel, I took my kids to see it. They were 5 and 6 at the time. I took them to see it without screening it myself precisely BECAUSE I knew how strict the rules were around the big blue boy scout. While I pre-screened most movies, like anything Marvel at that time, I didn't with this.

    They found it WAY too much, and understandably so. These were not the same rules I had had to operate under.
    Example - if a parked car was picked up or smashed, no problem.

    But if that car was in motion when it got picked up to be used as a weapon, as a projectile, or just got smashed into, no matter who was responsible for the smashing - even enemies - then we had to clearly show the presumed driver escaping the vehicle (leaping, or tumbling out, or some other egress) and then run to safety.

    Civilians could not be implied to be harmed in Superman. That was a cardinal rule.
    Partly, and I think many folks felt far too tied with staples like Lex Luthor and Kryptonite. Also, I think many were still a bit hesitant to go too wild with the full range of over the top characters. They wanted to keep it on earth, keep it grounded, keep it "relatable".

    This was before the MCU just said "strap in, we're going to use everything".

    As far as Kryptonite goes, it's just not an interesting game mechanic. And in games, it has been over done. Like the robot foes. We wanted to go bigger than that. FWIW, I found Supes vulnerability to magic also not an interesting game mechanic per se, but at least that wasn't over-used. Hell, many folks aren't even aware of it.

    As far as over the top characters, we were not interested in holding back. We planned on Darkseid and his cast. On Doomsday. On Solomon Grundy. On Bizarro and Cyborg Superman. And we were going to have fighting not just in Metropolis, but also in other locations including Apokolips.
    For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/

  6. #21
    Extraordinary Member Prime's Avatar
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    *sigh*

    10 characters

  7. #22
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    The revelation that the producers wanted Brandon Routh replaced is an interesting wrinkle I've never heard before.

    It would have been interesting to see a more action-oriented take from Singer, but given how deeply muddled his ideas about Superman were, and how awful a human being he turned out to be, I'm glad we never got that film.

  8. #23
    Jax City/Kill The FIremen
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    Quote Originally Posted by NaVi View Post
    We are supposed to believe all this, I am not talking about the game, I am talking about the interest of warner / dc in releasing a superman game, if they really wanted a superman game they would have released it a long time ago, they would not be with each year A new excuse, although it hurts because I am a fan of superman and video games, the truth is that I doubt that in the next 20 or 30 years we will have a good superman game, the ones that come out will be minor games and therefore bad, or they will have Superman as a villain, but it is that the only good games of Superman are in which he is a villain.
    Do you know how many projects Wonder Woman had that never seen the light of day?

  9. #24
    The Man Who Cannot Die manwhohaseverything's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    It's such a minor thing but I love how you can use super-speed to just run through Metropolis instead of just flying.
    Running on electric cables, clinging on walls would be something far more cooler.super-speed-parkour
    "People’s Dreams... Have No Ends"

  10. #25
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by manwhohaseverything View Post
    Running on electric cables, clinging on walls would be something far more cooler.super-speed-parkour
    Super-speed is my favorite power .

  11. #26
    Astonishing Member DochaDocha's Avatar
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    Haven't read everything in this thread, but in re: to superspeed, I think it'd be cool if "teleportation" or "fast-travel" were implemented as a way to simulate superspeed in large, open worlds. It may not be visually cool, but its practicality is off the charts.

  12. #27
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DochaDocha View Post
    Haven't read everything in this thread, but in re: to superspeed, I think it'd be cool if "teleportation" or "fast-travel" were implemented as a way to simulate superspeed in large, open worlds. It may not be visually cool, but its practicality is off the charts.
    Arkham Origins had a fast travel system that used the Batwing as an in game justification. But for Supes I think part of the appeal would be having to actually fly where you want to go, and running into side activities along the way.
    For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/

  13. #28
    Astonishing Member DochaDocha's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    Arkham Origins had a fast travel system that used the Batwing as an in game justification. But for Supes I think part of the appeal would be having to actually fly where you want to go, and running into side activities along the way.
    Maybe you can pick a spot on the map, and then the game automatically fast-forwards you to the right location? If your superspeed is too slow (like only 2x or 3x run speed), you don't really feel like you're traveling that fast. If your superspeed is too fast, then it becomes a chore because you too easily overshoot your destination because your reflexes can't keep up with the speed.

  14. #29
    Ultimate Member marhawkman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DochaDocha View Post
    Maybe you can pick a spot on the map, and then the game automatically fast-forwards you to the right location? If your superspeed is too slow (like only 2x or 3x run speed), you don't really feel like you're traveling that fast. If your superspeed is too fast, then it becomes a chore because you too easily overshoot your destination because your reflexes can't keep up with the speed.
    I'm played Champions Online and Star Trek online and both are MMOs that have some in-game things where you're moving from one place to another as fast as you can. Lag can be an issue, but it genuinely takes skill to get it right when it's going REALLY fast.

  15. #30
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DochaDocha View Post
    Maybe you can pick a spot on the map, and then the game automatically fast-forwards you to the right location? If your superspeed is too slow (like only 2x or 3x run speed), you don't really feel like you're traveling that fast. If your superspeed is too fast, then it becomes a chore because you too easily overshoot your destination because your reflexes can't keep up with the speed.
    Guess it depends on the size of the map. A big enough Metropolis could justify a fast travel mechanic, but I never felt like I needed the fast travel mechanic in Origins and I preferred to glide around in Knight over using the Batmobile.
    For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/

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