Upcoming tactical shooter from Blackfoot Studios: Ground Branch

[Mr. Charles]

Serellan put up a new video (which is pretty awesome btw) and put up a new working title:



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...ctical-shooter


€dit: goddamned ninja turtles creepin everywhere

[SiC-Disaster]

I figured it was about time Ground Branch has it's own thread on these forums, instead of posted about between the lines in the Takedown thread. It well deserves it.
So, let's post all news about GB here

Today is the day of the renewed BFS assault, with more news to come!
Check the new forums at: http://www.blackfootstudios.com/foru...ex.php?act=idx
And check the new Black Foot Studios website at: http://www.blackfootstudios.com
Their youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlackFootStudios/videos

A Ground Branch-specific website will be up soon at: http://www.groundbranch.com

[Defunkt]

Afaik most of the gameplay elements are in the game as prototypes and all the Kickstarter funds will go towards finishing those elements to a shippable state. By any means they have more work done and are more trustworthy than Serellan and Takedown.

How do you know this? I've looked in regularly for years and all I've seen is a couple of static (to my eye decidedly staged) screenshots revealed recently showing (once again) how Unreal really doesn't do naturalistic settings all that well.

I mean seriously, if they want to go the crowd-sourced route they're surely going to have to become an order of magnitude more forthcoming about what they have and haven't done. The 'studio' was formed eight years ago, how can there not be any video of their premiere title by now?

[SiC-Disaster]

Because it wasn't ready to show? But seriously, did you support Takedown? A game that hasn't even had anything at all but vague plans to show? They don't even have figured out which engine to use yet. IF so, than this discussion is a rather moot point. Especially considering the funding they requested don't even cover the planned costs and they need more to release a full game. It's all to start up their company and maybe, maybe get it to alpha state if they don't run out of money beforehand.

As far as the sentence you quoted, I read that somewhere on the BFS forums, a topic about fan-funding through Kickstarter. I'm looking for the exact post right now. He has however said several times before that before he would start asking money for the project he wanted to have something tangible first, not just promises.
Have a look at this thread: http://www.blackfootstudios.com/foru...opic=5550&st=0

Gah, I can't seem to find the post I'm looking for.

EDIT: oh, and you're wrong about there not being any videos. Here you can see two video's that have been released previously: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlackFootStudios/videos
One is about animations and one is about a map fly-through.

[Defunkt]

I'd seen the map flythru already, it was posted on YouTube 2 1/2 years ago but there's been nothing since and in fact at least two of the three 'new' screenshots to surface recently are on that very map, I'm not sure they have any others. Maybe they will blow us all away this week with a huge reveal but I'm a bit sceptical. At least in Serellan I see a pragmatic approach to getting things done and a much clearer intention about the product than I've ever been able to glean from the GB site (campaign? multiplayer? co-op? adversarial?). The problem with games and mods that take too long is that by the time you're half way through the stuff you started with is no longer up-to-date and has to be re-done, the technology and consumer expectations move that fast.

[SiC-Disaster]

Well, our opinions on a clear intention for the product differ massively then. All I can say.

[Defunkt]

Well can you tell me (or link me to) something about the game. I swear I've not struck any sort of description of the goal other than that it's going to be tactical and in the spirit of some earlier Tom Clancy series (I forget which).

[SiC-Disaster]

Well their goals so far is ofcourse adding a multiplayer mode which will come first, after that they are going to add a co-op mode, after which they will focus on a single player campaign.
These single player missions will be in the style of oldschool tactical shooters like the original Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and the original Ghost Recon. I'm not entirely sure if the planning system will be like Ghost Recon's or like the pre-mission planner like Rainbow Six.

There have been several news letters detailing more information though these are old as well. Unfortunately with the recent forum change 5 of them seem to have been lost. I'll post the remainder anyway so you can read them.
- http://www.blackfootstudios.com/news...er1_Sept07.pdf
- http://www.blackfootstudios.com/news...er_Vol1is7.pdf

The BFS business motto, which you might or might not know, is this: “Do not build your community around a game, build your game around a community”
They have the full intention of bringing back the oldschool tactical shooter.
"It is our opinion that the tactical gaming market has become fragmented and there is currently a void to be filled. We are dedicated to filling that void with the style of games that many would call "classic" tactical squad based gaming. There is still a huge market for this style of game and BlackFoot Studios is in a great position to capitalize on it." ~ John Sonedecker

Next to that, they are making GB by principles of NORG, or Natural Order of Realistic Gameplay.
I can't find the original article with all the details but it basically comes down to them not cutting features because it might imbalance the game (like jumping for instance) but retaining these features with the proper reactions. In line with the previous example, jumping will fuck up your aim considerably.

“Removing something as basic as jumping means now the gamer must examine what he is allowed to do and learn to act inside an unrealistic world. This inevitably and always leads to gamers throwing up their hands in frustration and saying, “That is total BS. In the real world I could have jumped over that wall or ditch and been safe. I could have got that guy! Arrrhhhh!” Instead, the player now has to replay the level. Gaming should be an experience, not an exercise in mental toughness and tolerance.

NORG takes a different approah. It asks, “If bunny hopping and shooting is so effective in a game why don't real soldiers bunny hop and shoot?” Simple. The game design that allows such is deeply flawed but removing jumping IS NOT THE SOLUTION. NORG takes a realistic action and provides a realistic response. People do not bunny hop in the real world because they would be shot.

[...]

NORG design allows a title to be built that thrusts players into an immersive environment that they can immediately comprehend.” ~ John Sonedecker


But ofcourse all of this stuff is old by now, though I don't have much fears that they have changed their intention at all.
It's best to wait out the rest of the day and see what more lies in store for us, what more information we get.

EDIT:
Though it's in Dutch we also have some screenshots here:
http://www.tangodown.nl/forum/thread-236.html

[Defunkt]

Thanks for taking the time to post that much. I still don't see the grounds for such unswerving faith but let's see what they have to show this week.

[sparks50]