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How much did it cost to make Demigod ?

How much did it cost to make Demigod ?

If not in budget numbers, then in comparison to games such as SupCom and DoW2.

Just wondering.

I remember reading somewhere someone from Stardock, maybe Brad, saying a single demigod costs 100k$ to make.

 

28,999 views 65 replies
Reply #26 Top

Quoting doubledigit, reply 24
100k pffff, not even with cheap chinese programmers/artists would you achieve that. LOL. 

There are mobile game developers that spend on a mobile title more than 100k so a PC game that's been in production for at least 2 years (first screen from a playable version emerged an year ago) will go higher...

What's with maps being expensive talk? Are you guys blind? Artistically the maps look good but that doesn't count since much of the artistics in them do not have any gameplay interaction which is the hard part to design/test/fix/redesign.

Basically, maps in this game are 2D as far as gameplay is concerned, symetrical and that eliminates a ton of issues. Letting an artist imagine a guy holding a snake is just a few hours work. 

Yes, for you and me who have no talent it would take an year and it would look like crap, but not for an artist. 
End of doubledigit's quote

how could u be soo wrong  the maps arn't basically 2d  it is all fucking 3d  are u a iddiot

Reply #27 Top

Quoting si1foo, reply 1



how could u be soo wrong  the maps arn't basically 2d  it is all fucking 3d  are u a iddiot
End of si1foo's quote

Riiiiiight, another moron who can't see past the graphics. Where did you learn to spell dumbass?

Take all the graphics from the background away and you'll end up with just a basic 2d map, that's all that counts since no gameplay takes place anywhere else. Flying units? LOL, those have nothing to do with the map layout.

 

 

Reply #28 Top

They do as far as gameplay is concerned.

Reply #29 Top

I guess you and I have been playing two different games.

 

Reply #30 Top

I'm sorry, what are you saying? That just because units can fly off the map at different altitudes that affect their actions, it doesn't make the maps 3d as far as gameplay is concerned?

Reply #31 Top

The maps are a 2D plane with holes in it essentially, then 3d backgrounds etc are added.  Having the flying units does not change the fact that the maps themselves are 2D, also flying units appear to always be able to be hit from the ground they could be replaced with ground units that move quickly.

Reply #32 Top

Do you at any point have alive units going under the map floor? No.

Do you at any point have units going behind artistic elements? No.

Do the flying units go below the egde of the map preventing other units from seeing/hitting them? No.

Do you have arcs, bridges, levels over/under the map where units will be higher/lower than others, affecting their aim/damage? No.

Do you at any point have alive units move outside the playing area? No.

Is the playing area a two dimensional plane which allows flying units above it? Yes.

Does the game need a full 3d collision check with the environment? No.

Any dead units that fall of the cliffs are no longer gameplay relevant, just there for artistic value.

 

Reply #33 Top

Heavenfall, what are you on? No player can fly, the only time things are not entirely flat is when you have flying units that are scripted to do so, or when they're dead. The map not being 100% flat in every way does not impact the gameplay at all.

Reply #34 Top

Kind of getting off track here.

If the only thing a mapmaker provides is a simple 2D plane upon which characters may stride, his/her effort is by comparison and in the company of current maps like Brothers and Crucible, a failure and not worthy of play.

Might be like making an argument that texturemapping a 10,000 polygon character is difficult, therefore only the Maya mesh creation is necessary. These maps are 3-dimensional. The playfield upon which one operates is flat, but it is still a carefully modelled construct. Modelling takes time, planning, and an understanding of many things technical. This ain`t the Build engine, or DOOMCaD (although those programs took skill & planning as well to execute something worthwhile).

- How many polys display at once at maximum zoom out level? Too many?
- Do any of the surrounding architectures obstruct camera view at 'normal' heights/orientations? What is 'normal'?


... plus tons of other concerns that I`m sure arise once you get into the process.

Making a map that looks great is as necessary as one that plays well. If you disagree, then go ahead and turn off textures & shadows... . And any associated background meshes (like the skeletons on Brothers).

Reply #35 Top

Quoting doubledigit, reply 7
Do you at any point have alive units going under the map floor? No.

Do you at any point have units going behind artistic elements? No.

Do the flying units go below the egde of the map preventing other units from seeing/hitting them? No.

Do you have arcs, bridges, levels over/under the map where units will be higher/lower than others, affecting their aim/damage? No.

Do you at any point have alive units move outside the playing area? No.

Is the playing area a two dimensional plane which allows flying units above it? Yes.

Does the game need a full 3d collision check with the environment? No.

Any dead units that fall of the cliffs are no longer gameplay relevant, just there for artistic value.

 
End of doubledigit's quote

1 wrong they do sometimes

2 is yes they do sometimes

3 no there isn't

4 if u want rto move outside the playing area go rape urmum

5 nope  because if it was 2d then units couldn't go under

6  if they had collison with everylittle thing and every mob the reinforcements would own u or stop u from retrea

7 that isn't even a question dumbass

Reply #36 Top

Quoting DeadMG, reply 8
Heavenfall, what are you on? No player can fly, the only time things are not entirely flat is when you have flying units that are scripted to do so, or when they're dead. The map not being 100% flat in every way does not impact the gameplay at all.
End of DeadMG's quote

no player can but  angels have been seen going under the map

Reply #37 Top

Quoting WarlokLord, reply 9
Kind of getting off track here.

If the only thing a mapmaker provides is a simple 2D plane upon which characters may stride, his/her effort is by comparison and in the company of current maps like Brothers and Crucible, a failure and not worthy of play.

Might be like making an argument that texturemapping a 10,000 polygon character is difficult, therefore only the Maya mesh creation is necessary. These maps are 3-dimensional. The playfield upon which one operates is flat, but it is still a carefully modelled construct. Modelling takes time, planning, and an understanding of many things technical. This ain`t the Build engine, or DOOMCaD (although those programs took skill & planning as well to execute something worthwhile).

- How many polys display at once at maximum zoom out level? Too many?
- Do any of the surrounding architectures obstruct camera view at 'normal' heights/orientations? What is 'normal'?


... plus tons of other concerns that I`m sure arise once you get into the process.

Making a map that looks great is as necessary as one that plays well. If you disagree, then go ahead and turn off textures & shadows... . And any associated background meshes (like the skeletons on Brothers).
End of WarlokLord's quote

 i agree with u the maps are the thing i like the most about the game  but they should make enough maps so that the map to dg is even

Reply #38 Top

Quoting si1foo, reply 10


1 wrong they do sometimes

2 is yes they do sometimes

3 no there isn't

4 if u want rto move outside the playing area go rape urmum

5 nope  because if it was 2d then units couldn't go under

6  if they had collison with everylittle thing and every mob the reinforcements would own u or stop u from retrea

7 that isn't even a question dumbass
End of si1foo's quote

I'm truly amazed by your communicating skills. Did your mom drop you on your head on a regular basis? Do people call you flathead because of this? Then, why act surprised... LOL

Reply #39 Top

Quoting doubledigit, reply 13

Quoting si1foo, reply 10

1 wrong they do sometimes

2 is yes they do sometimes

3 no there isn't

4 if u want rto move outside the playing area go rape urmum

5 nope  because if it was 2d then units couldn't go under

6  if they had collison with everylittle thing and every mob the reinforcements would own u or stop u from retrea

7 that isn't even a question dumbass
I'm truly amazed by your communicating skills. Did your mom drop you on your head on a regular basis? Do people call you flathead because of this? Then, why act surprised... LOL
End of doubledigit's quote

 

if that is all your can come up with then we know who is the one who was droped on his head

yawn your boring go away we dont need iddiots who want arguements just to get attention

Reply #40 Top

Quoting si1foo, reply 14



 

if that is all your can come up with then we know who is the one who was droped on his head

yawn your boring go away we dont need iddiots who want arguements just to get attention
End of si1foo's quote

 

As far as I'm concerned, you're just another 5 year old prick, too dumb to see the obvious. The fact that you are from Great Britain and by this age can't spell right makes sick. There's a clear difference between "your and you're" moron.

Why am I arguing with an idiot who jumps to name calling if proven otherwise? Stupid of me, yes.

Go back to school moron, or tell your parents you need serious help, the world doesn't need another looser, it's full of them already.

Reply #41 Top

Quoting doubledigit, reply 15

Quoting si1foo, reply 14


 

if that is all your can come up with then we know who is the one who was droped on his head

yawn your boring go away we dont need iddiots who want arguements just to get attention
 

As far as I'm concerned, you're just another 5 year old prick, too dumb to see the obvious. The fact that you are from Great Britain and by this age can't spell right makes sick. There's a clear difference between "your and you're" moron.

Why am I arguing with an idiot who jumps to name calling if proven otherwise? Stupid of me, yes.

Go back to school moron, or tell your parents you need serious help, the world doesn't need another looser, it's full of them already.
End of doubledigit's quote

your the person who started name calling dumbass

go fcuk off we dont need assholes iddiot

Reply #42 Top

this thread is pure idiocy, i dont know why i read it...

Reply #43 Top

This game could have been made by a team of like 6-7 (entire team) people easy for 2 years familiar with the engine.

Reply #44 Top

Quoting SubtleSalmon, reply 17
this thread is pure idiocy, i dont know why i read it...
End of SubtleSalmon's quote

That's what happens when Stardock publishes a mainstream game and the forums change from being a productive and interesting place to pissing contests between adolescents :(

Reply #45 Top

As far as I'm concerned, you're just another 5 year old prick...Go back to school moron
End of quote
go f**k off we dont need assholes iddiot
End of quote

I don't care who started this, but it's going to stop. We may tolerate people criticizing us or the game, but insulting other users in such a manner isn't going to fly. Consider yourselves warned.

Reply #46 Top

Thank you Kryo.

If you are not familiar with the game engine and you don't know what role things like heightmaps, strata, decals, procedual skydomes, props, bps, markers, path nodes, emitters, albedos, bump and normal maps play in the SupCom engine, please don't even try to guestimate a price tag for a Demigod map. I'm intimately familiar with SupCom maps and the game engine, I have seen the beta 1 maps in the editor and I would not even dream to guess how long it takes to create maps like this.

The real question here is: Can a modding team do it? Yes, they can! But it will take them weeks and hundreds of hours of hard work to present anything comparable if they start from scratch. To create a completely new amp you will need one better two 3D artists, 2 texturers, a scripter, someone familiar with the map editor and someone with experience for effects.

If you settle for a map based on an existing map and reuse the background and a bunch of textures, it will be a lot easier. This could be done in a realistic timeframe with 3 or 4 dedicated modders.

Moving towers and forts around, changing creep paths, textures and the like can be done in Notepad++ and Photoshop on a weekend - if you know what you are doing.

I have not looked very deeply into Demigod maps yet because I dont want to waste my time if we dont get a map editor and importers/exporters for 3DS and Blender. But I think my assumtions here are pretty accurate from what I've seen in the beta.

Reply #47 Top

i wish he would stop but i doubt it

Reply #48 Top

Quoting Colonel_Jessep, reply 21
Thank you Kryo.

If you are not familiar with the game engine and you don't know what role things like heightmaps, strata, decals, procedual skydomes, props, bps, markers, path nodes, emitters, albedos, bump and normal maps play in the SupCom engine, please don't even try to guestimate a price tag for a Demigod map. I'm intimately familiar with SupCom maps and the game engine, I have seen the beta 1 maps in the editor and I would not even dream to guess how long it takes to create maps like this.

The real question here is: Can a modding team do it? Yes, they can! But it will take them weeks and hundreds of hours of hard work to present anything comparable if they start from scratch. To create a completely new amp you will need one better two 3D artists, 2 texturers, a scripter, someone familiar with the map editor and someone with experience for effects.

If you settle for a map based on an existing map and reuse the background and a bunch of textures, it will be a lot easier. This could be done in a realistic timeframe with 3 or 4 dedicated modders.

Moving towers and forts around, changing creep paths, textures and the like can be done in Notepad++ and Photoshop on a weekend - if you know what you are doing.

I have not looked very deeply into Demigod maps yet because I dont want to waste my time if we dont get a map editor and importers/exporters for 3DS and Blender. But I think my assumtions here are pretty accurate from what I've seen in the beta.
End of Colonel_Jessep's quote

I seriously doubt that the maps took more time making that the characters, which are animated. Aside from the flowing water the maps are static, but that can be scripted since it has no gameplay interaction.

As far as collision is concerned, just the 2d platform is taken into account.

Also, the background can only be seen from above and a bit from the sides, meaning there's no point (both timewise and performancewise) wasting time drawing underneath.

Reply #49 Top

I think it's a bit assasine for them to say the fans don't know how to use 3dsmax and tile textures.

Quake3, UT, hl where sucessful largely from this.
End of quote

I could not agree more. Don't underestimate the modder community. Just open Demigod up and give us the specifications. Don't worry about the tools. I think Demigod's real success will be in the long term. The modder community is the only weapon to sustain that, other then charging people micropayments for microexpansions.<cough-not a good idea-cough>

 

Reply #50 Top

I seriously doubt that the maps took more time making that the characters
End of quote
I never said they did. ;)

My time estimate is for modders who have to learn how the engine works, not professionals. I can tell you that we have maybe 5 to 10 mappers in the SupCom community atm who wouldnt have to put at least a week into learning how everything falls into place before they can even think of working on Demigod maps. I have yet to see a single one of them here but I think that will change in a hurry if the map editor for Demigod is released.

@Stardock: The map dev tool from beta 1 was perfectly okay. Please release the updated version if (when?) you add modding support, thanks.