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TSL Updates!

Started by KatieHal, May 21, 2015, 11:15:15 AM

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Numbers

I agree with GrahamRocks here. Imagine if TOG's KQ went up to Chapter 4, then abruptly cut off and ended with "Stay tuned for the epilogue!", followed Chapter 5 being billed as the epilogue, even though it's much more important to the story than Chapter 4, and is very clearly the climax of the story. It would make no sense.

Besides, epilogues have a bad rep anyway. Who actually enjoyed the epilogue at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Nobody? Exactly. The cinematic adaptation of Return of the King had the same problem, where it felt like there were three or four epilogues all in a row after the One Ring finally gets destroyed. What's worse, the book had even more stuff that got cut out of the movie for time.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

GrahamRocks!

I admittedly don't have a problem with what I know about the HP epilogue. The only ones who I've seen complaining about it is angry shippers. ;) You wanna know what's a better example? Voltron: Legendary Defender had a piss poor epilogue according to the fandom. Like, everyone was livid about it. I personally wasn't and will defend the show and the final season, but I'm a minority.

But yes, agreed.

Numbers

Quote from: GrahamRocks! on January 28, 2019, 05:33:34 PM
I admittedly don't have a problem with what I know about the HP epilogue. The only ones who I've seen complaining about it is angry shippers. ;)

Trust me, the shipping was the least of that epilogue's problems. I think the bigger issue was that it was cheesy writing, a lack of closure on many fan-favorite characters, and that it was a bland, happy, feel-good ending with seemingly no repercussions from everything that had happened up until that point, and just overall felt really anticlimactic. The movie version didn't do it any favors, given that they apparently were short on makeup artists who could convincingly portray what a character would look like 20 years after the main event, and, in Alan Rickman's case, 20 years before said main event.

Quote from: GrahamRocks! on January 28, 2019, 05:33:34 PM
Voltron: Legendary Defender had a piss poor epilogue according to the fandom.

I consider myself fortunate to know literally nothing about Voltron. In fact, I hadn't even heard of it until you brought it up a couple years ago. Regardless, I'm already a part of way too many toxic and unpleasable fandoms, and I don't want to involve myself in yet another one.

But more importantly...

Quote from: KatieHal on January 22, 2019, 07:33:22 PM
We are working on putting together an update for you, I am hoping that will be ready before the end of the month. :)

Two days remain.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

KatieHal

Hey guys, I'll be putting up a blog post later today. :)

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

KatieHal

And, voila! http://www.postudios.com/blog/?p=6822

More updates with some details and more flash to come :)

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

calmlunatic

Quotefixing bugs (over and over and over)

Thank you for this update. I wonder if the final chapter will include a puzzle to remove bugs to make it work as a nod to this debugging procedure. :)
Grateful about a free game currently in development & offering support to the dev team in hopes the final episode will be released. Will keep waiting for updates.

MangoMercury

Thanks for the update Katie, it is much appreciated - glad to know that things are moving forward, and hopefully things will keep moving along as smoothly as they can :)
~RESIDENT MANGO~
The sanest forum-dweller of all!


Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

Numbers

And Katie comes through in the clutch!

Seriously, thanks for this. Long stretches of time wherein no communication happens from a game studio to its audience usually indicates something behind the scenes is very wrong, so it's nice to see that not only are we getting an update now, we'll continue to get them in the next few weeks.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

colin

Yipee good to hear news about episode 5.

MangoMercury

...so now we've had an update, Shalkar is nowhere to be seen, despite having been online in the last several days (even today/yesterday, in fact!).  Seems he only wants to be around to complain and not actually be grateful when we receive any news.

Such an update does make one appreciate just how much work goes into a game, though.  The fact that it's not just plonking characters on a screen and they magically move and everything is fine and great, a lot of tweaks have to happen to make those characters (and backgrounds) come to life and to make sure it all works according to plan.  It's great to have some behind the scenes stuff though, and I look forward to any future updates coming our way ;D

~RESIDENT MANGO~
The sanest forum-dweller of all!


Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

GrahamRocks!

Does that honestly surprise you about Shalkar though? I skimmed through his posts a while back, and most of the time he's doing exactly what he's been doing in this thread: complaining about the wait and saying to hurry up already.

Numbers

Yeah, Shalkar's a bit of a one-trick pony.

...actually, probably a zero-trick pony.

Whatever the case may be, I'm happy we're getting some more specific details as to what's happening, even if, as Katie said, the behind-the-scenes stuff lately hasn't really been interesting enough to share. I'm happy that they're using motion-capture work; a lot of the character animations in the first four episodes were just the same animation over and over again. It was especially noticeable in Episode 4, where the most characters were available. That Winged One painter angrily motioning at Graham every single time he spoke, no matter what he was actually saying, was especially grating. Jollo laughing and slapping his knee happened a few too many times. Ditto with Graham recoiling with a surprised look on his face. And during the boss battle, Graham constantly pointing as he spoke just brought the "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man" meme to mind.



The facial animations also needed work, so I'm glad they're getting an overhaul. Lip-syncing in gameplay, regardless of the game, is almost always off, because your machine might not be fast enough for the audio and visuals to match up. Pre-rendered cutscenes usually look better.

Lastly, the animation of cloaks. I'm familiar with this concept, since it's come up in some cartoons I watch. Two of the animated Star Wars shows have had this problem--The Clone Wars and Rebels. The Clone Wars was insanely expensive to animate already, but robes and cloaks were so difficult to animate that the show-runners practically held off entirely on them until five seasons in. In Rebels, Darth Vader appears...for only four episodes. Why? You'd think he would be pretty simple to animate, since he's just a black knight-like figure devoid of expression, right? Nope, his cape was so hard to animate that they pretty much blew their entire budget on it alone.



Looking at this gif, keep in mind that his cape was tougher to animate than the fire, smoke and sparks around him.

It's come up in movies, too. In Thor: Ragnarok, the scene with Doctor Strange, despite taking place at the very beginning of the movie, was one of the last to be completed because, despite it being shot on an easy-to-film set, Strange's cloak took them forever to animate.



So yes, I understand where the cloak thing comes from.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

GrahamRocks!

Agreed.

And even the reboot isn't free of cape troubles either.

KatieHal

Next time, we'll heed the wise words of Edna Mode:


Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Enchantermon

Thank you so much for the update, Katie! Always good to hear an official word, even if it's not super-interesting stuff (and honestly, "interesting" is pretty subjective, anyway). :)
So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him and saaaaaaaaaay, "Hey! Bad guy! You're not s'posed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword 'til you go, 'Ouch! I'm dead!' Ah-ha-ha!" Ha-ha. *hic* See? Ain't no one gonna be messin' wit' ol', Benny!

MangoMercury

Oh hey, it's Enchantermon!  Wonder if we'll get any more oldies out of the woodwork ;D  I'm just glad to see some positivity here and people happy to see an update.  Nearly 16 years on, I still don't know how I will feel when this is finished...

Now, question is, were the capes the work of César?  We do know how much he loves the suffer...  :suffer: :suffer: :suffer:
~RESIDENT MANGO~
The sanest forum-dweller of all!


Countess of Tyrol and Maid of Honour to the Queen

Shalkar

Did someone call my name? I just haven't had a desire to reply yet! I am grateful for this update an hopefully the process is a much faster process than before. With that being said, let's get this show on the road!  8)

Numbers

Quote from: Shalkar on February 08, 2019, 12:02:51 PM
let's get this show on the road

You've said that same exact sentence like eight times in this one thread alone. I don't think it means what you think it means. You still seem as impatient as before.

Also...

Quote from: Shalkar on February 08, 2019, 12:02:51 PM
hopefully the process is a much faster process than before

It's moving at exactly the same speed as it has always been. It's only now that they're sharing progress with us, because, if you actually read the update--or did read it, but didn't understand it--there was nothing to show to us previously, because it was programming and bug-testing. There's literally nothing to say about either of those things, because every game has them, and it wouldn't be prudent for POStudios to state the painfully obvious.

Just be patient for once and stop repeating yourself over and over, because it accomplishes nothing.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Shalkar

Quote from: MangoMercury on February 04, 2019, 02:46:21 AM
...so now we've had an update, Shalkar is nowhere to be seen, despite having been online in the last several days (even today/yesterday, in fact!).  Seems he only wants to be around to complain and not actually be grateful when we receive any news.

Such an update does make one appreciate just how much work goes into a game, though.  The fact that it's not just plonking characters on a screen and they magically move and everything is fine and great, a lot of tweaks have to happen to make those characters (and backgrounds) come to life and to make sure it all works according to plan.  It's great to have some behind the scenes stuff though, and I look forward to any future updates coming our way ;D

How are you doing this evening? I am so happy the progress of the game comning along. I love updates an so does everyone else. They let us know as an audience everything is moving along smoothly. Cannot wait for the next update stay tuned everyone. Including my friends Gramrocks & Numbers. The two showstoppers of this thread  :rofl:

GrahamRocks!

I can feel the sass from here. I'm not your friend, bud. I know how you tick.