My first week @ Introversion

[Rkiver]

Does anyone want to share there favourite part and thoughts of the game play for Darwinia?

Gladly.

I liked Darwinia from the get-go. It was different and concentrated on the gameplay, which is the most important part of a game. Shiny graphics don't always make a good game.

During the beta testing getting a first look at it I loved the sounds most of all. Don't know why I did. You'd move close to the trees and it sounded...forestishlike while in a computer. Ok not much sense I know.

Also as you progress and the good doctor tells you more and more about the Darwinians, for example when he pasted his face as the sky so they built statues, then when they used a trunk port to try and talk to "god" by pointing it at the soul repository and stealing his mail. The whole thing was rather immersive as you watch the little guys develop, especially when they got lasers and started attacking anything that came near them. When the red darwinians arrived it looked like genocide, and was closely fought on some levels that you were never sure you'd actually suceed. You'd try, try again, and finally hit on a good strategy.

Overall, the simple graphics, great gameplay, and the sounds, definately the sounds, made it good for me.

That do?

[Xocrates]

Darwinia, eh?

What I liked most of Darwinia was the details and the presentation. Darwinians are the 2D sprites that scream in fear, jump of joy, pay tribute to the dead, run away when you point a turret at them, have a past, a present and future (these last three presented to us by the good doctor). They live on a stylized 3D world that feels organic.
They are perhaps the only videogame characters I actually feel bad about tormenting for giggles.

In sum, I like Darwinia because its 2D catatonic looking protagonists are more deep and complex than many of the State of the art 3D, with advanced facial expression technology characters we find in many modern games (Yes, so called Prince of Persia, I'm looking at you)


As for gameplay, I don't really know what to say, it can be fast or slow paced, repetitive or varied depending on how skilled/suicidal the player is and how much he enjoys each of the toys.

Also: Soul Destroyers are both the biggest pain and the coolest (read creepiest) enemy in the game (One tear shed for every lost soul )

[martinmir]

If a Darwinian/Multiwinian was a celebrity who would he/she be like? Actors, Musicians, Gaming Figures, ETC>>>


Think about the personality here as well as image...

[vanarbulax]

My first answer would be an emotional lemming but comparing game characters to game characters is really cheating. I'm not sure about a celebrity, though the idea of a blockbuster Darwinia/Multiwinia movie is hilarious. Something like Bruce Willis is Multiwinia no. 203945, charging headlong into the throngs of other multiwinians, fighting for glory and his colour.

[Mas Tnega]

I'd say Sigourney Weaver, but clearly what I actually mean is Ripley, and even then, I can't entirely see a Darwinian screaming "Get away from her, you BITCH!" at a Soul Destroyer, but damnit, if anyone's still making Darwinia mods, I want to see that.

How about Sylvester Stallone, for those many, many, gloriously ultra-violent scenes?

[jaamarti]

I would have to say the Gove-nah Arnie... A buffed pixel Connan or Terminator, or even the military commando from Predator.

[martinmir]

Thanks for your input very mixed opinions.

[flipstrung]

uh-huh..

Well Martin, welcome to Introversion.... I'm sure you understand SOME of the folks in your new workplace are absolute pioneers and visionaries, even if slightly introverted

The rest of you... INTROVERSION IS STARTING AN OFFICIAL MARKETING DIVISION?!

Oh dear..

We won't see much of a change with the existing games of course.... The next couple titles even probably will not seem very different.

We do see Introversion working toward getting into online gaming, which ends up requiring people to work or play each other.. Stick with me here..

The more marketing that is done, the more this community will be littered with scumbag asshole little kids and punk-ass tards who never would have been interested in such delights if they hadn't seen the banner on their barely-related regularly-visited portal or whatever.

Frankly, I have to give Introversion credit for building themselves up and getting on Steam - amazing move, and it has really been a delight enjoying their software. I would have never heard of them without them caring to put some funds into "getting OUT THERE!"

This is fine with SINGLE-PLAYER games.

Introversion creates some very eclectic, completely unfamiliar gaming which I think is fantastic (I guess that's not fantastic from a marketing professional's standpoint.. "'Completely unfamiliar?' Hell, let's change that!")! Getting into the online gaming world, however, is an entirely different beast.

I guess I'm just ranting and raving, but the bigger the marketing gets with ONLINE games, the worse the community will become.

I've been a visitor here for quite a while - this is my first post because I was kind of alarmed by this, having worked in the industry here and there, and Martin I'm not trying to come down on you man but geeze please be careful with the types of "demographics" you choose to present Introversion's software to; the community here is something very unique.

My answer Martin is WORD OF MOUTH. People know who's companionship they would enjoy in an online community. Various relatively-small gaming companies end up completely destroyed out there because they brought in the wrong kinds of customers and ruined it for the folks who originally enjoyed the software such companies were putting out - this is often due to marketing.

Given: getting the word out there and drawing in more consumers can be great for you guys in terms of allowing Introversion to gather the resources necessary to create more epic awesomeness.

That being said, Introversion, I hope you're not looking to turn into a major profit-machine as opposed to the delightful fun-machine-we're-willing-to-pay that I know Introversion as . It's obviously a goal to make some money in this industry, but I hope you don't get too carried away and lose the original [intro]version. That said; great job so far! You guys have come a long way and really kept it innovative

Anyway, feel free to completely dismiss my large rant here, if you actually read through it, folks. I've had WAAAYYYY too much >insert favorite mind-altering substance here< tonight

[Xocrates]

A) Introversion always had a Marketing division (Vic)

B) Introversion went online with Defcon about two years ago

[Mas Tnega]

Not *always*...

[Phelanpt]

I think the main difference with other companies, even if IV keep growing, is that they're developer driven, instead of marketing driven. So the game ideas start out with a demographic of less than five people.

[flipstrung]

I say stick with word of mouth..

that includes working towards people with big mouths

[shinygerbil]

o_0

[MaximusBrood]

Gosox incarnation number three? (or is it the fourth already?)

[Mas Tnega]

We haven't yet found someone with the superiour spelling abilities gosox had.

Jelco

Liar.