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[duckroll]

Now that there are videos, high-res screens of actual gameplay, and everyone can see that the game looks great and runs smoothly, I think it'll be a good time to bring up an overlooked factor in the game's development: Would you believe that Crimson Dragon runs on Unreal Engine 3? It's true, they posted about this last year.

http://www.g-rounding.com/en/index.php

Grounding Licenses Unreal Engine 3 for 'Project Draco'
'Project Draco' Harnesses the Unreal Engine to Put Kinect Gamers on Dragon back

Grounding Inc. announces the studio has licensed Unreal Engine 3 its upcoming game, "Project Draco" (tentative title).
First exhibited at Tokyo Game Show in 2010 and scheduled for release in 2012 by Microsoft Studios on Xbox LIVE Arcade, "Project Draco" is a 3D action game that takes players into the sky on the wings of a dragon, battling a legion of enemies through the power of Microsoft Kinect.
The award-winning power of Unreal Engine 3 breathes realistic life into the beautiful scenery and fantasy world of "Project Draco."

 

[benzy]

Did some people just ignore cvx's post in regards to the controls?

Don't let the Kinect scare you away if you can get one. The game looks and plays fantastically.

 

[S1kkZ]

unreal engine 3 has come a long way since the last big update. it doesnt surprise me that they use it for a game like that, a lot of kinect games do.

 

[duckroll]

I'm really interested in the game's co-op; with more than one dragon on screen, I'm guessing it'll have local co-op. And I think I saw two Blood Skin dragons near the 0:38 second mark, which probably means that two or more players can pick the same dragon type. I hope that's the case; I love co-op play in shooters, and having the option to pick any type instead of scrambling to get the one I want would be a big boon for me.

I don't think that there is any local co-op. Maybe cvxfreak can confirm since he actually got hands on at the event today, but from what I've read the game only supports co-op over Xbox Live because of the nature of how the game controls. The screen can only focus on one dragon at a time.

As for two Bloodskins at the same time, it's not in the trailer. For the co-op portion of the trailer, they used 3 different dragons, but there's no reason to think that it wouldn't be possible to have two of the same dragons in co-op, since one of the features in the game is how you can develop the same dragon type in different ways by the skills they learn.

Here's a bigger screen of the co-op segment in the trailer:

 

[Forsaken82]

For some reason when this thread popped up, i was expecting that Larian Studio's developed Divinity Sequel Dragon Commander (i think) where you play the dragon...

Never knew about this game. May have to get a Kinect for this!

 

[Pooya]

this picture

reminds me of a lot of this for some reason x)

 

[Dascu]

That reminds me, whatever happened to ethelred?

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Game looks absolutely stunning. Too bad I won't be buying it.

I have no interest in purchasing a Kinect and if I did, I wouldn't have the space requirements for it to work properly.

 

[Pachinko]

First comment pretty much nails my opinion on this(first comment on youtube that is).

This looks very nice and I really enjoyed ORTA even if I was terrible at it but I really REALLY dislike using Kinect. I've only played around with it for a bit at a cousins house but it was unresponsive and laggy. Everything I see in this game and what I've played of kinect software could just as easily be done on a controller and for the most part I would find it more entertaining.

I don't play videogames to get a work out and don't want to stand up moving a reticule about with my hand. This game seems just downright odd in that it's aimed almost squarely at oldschool hardcore sega fans and yet it forces you to use a device designed for people who don't like videogames.

I'd even go so far as to say that I really hope the kinect 2.0 is sold separately from the next xbox because I want nothing to do with it.

Seeing comments about how "this game is different it actually works" do nothing for me. It's a shame to because if this was released as controller compatible I'd be buying it as soon as it came out. Now I'll instead have to wait for a non-kinect version that likely won't see the light of day. I know I'm not alone on that either.

 

[Dartastic]

Is there a release date on this yet?

 

[Phat Michael]

Really impressive. The problem with my apartment is that kinect just WONT work where i live. there is a massive table in the way that cant be moved and there isnt really "standing" or moving space :/

 

[Stumpokapow]

That reminds me, whatever happened to ethelred?

Not to put words in his mouth, since he could obviously reply to you himself, but he's still alive, voted in GOTY thread, not an active poster anymore.

 

[TheOddOne]

Hey Duckroll, I have kind of strange question; Has Grounding Inc, told anything about other projects they might be working on? Like what they are gonna do after the release of Crimson.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Really impressive. The problem with my apartment is that kinect just WONT work where i live. there is a massive table in the way that cant be moved and there isnt really "standing" or moving space :/

Is it confirmed that you need to stand to play this? Kinect recognizes arm motions just fine if you're sitting down.

 

[Arnie]

This looks amazing.

 

[duckroll]

Hey Duckroll, I have kind of strange question; Has Grounding Inc, told anything about other projects they might be working on? Like what they are gonna do after the release of Crimson.

Grounding Inc is a very small developer which probably won't make titles which anyone on NeoGAF will be particularly interested in. Since they were established a few years back, they've basically just made a handful of casual games on WiiWare/DSiWare/iOS/mobile. Once this game is done they'll probably go back to making stuff like that.

The only reason they're handling a bigger project like this is because of Futatsugi being the father of Panzer Dragoon. I'm pretty sure the majority of the actual development for the game is being done by Land Ho, since they have much more manpower to develop games of console scale.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Anyone have a breakdown of the controls?

 

[TheOddOne]

Grounding Inc is a very small developer which probably won't make titles which anyone on NeoGAF will be particularly interested in. Since they were established a few years back, they've basically just made a handful of casual games on WiiWare/DSiWare/iOS/mobile. Once this game is done they'll probably go back to making stuff like that.

The only reason they're handling a bigger project like this is because of Futatsugi being the father of Panzer Dragoon. I'm pretty sure the majority of the actual development for the game is being done by Land Ho, since they have much more manpower to develop games of console scale.

Ohh, never knew Grounding Inc was that small. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[duckroll]

Anyone have a breakdown of the controls?

From my previous thread:

- In the demo they showed off the controls of the game for the first time. Reaching out with your right hand, you lock-on to multiple targets for the Homing Laser attack. With your left hand, you can trigger the manual Fire Breath single target attack. Swinging down both arms together will unleash the strong Eclipse Ray attack.

- Movement is controlled by leaning left and right, pulling back and leaning forward, much as it would be if you were actually sat upon a dragons back.

In general, there are 3 attacks which you equip on the dragon, of different types. So you have a lock-on type attack on the right hand, a gun type attack on the left hand, and a special attack which uses both arms. It's possible controls much differ slightly (in terms of how you use your hands) depending on the type of skills you have equipped, but those are the examples they have shown so far.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Grounding Inc is a very small developer which probably won't make titles which anyone on NeoGAF will be particularly interested in. Since they were established a few years back, they've basically just made a handful of casual games on WiiWare/DSiWare/iOS/mobile. Once this game is done they'll probably go back to making stuff like that.

PictureBook Games (on WiiWare) isn't terrible. It's like a board game, probably most comparable to something like Mario Party with no minigames.

 

[Phonomezer]

This is UE3? Impressive.

 

[Elginer]

It's amazing what UE3 can do in the right hands, it really is. Alice Madness Returns for instance on PC is gorgeous.

 

[erragal]

The only reason they're handling a bigger project like this is because of Futatsugi being the father of Panzer Dragoon. I'm pretty sure the majority of the actual development for the game is being done by Land Ho, since they have much more manpower to develop games of console scale.

Thanks for dashing my hopes of Phantom Dust 2. I was going to buy this solely on the minute chance they might make a PD2 Kinect if this sold well enough. See what you've done?!

 

[SousedLouse]

I don't think that there is any local co-op. Maybe cvxfreak can confirm since he actually got hands on at the event today, but from what I've read the game only supports co-op over Xbox Live because of the nature of how the game controls. The screen can only focus on one dragon at a time.

As for two Bloodskins at the same time, it's not in the trailer. For the co-op portion of the trailer, they used 3 different dragons, but there's no reason to think that it wouldn't be possible to have two of the same dragons in co-op, since one of the features in the game is how you can develop the same dragon type in different ways by the skills they learn.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. With that screen cap, I can now see that they aren't the same types. I hope you're right about having more than one of the same type of dragon playable per mission, though. As you mentioned, the skills would allow players to customize their dragons, in a sense, so that would probably encourage duplicate selections, as players would compare and compliment each other's skillsets. That's probably even more likely if multi-player is handled over Xbox Live, since the dragons and any skills they've unlocked would be tied to each player's save file.

Actually, multi-player wouldn't really be feasible offline, would it? I mean, doesn't Kinect only actively track up to two people at once anyway? It would be awkward enough with two players, two separate dragons and two separate aiming reticles all on screen at the same time, let alone three. Man, I really didn't think that last post through at all. Maybe I got too excited over it all.

But I'm still looking forward to the game - the co-op still sounds neat, and the rest of the game looks interesting enough for me to pick up.

 

[Krilekk]

Now that there are videos, high-res screens of actual gameplay, and everyone can see that the game looks great and runs smoothly, I think it'll be a good time to bring up an overlooked factor in the game's development: Would you believe that Crimson Dragon runs on Unreal Engine 3? It's true, they posted about this last year.

http://www.g-rounding.com/en/index.php

Sure, why not? After all Samaritian runs on Unreal Engine 3. A railshooter should be able to look really good, that's pretty much the reason why it is a railshooter.

 

[Satchel]

Fuck. Arcade is kicking ass this year. Alan Wake and this already.

So kinect is now a dance Central AND Crimson Dragon peripheral?

Cool

 

[StudioTan]

First comment pretty much nails my opinion on this(first comment on youtube that is).

This looks very nice and I really enjoyed ORTA even if I was terrible at it but I really REALLY dislike using Kinect. I've only played around with it for a bit at a cousins house but it was unresponsive and laggy. Everything I see in this game and what I've played of kinect software could just as easily be done on a controller and for the most part I would find it more entertaining.

I don't play videogames to get a work out and don't want to stand up moving a reticule about with my hand. This game seems just downright odd in that it's aimed almost squarely at oldschool hardcore sega fans and yet it forces you to use a device designed for people who don't like videogames.

I'd even go so far as to say that I really hope the kinect 2.0 is sold separately from the next xbox because I want nothing to do with it.

Seeing comments about how "this game is different it actually works" do nothing for me. It's a shame to because if this was released as controller compatible I'd be buying it as soon as it came out. Now I'll instead have to wait for a non-kinect version that likely won't see the light of day. I know I'm not alone on that either.

The bolded part is such a crock. I love video games and I love playing with Kinect, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. Kinect is just a different control system, that's all. Sure it makes it easier for people who don't normally play games and are intimidated by controllers to get into playing video games but it doesn't mean people who are perfectly comfortable with a controller can't also enjoy a more interactive control system. I prefer some games with a controller, I prefer some games with a keyboard and mouse, I prefer some games on a touch interface and I prefer some games with Kinect. I simply like games.

When people get all "disappointed" that a game like this exists it just comes across as self serving because they're basically saying that even though some people enjoy Kinect they don't want quality titles produced for it when those titles could have been reworked to be designed for a controller. It's such an elitist attitude.

 

[Draikin 2]

The only reason Microsoft is funding this is because they felt it had a small chance of helping to get hardcore gamers of this niche franchise to pay attention to their new hardware peripheral, and along with other similar projects they have funded they believe it can create some sort of core gamer synergy for Kinect. That is really the only reason. To them this is probably just extended marketing money for Kinect, thrown at a few Japanese developers.

Since this is the case, unless someone else starts up a Kickstarter and raises enough money to pay Grounding, Land Ho, and Sega to make a true Panzer Dragoon sequel on the PS3/360/PC/whatever supporting controllers, keyboard+mouse, Move, Wiimote, Kinect, DDR Mat, etc, we are not going to get any sort of game like this again for a long, long time.

I agree with your reasoning, but they don't actually have to make a sequel to Panzer Dragoon. I created Panzer Dragoon Revival in the odd chance that it can convince Sega to re-release the old games on XBLA/PSN. Zwei and Orta in particular should be obvious candidates, and who knows, if those sell then a remaster Panzer Dragoon Saga may not be out of the question. Land Ho was already responsible for the original Panzer Dragoon conversion for the PS2, so they've worked with Sega before. As unlikely as all of this seems, the fact that Crimson Dragon is being made is already something of a miracle, so if there's any time for the fans to let Sega know they'd like to see more Panzer Dragoon games, it's now.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

I've never played any of the Panzer Dragoon series but it's hard to see everyone be so positive and not be interested, considering I already own a Kinect.

 

[a Master Ninja]

This looks better than I expected.

 

[alerus]

I'm a little unsure about my feelings on this. On the one hand, it's nice to see a hardcore game for Kinect. On the other hand, I don't really see a reason for why this should be Kinect exclusive. The controls really aren't doing anything new that requires a Kinect to work (at least not from what I can tell; perhaps someone can describe something I'm missing). In fact, it's possible that analogs might even work better. When it comes to Kinect carving out its own niche to demonstrate whether its a valid control system, we need games that simply cannot be practically played without it; we need innovative games that tell us why we have this interface at all. Not games that are built from existing concepts and transformed to work with Kinect.

 

[B.O.O.M]

I just don't get it. From the gameplay videos it looked like an on rails shooter, but instead of a gun you have a dragon. meh

 

[Mdk7]

It's like a dream come true for me.
Seriously, WOW.

 

[Phonomezer]

I just don't get it. From the gameplay videos it looked like an on rails shooter, but instead of a gun you have a dragon. meh

Educate yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLHCAD_IZfU&feature=related

 

[B.O.O.M]

Educate yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLHCAD_IZfU&feature=related

Not sure what that video was supposed to do but it looks like exactly what I just said. The dragon doesn't make it any cooler for me. It's just not for me I guess

 

[Raide]

Not sure what that video was supposed to do but it looks like exactly what I just said. The dragon doesn't make it any cooler for me. It's just not for me I guess

Pretty much. If you don't like the on-rails shooter aspect and riding on dragons is not your thing, then I don't see the game appealing to you. At least try out the demo if/when it appears.

 

[B.O.O.M]

Pretty much. If you don't like the on-rails shooter aspect and riding on dragons is not your thing, then I don't see the game appealing to you. At least try out the demo if/when it appears.

Oh without a doubt I will give it a go. And dragon riding does sound appealing to me (I have been thinking a dragon riding game would be awesome for vita) but it has to be free roam for me to really enjoy it. Hopefully we will get something like that as well in the future

 

[VanWinkle]

Graphics and design are amazing, but as of now I am not going to buy it. I just don't find Kinect to be a proper "controller" for a game like this, with the lag. I would be willing to try it and be proven wrong, though.

 

[Suzuki Yu]

It's like a dream come true for me.
Seriously, WOW.

yeah same here.
i am happy now.

 

[RyanReedyMusic]

WHY KINECT? WHY? WHY? Im such a huge fan of the entire Panzer Dragoon Series. For those that come from this amazing series. The last thing we wanted to see was a Kinect only game. Nice try Microsoft. You completely are wasting a great developer on something that could just as easily be controlled comfortably on a controller so we can chill and enjoy the experience that we have longed for.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

WHY KINECT? WHY? WHY? Im such a huge fan of the entire Panzer Dragoon Series. For those that come from this amazing series. The last thing we wanted to see was a Kinect only game. Nice try Microsoft. You completely are wasting a great developer on something that could just as easily be controlled comfortably on a controller so we can chill and enjoy the experience that we have longed for.

I don't know if it's fair to blame Microsoft, for all we know the devs were intrigued by Kinect and wanted to make a game for it.

That said, I agree 110% with this post:

On the other hand, I don't really see a reason for why this should be Kinect exclusive. The controls really aren't doing anything new that requires a Kinect to work (at least not from what I can tell; perhaps someone can describe something I'm missing). In fact, it's possible that analogs might even work better.

 

[Conor 419]

I'm not so much bothered about it being Kinect, but making an XBLA title a hardware seller for the hardcore is just a bit much...

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

WHY KINECT? WHY? WHY? Im such a huge fan of the entire Panzer Dragoon Series. For those that come from this amazing series. The last thing we wanted to see was a Kinect only game.

Why do you think you're speaking on behalf of all Panzer Dragoon fans? I love the series and that's certainly not my opinion.

Yes, making it Kinect-only is a political decision. So is making a sequel to your favorite franchise exclusive to any piece of hardware someone is trying to sell. Just deal with it and try to appreciate the fact that you're getting anything after all this time.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Wow, Saori Kobayashi is in there? Excellent.

 

[RyanReedyMusic]

Why do you think you're speaking on behalf of all Panzer Dragoon fans? I love the series and that's certainly not my opinion.

Yes, making it Kinect-only is a political decision. So is making a sequel to your favorite franchise exclusive to any piece of hardware someone is trying to sell. Just deal with it and try to appreciate the fact that you're getting anything after all this time.

I speak for myself and all that is holy and sacred in this world. HAHAHAHAHA Yeppers your right. Still sucks though because it can easily be done with a controller. At least make it an option.

 

[Feindflug]

I don't know if it's fair to blame Microsoft, for all we know the devs were intrigued by Kinect and wanted to make a game for it.

That said, I agree 110% with this post:

From the presentation video we saw the game looked like it played pretty good, there was lag sure but overall it worked well...the question is how the game will play in the more challenging levels.

I currently don't have a Kinect but this along with the new Steel Battalion game look really interesting and they will probably make me buy one..the biggest problem about Kinect for me right now is that I don't know if Kinect will work properly in my gaming room. :/

 

[cvxfreak]

Grounding Inc is a very small developer which probably won't make titles which anyone on NeoGAF will be particularly interested in. Since they were established a few years back, they've basically just made a handful of casual games on WiiWare/DSiWare/iOS/mobile. Once this game is done they'll probably go back to making stuff like that.

The only reason they're handling a bigger project like this is because of Futatsugi being the father of Panzer Dragoon. I'm pretty sure the majority of the actual development for the game is being done by Land Ho, since they have much more manpower to develop games of console scale.

A lot of it had to do with Land Ho's know-how on Kinect development as well as its ties with the Panzer Dragoon series. Land Ho developed the Kinect Body and Brain Connection brain training title, which was a launch title. Land Ho even developed a Winglet tech demo for Toyota for the Kinect that was shown at Tokyo Motor Show 2011, as well as Just Dance Kids 2, which was also a Kinect game.

 

[Marco1]

I purchased a kinect yesterday with a gift voucher that was being saved vor vita. But interest in vita is nil so I ended up with kinect and sports:season 2.
My son and I had so much fun with this thing it was fantastic, yes I agree there is some lag but you adjust and I have now ordered child of eden and gunstringer and I currently await this game also.
I would be really interested how MS pursue kinect if the next-gen give us lag-free more precise movement, before I was a kinect no-follower but now I've tried it, I believe there definately is room for kinect and the standard controller.

 

[LiK]

Dammit CVX, now I have to buy a Kinect.....

 

[djtiesto]

So depressing that this is Kinect-only. I played Kinect a few times and it just isn't for me... but damn I love Panzer Dragoon.