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Ghost of a Tale (beautiful Redwall / Secret of Nimh-esque indie game) on Steam EA

C

CHC

Member
Launched today on Early Access. It's made (mostly) by a single guy who had a career of experience in the CGI / animation industry. The game looks really beautiful and the feedback so far has been very positive. It's a light RPG / adventure game, third person and fully 3d, very inspired by old fairy tales and cartoons like the stuff I mentioned in the title.

I know he's worked extremely hard on this, been very dedicated to a schedule of regular updates, and is really committing himself to it. So support him if this looks like your thing - apparently it will go up in price on official launch, most likely.

hkOPRwI.jpg


vn3gtbb.jpg


iba20EHZXY6oKU.gif
Click to expand...

First 20 minutes with no commentary.

(not affiliated with the game or the linked video, just a disclaimer here)
 
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georly

Member
Oh wow i remember seeing footage from this game years ago. I had forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me.

It looks even better than I remember it, which is impressive.
 
C

CHC

Member
georly said:
Oh wow i remember seeing footage from this game years ago. I had forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me.

It looks even better than I remember it, which is impressive.
Click to expand...

Yeah he's been really going hard in the paint when it comes to graphics tech, for a primarily one-man effort it seems like he's doing a hell of a job. Comparison pic from the latest update:

kS0dxzO.jpg


(crappy video capture, but you get the idea)

mvyNLDV.jpg
Click to expand...

Looked good before but it's pretty astounding now given the size of the project.
 
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Maximo

Member
What's missing and how much of the game is there? Tempted to buy it then never touch it until the game is finished, don't want to run through a large portion only for it to suddenly end with a "coming soon" screwn.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Maximo said:
What's missing and how much of the game is there? Tempted to buy it then never touch it until the game is finished, don't want to run through a large portion only for it to suddenly end with a "coming soon" screwn.
Click to expand...

Says roughly 1/4-1/3rd is there content wise, and mechanically it's about 90 percent done so players can play the first chunk of the game mostly completely. So mostly working on the final 2/3rds of content seems to be the goal of the EA release.
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
Absolutely love the look, but I'm not so sure about the gameplay, hopefully it picks up later. Probably worth playing for the visuals / setting alone.

NIMH (both movie and book) left quite a mark on my childhood. I watched the movie with my significant other this year and she loved it too, it hasn't aged a day.
 
I_D

I_D

Member
Woah! I saw this ages ago and forgot all about it. I had no idea it was still in development, much less playable.

Just bought it (I really like to support one-man projects for some reason). I'll post some screens when it's done installing.

EDIT: Supersampling doesn't work yet (though it's available in the options) but it looks really nice. The animations are pretty much perfect. It really makes you wonder how these 500+ person games can't make better products (looking at you Ubisoft).

You can be in 'regular' or 'stealth' mode, and the DoF and CA change drastically depending on which you're in.

Can't figure out how to hide the HUD, but there's not much on screen anyway.

Situational awareness:
goat2016-07-2517-52-3waq1n.png

Stealth mode:
goat2016-07-2517-52-4m7ubo.png

Light through the ears:
goat2016-07-2517-53-3ufsjk.png

More situational awareness:
goat2016-07-2517-56-1dpby7.png
 
H

HowardRoark

Member
Holy shit, the atmosphere in this game looks fantastic. And Secret of NIMH is one of my favorite childhood movies...

EDIT: Also, I just saw Redwall in the title, missed it the first time. I was obsessed with those books as a 4th grader. I really have to check this game out...
 
C

CHC

Member
Yeah I think the focus changed fairly early on from being a slightly darker, more combat focused Dark Souls thing, to become a lighter, fairy-tale, stealth game.

There's like that really, really early promo video on a grey, deserted beach where he is fighting a skeletal rat thing. I don't think that's part of the game anymore, from the looks of things.
 
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Het_Nkik

Member
Oh hey, I backed this on Indiegogo way back when. Hilarious part is... there's no way in hell my laptop can even come close to running it.

EDIT: I just checked my email and I was offered an early early access to it 5 days ago. I should really keep atop these things :p
 
C

CHC

Member
Immortal_Daemon said:
EDIT: Supersampling doesn't work yet (though it's available in the options) but it looks really nice. The animations are pretty much perfect. It really makes you wonder how these 500+ person games can't make better products (looking at you Ubisoft).

goat2016-07-2517-53-3ufsjk.png
Click to expand...

Yeah this guy is no slouch, it seems like he had a pretty serious career in animation before he started this game, and from the look of things, that doesn't seem like an exaggeration.

Also that light through the ears shot is incredible. Amazing detail there.
 
T

TheCongressman1

Member
CHC said:
Yeah I think the focus changed fairly early on from being a slightly darker, more combat focused Dark Souls thing, to become a lighter, fairy-tale, stealth game.

There's like that really, really early promo video on a grey, deserted beach where he is fighting a skeletal rat thing. I don't think that's part of the game anymore, from the looks of things.
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty disappointed about that. Really liked the look of that old gameplay. Still looks like a great game, it's just a little less up my ally now.
 
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Ladekabel

Member
Enjoying the stealth so far but I'm a little bit bummed out that there is no combat like in the crowdfunding videos. Eitherway, looks and plays fantastic so far.
 
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More_Badass

Member
Ladekabel said:
Enjoying the stealth so far but I'm a little bit bummed out that there is no combat like in the crowdfunding videos. Eitherway, looks and plays fantastic so far.
Click to expand...
Messofanego said:
Interesting that the stealth has been given more focus and combat has been taken out right now. I'm more into stealth, anyway.
Click to expand...
To be fair, it's supposed to be 1/4 or 1/3 of the game. Makes sense pacing-wise. You probably get weapons or have encounters later
 
B

Baloonatic

Member
I backed this way back when. Played about an hour of the demo a few days ago and will probably wait for the full thing before playing any more.

Very impressed by the visuals and the world has a lot of potential. I loved Redwall as a kid so that probably helps.
 
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Maximo

Member
No combat at all or just this section? Dissapointing if there is no combat at all was looking forward to it.
 
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Ladekabel

Member
More_Badass said:
To be fair, it's supposed to be 1/4 or 1/3 of the game. Makes sense pacing-wise. You probably get weapons or have encounters later
Click to expand...

Since the game is about to be fully released in the following months shouldn't there be combat in this version so feedback can be gathered?

I don't really care if it gets combat or not. I like what I played so far.
 
I_D

I_D

Member
Spiral Insanity said:
I really want this to have Uncharted 4's tech where it simulates light blending through ears.
Click to expand...

I can't say if it's as good as Uncharted's, but light definitely passes through thin materials. Check my screens a few posts up.


I'll take more as I play through, but it'll be a day or so. I have company over at the moment, and they're not particularly interested in a game about a mouse.
 
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IC5

Member
Seith is the creator and primary mind on the project. But he does have some help, with key areas. From the FAQ:

Seith is responsible for most of the game (story, art, coding). But he gets invaluable help from several great people including Paul (story, game design), Jeremiah (music), Stephane (marketing), Cyrille (coding), David (your friendly community manager) and a fair share of kind souls who are willing to help the game’s development any way they can.

I will copy and paste a post I made a few days ago, in another thread for this game. which includes a bit of video I capped with proper gamma correction and better overall quality:

Ghost of A Tale is now in Beta for backers who funded the game. And will soon be available on Steam, Early Access. The final game is projected to be finished in 2016, for PC. An Xbox One port will follow. Microsoft donated an Xbone dev kit and waived any fees to publish on Xbox Live. Publically, there have been solid indications of a PS4 port. However, the details are not yet public. I wonder if there will be some exclusive VR features or something???

Seith, the creator, has asked that screenshots and footage be kept to a minimum. So, this is simply a little peek at the first minutes of the beta build.
The game is running in Unity 5.

This is pretty much scratching the itch for the Redwall video game I always wanted.

(this video was still uploading, at the time I posted this)
https://youtu.be/WEHCyR_eySI

I forgot to take my computer out of power saving mode, so the framerate is a little lower than it would/should be. But the code is very clean and the frametimes are very smooth. So mooth, that I enjoyably played this at 20fps when I tried it on my Ivy Bridge i5 laptop, with HD4000 graphics.


here is a screenshot from that HD4000 experience:
fXVb.jpg



there currently are not many options to tweak the graphics settings. and they seem to have zero affect on performance, beside resolution. I'm sure with some tweaking, the framerate could be improved with minimal impact to visuals. removing shadows and whatnot. *this is changing*

Ghost of a Tale
Ghost of a Tale on Steam
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ghost-of-a-tale
 
I

IC5

Member
CHC said:
You're in luck:
Click to expand...

NO, that effect is called "subsurface scattering" and it is not happening on Tilo's ears. The graphics are very nice and the effects convince in low light levels. But you are not seeing subsurface scattering. It looks to me like Seith has set the ear shaders to track the general light level and give an illusion of that sort of pink, fleshy glow. But you can't stand in front of a light and clearly see that specific light source, glowing through the ears. The effect which is there, is subtle, and happens in most low light corridors. Which, if you think about it, is sort of weird. Because that should only be happening with a strong light source. But the effect looks good and it doesn't necessarily need to make sense. That's something I like about videogames. this looks cool. lets do it all the time.
 
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UncleSporky

Member
Man I feel like I've been following this game for 5 years, getting an update once a year like "oh yeah, that still exists and looks awesome!" And now here it is. So cool. I like that it appears to be pretty different from most games out there that try for this semi-realistic aesthetic.
 
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SirMossyBloke

Member
My god, it's beautiful.

I'm dying to pull the trigger on this, but I think I'll have to wait for it to be completed.

On my wish list it very much goes.
 
L

LightningXCE

Member
IC5 said:
NO, that effect is called "subsurface scattering" and it is not happening on Tilo's ears. The graphics are very nice and the effects convince and all light levels. But you are not seeing subsurface scattering.
Click to expand...

To be honest, it seems like it's an emulation of it. Almost all screens show the ears having a low level self-illumination to fake the effect.

Still looks nice and I'm totally grabbing this.
 
A

Aesposito426

Neo Member
I think the game looks beautiful (GTX 980ti), but the quest system seems a little ... off. Pick up a piece of armor and there's a new quest to get them all. Find 1 beetle, they scatter, then search for the remaining 7. Also think the opening section is NOT that great at tutorializing certain mechanics. This is an early access game though, and I'm sure everything is being taken to heart. Hopefully the quests are more substantial, and the overall narrative is worth seeing through to its end.
 
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atbigelow

Member
If I learned anything from Oblivion, it's that you don't start a game out in the sewers. Really like the look of this, but the starting area bored me. :(
 
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