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THE NEVERHOOD (claymation, p&c adventure game) developers making a new game

Shaneus

Member
Flushed Away, I remember seeing, immediately could tell it was CGI. Too smooth. Maybe if a mega company went to town on CGI looking like claymation. What's the point, though? CGI movies are ridiculously expensive too, so I don't see CGI as a cheaper means absolutely.

I personally like the closed-in feeling of Neverhood and The Dream Machine. Feels intimate. Those games don't have many NPCs but still have enough variety of locations to not feel cheap.
It's seeing the thumbprints and the indentations that follow the curvature of a thumb or finger that make it, IMO. Think Wallace and Gromit.

On that note, the Telltale W&G game (from memory) came even closer to looking good. But that was a while ago and it sure wasn't actual claymation.
 

Wiktor

Member
I hope they don't try to make it all clay again, surely it will be cheaper and just as effective (and also indistinguishable to most if done well enough, pixel shaders yo) to go the 3D route with today's technology, and allow for a bigger and better game that way, that isn't in any way restricted by what they can do with clay and how much effort they'd need for slight visual or system changes.

God no. This defeats the whole purpose. Not to mention it would:
-never look as good
-would be far more expensive
-would require a lot stronger hardware to run.
 
Doug posted this on his Vine: "Let the game (design) begin!"

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There's quite a few videos and pics on the ARMIKROG facebook page. They've already shot some footage for the Kickstarter video.

17th April, 2013:
Video -
If you're on this site you've found the correct Armikrog page. Come over here, invite your friends over here, Mike and Ed and I will be posting new content daily and will eventually close the other one down. Welcome to Armikrog.​
Painting model video -
Lead animator on Earthworm Jim and Neverhood, Mike Dietz paints the hero character from our new puppet animated video game: ARMIKROG!​

19th April:
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These are old drawings I labeled as Armikrog. I see all of these creatures are blind, just like the Armikrog purple dog-thingy. I think these were done around 15 years ago or so while I was working on The Neverhood.

23rd April:
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Here's Mike animating a "Go motion" shot of our main character. We've got multiple sets up and running...so there's magic happening all over the place.​

24th April:
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Ed applying a texture map to his environment.​

25th April:
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Dog.​

30th April:
Video -
Here's how we mix clay to get the colors we need. First we mix small amounts by hand to create our "color palettes", then melt down the larger amounts of clay for easier mixing.​

1st May:
946947_473800886024301_1277434973_n.jpg

We've been animating the dog and here's how the puppet was made (this is Ed). Mike D created an armature out of wire and epoxy to support the weight of the clay. Once the clay is sculpted over the wire, the puppet is ready for animation.​

2nd May:
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Ed animating on his set, using the greatest invention since hot glue... StikkiWAX!​

Kickstarter is so close I can feel it!
 
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