New official Descent game - Kickstarter

[Walker D]

EDIT: GAME FUNDED!


A group of guys with a lot of experience in Space Games have acquired the rights for the Descent game, and now a updated new iteration in the Descent series is a possibility!

I loved to play the original Descent back in the day. The freedom that it had with those Six-Degrees controls.. ...similar experiences are hard to find to this day.
Btw, if you never experienced Six-Degrees of freedom, and got curious about how that matters, the guys behind this project also talk about that in this small video ...but you should really watch a Decent gameplay or something to get it better


The new game is named Descent: Underground

It's both a prequel to the Descent series and a modernization of the original game play. We’re staying true to the original flight mechanics, arcade style combat, and tightly twisting map design while taking it to the next level!

• Six-Degrees-Of Freedom combat!!
• Choose from nine customizable ships to suit your play style
• Destructible terrain conceals hidden resources, power ups, and tunnels
• Master new game modes along with your favorites from Descent
• Prove your prowess with rankings, achievements, and leaderboards
• Single-player & Multiplayer
• Top flight graphics with Unreal Engine 4

New cool preview



They still have 7 days to go at their Kickstarter, and since the project is not fully backed yet, I thought it was more than worth it to share about it here.

If you are a fan of Decent or Space games in general, be sure to check this Kickstarter out, or keep a eye on the Official site for the game, where they also post updates (their video updates and Q&As are also interesting).



Here are some Multi-Player pre-production tests:




They still need to gain almost half of their final goal in this remaining 7 days, so feel free to spread the word.

 

[Walker D]

BTW, you can also check the making of the game at their forums if you are curious about what's being made, or even suggest/comment things.

 

[Veho]

Ah yes, six degrees of freedom, an excellent opportunity to get both hopelessly lost and violently sick at the same time.

Kidding, of course. Descent was one of my favourite games.

It doesn't look like the Kickstarter will manage to meet the funding goal. Shame.

 

[Walker D]

The devs said they will try to bump up the interest on their Kickstarter with interviews and articles that will pop-up this days at some sites (I think they mentioned Engadget and some other ones ...I don't remember which ones) ...so yeah, hope they can find enough interest with that. The game sure show potential


They are also trying to differentiate themselves from other Descent-like projects by adding new modes and giving some modern twists to the Descent formula... ...sad that the support they are having is not that great though

 

[Foxi4]

No more Kickstarters for me. Take a risk, go to the bank, take a loan, finish the game and try to sell it, then I'll open my wallet.

 

[Veho]

No more Kickstarters for me. Take a risk, go to the bank, take a loan, finish the game and try to sell it, then I'll open my wallet.

Who hurt you, Foxi? You can tell us. Was it Double Fine?

 

[Hells Malice]

No more Kickstarters for me. Take a risk, go to the bank, take a loan, finish the game and try to sell it, then I'll open my wallet.

Y'know I had like half of a really good joke typed out and if it wasn't 6 AM with me staying up all night, i'd totally have finished it.

Anyway, Poland has some crazy ass banks if you can walk in and grab a $500,000 loan.
I think that's referred to as bank robbery


well you did say take a risk I s'pose.

 

[Foxi4]

Y'know I had like half of a really good joke typed out and if it wasn't 6 AM with me staying up all night, i'd totally have finished it.

Anyway, Poland has some crazy ass banks if you can walk in and grab a $500,000 loan.
I think that's referred to as bank robbery


well you did say take a risk I s'pose.

It's not unusual at all for a startup company to take a loan like that, business level loans practically start at $250k. You can't win if you don't gamble, if they have any faith in the project, they'll get the money. I'm done with Kickstarters.

 

[Walker D]

It's not unusual at all for a startup company to take a loan like that, business level loans practically start at $250k. You can't win if you don't gamble, if they have any faith in the project, they'll get the money. I'm done with Kickstarters.

Kickstarters are the same though ...the only change is that the risk is on backers hands, not a big bank.

The only problem with it is that people don't see it as the same, and forget the risk factor when backing.. ...but if you acknowledge that, Kickstarter is pretty good, since the risk is minimized by a lot (it's divided between a bunch of backers).

 

[Foxi4]

Kickstarters are the same though ...the only change is that the risk is on backers hands, not a big bank.

The only problem with it is that people don't see it as the same, and forget the risk factor when backing.. ...but if you acknowledge that, Kickstarter is pretty good, since the risk is minimized by a lot (it's divided between a bunch of backers).

What are you on about? The bank isn't taking a risk when giving a loan to you - you are. The bank earns interest regardless of whether your product bombs or not and if you don't pay up, they'll repossess whatever valuables you have. It's the studio that should be taking a risk, not their customers - there's a big difference right there. Kickstarters are schemes to get money without having to deliver afterwards, they're the opposite of a bank. Here, have your Kickstarter sandwich.

 

[Walker D]

What are you on about? The bank isn't taking a risk when giving a loan to you - you are. The bank earns interest regardless of whether your product bombs or not and if you don't pay up, they'll repossess whatever valuables you have. It's the studio that should be taking a risk, not their customers - there's a big difference right there. Kickstarters are schemes to get money without having to deliver afterwards, they're the opposite of a bank. Here, have your Kickstarter sandwich.

(bop)video(bip)

Why people think that if it's comedy, then it certainly shows all the truth?

Banks obviously take risk, unless you're actually joking when saying that? Sometimes they take a long time to recover their money, and even have to forgive part of the debts at some cases (it's not always much of a lucrative business). BTW not only banks loan money, the more common on this cases is that it's done by investors and enterprises, where their usually recover money from the future game's advertisement, and sell income. So risk is never out of the table.

And don't generalize bad Kickstarter performance. It's a tool that can be used well. It's also very good to have new ways to bank projects in a fast and meaningful way.
Doesn't matter if some people will use it in a bad way, it doesn't make the whole Kickstarter system un-meaningful.


Now on topic:

Hope more people show interest in this project ...I afraid they will not reach the goal in time.
It's weird that people don't even get curious about this new 6DoF kind of games, since it's not a usual thing to find nowadays. Maybe space games is not as popular nowadays?

 

[Foxi4]

Yes, banks take a *very calculated risk*, somewhere along the lines of "the house always wins", much like a casino does. You are correct, a bank won't invest in a project supported by a shoddy business plan that has low chances of success which further undermines most Kickstarters. Here's a thought - if finding investors is a better idea then maybe they should take their game and a good business plan to one of the big publishers and try to release their game that way, hmm? Excuse the sweeping generalization but out of all the interesting Kickstarters I only know two or three that culminated in a product that didn't suck and in those cases the product was made by a team of professionals that used Kickstarter as a way to advertise it more than anything else. I don't discourage anyone from backing anything, you do whatever you want with your money, I'm just saying that if I want to buy a sandwich, I'll go to Subway.

 

[Taleweaver]

Ah, descent...the game that made me switch from all-keyboard to keyboard+mouse. And manage to fail descent decent proper navigation even with those controls.

In all honesty: descent was fun, but not that fun. Aside from it being the only REAL 3D shooter on the market, it didn't have anything memorable. Aside perhaps the attempt to escape the mine at the end of each level. But everything was generic, from the monsters to the layouts to the weapons. Navigating the map was clunky and you often lost track of what was the floor and what was the ceiling (in all honesty, it didn't matter).

And I gotta be honest: from the videos I see and the description, I don't think this'll be a HD remake at the very best. Descent was never a space game...it was an FPS that just happened to use 3 movement dimensions. In fact, if it wasn't for the crosshair, the title and the font of the title, I would never even have guessed this was supposed to be a descent game. And that's kind of essential, if you ask me.

 

[Walker D]

And I gotta be honest: from the videos I see and the description, I don't think this'll be a HD remake at the very best. Descent was never a space game...it was an FPS that just happened to use 3 movement dimensions. In fact, if it wasn't for the crosshair, the title and the font of the title, I would never even have guessed this was supposed to be a descent game. And that's kind of essential, if you ask me.

I agree. They are having problems in telling people what their game will be in a objective way. I was discussing exactly that in their forums actually (you can also show some good and bad points there if you like. They certainly appreciate the help )

Descent was more acknowledged as a FPS from the multiplayer mode. The Single player had a lot of exploration, finding hidden areas, and then, escaping the mine before the self destruction (but sure, also a 6DoF FPS).
What they are focusing on this project, basically is:

- Solid controls and phisics that use D1 and D2 as base
- Maze-like stages with eventual larger areas. New enemies, bosses, type of items, guns and ships.
- Modernized multiplayer with in game chat, and guilds.
- New modes.



Actually, they talked a bit about that today, mainly defining the Single-player campaign:





I actually liked the Single-player of D2 alot back in the day. So hopefully they will be able to make that experience even better. There's only 3 days to go! ...lets see.

 

[jumpman17]

Ah, so many memories of playing for hours until I was nauseous.

Descent, six degrees of freedom. The extra 2 degrees are nausea and vomit!

 

[Walker D]

The Kickstarter page got a revamp this last days ...The main video shows now some gameplay footage (with HID and proper 1st person view), and it's more clear on what the game is all about.


If you were on the wall before about backing it ...(not knowing clearly what the game was about)... then take another chance at their Kickstarter page. You have less then 2 days for it though

Spoiler

 

[Walker D]

Sorry by the double-post ...just pointing that I've updated the OP up there with the new trailer, that was just released with the Engadget article about the game (btw, the trailer is pretty cool!).


And since I'm posting already, here is their last Hangout video about the project, if you like to watch more lengthy tidbits:




EDIT: ....Aaaannnddddd ... it was FUNDED!

phew! that was close ...they needed to reach 600k, and got 601k lol ...well now it's a real thing

Hope to play this game in the future

 

[ferofax]

Looks like an FPS, except with spaceship skins, with no momentum physics for ship movement, and the ability to ascend/descend freely. I watched the multiplayer test vid, and they stop in midair and spin 180 degrees just like a player would in an FPS game instead of tight curves like one would expect from a flight sim, given that this game has space ships.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

No cockpit view? It really just looks like an FPS.