Awesome guys, Great input there. And yes, interfaces aren't yet done and we are working on an auto-aim system, similar to the one in RE remake. Though the camera will have more dynamic features in the beta, we have plans for an hybrid system similar to the SH1,2,3 ones. Forgotten Memories still in heavy dev, and we need your feedback for those improvements and changes, so keep coming. King regards to all of those TA users.
Bollocks: aiming and camera angles are pretty much where they should be. This ain't a shooter -- it's supposed to be a bit awkward, which only increases the tension. Looks unprecedented on the platform -- period, and better than pretty much anything I've seen on a portable so far. More important, though, I was pretty much engrossed watching someone else playing the game, something that rarely happens with me. The atmosphere is right on, as far as I'm concerned. If I would change anything at this point it would be to make the zombie-patients look, well, dirtier. Compared to the rest of the environment, they look almost pristine, which doesn't quite fit with the tone of the game. Gotta wonder what Azrael will post about this...
Yeah like people have said, the only things i would change would be 1. Autoaim feature 2. User interface
I am still watching the whole thing, but OMFG this looks SOOOO POLISHED ! great to have some developers that actually cares for this, a lot of the indie games that are released for the platform just feel "unfinished and rushed". but you guys nailed it, I think that when you finish the game, and with the feedback from the beta testers and TA users, this could be the best game EVER for the iOS.
How can I state this more forcefully? F*CK auto-aim. If you need to include it, please make it optional. When you're scared your aim is supposed to suck -- having the game aim for you pretty much defeats the purpose.
I agree. This is not a shooting game, or zombie killing game, it is a survival horror game. Auto - aim not only makes it feel more of a shooting game, but it would ruin the immersion as well.
This looks freakin AMAZING! So polished and gameplay looks great! For something thats still in early beta, it is phenomenal! Nice job!
Yes, Those interfaces are temporary ones, you'll provably see the final ones in the beta. We have someone working just on interfaces, menus, puzzles and riddles. Btw, they are looking quite good (pics attached). Regarding the auto aim feature, it will be only available in the Easy mode, on normal and hard you wont have any auto-aim. As you provably noticed, i missed few shots cause i was quite nervous. Even if that enemy (called Breathless) in the demo looks inoffensive, he is actually pretty dangerous. He can kill you with few slashes. The breathless is one of the many monsters you'll have to face (and some time you wont simply have the choice but run and hide). We have even more scarier and bigger monsters, one of them is called the wheelchairman (pics attached), pretty dangerous and aggressive. Enemies in Forgotten Memories have different behaviors, even different sensors, the breathless can't hear anything, he can only see, but other enemies will hear your footsteps (when near them), gun shots and chase you in the darkness. They do some random wandering and searching when chasing(if you just hide). There's a secondary playable character called Eden (pics attached), she does not have any weapon, can evade enemies using a good number of items, to make noises, like for example, turning on radios, televisions, throwing small items to distract enemies in a given direction. She also have very good stealth skills and can actually hide inside objects. And our level design is made with that idea in mind, to fit both characters type (Rose and Eden). In our demo we only showed 3 floor maps, the game actually contains 6 floors including a roof and a even lower level (even lower than basement level) that i can't comment right now. There's a lot of stuff that i may provably missed so if you have any question that i can answer, I'll do my best to not leak any critical info. King regards to all of you guys,
Ipad 1 Optimization? This looks amazing! However my one concern is to all of us iPad 1 owners, How good does this run? Are there any framerate problems, stuttering, etc?
Some more impressions: 1.) I really dislike the flashing gold lights that point out different objects. You should find the objects yourself, or have some other thing to point out the location of the object. 2.) Maybe an ability to search the bodies of the corpses? And not necassarily the ones that you have killed either? That would be cool. 3.) Don't see any other weapons other than the pistol. Needs some melee weapons, definitely needs a shotgun! 4.) Needs more "psychological" horror!! Or supernatural in any case. Maybe a painting changes when you go into a room a second time, some objects or moved. Something spooky of the sort. More suggestions to come! Really enjoying watching this demo....looks awesome!
oh my goodness, this is fantastic. I love how you made the game texture and background. I think some of us should advertist this on youtube. send the gameplay video to slidetoplay or machima or even give ign a try.
Not to be the contrarian here (when it comes to suggestions), but: 1) Pretty much every survival horror game has a variation of the "flash alert" mechanic. The reason is simple: without such indications, the game becomes and exercise in searching (or touching, in the case of the iPhone) every nook and cranny. Simply not fun. 2) I'm sure that there will be bodies that will contain valuable objects or information in the final game. To make all bodies searchable makes it "profitable" to go around hunting monsters. That misses the points: every engagement should be a necessary expenditure of resources, not a way to get loot. 3) More weapons makes sense for the full game. For the demo, though, the single pistol is fine. Again, this is not an action game; in general, you should try to avoid combat unless strictly necessary. 4) "Spooky" stuff doesn't belong in a game like this. Titles in the Silent Hill series often featured level "degeneration" (the environment becomes even more horrible the second time you visit them, usually after a triggering event). But that's different from the kind run-of-the-mill creepiness that comes from switching things around etc.
I must say, you really master the survival horror genre. Yes, in a survival the player tries to escape the horror when possible and not stand up and kick everyone's asses with an arsenal of weapons. The final version of the game will feature melee weapons and others guns, but in a very limited fashion. We have a stealth system that will be a very good weapon against bigger monsters, you'll often run out of ammo if you keep shooting everything, so is also a good strategy to hide. FM features a drop-reward system that let us drop(spawn) any item (even monsters or weapons) when we kill an enemy, in our demo the mini-boss at the toilets drops the room301 key. We can also restrict some event's and link to monsters and/or items, for example, even if you killed the mini-boss in the toilets, you can't exit till you have the required item (room301 key). Our inventory system is pretty robust too, fully serialized, we can drop items on the floor, anywhere and you can come back later and pick them up. Though, we aren't sure if it's a good idea to let the player do that. Is something we'll check it out in deep later on. Currently, our game serialize everything, doors, monsters, items, events, objectives, everything. The core of the game is an combination of all those with an objective and spawning system, that let you do almost whatever you want. Like for example, we can spawn an item/monster anywhere if you have an objective (active or completed). If you've killed an specific monster somewhere, or have an item in the inventory, or simply picked up an item (even if you already used). Those tools leads our designers create non-linear gameplay and really unpredicted progression. For example, when we start the demo, there's no monster in the toilets, but when Roses interacts with the elevators fuses panel, the monster spawns in the toilets. So yeah that system is pretty powerful and works seamless with everything. An other good example of this system is the mini-boss at the toilets, it spawns when you interact with the computer at the conference room. There's a lot of this kind of unpredictable stuff in the demo. Though I'm a bit sad that our final interfaces didn't make it for this demo, but in the beta, you'll have an animated graphical interface when interacting and inspecting game objects. The final version of the game, will let you interact with almost everything in your environment, even with non-important objects. It is also a good way to find clues to solve puzzles/riddles. Regarding the gold shining particle, some items as the money coins that you use in the soda machine (at the lounge room) are really small, very hard to spot, we don't have a choice but to put a particle effect. However bigger objects will use a real 3D modeled mesh (like the doll in the Woman's lockers). We can also combine the shining gold particle with a 3D modeled object. Though, we have some ideas for an nightmare mode where you don't have those helpers (spot particles, less clues/hints to help you solve puzzles/riddles), puzzles and riddles almost impossible to solve, you'll rarely find items and monsters will be even tougher. Sort of realism/nightmare mode mind you. We have some good mixing plans on the difficulties modes that you all will love. We have a similar tech to the one in CryEngine/UnrealEngine to blend different materials based on vertex color and so we can transform a clean room in a dirty grotesque, surrealist, rusty and rotten one, in real-time! As in silent hill 5 and SH movie when changing between worlds. We call this effect, realities transitions and is part of the big psychological side of Forgotten Memories dark Universe. Though, i won't comment on that right now, but we will have some tech show this summer to showcase that awesome horror effect. I promise keep you all entertained and updated (without leaking the game)till this game if fully released! If you have any other question that i can allowed to answer, I'm all yours. King regards,
We have similar faked effects on the iPad1, for example, shadows aren't casted everywhere, only one light at time (instead of multiples ones), and they are planar shadows (no self-shadowing on characters/objects). Less pixel lighting and more vertex lighting, fewer particles and no post effects on the screen (no noise, bloom and flares). Lights flares are plane based instead of post effects (camera shader bloom/flares). Also, less enemies on screen + lower framerates. Is a bit like playing Crysis on a high end gaming system vs a low-end system, lots of effects are disabled. The iPad2 let us do streaming while playing the game, that's why there's almost no waiting time (other than fade in/out of our scenes) when loading a room. I really suggest to anyone having an iPad1 to switch to the iPad2, playing such game on a big screen is "horribly" awesome. Specially when you play at 2am, alone in the dark. ^^ I forgot to mention that we have some nice voice actors for our game cut-scenes that really bring the immersion and storytelling to a new level. Featuring facial animations and body motion capture, really really awesome stuff coming this summer on our beta.
If may say something. Once you kill a enemy, could you add some blood coming out of them. so it would look a bit more releastic
The blood particle system will also be improved among other things, we have plans on a real-time blood splatters on walls and floors when shoting/hitting enemies near by. We are making sure that any detail that could add realism to the experience is a must have detail feature. Though, those things aren't important now, "details" will come later. But make sure to be around the corner when we'll start working on those visual details. Cheers,
