812 replies to this topic

[Marathon4ever]

Mister Mumbles, on 21 October 2011 - 02:50 AM, said:

Really? They're going to port the middle of a trilogy (which will never see a third part anyway) while completely ignoring Legends? Umm, okay then.

And for that yet another Lego game... *groans* I guess they must be profitable enough.

Maybe Tomb Raider Legends will be a "Legends" title.  That would be funny.


As for LEGO games, I say: The more the merrier!  I'd buy all the LEGO games if I had enough time and money.

.....well, except maybe the Harry Potter one.  Not really into HP, but all the other LEGO games are awesome!

[edddeduck]

Tacohead, on 21 October 2011 - 02:35 PM, said:

I can't recall if they ever did one before Fable.

-PN

The only other RPG style games we did are Pirates!,  Borderlands (FPS/RPG) & BioShock (FPS/RPG).

Edwin

[edddeduck]

Mister Mumbles, on 21 October 2011 - 02:50 AM, said:

Really? They're going to port the middle of a trilogy (which will never see a third part anyway) while completely ignoring Legends? Umm, okay then.

They never were an official trilogy they just make a loose trilogy of sorts which fans have labeled as a trilogy. It should be noted if the trilogy is to be believed they got developed out of order.

Game 1 - Legends (Part 2 in chronological order)
Game 2 - Anniversary (Part 1 in chronological order)
Game 3 - Underworld (Part 3 in chronological order)

That said they are heavily stand alone games and do not have a strong story arc between the end of one game and the beginning of the next.

Edwin

[DaveyJJ]

the Battle Cat, on 23 October 2011 - 12:36 PM, said:

You have to admit his butt looks great in those shorts.

I thought the gold glitter was a bit much, but your call.

[the Battle Cat]

I really need to change my last name to Sternworthy.

[Marathon4ever]

edddeduck, on 24 October 2011 - 07:58 AM, said:

They never were an official trilogy they just make a loose trilogy of sorts which fans have labeled as a trilogy. It should be noted if the trilogy is to be believed they got developed out of order.

Game 1 - Legends (Part 2 in chronological order)
Game 2 - Anniversary (Part 1 in chronological order)
Game 3 - Underworld (Part 3 in chronological order)

That said they are heavily stand alone games and do not have a strong story arc between the end of one game and the beginning of the next.

Edwin

Say what you will, but I'm afraid my life just won't be complete without TR Legends for Mac.  I've never played a Tomb Raider game I didn't like.

[jackdawsson]

Tacohead, on 21 October 2011 - 06:58 AM, said:

I agree. Too many "action" games in general for me. Would love to see another rpg. Oh well at least it appears we're getting Empire: TW and Tropico 3(?). Oh and don't get me wrong, titles like Batman: AA, Dues Ex: HR, and Bioshock 2 are pretty awesome. That's not too shabby.

Agreed. An excellent line-up. I'm particularly looking forward to  "Empire: TW", which hopefully won't have half the bugs the initial PC release had.  

I just wonder whether the latter will be a download-only buy from the Mac App Store, just as the PC version was restricted to Steam. I hope not.

PS: Edddeduck: cheers for your (& others) earlier advice re advantages of the HD 6630M Mini over the low-end Mini. FWIW, I ended up buying the HD 6630M model after all. Hopefully that'll suffice to run any upcoming Mac release of "Empire: TW" at medium settings.  

[Tacohead]

jackdawsson, on 25 October 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

Agreed. An excellent line-up. I'm particularly looking forward to  "Empire: TW", which hopefully won't have half the bugs the initial PC release had.  

I just wonder whether the latter will be a download-only buy from the Mac App Store, just as the PC version was restricted to Steam. I hope not.

PS: Edddeduck: cheers for your (& others) earlier advice re advantages of the HD 6630M Mini over the low-end Mini. FWIW, I ended up buying the HD 6630M model after all. Hopefully that'll suffice to run any upcoming Mac release of "Empire: TW" at medium settings.  

I should add that Empre: TW hasn't been officially announced but severely people have already matched that screenshot clue on Feral's radar with a shot from Empire: TW so that's good enough for me.

-PN

[edddeduck]

jackdawsson, on 25 October 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

download-only buy from the Mac App Store, just as the PC version was restricted to Steam. I hope not.

We have no plans to ship any of our titles via one distribution channel. For the immediate future all games will ship on Mac App Store, various Digital stores (including MacGameStore and Feral Direct) and finally good old hardcopy (DVD).

Edwin

[jackdawsson]

Tacohead, on 25 October 2011 - 10:15 AM, said:

I should add that Empre: TW hasn't been officially announced but severely people have already matched that screenshot clue on Feral's radar with a shot from Empire: TW so that's good enough for me.

That's certainly the case here! Frankly, anything else at this stage would be a serious bummer in these parts.

edddeduck, on 25 October 2011 - 11:13 AM, said:

We have no plans to ship any of our titles via one distribution channel. For the immediate future all games will ship on Mac App Store, various Digital stores (including MacGameStore and Feral Direct) and finally good old hardcopy (DVD).

Excellent news! Thanks for the clarification & all the best to Feral with finishing all  current projects on schedule. Now I'm really looking forward to getting some final release dates.

[pantherv]

am i the only one that finds the floating bubbles really annoying on the upcoming titles page at ferals website?

[Smoke_Tetsu]

You are not alone... I find them annoying too. It's not functionally better they just want to make it harder on us. But people guessed the games at the same rate anyway.

[edddeduck]

pantherv, on 26 October 2011 - 11:56 PM, said:

am i the only one that finds the floating bubbles really annoying on the upcoming titles page at ferals website?

It's designed to make it that little bit harder to guess the games. Cannot make it too easy can we

Edwin

[tcrown]

edddeduck, on 27 October 2011 - 08:58 AM, said:

It's designed to make it that little bit harder to guess the games. Cannot make it too easy can we

Edwin

Edwin

Out of curiosity, what prevents you guys from doing a port which would be concurrent with the PC release, say Bioshock Infinite or Borderlands 2? Would it have to be something that is in the books from day 1?
I'm curious as to the reasoning from the PC developers point to wait 6months to a year for the Mac release and not use the millions in marketing dollars for console and PC release. It seems like there would be
a lot more sales if that initial marketing was used to advertise and promote console/PC/Mac,no?

[Smoke_Tetsu]

The general feeling I get is that they seem to like to only work with finished code porting it for one thing.

[edddeduck]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 29 October 2011 - 11:19 AM, said:

The general feeling I get is that they seem to like to only work with finished code porting it for one thing.

That's one of the reasons, testing a beta of a beta is never awesome That said 2012 should be better than 2011 as we are always aiming to keep getting closer to the PC date as possible. That's all I can say really.

Edwin

[tcrown]

edddeduck, on 31 October 2011 - 07:07 AM, said:

That's one of the reasons, testing a beta of a beta is never awesome That said 2012 should be better than 2011 as we are always aiming to keep getting closer to the PC date as possible. That's all I can say really.

Edwin

Thanks for taking the time to answer, I was also curious how many programers are working on any one specific port?

[edddeduck]

tcrown, on 31 October 2011 - 03:18 PM, said:

Thanks for taking the time to answer, I was also curious how many programers are working on any one specific port?

Does not really have a single answer it will vary from game to game and even vary within a  game depending on the status of the project and the amount of work that needs doing.

Edwin

[iRolley]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 29 October 2011 - 11:19 AM, said:

The general feeling I get is that they seem to like to only work with finished code porting it for one thing.

If I recall correctly, it was after porting Unreal (yes the first one, with Nalis ) that Aspyr decided to never again start the porting process while the original PC version is still in progress. I am not completely sure why though, I'd like to be proven wrong, but I am sure the basic sound and graphics engines + input could get ported based on a beta version, and then wait until the final version to finish the port. Could it be cheaper to get the license once the game has already been released on PC ?

Also I wonder if PC makers come to Feral to propose a port or is it always the other way around ?

[Smoke_Tetsu]

What's interesting is some developers (such as Wolfire) claim it's easier to make a game cross platform if you design it that way from day one rather than wait and port an entire finished codebase later on. So according to them in theory it would be better and more efficient if a porting studio worked hand in hand with the original developers making the game cross platform from the ground up than for said porting studio to take code that was totally meant for another OS or System and port it to the Mac. Especially if they would go ahead and since it would be made cross platform specific use stuff like OpenGL and SDL from the ground up rather than DirectX and then use wrapping libraries later on like many games are having to have right now. I don't mean WINE when I say wrapping libraries I mean those custom ones Valve, Aspyr and Feral make which they use with their custom ports.

I know some would say if they where to do that then they would have to do it in house but even when doing things in house they would have to hire a mac specialist to port the code or write in mac specific stuff into the code and compile binaries to test it. Or have someone who has Mac experience work on it or a team. Working with a porting studio would be like having a whole Mac division. Hell they do this with PC games that are also being concurrently released on the consoles such as when they where making Deus Ex Human Revolution... the PC version wasn't done in house by the original developer it was ported by an outside studio who started work before the console versions where released.

I do understand the reasoning behind wanting to work with finished code as you aren't having to constantly play catch up on top of having to fix mac specific bugs but I just thought the above was an interesting thought.

On the other hand many of the bugs one might encounter on a Mac version are the same ones one would encounter on the PC version so there is some overlap there.