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[Sustrato]

First I've seen of this game, the art is obviously lovely. And arcade shooters are always welcome. Wish we could see some gameplay.

One thing I gotta say is the battle armor needs more contrast. Like, desperately. It should not blend in that much, especially for an action game.

[thomf00]

Looks good, what kinda tech you guys going to roll with?

[Sved]

This I need to follow. It's beautiful.

[barneycumming]

awesome awesome awesome!

this is the best, i love the environment design, i love the animations, the classy minimal use of color, the controlled sense of graphic design for each shot- just looks really great, keep it up!!

[MECH6]

Really cool, guys. Super cool menu ideas. Much support from our team, as always 

[Jove]

Wow!

[tanis]

I really love the art style!

[Seaport]

Looks really nice

[Skydsgaard]

We hit the 10k reads!! Thanks to each single one of youuuuu!!!

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and to all the people that visited us without commenting 

Thanks for the support and for such positive feedback!

@Derqs
@dancing_dead

Thanks for commenting guys! ^^

I don't think the last two menu animations make sense, how about having her lift her legs up on the table and turn on the TV in the About animation and for the Exit just walk all the way past the terminal to the left.

Well, we want to start the game from her comfortable house, a safe place (in contrast to what there is on the outside) where you can start to feel sympathy with her. And when we think about the kitchen, we play with the concept that we are the "cooks" of the game and we thought it fits with the concept of what “about” is (our names/info will go on the shiny post-it on the freezer).

But if I have to explain all of this, maybe we have to re-think it. Anyway, regarding your idea with the TV, we already put her in front a screen in the configuration room, and we don’t want to do the same here...also, it's a microwave

Now, the exit, this is a "poo terminal" she is inviting the player to leave, if they don’t have what it takes to play, maybe we need to highlight the toilet to make it easier to read.

And why are we controlling mechs in panties?

Because If I remove these, the game will need a mature esrb thingy

Thanks for the feedback!

@sidbarnhoorn Thanks!

This is some sword and sworcery ass art.  Following.

You totally caught me

I like it like this, but a bit of contrast in the background will help making things more readable 

Yep, you are totally right, we are going to contrast a bit the bg and @dhontecillas is planning to implement a contrast correction thingy, /programmer stuff here

So uh...when will pre-orders be available? Or Kickstarter, alpha, etc.? This looks so good.

Thanks a lot for your interest! There is a ton of things to do It’s too soon for us to give an estimation...stay tuned!

One thing I gotta say is the battle armor needs more contrast. Like, desperately. It should not blend in that much, especially for an action game.

Thanks! Balance contrast is a complicated thing. Especially, when it's seen differently on each monitor (I really hate this...)

I suppose that you are talking about the mock-ups right? I don’t want to loose the integration of the mc in the environment so that it looks like it is floating around, but we will make some tests

@thomf00 Thanks! I would like @dhontecillas (the code guy) to take this one, but as far as I know custom OpenGL based engine.

@Sved Thanks a lot!

@Skomakar'n Thank you for following us!, and good luck with your project!

@barneycumming You have a big fan right here waiting for more updates in the Crawl thread!!!

@MECH6 Thanks! We have been watching videos of people playing your last build and we think it's awesome! Keep up the good work

@Jove
@tanis
@Seaport

Thanks a lot guys!

Here is an extra detail for you:





Now, back to work

[Impossible]

And why are we controlling mechs in panties?

Because If I remove these, the game will need a mature esrb thingy

The panties thing is fanservicey and somewhat out of place.  It also seems highly unlikely that you'd give a male protagonist the same treatment. The alternative isn't for her to get completely naked and the stripping seems completely unnecessary outside of fanservice\titillation.

[Conker534]

I thought it was dope.

What a tight animation. I love this games art.

[Reilly]

And why are we controlling mechs in panties?

Because If I remove these, the game will need a mature esrb thingy

The panties thing is fanservicey and somewhat out of place.  It also seems highly unlikely that you'd give a male protagonist the same treatment. The alternative isn't for her to get completely naked and the stripping seems completely unnecessary outside of fanservice\titillation.

Think of it this way, astronauts aren't wearing baggy sweaters and Jincos under their spacesuits.

[Impossible]

Think of it this way, astronauts aren't wearing baggy sweaters and Jincos under their spacesuits.

They also aren't wearing thongs either .

Art is great, didn't mean to sound like a hater. I actually like fanservice, but technical justification for it is a little silly.

[gamedev123]

Wow, that's a stunning animation. 

[jean]

Positively an awesome art style!

[secv]

The whole panties bit ruins it for me to be honest, which is a shame because the ideas for the menus and the execution are great. It reminds me of raunchy pictures people draw of Samus and how sexualized she's become outside of the suit. On one hand you have an armored mercenary, and the other you have a skin-tight suit with a whip for a weapon. It sends a mixed message.

Why bother wearing pants in the base/house at all if they come off to get in the mech? From a functional standpoint it doesn't even make sense. There are so many more useful alternatives, just look at sports-wear or diving gear. If the idea is to have fan service or be perverted, that's fine go for it. But if that's not the plan and you'd like for this character to have a story or personality, having them strip on the title screen (so within 5 minutes of starting the game) is doing them a disservice. I think people will find it hard to sympathize with, or even value, a character who's down to their underwear in a matter of moments. They won't take her seriously.

If you plan to leave the animation as-is, you will receive the same criticism over and over. Hopefully, you'll have something to actually say rather than a coy line about ESRB ratings. At least own up to it. For triple-A games, people can push such things onto marketing and how they needed to show panties for the demographics/etc. This is an indie title and everything is on you and you alone. As a contributor to the game, you make a statement by what you produce for people to interact with. If you're game is a success (which I hope it is), the number of people you influence, even in the slightest way, can number in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, hell maybe millions. Personally, I wouldn't be okay with having a female strip on the title screen just for kicks.

I know this is a long post, but I want to explain as best I can why I don't like it. Another part of it is, like many people, I criticize because I want to see improvement. I understand that what we see of the game is early and limited in scope. Maybe everyone runs around in panties (for some reason). These are my thoughts on what I've seen.

Also, no, astronauts don't wear baggy sweaters and Jincos. However, they do wear diapers despite what Gravity would have you think, so there's that to think about in regard to practicality and realism...

[DarkWanderer]

I don't think it's a Mech so much as it's a form fitting Power Suit. Could you see Iron Man wearing jeans under his suit? If the fan service is that big of an issue it could be translated into (relatively)more modest, but still sexy skin tight leggings.
Any way I like it I Really dig this game's aesthetics. This game almost fell off my radar, it's great to see some more of this.

[Jad]

I'm totally into the fan service

[KeinZantezuken]

Here is an extra detail for you:


Now, back to work

Saw the start menu gif today on Polyrecap, immediately caught my eye. Didn't take long to find the thread, hehe.

Man, this looks fantastic so far, really digging the visual style (as someone mentioned - very Sword&Sorcery) and animation. Can't wait to see some gameplay in action.

Also, I hope you will stand for your [artistic] vision and won't lean under the slightest wind of nonsensical complains and "arguments" about "how unrealistic your videogame is", haha.

[Moneyhorse]

Awesome work so far! I am torn on the whole panty thing. As a guy, I like it, but as a reader of Kotaku, I see the tide is turning against fan service (in America anyway.) I worry that you might alienate some people (guys and girls) who might otherwise love the game.  Either way, I will play it.