Under A Killing Moon SE - Potential Remake. (1stScreenshot!)
Posted: April 02, 2009 • 12:55 pm
Alright I'm writing this post up because I've done a bit of research on how to go about attacking a remake of Under A Killing Moon- similarly to the post not long ago asking for money to get the rights from Take 2, I've instead come up with a better solution and here it is.
I've called it Under A Killing Moon Special Edition (Similar to the Star Wars Special Edition
)
First off, no contributions at all are needed by this community because all the tools we need a free and available right now. Secondly, the game WILL be a commercial product aimed at swaying Take2 and getting a pitch going so that we can hopefully get them to publish the game... Unless Take2 falls to bits, but that's a worst case scenario and hopefully if that does happen Big Finish will be able to buy their rights back dirt cheap. Thirdly, the Engine that will be required is IDTech3, or as you'd all know it better as Quake3, I'd love to work with IDTech4(Doom3) but unfortunately it won't go GPL for another year or two- I'm waiting for it so that I can go on with other game projects I have in the can right now waiting for development.
Ok so why IDTech3, well simply because its the easiest Engine to work with, its GPL so everything we need is available FREE on the internet but lastly a commercial license for the engine is around $10,000 US and once Doom3 goes GPL will probably be around $5000 or less- so its a very good engine to be targeting.
I've learned a bit of 3D Modeling, I'm using Blender, also GPL and also Free
no commercial license needed. The great thing about UAKM is that its geometry is so damn simplistic that to replicate it with modern technology isn't too complicated. Unfortunately for now we'll have to make do with the original FMVs and Sound from the original game because I doubt we can get hold of the masters until the rights are secured.
The objective of this remake would be simple really, to fix a lot of the "Criticisms" people had with UAKM- Whilst it doesn't mean we can put in a Non-linear storyline (though it'd be awesome) we can improve the graphics quality and fix chris' GUI designs quite a bit- A lot of them were fixed in Overseer but I still think they created a stack of problems that just shouldn't have happened.
As for the 2D actor sprites that appeared in the game, They probably won't appear until we either again get the masters or we can find a talented 3D modeler who would be able to render high quality high poly cinematics- though due to the commercial nature of the project would incur a fee- however I'm not thinking about that now until I need to.
Ok so first things first, I'm going to talk about how to attack the development in the short term.
What I'd like to do is get a basic demo of the game, UAKM is a small game by today's standards- so I'd like to get Day1 completed, because its only Chandler Avenue, so it'd be very very easy to make AND even better can be reused.
If it ends up easy to do, the rest of the game can be completed. I question how hard it will be code wise, but in my head the level design, modeling and textured is pretty damn easy really.
Main Benefits for doing this:
* Will work natively in Windows XP and Vista
* No more 2D Sprites
* Seamless instant loading
* Easy to use interface, less cluttered, FULL SCREEN VIEWPORT! (like Overseer)
* OpenGL/D3D Rendering (Like Overseer)
* Higher Texture Resolutions == Better Looking Levels.
* Complete Revised Control Scheme.
* NO BLOODY DISC SWAPPING!
* Creates Awareness of Tex
Main Disadvantages:
* Having to deal with 2K
(it'll be hard and annoying)
* Risk that 2K could fold over- resulting the the rights ending up in the hands of an asshole company like EA.
* Risk that no one will care and that the game will be a financial flop. (Because I've noticed Mainstream Gamers lately are jerks who don't care about anything unless its produced by Blizzard, I need to seriously stop going on major gaming forums- its really not making me feel too good. Too many assholes.)
Also its April 3rd-- so NO THIS IS NOT A JOKE.
I've called it Under A Killing Moon Special Edition (Similar to the Star Wars Special Edition
)First off, no contributions at all are needed by this community because all the tools we need a free and available right now. Secondly, the game WILL be a commercial product aimed at swaying Take2 and getting a pitch going so that we can hopefully get them to publish the game... Unless Take2 falls to bits, but that's a worst case scenario and hopefully if that does happen Big Finish will be able to buy their rights back dirt cheap. Thirdly, the Engine that will be required is IDTech3, or as you'd all know it better as Quake3, I'd love to work with IDTech4(Doom3) but unfortunately it won't go GPL for another year or two- I'm waiting for it so that I can go on with other game projects I have in the can right now waiting for development.
Ok so why IDTech3, well simply because its the easiest Engine to work with, its GPL so everything we need is available FREE on the internet but lastly a commercial license for the engine is around $10,000 US and once Doom3 goes GPL will probably be around $5000 or less- so its a very good engine to be targeting.
I've learned a bit of 3D Modeling, I'm using Blender, also GPL and also Free
no commercial license needed. The great thing about UAKM is that its geometry is so damn simplistic that to replicate it with modern technology isn't too complicated. Unfortunately for now we'll have to make do with the original FMVs and Sound from the original game because I doubt we can get hold of the masters until the rights are secured.The objective of this remake would be simple really, to fix a lot of the "Criticisms" people had with UAKM- Whilst it doesn't mean we can put in a Non-linear storyline (though it'd be awesome) we can improve the graphics quality and fix chris' GUI designs quite a bit- A lot of them were fixed in Overseer but I still think they created a stack of problems that just shouldn't have happened.
As for the 2D actor sprites that appeared in the game, They probably won't appear until we either again get the masters or we can find a talented 3D modeler who would be able to render high quality high poly cinematics- though due to the commercial nature of the project would incur a fee- however I'm not thinking about that now until I need to
.Ok so first things first, I'm going to talk about how to attack the development in the short term.
What I'd like to do is get a basic demo of the game, UAKM is a small game by today's standards- so I'd like to get Day1 completed, because its only Chandler Avenue, so it'd be very very easy to make AND even better can be reused.
If it ends up easy to do, the rest of the game can be completed. I question how hard it will be code wise, but in my head the level design, modeling and textured is pretty damn easy really.
Main Benefits for doing this:
* Will work natively in Windows XP and Vista
* No more 2D Sprites
* Seamless instant loading
* Easy to use interface, less cluttered, FULL SCREEN VIEWPORT! (like Overseer)
* OpenGL/D3D Rendering (Like Overseer)
* Higher Texture Resolutions == Better Looking Levels.
* Complete Revised Control Scheme.
* NO BLOODY DISC SWAPPING!
* Creates Awareness of Tex
Main Disadvantages:
* Having to deal with 2K
(it'll be hard and annoying)* Risk that 2K could fold over- resulting the the rights ending up in the hands of an asshole company like EA.
* Risk that no one will care and that the game will be a financial flop. (Because I've noticed Mainstream Gamers lately are jerks who don't care about anything unless its produced by Blizzard
, I need to seriously stop going on major gaming forums- its really not making me feel too good. Too many assholes.)Also its April 3rd-- so NO THIS IS NOT A JOKE.