[3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

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Coraline
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[3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Coraline »

Image
Hypertension is a psychological first-person shooter by my team Isotope Softworks and being published by Goat Store Publishing, LLC, for the Sega Dreamcast and PC. They are also publishing a game I am producing called SLaVE, using the same engine I maintain and program for (3DGE).

It was based on Blood and actually started its life as a remake project in 2008. The game has gone through a dozen rewrites since its inception, each time moving further from Blood, until we are where we are at now.

Take a look at the original 2008 trailer that debuted on Joystiq, etc.

All of the publicity we received, negative or positive (even Game Informer covered it) led to a publishing deal for the game.


(This trailer was released by Diehard GameFAN.)

But two years later we were burned out by it (and Atari seizing the game too hampered our efforts) and decided to start fresh with a different project called SCOURGE. That happened in 2011. That project was going great until we were ordered to halt and move back to Hypertension by GSP (no deal with Atari went through as expected). Since 2013 we have been reworking the project and it's now completely original, only related to the previous version by program code left in from so long ago, and all of the levels (which we were allowed to keep since they were original designs).

We were flown to the Midwest Gaming Classic to show off the project early in the year (I did not attend because my flight got delayed past the point of the presentation, so that's why my team member is so nervous and holds a clipboard in the video). The game, at the time, was chosen at the last minute because of technical problems we were having with SCOURGE. As such, the MGC trailer looks very rushed/incomplete and still has Blood placeholder content in it, but it was clear we were moving to replace everything (storyline, characters, enemies, etc). It was received well but people were still a bit confused since we halted the project for so long, and brought it back with almost no explanation.


2014 Midwest Gaming Classic trailer from earlier this year

So, present day...I just released a new teaser trailer to our fanbase showing off some of the stuff we've been working on, which is what I'm going to show below. The game has been in development since 2008 (that's 6 years) and has come a long way since the early days, but this is what it looks like now. I'd love to hear constructive comments about it. But keep in mind that this is only a small fraction of the game, most of it hearkens back to the DOOM run-and-gun format.


Newest Development Build [section preview]

My team and I are working hard to get it finished by next year, also, David Firth (who created Salad Fingers) gave us his explicit permission to include SF after playing the publisher demo of Hypertension in 2012, and he's designing the section of the game where he will be most prominently featured in (and doing all of the voice work). You play as a mentally scarred woman who watches her lover get murdered, and goes into a deep depression while battling demons from her past (and the present, stopping an occult leader). The game deals with depression, loss, love, worthlessness, among other themes. It's directly based on my own life experiences (which, suffice to say, is why I'm currently depressed). We have a script being written by a former Ubisoft designer and I'm writing the screenplay. We have 3d modelers and animators (sometimes using the Kinect for Mo-Cap), the cutscenes will be pre-rendered, and we have a few really good voice actors. The engine is receiving an overhaul (which is why there is new 3DGE builds coming out with modern features) to reflect this.

You guys are also free to check out the Corbachu Youtube channel to look at various builds of the game through the years (we even planned to have live-action cutscenes which are shown a few times in the trailers).

The main reason why I'm posting this here is to inquire if anyone is willing to sign on with our team and create some levels for the game. We currently have 2 level designers, but they aren't advanced as our previous mapper (who designed the previous levels, left the team in 2010) and would take them far too long to get this game completed by next year. So, we are hiring for some architects. As expected, it uses my 3DGE engine and only works in the EDGE map format. Basically it works like you get a small concept from an artist, gets fleshed out, inserted in the script, changed for cut-scene interaction/etc.

If you do sign on, you will be paid for the position (in forms of small bonuses as our donation rounds go through, and a raw slice of what we make after the game ships). This will be backed and verified by Goat Store Publishing, so it's completely legitimate. Though, you'd be bound by a NDA.

We use SVN for transferring the game data back and forth, a Google Drive account for asset storage, and OoVoo+Skype for when we need face-to-face. We are currently expected to release the game December 2015, so that gives us a good amount of time to tie everything together.

If you are interested or have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Other general help we could use would be graphic designers, making the HUD and other stuff throughout the game.


Newest video, still using older assets.
Last edited by Coraline on Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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darkhaven3
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Re: [3DGE, Commercial] Hypertension: HoD, Hiring Mappers

Post by darkhaven3 »

I am interested in offering my services as a mapper. Please PM me.
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Coraline
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Re: [3DGE, Commercial] Hypertension: HoD, Hiring Mappers

Post by Coraline »

Awesome, PM sent!
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Re: [3DGE, Commercial] Hypertension: HoD, Hiring Mappers

Post by Nash »

Those uniformly-lit polygons are painful to look at. :'( It's the only limiting factor when it comes to commercial/non-Doom projects IMO. The engines themselves are good enough for any kind of project.

Other than that, everything else looks cool. Good luck with the project! Looking forward to see how this unfolds.
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Coraline
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Re: [3DGE, Commercial] Hypertension: HoD, Hiring Mappers

Post by Coraline »

Hi! Just bumping this thread to the year 2016 to give some updates!

We are just about finished with the game engine overhaul, the only thing that we are looking to do now is to incorporate our custom camera library, finish up the physics library, and code multiple dynalight types to be used at one given time. Bump/Spec/Brightmaps are finished and are in the process of converting all assets to use them. Cubemaps are being developed for "reflections", and we are also working on water reflective/warp in realtime. We decided to leave reactive particles out for right now (but could be useful for a future game using the engine), instead developing a simple particle generator.

I am still definitely looking for one or two motivated mappers to join up with us. Most of the game is in place save for level design, and I feel with some effort we can meet our 2016 deadline. Remember, this is a paid position so please, if you are interested don't hesitate to let me or zZaRDoZz know!

Thanks again =)

Oh, there's some new screens, but most of it are model renders and stuff. I can post if you guys are interested. Things look MUCH more polished, higher-polys and better texture-work, not to mention the benefits of multi-texturing and model groups.
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Kefka »

Wow... And Salad Fingers. If this goes on Steam, I'll buy it.
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by ibm5155 »

It looks cool, nice work :D, I would find nice to map for such a cool Project, but unfortunately I'm working on a "big" Project + job :( , but I hope you can find a nash/zeberpal like mapper for your Project :)
OFF: why your nick is red color?
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by HorrorMovieRei »

Oh man, I remember this. Saw it waaaay back when it was still a remake of Blood. It's nice to see that this is finally close to completion.
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by SamVision »

Why do I see Salad Fingers?
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Coraline
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Coraline »

David Firth played the 2010 demo and liked it so much that he gave me explicit permission to use Salad Fingers, as long as he approves his inclusion and voices the character. That gives him writing credit on the game, which we are totally cool with.

I'll post some better screens today with the new lighting engine and model system.
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by SamVision »

Are you going the survival horror route with this? Or a sort of horror FPS like Blood or Quake?
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Coraline
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Coraline »

Its a mix, more like a FEAR vs Silent Hill 2 kind of vibe. The Blood influence/holdovers are still there though for the combat, like the Axe Zombies, Sawed-Off, Dynamite, etc.

But we are almost exclusively focusing on the story and plot, which is very rich in the vein of natural survival horror, but I like to think of it more as psychological horror really.
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Ed the Bat »

Any ballparks on what the price will be? It's not too often that I pay full price for games (I tend to wait for sales), but I'm not opposed to throwing some money towards indie developers. :)

And personally I would've preferred to see Burnt Face Man, but I won't complain. :P
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Coraline
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Coraline »

I'm not sure yet. It just all depends on what the publisher wants. They are the ones who dictate price so its really their call. Probably nothing above $40 would be my guess.

I know the game has looked really rough since we gutted all the Blood stuff out but we are finally getting the assets looking pro-quality, so we just really need environment designers to bring this stuff to life :-)
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Re: [3DGE] Hypertension: Harmony of Darkness [commercial]

Post by Crudux Cruo »

Wow you got david firth into this too? this is shaping up to be awesome! his burnt face man/salad fingers animations are hysterical. so then, will this will be a digital release + retail release?
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