WIP Pirates Odyssey: To Each His Own

[TheBlackKnight]

Great! And what do you mean by reviving the franchise? Are you planning any other games of the series?

Here are a few LONG points for all those interested in the POTEHO.

Joruba is just referring to the fact of what has already been stated by other staff/members.
The Akella Pirates series is showing its age with the last release being CoAS well over 5 years ago.
What this basically means is that an entire generation of gamers are not aware of the game series, and they hope to bring it back to masses.
This means BlackMark Studios need to retain that POTEHO be affordable ($19.99) with full DLC as this was never classified as a AAA title nor is it a "greenlight" game (although this brings to point some interesting pondering).
The bug fixes are going to be critical here, as the gaming community has absolutely no toleration for bad game mechanics or broken quests now, or reviewers and players are going to thrash the game and go on their way, as they will evaluate as it stands with no history. Such is the power of the internet now.
If the English version has minor translation errors, that is understandable because it is very hard to catch everything especially when you are used to seeing Russian. New players might even get a chuckle out of the old jokes we (PA!) already know.

Bottom line is when this product is released (Steam, no English DVD version currently) as stated is going to have to come out of the gates strong in order to be competitive, be easier to understand from previous styled games, have a solid tutorial start for those that are not used to playing the series (hand holding is unfortunate side effect requirement of gaming IQ dropping in the past 10 years), and most importantly be able to be actually completed.
I certainly may do a comparative review of the two versions, as I don't have a problem spending $20 on the English version to crosscheck.
At least I could save interested parties from spending money, if there "hold fast" problems that need to be fixed. The good news is Steam (Valve Corporation) has no liabilities of throwing games up for general consumption as long as they get their cut of the profits. Steam quality control these days for gaming is absolutely horrendous, and gamers have to do their homework or learn the hard way regarding new titles. "Buyer Beware" abounds.

All points aside from the above considerations, perhaps future releases could be a reality.
This is the last chance for the series now, its a make or break situation and BlackMark Studios knows this fact well!

If the only differences from the English/Russian version are translations only, oh boy, will this forum come to life with "Please help!" posts. I state this for reasons that I have stated previously playing through the Russian released version as it stands right now. I don't have any problem with a game being over challenging with complex puzzles or slow paced, and that is not what I am referring here. Its because POTEHO is still a cryptic throwback from gaming development over 15 years ago, and it definately remains a niche genre product. That is hard to change based on its development engine and script coding.

What I still would like to know is the same question that was asked over 2 years ago.
Simply put, will the English Release POTEHO actually have a program and scripts folder included?
If these folders remain cypher locked, the series will not survive, as modding will remain partially unfeasible and full virtual Caribbean (under Storm Engine 2.8++) will not be able to be created until the release as open source.
I am also aware of personal interests of other parties (public and private) that have a watchful eye on this release to determine the viability of future products.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

Alright, lads. I have received the last piece of text to edit and to put into the game. It will take two weeks. Once it's done, I'll do the proper post and Q&A. We intend to release POTEHO on June 15th-20th and will do our best to revive the franchise.

Cheers.

Just keep the community informed (good OR bad), and you will have support.
If this thread disappears again for another year, I know what is going to happen.
This game still has potential, but all my points above are the true as a "watchdog" for the future of this franchise.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

Do you know how many votes a game needs to be considered for GOG? Perhaps we should start advertising for people to vote there, especially once the next version of New Horizons comes out.
If so, we should discuss this elsewhere, of course.

Generally, GOG.com does not even consider investment of resources and money in acquiring rights for a game such as CoAS unless voting exceeds 500+.
Then it gets a first "looksy" by development staff for potential.
When a game reaches popularity of voting well over 1000+, then they inquire about purchase rights.
But, there is a significant hitch here.
If you look carefully at the titles that GOG has available, very few are from developers in foreign country markets, or controlled by conglomerate corporations such as Bethesda Softworks unless they are VERY Popular (ie Fallout, AC, etc) or are VERY OLD (>10+ years).
Most games come from either defunct long-extinct studios or ones that were absorbed by other publishers whose license lines are not active.
The exception is Indie.
Its is easy for them to acquire rights for Indie developers that become popular due to cost for games such as Papers Please! or Banished because overhead licensing costs are minimal.

To relate this post back to POTEHO, GOG remains a viable alternative to Steam in order to get the game more visible to the public eye, as it caters to a different market, and generally an older generation of gamers and is less costly to Akella in the long run.
It seems hard to believe a person would pay well over $60 for unfinished games or games that do not even exist (RSI StarCitizen), but people spend disposable income how they want.
The problem remains how to you generate popularity to a NEW pirate game using an OLD concept to a NEW gaming generation?
Answer, use gaming forums like PA! to increase support and interest.
Word of mouth gets around via reputation, either positively or negatively.
In the case of POTEHO, this is not been the best news story for those that have an interest in the genre.
This could be the final Akella broadside for the series if the release is poorly handled and not front paged on Steam.

 

[piratesjunkie]

Personally i would still prefer an English DVD version

 

[Jan Marten]

There are many people, who do not want to have Staem on their computer.
As it is published. DVD or Steam

 

[Joruba]

Sorry, the game is steam-restricted. Publisher's wish.

Simply put, will the English Release POTEHO actually have a program and scripts folder included?

We asked the publisher to include them. As far as I know we have received a positive answer, but we still don't have an official permission. I'll give you an update as soon as I have more info.

 

[Ben Coats]

so no news on an english release date???

 

[Pieter Boelen]

We intend to release POTEHO on June 15th-20th and will do our best to revive the franchise.

 

[Joruba]

If the English version has minor translation errors, that is understandable because it is very hard to catch everything especially when you are used to seeing Russian. New players might even get a chuckle out of the old jokes we (PA!) already know.

Perhaps you guys could give me a list of such translation jokes, errors etc. I'll be testing the game quite soon and I can't guarantee that I will catch every single mistake. Afterall the game contains at least 3 mb of text.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

Perhaps you guys could give me a list of such translation jokes, errors etc. I'll be testing the game quite soon and I can't guarantee that I will catch every single mistake. Afterall the game contains at least 3 mb of text.

Joruba,

I guess I should have recorded the nuances I found in Russian text while playing, but I did not not my secondary screen open to write them down.
At this point, I don't even know how many times the game was updated with Steam after the DLC because it was done automatically, and I did not revisit certain areas of the game (such as the Isle of Justice). I can tell you that it seems that only few dozen English speaking fans (that understand Russian) actually bought the POTEHO Russian release for testing and many of them do not post here anymore.

As stated, translation errors or concept understanding text errors are not a biggest concern in my opinion. My concerns are clarity of understanding of game mechanics to NEW players. This is going to make or break this title because as it stood with POTEHO Russian, if you did not ever play a previous "Sea Dog" title you are initially hard pressed to understand everything and what you have to do without a GOOD explanation. I am just looking at things from the perspective of a person who might not be familiar with the games.

Minor translation errors could simply be fixed later quickly, I know you will do your best up front.

Я понимаю русский язык, но я не совершенен в переводе.
Тем не менее, английский концепции языке я имею большой опыт.

If I was offered the English / Russian script dialogue files, I could crosscheck before release (as was offered in the past) including the Charles de Mor prologue and intro quests, but since I do not have either set of files available I cannot help.
Remember nearly everything except UI was cypher locked for languages.

I hope what I am seeing on Steam development log tracing right now regarding "Early Access" code system changes is not what is intended for June 2014 "release".
That would be a bit disconcerting.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

Personally i would still prefer an English DVD version

This is highly unlikely in today's gaming market.
The only way the traditional "boxed" games come about now is through collector versions, which requires significant popularity.
CoAS was part of dying era of traditional gaming.

 

[Thagarr]

This is highly unlikely in today's gaming market.
The only way the traditional "boxed" games come about now is through collector versions, which requires significant popularity.
CoAS was part of dying era of traditional gaming.

It's not so much the gaming that has changed, but the way games are produced, distributed and marketed. All of those have certainly changed. I am shocked this is actually happening, if it wasn't for Steam, I am positive that it would have stayed a Russian only release.

The big game companies have been trying to tell us for years that PC gaming is dead, when in fact what was dying was their antiquated production and distribution models. Instead of adapting to gamers needs, they pushed out propaganda, draconian DRM, intentionally bad games and tried to force gamers onto a platform they have complete control over, consoles. We are not the only gamer community out there creating our own games, there are many more, and the numbers are growing. The explosion of Indie developers over the past few years is another sign that PC gaming is alive and well, and will be for quite some time.

 

[piratesjunkie]

It´s always possible to get steamless PC game versions anyway and archival grade gold DVDs are best from Verbatim

 

[Joruba]

Joruba,
My concerns are clarity of understanding of game mechanics to NEW players.

We have that covered. The game has a decent tutorial which explains everything from controls to nuances of the core mechanic. We have also shifted the game's balance towards potential new players. It's still a chalenge yet at least you can learn how to play.

If I was offered the English / Russian script dialogue files...

I'll see it done. Your help will be most appreciated.

 

[fjx]

This tutorial wasn't in Russian game, right?

 

[Joruba]

This tutorial wasn't in Russian game, right?

No, not in original release. It was implemented later, same time as the Caleuche DLC.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

It's not so much the gaming that has changed, but the way games are produced, distributed and marketed. All of those have certainly changed. I am shocked this is actually happening, if it wasn't for Steam, I am positive that it would have stayed a Russian only release.

The big game companies have been trying to tell us for years that PC gaming is dead, when in fact what was dying was their antiquated production and distribution models. Instead of adapting to gamers needs, they pushed out propaganda, draconian DRM, intentionally bad games and tried to force gamers onto a platform they have complete control over, consoles. We are not the only gamer community out there creating our own games, there are many more, and the numbers are growing. The explosion of Indie developers over the past few years is another sign that PC gaming is alive and well, and will be for quite some time.

I will try to relate this to POTEHO development, so it stays on topic.
Yes, I should have been more specific and I was used a misnomer generality in describing the "gaming market".
Many should know that the big game companies such as Sony, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Rockstar, and many others were wrong in mindset as you directly stated.
I did this for brevity, and not turn it into a long winded post.
Their console "takeover move" starting from 2005 years ago is failing now.
I hate how developers are cranking out complete crap with tired gaming concepts and no originality just to make money, and they are beginning to struggle and falling back on licensed titles to try and survive (CoD, GTA, AC, etc)
Gamers with more astute intellect figured this out quickly and migrated to Indie development with added flexibility and are taking back the genre, just like when it all started back in the 1980s and early 90s (Anybody remember games like Star Control 2 (now Ur-Quan Masters) by Toys for Bob?). Indie game developers are gamers just like PA! developers.
I get a serious chuckle when I think of games like Minecraft when it was Alpha released.
Big companies scoffed at the concept and said it would not work.
Now, they sat up and said, "I think we made a mistake."
As the gaming generation aged, these same new players did not know the difference for basic mindless entertainment, but now these are the same people are looking at the other side of fence going, "I want something with more depth and long term gameplay" and are discovering games such as POTEHO or the potential for HoO.
That is also the reason for the success of GoG, where new gamers go, "Wow, I did not know such good games existed!"
PC gaming is far from dead, and resurging due to reduced cost of availability for decent gaming rigs, even laptops.
Indie development will eb an flow just as interests change, but retain viability.
I want POTEHO to succeed because I have always been impressed with the Russian game developers ability to tell good stories in their games.
You don't need a voiceover for everything in life, just like reading a good book. Sometimes you need to use your imagination.
In the case of POTEHO, many concepts were reused from POTC, AoP:CT, and CoAS but I don't really mind, because most players will not know the secrets from the previous games unless you were a serious fan. The game depth is solid, the controls still archaic with no "pop up menus" (which were designed for controllers) but I believe that many gamers will still remember the story, which in this game is really what it is all about. If you don't like the controls remap them (or use a controller emulator), or better yet why not implement proper controller support to satisfy the current generation (BlackMark Studios pay attention here...)
Add in the ability to mod, and the series will survive.
Some might call me an "Akella fanboy" here, but I have a lot of other interests and experience other than gaming.

 

[Ben Coats]

The big game companies have been trying to tell us for years that PC gaming is dead, when in fact what was dying was their antiquated production and distribution models. Instead of adapting to gamers needs, they pushed out propaganda, draconian DRM, intentionally bad games and tried to force gamers onto a platform they have complete control over, consoles. We are not the only gamer community out there creating our own games, there are many more, and the numbers are growing. The explosion of Indie developers over the past few years is another sign that PC gaming is alive and well, and will be for quite some time.

amen to that, take Battlefield 3/4, N4SMW (need for speed most wanted 2012) with the Origin DLC you HAVE to have in order to play online or single especially N4SMW. years ago EA sold out and they took alot of Flak cuz of it, i have BF3, N4SMW for pc and the udates thru origin take anywhere from 1 hr to 5 hrs to update which is pathetic. i bought the game to play it when I wanted to play it, not when they say i can wether single or multiplayer. yrs ago Novalogic was all the rage with Delta Force Single/Mutiplayer and alot still play it, the graphics may be old, but at least its FUN. Sea Dogs, and PoTC when they came out were also fun to play, even Cutthroats Terror on the High Seas is still a good game, i hope POTEHO will be like CoAS to play, may have bugs that need fixxing, but at least i wont have to wait hours for an update thru origin, Steam has to be updated every once in a while, and is a whole lot better than origin/EA sellouts. i have Empire Total War, Civ 5, Crusader Kings2, Homefront on steam i can all play and dont have any problems with.

 

[piratesjunkie]

The Russian version of POTEHO has been played for a long period at Steam so the most important bugs should have been fixed in the upcoming English version

 

[Joruba]

Truth to be told, there were only a very few bugs in the Russian version. And we had them all fixed.