To say I am hyped about trying Selaco might be a serious understatement because it looks incredible. A GZDoom powered cross-platform FPS inspired by F.E.A.R and soon a demo will be available.
Selaco is a brand new original shooter running on GZDoom, featuring thrilling action set pieces, destructibility, smart AI and a fleshed out story taking place within an immersive game world. It draws inspiration heavily from F.E.A.R. in terms of action set pieces, while mixing traditional retro-FPS elements from QUAKE and DOOM, along with some more modern features. Together with professional artists who work in the industry, several having worked on successful throwback FPS games in the past, Selaco is a fully fleshed out world full of character, action, and mystery.
Recently, the developer put up a refreshed version of their original teaser to show off the current state with an announcement that a demo will be coming to Steam in June. Backers of their Patreon will be getting it a little earlier on April 22. Check out the new teaser below:
Direct Link
You can follow it on Steam.
Quoting: TermyIon Fury blows me away visually. Prodeus looks like mud. Very shiny mud.Quoting: NexxticCalling them lazy is disrespectful, in my opinion.It wasn't meant to be disrespectful, sorry for that! I guess my wording wasn't perfect - I'm aware that sprites can be a whole lot of work, it's just that (at least thats my impression) sprites seem to be THE current way of "doing retro" and it feels "lazy" to jump on the bandwagon and go with it. That doesn't mean it's a bad game or no work is put into it (i love project warlock and poke around GZDoom now and then, so i'm not totally against this ^^), it's just that i tend to get "fed up" with trends like straight pixel art, low poly or sprites if the games don't put a "new spin" on it. That can be something like kingdom: two crowns combining pixel art with modern reflections or like selaco seemingly including above average amount of anmiation-steps. Of course some things are more noticable than others and videos often doesn't do it justice, but it can quickly feel like "more of the same". Project Warlock or Ion Fury are great games with a lot of attention to detail - but the first impression (at least graphically) isn't blowing me away so to speak.
I will totally try the demo and in general love oldschool FPS - my post was more a general mini-rant about repeated trends in artstyle and not directly targeted at selaco. Should have made that more clear i guess ^^
Fancy effects like specular highlights and normal mapping are neither necessary nor sufficient for a game to look good. Design is what's important, not technology.
Quoting: NexxticAs long as the is good gyro controls, I can do without aim assist.Quoting: cdnr1steam deck compatible ?
it sort-of works as is, but many QoL (like aim assist) are missing in the current build. I'm expecting the game to be playable on a Steam Deck with proper aim assist by the time we launch the full game.
Quoting: NexxticIt's not cheap actually! Quite the opposite even!
This may be a stupid question, but it begs the question: If it's not cheaper, not easier... Then why do it? Why not instead spend that time on full 3D models? I mean, there's a lot one can do if one wants a retro vibe to a game.
Back in the days they had to do it like this because of the limited computing power, it was a workaround and they tried as hard as they could to make it look like they were in three dimensions. It wasn't really a design choice at all, then.
Last edited by Beamboom on 13 April 2022 at 11:23 am UTC
Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: NexxticIt's not cheap actually! Quite the opposite even!
This may be a stupid question, but it begs the question: If it's not cheaper, not easier... Then why do it? Why not instead spend that time on full 3D models? I mean, there's a lot one can do if one wants a retro vibe to a game.
Back in the days they had to do it like this because of the limited computing power, it was a workaround and they tried as hard as they could to make it look like they were in three dimensions. It wasn't really a design choice at all, then.
Aesthetics. Using 3D models in the engine itself does not nearly capture the same magic as spritework. Combine that with dismemberment which is all just a bunch of photoshop and overpaints applied on a scanned image and you have something beautiful. Trust me, we've discussed design decisions for weeks before we begin doing anything and we aren't simply doing things because ''they did it back in the day'', we do it because we think it favors the game's visual presentation.
"It wasn't really a design choice at all, then."
I don't see how this is relevant. Limitations back in the day produced a visual style that is still loved today, and we trying to keep that style. Except instead of using clay sculptures like the people at id software did, we 'sculpt' and take pictures of a 3D model.
If we wanted to go full 3D with everything we might as well build the game on Unity, but we strongly believe the limitations that you mention encourage a particular type of creativity.
Last edited by Nexxtic on 13 April 2022 at 1:53 pm UTC
Other games in that category:
Mechajammer
Triangle Strategy
others I can't think of...
See more from me