Other than a constant stream of amateur "games" dragging Unity's name through the mud by being poorly optimized.

Or having a terrible outdated garbage collector.

Or very little out of the box support for first person shooters.

Or requiring DIY decals.

Or requiring DIY sprites (other than particle effects).

Or having memory leak problems.

Or having terrible support for mods. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJcMKd6prBY

Looks appallingly bland in every way imaginable. The only thing I can tolerate in this video is the outside lighting which is nice with the fog. The full red screen when you take any damage is a particularly bad touch in addition to the semi-naff weapons, stupid cartoon items, boring badly-themed monsters, apparent lack of any AI, shitty map, shitty textures and lighting etc etc. 

I like how the pickup items are low-framerate pixelly sprites, and then the weapon models look like they could be in Skyrim.

:qdumb: 

"Well you see what we were going for was to simulate one of those classic FPS games with a long and drama-filled development history, where some bits were made in 1995 and other bits were made in 2005" 

AMID EVIL is gorgeous, feels incredibly smooth to play, and provides a better challenge than other recent "old-school" shooters on it's "Evil" difficulty.

Videos don't do AMID EVIL justice. It's a whacked out mix of sprites, unfiltered textures, and shiny UE4 gloss. In motion, it works. It's a crisp and colorful thing. Limited video bitrate muddies that.

I completely understand why one would argue that the AEsthetic is confused, so don't bother. Just TRUST ME.

Release will see 7 episodes, each with 3 exploration levels and a boss level. Every episode has it's own theme and enemies. 3 episodes and an endless map will be available next week.

I don't like Serious Sam-style shooters or wave-based endless modes. This isn't that. AE's levels are big and beautiful. The wave mode in the video is an extra to the main campaign. For what it's worth, I found AMID EVIL's wave mode to be more fun than others I've played. The gameplay in that video is also pretty bad...

We'll always have DOOM and Quake, and the well of quality mapsets isn't drying up anytime soon. But DANG guys, you can't be salty about every new kid on the block. There is a difference between having sophisticated taste and being a self-defeating elitist sperglord.

FPS fans who lump the likes of DUSK, AMID EVIL (and what the heck, DOOM 2016 too) in with the likes of STRAFE, Apocryph, or Hellbound have my pity. (If you're excited for Apocryph or Hellbound... um, lol?) You may have a deeper understanding of good FPS design than the average Joe, but your judgement lacks a necessary granularity.

Also, Kinn, the weapon "models" are sprites babe. ;) 

I hadn't realized that Amid Weevil is published by the same people as Dusk. It's like two schlubby doses of marketing for the price of one. 

Videos don't do AMID EVIL justice. It's a whacked out mix of sprites, unfiltered textures, and shiny UE4 gloss. 

Would consider doing a legit Heretic episode, followed by a legit Hexen episode, followed by a legit Hexen 2 ... actually scratch that last one 

https://i.imgur.com/1yRosFa.jpg
wow 

 

Videos don't do AMID EVIL justice. It's a whacked out mix of sprites, unfiltered textures, and shiny UE4 gloss.

No offense to your judgement, but the very reasons you have given for it looking "gorgeous", are mostly the same reasons - with the addition of the ass-awful saturated lighting - that it still looks like shit on a stick, where the stick is also made of shit.

Incidentally I just rewatched Apocryph inspired by your post and whilst it does look fairly dung - I am assuming it is a mere engine test, the lighting, textures, monsters, and theme harmony already look 2000% better than Amid Evil.

I will concede that Amid Evil does look functionally fine as an old skool shooter (apart from the appalling screenflash on damage which should never even be an option let alone default), but the lack of any graphical harmony is a NOPE from me. 

Is amid evils biggest problem tbh. But this can be fixed a lot easier than gameplay (which looks ok imo) 

Is amid evils biggest problem tbh. But this can be fixed a lot easier than gameplay (which looks ok imo) 

Is FifthHeffalump#s biggest problem tbh. But he's beyond fixing (imo) 

No offense to your judgement, but the very reasons you have given for it looking "gorgeous", are mostly the same reasons - with the addition of the ass-awful saturated lighting - that it still looks like shit on a stick, where the stick is also made of shit.

You left out the part where I said "In motion, it works. It's a crisp and colorful thing. Limited video bitrate muddies that." That's the important bit. The idea being - it sounds unlikely, but when playing, these seemingly disparate parts come together nicely.

AMID EVIL is purposefully chaotic in it's use of color, and it works. It won't be everyone's jam. I love it. It's something else. It's ugly in the best way.

I will concede that Amid Evil does look functionally fine as an old skool shooter (apart from the appalling screenflash on damage which should never even be an option let alone default), but the lack of any graphical harmony is a NOPE from me.

The flashing is less obnoxious when playing versus watching. But I agree, it should be optional.

https://i.imgur.com/1yRosFa.jpg
wow

Ye boi. When I first saw that in-game, I thought something was rendering incorrectly. Turns out it's just an inelegant and ugly way to occlude enemy spawns.

Incidentally I just rewatched Apocryph inspired by your post and whilst it does look fairly dung - I am assuming it is a mere engine test, the lighting, textures, monsters, and theme harmony already look 2000% better than Amid Evil.

Yeah all the parts harmoniously appear hideous all at once! :p

Seriously, it looks like an asset flip. I'm not saying it is, but it has that vibe - cheap and uninspired. Apocryph is trying so hard (and failing) to be dark and gritty with zero sense of irony. Of course maybe that's what you appreciate about it. There is a certain kind of honesty about how thoroughly uncool it is. Heck, it may even wind up a charming little piece of EuroJank. 

Let it be known...

I find Darkplaces and HD texture packs disgusting. Now THAT is inconsistency! 

Seriously, takes 2 secs to type in a name and chrome remembers it for next time. 

...it's okay. It's still a bit annoying not knowing posting consistency etc, but, whatever, a thread contribution is a thread contribution.

Snide comments via anons, trolling or otherwise, are deleted. That IS something where posting consistency / history is required for context. 

Also, Kinn, the weapon "models" are sprites

and then you made them look indistinguishable from normal/diffuse/specular-mapped models from the mid-late 2000s...

https://youtu.be/b6d9PO3x30g 

Seriously though, you can tell when playing the game. Videos fuzzy the effect.

For more hot normal-on-sprite action, I recommend BRIGADOR.

I can't defend AMID EVIL's visuals anymore. I've already admitted that it's UGLY IN THE BEST WAY. I mean, I DO have eyes guys. :p It's gaudy and garish and not for everyone.

---

ION Maiden is really coming along. A testing branch already has mouse movement feeling smooth and modern. Performance is better and the vsync issues are being investigated.

For anyone experiencing stutters at 144 fps, cap your frames at 120. The game loop updates at 30hz and interpolates at 120hz. If you don't have Gsync, you'll need to change your monitor's refresh rate to 120.

The update should be out soon. 

Amid Evil looks more interesting than Dusk for me. And Ion Maiden is fucking great.

Amid Evil's oversaturated effects seems to be a homage to the style of some old games, specially N64/Saturn/PS1 ones. Even if the game lacks visual harmony, at least it looks like the devs are putting effort into the art.

Being an independent developer sucks, specially if the team is just a couple of guys. Either the gameplay, the level design, the sound fx, the voice acting, the music, the models, the sprites, the textures, the animations, the visual effects, or something else will suck. Most likely, several of these aspects at once. But if the developer is openly honest about his limitations, some flaws can be forgiven.

What bothers me the most in many pseudo retro games are misleading advertisement, developers who doesn't tolerate criticism, and developers who uses "stylistic choices" as an excuse to lazy out on some aspects of the game. A lazy style is still lazy, despite being a style. 

Deliberately gaudy and garish, as much as I want to keep slagging it off, at this point I can just say "fair enough". If it's a deliberate choice then although I think the effect is ass (and not the sort of ass that appeals to me), then I can see what they are getting at. I guess I find it a bit of a pity personally because the level design and gameplay functionality does actually have some appeal, unlike many other of these games, and with different GFX style could be a winner. Oh well. 

If I see another post by FoldingChable, then I'll remember "oh that was the dude that was talking some sense about AE even if I disagreed". That context is useful.