3D Dot Heroes (From Software)

[obonicus]

New game from From Software (Demon Souls, Ninja Blade, Chromehounds, Tenchu, Otogi, Armored Core, lots of stuff).

So far, announced only for PS3, no US publisher either.

Official website: http://www.3d-heroes.net/

More on the background here: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/08/20/3d_dot_game_heroes/

3D Dot Game Heroes' background story starts off in the Kingdom of Dotnia, a world not unlike a 2D 16-bit era sprite-based RPG. Long ago, the Kingdom was protected by six wise men and six orbs which contained the power of the gods. However, the Dark Demon King, seeking their power, stole the orbs and captured the wise men. Demons began to flood the Kingdom, whose end was thought to be near. But it was at that time that a young warrior appeared from seemingly nowhere, saved the wise men and returned the orbs to their rightful place. Following a great battle, the warrior and the wise men combined the orbs into one and sealed the Demon King away.

The Kingdom prospered for some time after that. However, as time passed, and the story of the young warrior became a legend, visitors stopped coming to the Kingdom. It was then that the King made the decision: "From now on, it will be the 3D era." Under orders from the King, the Kingdom was changed from 2D to 3D, and began progressing towards a restoration of past grandeur. But just as people began to get used to their new life, something happened.

And the real reason I'm posting it here is because it looks pretty crazy. Unique, for sure.

More screenshots at the Andriasang blog above.

 

[Arwin]

OMG! That's just crazy! It's like the LEGO games, but crazier. I like it a lot though, for some reason it looks really appealing. And it's out in November.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I guess that's one way to use voxels...

 

[obonicus]

How dare you mention From Software and NOT have OTOGI as the first game you mention! For shame!

I was going to, but then I thought: 'should I mention Otogi but skip Chromehounds?' And then I didn't want to go WP From Software and include 1500 titles. So I went with the latest high-profile titles! Sorry!

 

[patsu]

Should I hold my breathe for this one coming to US shores ?

They need to show how a character die in this game. Does it disintegrate ?

 

[betan]

I saw the thread title, I immediately assumed this was a PSN title.

 

[patsu]

Heh, what the heck is a 3D dot ? It's the same as a 2D and 1D dot.

 

[Rolf N]

This should prove the superiority of voxels once and for all.

Oh I see Shifty already used that

 

[Silent_Buddha]

That first shot looks like a prime candidate for 3D Dot Populous.

Regards,
SB

 

[betan]

This has to be one of the jaggiest games ever.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Those aren't voxels IMHO.

 

[Rolf N]

This has to be one of the jaggiest games ever.

Beautiful, anti-aliased jaggies.

...

Division by zero.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Them's some fat ass voxels, to be sure.

 

[Xenus]

It's looks so cool yet hideous at the same time I can't look away.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Those aren't voxels IMHO.

I'm not actually saying they are, but they could be. It makes far more sense to represent this world as voxels rather than meshes.

 

[legendCNCD]

From the aliasing shadowing, I presume they're just boxed edges with matching textures. At least, it would be extremely stupid to keep thousands of boxes together all the time. Change geometry when exploding the character to thousands of boxes.. not sure, do characters explode?

Still, looks very hot, I really dig the lighting with DOF shots.

 

[obonicus]

From the aliasing shadowing, I presume they're just boxed edges with matching textures. At least, it would be extremely stupid to keep thousands of boxes together all the time. Change geometry when exploding the character to thousands of boxes.. not sure, do characters explode?

Looks like they do:

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I'm not actually saying they are, but they could be. It makes far more sense to represent this world as voxels rather than meshes.

Those shapes in the screenshots can be built from a few hundred polygons per model, and then they can render them without writing a completely different engine that couldn't make much use of the GPU.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They can be rendered on screen as polygons still. I'm just thinking that the memory to store a character would be something like a 17x11x11 array of x,y,x positions and colour, and it'd be a doddle to build the objects and scenery. But then I suppose the hardware doesn't really need those low requirements.

 

[DieH@rd]

I cant wait to see the first trailer for this.

I assume it will be 60fps