[PSN/Live] From Dust

[patsu]

I got sidetracked by Plants vs Zombies. The world is saved from zombies yet again.

How short is From Dust ? Did the dev say anything about follow up ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A dozen levels raning from 15 minutes to, if things go pear shaped, an hour each. There's one level battling with a tidal surge and you havea a very limited timeframe to build a village in the tide's path and get it protected with water magic. The AI becomes very frustrating. You can't set up villagers to wait on the edge of the land ready to run in - they'll take whatever route the AI works out, and sometimes people get stuck when they aren't stuck and it's hard to get them out. Aiming to complete the game on the second run through losing a minimum number of villages, I spent a good hour on this one level even knowin what I was doing.

AFAIK there's no word about a sequel or a future for this tech. I'm pretty certain there's a 'wait and see' attitude.

 

[patsu]

Ok cool. It's sitting on my HDD now. Will check it out later this week.

 

[JPT]

Ok cool. It's sitting on my HDD now. Will check it out later this week.

Mine to, wish I just had the time to play a bit, dumb #¤%#" work...

 

[patsu]

Ubisoft: From Dust moved over 500K on PSN and XBLA
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/02/ubisoft-from-dust-moved-over-500k-on-psn-and-xbla/

In an interview with MCV, Ubisoft digital publishing manager for EMEA Thomas Paincon spoke about the strengths of digital distribution for the introduction of new video game IP. The publisher's no stranger to taking risks with downloadables, as it's currently doing so with I Am Alive, Babel Rising and Shoot Many Robots. It also gambled on Eric Chahi's From Dust earlier this year, which Paincon said has paid off on XBLA and PSN to the tune of "half a million units."

Paincon added some insight into Ubisoft's strategy, specifically chalking From Dust's sales up to the fact that "the prices were lower, but also because it was a new experience and people using digital platforms are more willing to test a new IP."

...

 

[Prophecy2k]

Having completed it (short game!) I retract my impression of their engine. When you see everything active at once it is very good. Really needs a proper game though. This feels like a tech demo contrived into a game, with a number of 'unfinished' aspects. For one you can zoom in on a person and you're told something about them, which is always "This (wo)man can build villages, carry knowledge, and something." Why have that if there's no need to identify different people? There's mention of a creature I never encountered. And then the last level is just a tech showcase. It's as if Ubisoft had no faith that a god-game would be financially viable any more, and told Chachi to get 'something' out there quick and cheap to prove his tech wasn't a waste of money.

This tech with the gameplay of something like Populous or Megalomania, where you have to build villages and grow your population fighting against various elements. Some Settlers style resource harvesting wouldn't go amiss either. It would be an awesome game - I fear it'll never get made.

Really, what we need is for Molyneuz to stop faffing about with his 'new wave' game ideas and get back to making God games around the capabilites of modern hardware!

Amen and amen!

Although, he should at least ensure that whatever he makes gets a PC port so that those of us not bound to a 360 can still experience it on PC.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

From Dust sold over 500k. I hope that's enough to get Ubisoft to invest in a proper game.

 

[steampoweredgod]

I'm interested in having a deeper look at the simulation

Have found this paper....

From Dust Simulation

but it is behind a paywall. Without knowing what level of detail will be provided don't know if it is worth the cost.

Also know there was some information given at siggraph 2011(per existence of abstract) and game dev 2010(per reference and googling). Googling got me a free abstract from siggraph but cannot get full info from anywhere.

Anyone attended or has access to any such presentation or related papers?

 

[upnorthsox]

Try here:

http://kesen.realtimerendering.com/sig2011.html

It might be under a different title.

 

[steampoweredgod]

searched for authors bel or chahi and received a match for neither
Checking the siggraph page further it seems the 2011 talk was cancelled.

Game Dev 2010 talk presumably took place.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Here

It's one page though, I guess the rest was part of the talk. If I come across anymore I'll post it up.

 

[steampoweredgod]

Here

It's one page though, I guess the rest was part of the talk. If I come across anymore I'll post it up.

Searching for more information I found 2 papers and 1 book linked as resources at the end of their 2010 presentation from this blog