Heimdall : Pre-Order Phase One

[VladR]

I'm happy to announce that I am ready to launch the pre-order campaign for my game Heimdall.

Here's a 20-minute video showing gameplay, explaining the technology roadmap and other games that can be built using my engine within next year: [ Show youtube player ]

Here's a PayPal link where you can show your interest in a build for either Vampire, 68060 or 68040 :
https://www.paypal.me/VladRPhase1VampireV4

I'm happy to answer your questions here.

[DamienD]

Hi there VladR,

Looks good

I'd definitely be interested in purchasing / supporting you but it's too early yet.

...as for the options you've listed; I'll be using none of them.

WinUAE is my go to / all in one Amiga

BTW, can I ask why you named this Heimdall? You do know that there's already an Amiga game with the same name (HOL is currently down again; so have linked to LemonAmiga)?

• Heimdall
• Heimdall 2: Into the Hall of Worlds

[VladR]

Originally Posted by DamienD

BTW, can I ask why you named this Heimdall? You do know that there's already an Amiga game with the same name (HOL is currently down again; so have linked to LemonAmiga)?

• Heimdall
• Heimdall 2: Into the Hall of Worlds

I chose the name over a year ago and I didn't find any such named game in Jaguar.

Clearly I should have researched it again two months ago when I switched from Jaguar to Amiga.

Oh, well.

But thanks a lot for pointing this out! I wouldn't really have realized otherwise!

As for the reason, there's a bit of mythology involved in the story and it was unclaimed in Jaguar land.

Worst case scenario, I can come up with a classic three word game name which isn't taken yet...

So for now, it's merely a working title...

[VladR]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Hi there VladR,

Looks good

I'd definitely be interested in purchasing / supporting you but it's too early yet.

...as for the options you've listed; I'll be using none of them.

WinUAE is my go to / all in one Amiga

No worries, it's definitely very early, but it's far enough to get the ball rolling and start getting feedback.

So, you play exclusively on emulator? Interesting.

I think I noticed couple more people mentioning that in other threads.

It's a digital download either way, so I suppose the Vampire build would be the target one? No reason to choose 68040 I reckon...

[klx300r]

looking very interesting indeed I'd be interested in an 68060 build for sure

[manossg]

Looks very nice!

Will there be 1 version or 3 different versions, depending on the hardware?

I am asking because right now I can only emulate it, but someday I would like to get a V4, so I would like to not having to buy it twice.

[VladR]

The performance differential between Vampire and 68060 is pretty huge on paper, so it will likely get separate art assets.

The difference between 040 and 060 is similar, so likely low poly assets.

Some of the performance can be tweaked already as level of detail system is pretty generic and I can have any combination of high/med/low detail environment assets already. Including draw distance which is literally just a number of chunks - e.g. fully generic.

I will have to release some form of public benchmark so anyone can run it on his own config and give me the cycle breakdown of all 3d pipeline stages.

Based on that, I will plug those numbers into my 3dsmax loader which will then emulate the requested HW.

Some tweaking will be required here and going back and forth till the estimate error drops below some reasonable value,say,15%

[VladR]

Originally Posted by manossg

Looks very nice!

Will there be 1 version or 3 different versions, depending on the hardware?

I am asking because right now I can only emulate it, but someday I would like to get a V4, so I would like to not having to buy it twice.

There will be three different versions, but only visually.
Once I get the networking working and start deploying builds to V4, I expect some 080-specific code, so that is guaranteed to then run only on Vampire.

I'm sure you understand that creating separate art assets and codepaths is a lot of additional work.

Of course that doesn't justify paying full price again.
I'm thinking of something like $10 upgrade and you get the other two versions, whichever they might be.

Given how much uncertainty there is about 040 build, this is why I only ask for 25% now.

[kriz]

Looks interesting but too early for a pre-order for me ..

[AC/DC HACKER!]

Interesting to me also. I'm glad DamienD asked why you named it that because I was expecting something related to Heimdall. Or a new take on the already existing games, which I really, really dig still.

It's too early for me and my CyberstormPPC/zer060 as well as WinUAE. I'll check updates.

[utri007]

Preorder for a 50 would require almost ready premiun class game. But that just me.

[DanScott]

Someone around here might know someone that worked on the original Heimdall for the Amiga

[kriz]

Yeah a new name should be used, Heimdall rulez still after all these years .... If you want something from the Nordic history is a lot to choose from.. Btw: Always use https://hol.abime.net/ and google <name> + game or <name> + Amiga to see if used before ...

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Someone around here might know someone that worked on the original Heimdall for the Amiga

Does that someone know why Heimdall 2 doesn't have an intro despite not working on the sequel?

[VladR]

We all have different financial situation and different risk-taking preferences.

Which is why there will be 3 phases. It's perfectly fine to wait for the final build, nothing wrong with that.

But, as I explained in the video it carries a risk that there might not be a second game or that I will have to reevaluate Jaguar build, which I surely don't have to explain why I want to avoid

And while visuals will change, the core of the game stays and that's perfectly visible in the video even now.

[DanScott]

Originally Posted by demoniac

Does that someone know why Heimdall 2 doesn't have an intro despite not working on the sequel?

Someone says that Heimdall 2 was developed out of house at the 8th Day (whereas the 8th Day guys were in house at Core for the first one, and that someone was roped in, as that someone had only started at Core that week, and it was an ideal project to "learn the ropes" of commercial game development).

So in essence they didn't that that someone to do the intro

[Adrian Browne]

A bit more of a game build might whet appetites. People like to see stuff. I look forward to whatever games you make.

[VladR]

Sure, but I'm known for the feature-creep and constantly postponing for few days or weeks as you can forever keep adding stuff.

I had a hard cut off date as last Saturday I had to take a trip to Europe but I'm on my way back and should be home within 50-60 hours and resume the work.

It turned out to be a great decision as I learnt a lot during the last few days (instead of postponing for few weeks)

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by DanScott

So in essence they didn't that that someone to do the intro

That is interesting history that someone shared. Thanks to someone for the trivia.

[invent]

Nice work VladR, look forward to seeing the progress over time.