AlarCity: Development Thread

[kriz]

The situation should be cleared for us all, a lot have pre-ordered and it was not cheap... Are the money still safe ?

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by kriz

The situation should be cleared for us all, a lot have pre-ordered and it was not cheap... Are the money still safe ?

I've been informed recently that there had been various cancelations with some of the pre-orders, which have already been refunded. So this option is still there and available.

As for the situation, me and Erik are still on top of the project and striving to make progress. I think at this point people would pretty much preffer to see tangible results, the game running, what it feels like and what progress has been done so far, rather than another round of talking. And that's where we're currently at.

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

actually, it seems, it has been written, like four times.

Well... more like 2 times basically, all first demos shared the same code base and then there's the transition to the Scorpion base.

[jurassicman]

I'm one of those that pre-ordered the game and even if I thought a few times to ask for a refund I didn't do that because I'm confident that Tsak and Erik, will complete the game and that it will be great.
I can't wait to see some tangible progress, though.
Keep up the good work!

[nikosidis]

Originally Posted by jurassicman

I'm one of those that pre-ordered the game and even if I thought a few times to ask for a refund I didn't do that because I'm confident that Tsak and Erik, will complete the game and that it will be great.
I can't wait to see some tangible progress, though.
Keep up the good work!

+1

The guys will deliver at some point.

[Tigerskunk]

With all that activity going on with Scorpion, maybe someone else will finish Alarcity before Erik does..

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by jurassicman

I'm one of those that pre-ordered the game and even if I thought a few times to ask for a refund I didn't do that because I'm confident that Tsak and Erik, will complete the game and that it will be great.

I am also one of those and I didn't do it as I believe we will once get the game.
Not sure we will get it from amiga.net.pl, where we paid for, though :-/

[Tsak]

Ok folks, it's time for a long waited (and well deserved) update!

We need to improve our communication and make the development process (and progress) more transparent, so I plan to increase the frequency of such updates moving forwards (on a tactical basis). Hopefully this can restore a bit of the lost faith in the project and also motivate us to try harder.

[ Show youtube player ]

So, let's get into some update details:

A lot of work has gone so far to prepare the transition to the new character and make sure everything works as smooth as possible (with all the required anims). One roadblock to overcome was to also make sure that changing him wouldn't compromise the original fast paced shoot & move vision we had. Hopefully the footage above shows we're on the right track.

Another point is in regards to the new enemies. I think I've teased a long time ago that we're planning to overhaul the old blobs, so it's time to see some progress on that front as well.
In general, besides the looks, I experimented with more complex move and attack patterns for them. The big issue with many of the old ones was that they often posed no challenge to the player, walking straight into his line of fire. While designing the new small fire elemental, I envisioned a more volatile foe, adding a bit of chaos with his movement -and thus- creating more dynamic and interesting combat scenarios. Forcing the player on constant move, placement and adjusting his target. The new 'Summoner mage' on the other hand is designed to keep the pressure on you, restocking the terrain with an additional fire elemental, while unleashing his primary ranged attacks from a distance.

[nikosidis]

That is looking stunning!!

[Predseda]

Another thing you should consider (later) is some more attractive box cover. The original one looked... not much exciting.

[manossg]

Awesome update!

[jurassicman]

It looks cool! Thanks for the update.

[Tsak]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Another thing you should consider (later) is some more attractive box cover. The original one looked... not much exciting.

Totally agree, the original was just a placeholder. A lot of stuff will be getting an upgrade. Hopefully the new video showcases that (most importantly) the gameplay is also a step to the right direction. I know that many people were sceptical that transitioning to the new character we're gonna lose the 'spirit' (so to say) of that old demo.

[honx]

i was stupid preordering alarcity gold (cd, box, extras) on amiga.net.pl (later bitronic.pl) three years ago (november 2018). now that so called "shop" is gone. so i guess, these ~45€ are gone and i will NEVER get alarcity i preordered...

i already wrote an email to both email-adresses i know (a2@amiga.net.pl and order@bitronic.pl).
in other words i was trying to ask for refund. this is the "answer" i recieved:

Dzi?kujemy za wiadomo??! Informujemy, ?e aktualnie nie odpowiadamy na maile, prosimy o wej?cie na nasz? stron? bitronic.pl i skorzystanie z opcji czata (w prawym dolnym rogu).Dzi?kujemy!

Thank you for your message! We would like to inform you that we are currently not answering emails, please go to our website bitronic.pl and use the chat box (in the bottom right corner).Thank you!

so this "shop" is officially fraud i assume...

[Lord Aga]

Phew! Good thing I sniffed out something rotten and pulled my preorder a year or so ago. I got all my money out, but I do feel sorry for anyone who was left caught

[Predseda]

Hm, I paid for silver. Not happy

[Silverstreak]

Yup, fell for that one too

[jurassicman]

I guess that my pre-order has gone as well... many times they assured us that the purchase would have been honored...

[apex]

Some month ago I wrote here that I will wait until the release, but NOW the new homepage https://bitronic.pl/ also disappeared?!?
Now I am sure my money has gone. First time in my Amiga history.

Does anyone has any kind of information what happened? They made good books, visited Amiga34 event, should be well known in the community and now this?

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by apex

First time in my Amiga history.

For me it is 3rd time.

First was A600 8MB Fast project here on EAB.
Second was Jeroen Tel CD.
This is 3rd one

But life goes on, it will not prevent me from sponsoring Amiga projects

[earok]

In regards to Bitronic:

Firstly, I feel god damn awful about it. I know a lot of people put their faith in the project and are out of pocket by Bitronic deleting their web presence and disappearing completely.

AlarCity is not going to disappear. Scorpion Engine is being developed to bring AlarCity to fruition, and both projects are continuing in parallel. I don't know what way, shape or form AlarCity will eventually appear, if it'll be published physically or only digitally, but that still is the intention.

We haven't worked out how we can compensate anyone affected yet but we're talking about it with Tsak.