- Thread starter apocalypsetoday
- Start date
- Sep 3, 2022
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It never had it before...
Read a few posts up, maybe checking posts/dev links might be helpful....
- Aug 22, 2021
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Somebody on Steam is reporting that AT died as a fact. To be clear, all I know is that he said he had to get "hefty surgery" and that he didn't want to think about what would happen if it didn't go well because he was trying to "stay positive". Then he went offline for six months. He may have passed away (worst case scenario), but I'm not 100% sure.
- Aug 22, 2021
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Now, as to the other question...
Is the game dead?
Well...
Aside from being the project lead, ApocalypseToday mainly focused on rendering. Which I understand. Daz Studio is a massive pain in the ass to use. It makes sense it was such a time sink for him.
So he hired me to create an outline and write the script, and along the way I also took over the bulk of the coding duties since it was clear I had more experience in that area than he did. I handled music selection too.
Thing is, I'm also an experienced Daz Studio user. I just turned down his offer to be a render artist because I hate using such a shitty program. Nonetheless some of my renders did end up in the final game. Such as these:
If ApocalypseToday did actually pass away, in theory there's nothing stopping me from just doing the whole game myself. I have an outline of everything that was going to happen and the technical skills to bring it to fruition.
Problem is, out of deference to ApocalypseToday, I couldn't charge money for it since it's not my IP. So it'd have to be a free game. On the other hand, I have my own projects to work on, and I can't justify spending the amount of time it'd take to get this thing up and running (especially where using Daz Studio is concerned) without getting paid for it. I have no access to AT's Patreon or Steam store, and nobody's writing me any more checks from his bank account.
So that's the state of things. Development is technically possible, but financially unfeasible. If anybody has any ideas, feel free to bring them up.
Is the game dead?
Well...
Aside from being the project lead, ApocalypseToday mainly focused on rendering. Which I understand. Daz Studio is a massive pain in the ass to use. It makes sense it was such a time sink for him.
So he hired me to create an outline and write the script, and along the way I also took over the bulk of the coding duties since it was clear I had more experience in that area than he did. I handled music selection too.
Thing is, I'm also an experienced Daz Studio user. I just turned down his offer to be a render artist because I hate using such a shitty program. Nonetheless some of my renders did end up in the final game. Such as these:
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If ApocalypseToday did actually pass away, in theory there's nothing stopping me from just doing the whole game myself. I have an outline of everything that was going to happen and the technical skills to bring it to fruition.
Problem is, out of deference to ApocalypseToday, I couldn't charge money for it since it's not my IP. So it'd have to be a free game. On the other hand, I have my own projects to work on, and I can't justify spending the amount of time it'd take to get this thing up and running (especially where using Daz Studio is concerned) without getting paid for it. I have no access to AT's Patreon or Steam store, and nobody's writing me any more checks from his bank account.
So that's the state of things. Development is technically possible, but financially unfeasible. If anybody has any ideas, feel free to bring them up.
- Apr 25, 2020
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You could consider starting fresh with a different name, but it might get awkward if he were to make a sudden comeback. Plus, redoing all the renders would be a huge task, and given your hate for Daz, it doesn't sound like something you'd want to tackle.
- Aug 22, 2021
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If I were to undertake this journey, I'd just start over with a clean slate. There's a lot of awkward writing in the current version because we had to recycle as many older renders as possible. So I'd just come up with an entirely new first chapter, with a new script and new renders, anyway.
Out of curiosity, I did an experiment to throw together a sample scene from a potential new opening chapter in both Daz Studio and Blender, to compare working in both with my current knowledge level.
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Daz Studio was every bit as awkward, clumsy, and poorly-designed as I remember. And that's with me doing all the posing in Blender, because fuck Daz posing.
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Doing the same scene from scratch in Blender, with better tools, a better native rig, and a denoiser that isn't shit, is effortless, slick, smooth sailing.
I tried to get ApocalypseToday interested in switching to Blender, but he didn't go for it. Using Daz Studio was his condition for being a render artist on the game. If I took up development by myself, based on these results it'd almost certainly be done entirely in Blender (aside from exporting the models).
On one hand, if I drop the timefreezing stopwatch aspect and focus exclusively on the missing girl/science experiments plotline, then it'd seem like much less of a ripoff if I made an original game "inspired by" the stuff I came up with for this. On the other hand, this was billed as "timefreeze game", so I'm not sure what the ratio of people invested in timefreeze stuff vs. everything else is.
Hi, first post here but was very interested in the game before it went silent. i like the idea of continuing with the time freeze aspects, but of course apocalypse could return. i'd say he's still around in some shape or form since someone since his surgery definitely removed the early access tag from the steam store and also put the game on sale as of last week for a bit. Don't know if that changes anything either way and of course if he's not communicating with you then its ??? on moving forward. maybe he could bless off if hes done with the game, or at least say he is?
- Aug 22, 2021
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He ran all his finances through his accountant. It's possible his estate is getting money from the Steam page but have no interest in developing the game or communicating with players, so Steam took the tag off since there's not going to be any more updates.
But I really don't know.
- Oct 6, 2020
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If you had a completely different story and just brought over the time freeze theme, I don't see any ripoff issues, that's like saying every college game is a copy of each other. And perhaps a less depressing story would get even more people interested.
- Aug 22, 2021
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I'm mainly interested in repurposing as much of the plot I was hired to come up with as I can. I'm not that interested in just writing an unrelated game about timefreezing.
And if I do make this, it will be even more depressing than the current version.
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This is the only time stop game I've seen, and I've come to realize that I love that mechanic. If you are going to bother to do a remake/reimagining, I think time stop is essential. I will also note that I like the somewhat lighter tone of 0.3.1 better than the later versions. I don't like when games try to make you feel guilty for indulging in your fantasies. They're fantasies for a reason; we all know that it isn't real life.
- Aug 28, 2020
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assuming none of this is 'smoke', there a few time-freeze stories out there, most abandoned and a couple went the way of fetish freaks... so trash anyway. i would like to see this continued and plagiarism or copywrites aside, "Maybe This Time" with an honorarium to ATs' work (continuation of game) mention should work. that is if You Really want to make this work. subcontractors 'rights'.
but just like with the Beatles 'rights' are always in questions. is Paul really 'PAUL' and who 'Wrote' what.
...all i'm really saying is that it would be nice to see a few Good games actually Finish for once. i saw a half dozen abandon good games this year (last 6 months). and ANY way it happens would be good for me. kinda like game mods on Nexus. abandon but picked up by someone else Giving Credit to original author. so, the $$, how to make it worth your time? yeah...
- Apr 25, 2020
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giving the aspect the type of "time freeze" game are almost non-existed (not include the abandon/trashy one)..i think should give it a go either continuing the game or make new from scratch just to make variety for game genre.as long the story plot is good and finish i dont think alot will rant about copycat here and there.but i do understand if u wanna make entirely new game without the timefreeze element and make one important key that hold the game together and makes player that play it feels good and fun.but what did i know about doing new game or rending shit.im just saying if i find that game good story i appreciate and thanks the dev and ppl involved in that.
As of an hour ago, post on steam shows the game is getting pulled from the store. Unfortunate, cause I liked the premise of the game. I knew the dev had serious health issues, so unfortunately gonna have to add this to the growing list of abandoned games.
- Aug 22, 2021
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- Jul 26, 2018
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sadly yes. there is no trace on dev whereabouts. it is what it is, I also have it on Steam and it's a shame because it had such a potential to be a great VN.
- Nov 19, 2017
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Very sad. FWIW version 0.3.1 has more content than the latest version, so it's worth looking into if you're really thirsty for a bit more of the story.
https://f95zone.to/threads/this-time-v2306-apocalypsetoday.87477/post-9221743
- Aug 22, 2021
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Lol.
When ApocalypseToday first released chapter 3, people just complained about how short and disappointing it was. That's the whole reason he hired me in the first place.