Information

[Corporal Hicks]

Here's all the pieces of information we've learnt from Obsidian:

Well, we won't be including aliens wearing Colonial Marine armor and using smartguns. We also won't have a plot that involves a crazy musician trying to record the sound of an alien feasting for his magnum opus.

Jason Keeney and I agree that 30 fps is the minimum acceptable framerate for this game.

Predators won't be in our game. Our game only covers the Alien(s) license.

[ian36015]

Sounds interesting.. But ive got a question, Do players play as the Alien species, or people. Maybe both?

[Corporal Hicks]

No answer yet. I think both would be awesome though.

[Mystic Lemons]

No Predators! About time we had something different! I am fairly excited about this game, yes I am!

[Corporal Hicks]

Yeah. I'm rather happy they didn't include Predators.

[Corporal Hicks]

"One thing that I want to state is that while this game needs to have things that make it recognizably an RPG, I think there are some RPG conventions that would feel/seem really corny in the relatively realistic Alien setting.

For whatever reason, slapping mithril ingots and gems onto a workbench and making a dragon slaying sword doesn't jar most people in fantasy RPGs, but doing the same thing to get an upgraded pulse rifle or a brand new type of weapon seems kind of goofy in the Alien context.

Anyway, I do think there are ways to approach item creation or upgrading in a way that seems plausible and fitting for the setting without feeling like RPG Convention #12."

Sounds like they're really thinking this through.

[Redfield]

i am really wondering wat this game will turn out like... how will they turn the alien quadrilogy into an rpg? ripley dint really have a choice to fight the aliens, yet will we in this game? personally, i think it would work best if you played as an alien: it would probably make it more authentic and real.

[Corporal Hicks]

It isn't using the NwN2 Electron-Aurora engine, it is Something Else™.

Doesn't tell us much other than the game will be using a new engine.

[Corporal Hicks]

My preference for RPGs is almost always for open-ended stories with few required critical path moments. I like worlds that are open for exploration but always offer a clear and viable "next step" to take in moving the story forward. It allows players to move at their own pace and in their own direction but gives them the ability to return to "the path" when they want to. My goal is to allow for freedom without being vague, direction without being restrictive. I hope that helps give an idea of what we are shooting for.

Said by J.E.Swayer, the lead developer.

[Hunter33]

sounds cool hope it turns out to be great

[Yautja]

Another post on the Obsidian forums has been made by J.E. Sawyer (the lead developer), revealing some new info about the game.

Things are going pretty well, but please understand that we're still very early in development. The game is many months off and we're still doing a lot of prototyping/core technology development. The design staff is refining a lot of early work on the project right now. Chris Avellone is the Lead Creative Designer on the project and he has been helping develop our dialogue tool and banter system. We want something that feels "natural" in flow and delivery but still gives the player a great deal of control and good options to take relationships in different directions. Paul Boyle joined us a couple of months ago as our Lead System Designer. Paul previously worked at Maxis on Sims titles and on Spore. He's been working a lot with me on our core system designs. We have good arguments discussions on ideas and he has been building a top-down 2D prototype for our tactical combat systems which is giving us great data on interface and AI/pathing issues. It's also allowing us to do rapid iteration on the crunchy numerical aspects of the game. Finally, Mike Stout joined us from Insomniac as our Lead Level Designer. He worked on several Rachet & Clank titles and as the Lead Multiplayer Level Designer on Resistance: Fall of Man. Mike is working with the art team to develop our level pipeline and establish building metrics. He's also been doing research on different types of non-linear games to see how they handle various aspects of revealing areas, opening up quests, scaling difficulty, etc.

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=45854&st=300

[Bad Ass Xenomorph99]

No predators!COOL now I'm realy looking forward to this game.but will there also have the hybrid for the aliens.It would be cool if you included the hybrids to the RPG.

[Yautja]

The Aliens RPG is no longer one massive thread. It now has its own forum.

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showforum=56

[Corporal Hicks]

Cool. Thanks for the link.

[ShadowPred]

I'm not sure if this has been mention, but Obsidian said that this is going to be an "Action RPG"