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Eldritch Comes From Yet Another Set of Ex-AAA Devs

We got your H.P. Lovecraft, we got your roguelikes, we got your Minecraft-y look!

Sep. 9 2013

Posted by: Patrick

In This Episode:

Eldritch

69 Comments

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Slanderer

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This looks uniquely bad

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MarkWahlberg

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Edited By MarkWahlberg

H.P. Lovecraft is the Philip K. Dick of video games.

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shodan2020

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eh, looks ok.

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kwang2000

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So these ex-AAA developers, free to make their heart's desire and the indie game of their dreams, decide to...rip off Minecraft?

No wonder AAA games are all clones of each other.

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Lights

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Edited By Lights

I feel like Minecraft already has enough "roguelike" aspects.

Also this blocky style of game art/design is wearing on me.

Looking some more into this game, it doesn't actually seem that bad, but holy shit this trailer gave me a poor first impression.

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triumvir

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You had me until Minecraft. Durn.

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Elwoodan

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oh man a lovecraftian blocky rogelike-like? finally!

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gaftra

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Man I hope Cthulu mythos isn't the new zombies/vampire/pirates/ninjas. Just slapping Lovercraft horrors onto a game for the awesomeification of it is really upsetting.

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BBAlpert

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@gaftra said:

Man I hope Cthulu mythos isn't the new zombies/vampire/pirates/ninjas. Just slapping Lovercraft horrors onto a game for the awesomeification of it is really upsetting.

It is, and has been for quite some time.

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The_Vein

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I like the way Minecraft looks.

Nothing else should look like Minecraft.

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madlands

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Edited By madlands

"One wondered what became of the bulk of video games, and whether the 'Minecraft look' were not a strange and insidious disease-phenomenon which increased its hold as years advanced." - H.P. Lovecraft

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justin3d

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I am intrigued. Keep in mind:

  1. This is being made by one guy, David Pittman (though I believe his brother may be helping some now), who worked at 2k Marin as an AI programmer on Bioshock 2.
  2. "Eldritch's randomly generated worlds and permadeath are influenced by roguelikes." and "Eldritch's non-linear levels and open-ended play styles are influenced by immersive sims." From: http://eldritchgame.com/about.html#faq

If you want to watch a guy playing the current pre-release build: http://www.twitch.tv/sneegler/b/458930751

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justin3d

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I am intrigued. Keep in mind:

  1. This is being made by one guy, David Pittman (though I believe his brother may be helping some now), who worked at 2k Marin as an AI programmer on Bioshock 2.
  2. "Eldritch's randomly generated worlds and permadeath are influenced by roguelikes." and "Eldritch's non-linear levels and open-ended play styles are influenced by immersive sims." From: http://eldritchgame.com/about.html#faq

If you want to watch a guy playing the current pre-release build: http://www.twitch.tv/sneegler/b/458930751

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Hunter5024

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I do not dig the presentation of this game like at all.

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MeatSim

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You had me at H.P. Lovecraft and then you lost me at Roguelikes and Minecraft.

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox

Let's stop calling this art style "minecraft" and start calling it what it is: polygons inspired by pixel art.

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KikkomanSA

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Edited By KikkomanSA

Has Mojang started licensing out the Minecraft engine? Because this looks like it might as well be a paid mod.

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Slanderer

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@mrklorox said:

Let's stop calling this art style "minecraft" and start calling it what it is: polygons inspired by pixel art.

This. And if you call them "voxels" you're a goddamn idiot, because they aren't.

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Samael2138

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Edited By Samael2138

I just want Bethesda to make another Call of Cthulhu game..

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Christoffer

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I'm so tired of the Lovecraftian Minecraft roguelikes with gupsy polka soundtracks.

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LarryDavis

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Edited By LarryDavis

Minecraft Look is the new Pixel Art for lazy devs.

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Lysergica33

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I feel like I should feel bad for being like the only person commenting to say this looks cool but... Fuck you all, this looks cool.

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kalmis

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Very original.

/s

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Murdoc_

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Edited By Murdoc_

@larrydavis: The dude is a programmer, give him a break, there are certain art styles that are probably within his scope and this is what he chose, "lazy" has nothing to do with it.

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abara

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SEE ALSO: Paranautical Activity, Delver, and half the fucking games in Greenlight

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deactivated-5eb4b2e027234

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In love with that music.

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Lashe

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Not a fan of the look, but if the soundtrack is anything like that I will definitely be checking out the SoundCloud page.

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deactivated-5f5bc0f9823f4

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kn00tcn

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technically patrick called it a minecraft look, to me this is reminding me a lot of 90s dos games due to these enemies, bent textures, traps, etc

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veektarius

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Edited By veektarius

I like exactly one mechanic that's proposed here and that's the idea of a roguelike FPS.

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tourgen

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Edited By tourgen

guess not much of the triple-A came along with them.

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kiwi_whisker

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Just like everything post doom for a period was called a doom-clone before they were just accepted as first person shooters - I look forward to the day where 'lazy' commentors dont reduce everything with 3d pixel art to a 'minecraft clone'. :)

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PollySMPS

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Sooooo....this is just a joke right? Nobody could be cynically throwing all those dumb things together like everybody else and REALLY mean it, right?

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deckard

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Imagine taking a time machine back to, say, 1993 and having this conversation with someone who plays video games:

1993 Person: Wow, what are video games like 20 years in the future?

You: Well. the good news is that there is an entire genre of games, one of which is incredibly popular, that feature fully destructible, modifiable 3D environments.

1993 Person: That's amazing! What's the bad news?

You: Well, the polygonal graphics look worse than Doom levels on a 486.

1993 Person: NOOOOOOooooooo....

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jacksukeru

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Edited By jacksukeru

Walking around with your arms like that looks mighty uncomfortable.

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kwang2000

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Edited By kwang2000
@kiwi_whisker said:

Just like everything post doom for a period was called a doom-clone before they were just accepted as first person shooters - I look forward to the day where 'lazy' commentors dont reduce everything with 3d pixel art to a 'minecraft clone'. :)

Sorry dude, not gonna happen. Here's why. Doom clones referred to cloning the gameplay, not the graphics. If you steal both the gameplay and the exact graphic style (and dont bullshit me about "3d pixel art," dude. Minecraft has so many graphics packs that change the way the blocks look and this guy decides to go with the exact flat shaded style as the base game), then you're making a minecraft clone.

If you ignore the green overlay, even the color palette is the same! When you look back at the 16 bit era, nintendo had different art than square who had different art than capcom, even though they were all "pixel art"

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MagikGimp

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This looks great; I just can't stand roguelikes.

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Denim_Avenger

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Fuck all video games.

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sammo21

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I would like this better if it didn't look like freaking Minecraft. That's a massive turn off.

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flasaltine

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Not seeing the 'roguelike' here in any way.

Don't you see the ASCII art and turn based gameplay?

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zockroach

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That musical direction is.. really something..

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shamanultra

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Edited By shamanultra

Looks like Paranautucal Activity with bigger levels. Also is every indie game now going to be a "rougelike" with a "voxel" art style? How dare Indie's criticize AAA games when they display the same level of creative bankruptcy.

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jbrady

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H,P, Minecraft (i cant be first on this, right?)

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Homelessbird

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H.P. Lovecraft is the Philip K. Dick of video games.

Isn't Phillip K. Dick the Phillip K. Dick of videogames?

Actually, no, Blade Runner is the Phillip K. Dick of videogames

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Homelessbird

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@jbrady said:

H,P, Minecraft (i cant be first on this, right?)

No, you are. Good show.

On a vaguely related note, I don't think you could get any farther from Lovecraft than the goofy aesthetic of Minecraft. And that music doesn't help at all, good lord.

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Razor

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Give me more H.P. Lovecraft, take out the rest, I don't like Minecraft its boring.

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korolev

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Edited By korolev

Oh yeah - because whenever I think of the unfathomable horrors of the H.P Lovecraft universe, I also immediately think some sort of hipster-jazz-polka music would go so well with it. I can just see it now - Cthulhu doing the cossack dance with a bottle of vodka in his hand while a thousand unnamed horrors plays the accordion.