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Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 22 Jun 2023 00:22

Lots of things have been happening at Cult Games Norway with Cult Engine 3 that I haven't been posting about because I've been busy overseeing these guys. Above all, the Ships update was released, and it is stunning.

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As incredible as the outside of the ships looks, the inside is even better.

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Don't tell me you wouldn't want to live in there while travelling back and forth across Golarion's high seas in search of action and adventure. If Atlas is first-person Pirates, this is roleplaying Pirates and it's the cutting-edge of 21st-century gaming.

Istallri has updated his Owl Island with the new assets, and the new version looks unreal.

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I for my part have not seen a cuter, more lovingly-crafted scene in all my decades of gaming: that's what you can achieve when you kick the programmers out of the design room. And it's only playable in Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds of course, because no one else has my design skills to make this playable. I mean just look at this scene:

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Zoom into it and really look at it.

Have you ever seen a more detailed scene in any game? Every item on that boat is interactable thanks to my coding prowess: every barrel, length of rope, head of cabbage. Every lantern or piece of fruit. Atlas scenes look poor in comparison. THAT's how you load your boat in Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds: piece by piece in ultimate interactivity. And you better do a good job at it because my game must be one-lifed and pulls no punches.

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And if a simple ship's boat is so interactable, how do you think a siege will feel with that level of interactivity?

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Keep in mind the above video shows a crap castle with no terrain, and practically no soldiers. Try to imagine it with a kickass castle set in kickass terrain and thousands of soldiers. But you can't imagine that because it defies imagination. I can't imagine it either. We'll have to wait until we see it fully formed on our (hopefully 4K, or why not even 8K) massive TVs and projectors to believe it.

It will be the Age of Battlegrounds, or should I say the Age of Icycalm?

In other Cult Engine 3 news, we now have a system in beta wherein you load webpages among other things inside the engine! This means you can have the overworld inside the game! And not only the overworld, but any number of books/rules references etc.

Symbiotes are now in Beta!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 2831541800

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There are also basic character sheets, a handout manager, and what looks like a first-person picture-in-picture feature.

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In short, Cult Engine 3 is finally ready to use, and I would be putting it in service right now if I didn't have a couple of other things I want to get out of the door first. It's definitely coming this summer though. Depending on my level of energy and inspiration and my management of my plans, it may even come in July. Plus I have more news on this score that I am keeping under wraps for now. Suffice it to say, the end result will be even better than I have said it will be. You won't believe how great it will be. I scarcely believe it myself.

And I will leave you with a trailer that showcases above all the level of cinematicness that can only be achieved with Cult Engine 3's free camera. This is a hugely underappreciated aspect of Cult Engine 3 because you need to see it in action to appreciate it, and no one has seen Cult Engine 3 in action yet besides me. You've never seen such camerawork in an isometric CRPG. You've scarcely even seen it in a first-person game.

Ship Collection - [Trailer]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkyUQs- ... XVyolQO3wj

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P.S. Do not watch Istallri trailers that I haven't linked for you because they're full of spoilers.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 18 Jul 2023 18:51

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This isn't a particularly good set, I certainly won't be using it, but it's good to illustrate the verticality that Cult Engine 3 makes possible. You have never seen this kind of height in a CRPG, certainly not in an isometric one. To get an idea of the magnitude, look at the squares at the forest floor. That's how tiny a character would be if placed in the set (the builder should have included one for scale). If you place one under a tree, no one at the top would even be able to see him. So when you're at the top, you're keenly aware of how precarious your position is, and that if you get pushed off, it's certain death, unless you can fly or something. Imagine how exciting a fight at the top with the appropriate music playing would be. What's hard to imagine though is that the camera will be spinning around and repositioning itself with every move for maximum effect (if you have a good enough GM/cameraman that is). No programmer would ever allow any of this to happen in a traditional videogame. They'd rather quit the project than let something this cool be made. That's what it means to be a homo.

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In other news, two of the best Cult Games set builders, GENGUS and PsiaBaba, have collaborated to give us the biggest ship yet: a 50-gun imperial man-of-war. Look how many freakin sails it has. Imagine this thing coming out of the mist against you, flanked by a couple dozen galleons. What do you do?

"I HOLD MY BREATH AND DIVE"

We now have a complete set of naval vehicles from tiny dinghies all the way up to this monster. We also have a very cool flying ship I haven't shown you yet PLUS a complete set of Spelljammer ships. The Spelljammer ones DO look cool given the limited assets, but I won't be using them. We'll wait until specialized Spelljammer assets are released. I asked the builder and he said he's willing to remake the entire fleet when he gets the specialized assets. We're not in a hurry to get this stuff anyway.

You'll see the entire collection of naval vehicles at the same time as I release the entire city-building section of Battlegrounds. All that will be hosted on akbattlegrounds.net and it will be the most complex city-building assets you've ever seen. It makes the latest Anno look like a Game Boy game. Look out also for a complete equestrian set (with carts, carriages, etc.) and general animal catalogue. Also tent catalogue for entire traveling camps/armies/festivals etc.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 17 Aug 2023 09:58

Cult Engine 3 Update - Focus and Effect
https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 9075256212

Cult Games Norway wrote:GMs can now right-click on rulers made by other players and turn them into AOEs.


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Cult Games Norway still hard at work refining Cult Engine 3 for its coming soonTM launch, at which point the industry will start asking "you baldur's wot mate?"
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 17 Aug 2023 14:17

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Show me one other CRPG, or videogame in general, than can do this.

Coming soonTM, only on Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds.

Powered by Cult Engine 3.

baldur's what?
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 14 Oct 2023 15:53

Early Access Content Pack 26: Guns, Glass, and Gas
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/ea ... ss-and-gas

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It's official, Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds has fully interactive weapon and armor racks before Star Citizen. That's why I employ dozens of studios and tens of thousands of people while Chris Roberts only 5 studios and just above 1,000 people.

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Also full kitchen appliances whereas SC still only has a coffee maker:

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And some extra building pieces for sci-fi structures:

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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 21 Nov 2023 05:04

More Cult Engine 3 screens coming out of Cult Games Norway. We're going full steam ahead for the January 1 launch of Kingslayer [ > ] (though these aren't Kingslayer screens, so no spoilers here). Remember, no other game/studio will ever use this engine, because I will decline to license it out. They can use Game Maker or whatever. It's not like their players will be able to tell the difference anyway.

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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 24 Nov 2023 01:06

Cult Engine 3 dungeons just leveled up! And just in time for the new dungeon-building mechanics! Oh yeah! Look for details SOONtm.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/720620 ... 3997529455

Cult Games Norway wrote:Image

Early Access Content Pack 27: MegaDungeon

FOOLISH HEROS! You have stumbled into a diabolical dungeon, an 'orrible oubliette, a maddening maze!

This is the MegaDungeon tile set, and with it, you can build boards the likes of which Cult Engine 3 has never seen before.

Seriously! This is the first pack where we are experimenting with diagonal and circular walls. We'd love to hear your feedback on these. We are already thinking about how to improve the tools to make working more fluent with these pieces.

The MegaDungeon release features the following:

  • 58 unique tiles
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  • 5 Doors, including a large double door

  • 2 new creatures (Grick and Otyugh)
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  • 1 large hooded statue prop and an animated spike trap
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This is just the beginning for curved and diagonal walls. Once we see how they fare in your hands, we will bring them to new and existing sets. In fact, we intend for the next chunky pack to be MegaSector, the sci-fi companion to the MegaDungeon.

Until then, however, you had better try and find your way out!


HorizontalBob28 wrote:45 DEGREE HALLWAYS WITH OCTAGONAL ROOMS!!!! YEAH BAYBEE!!!


Hooded_Weirdo wrote:I'm so happy because we finally have curves to work with, and I'm so sad because now I NEED to update all my ongoing projects with these amazing pieces.


Dear next of kin... wrote:Hell yes. This is literally something I was assuming I was going to have to kitbash together. Thank you.


williamrunning16 wrote:I love how so many people looked at this and thought castle lol. Great job making more pieces and great overall improvements. I still think music will need some more work (custom?) and possibly more integration and options with character sheets, lore documents, custom items. It would also be great if you could at the press of a button, have multiple events happen. 10 monsters remove stealth and move in, part of a wall gets removed and rocks get added bellow to represent debris. idk it could also make great cutscenes.


Dustdown wrote:Mega Dungeon? more like Mega Castle, ammIright?! :-D This set looks amazing! Fantastic color variations and super versatile, beautifully generic walls. I use that word lovingly; this will be so useful for so many settings!


Dustdown is top 10 builder. The Imperial Palace and Imperial Throne Room are his, among many others. We'll be seeing much cool shit with this stuff, plus upgrades to existing stuff, I am sure. Can't wait! I fucking refresh the latest builds page 10 times a day now.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 29 Nov 2023 01:04

The MEGADUNGEON Update in Cult Engine 3!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jrGbkUSeUc

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If you can't get enough of Cult Engine 3 (and who can blame you), here's a video Istallri put together of the assets in the last couple of updates. Towards the end you also get a little preview of the advanced camera movement features I've been gushing about. Only a little preview, mind you.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 30 Jan 2024 15:55

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"Come my friend, let's sit by the fire and discuss the dispute like reasonable gentlement."

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"Would you please bring out a couple bowls of your hot porridge dear, our new friends are famished!"

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"I go down the well."

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"As you hold your breath and dive into the cool water, you realize this isn't a well but a flooded basement whose trapdoor is missing from its hinges."

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"Your majesty, the architect from Irrisen has prepared a diorama of one of their assembly halls. Those northerners certainly have a style of their own, don't they? Should I order him to begin construction?"


NEXT-LEVEL INTERACTIVITY ONLY ON ALEX KIERKEGAARD'S BATTLEGROUNDS, POWERED BY CULT ENGINE 3.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 12 Feb 2024 05:33

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Imagine the possibilities in a scene like that, both tactical and roleplaying.

Now imagine them with 100 characters in the scene instead of the dozen or so the programmers give you.

The mere screenshots coming out of my Battlegrounds every week will soon give more pleasure to people than playing even the best programmer games. That's how far videogames have advanced past the capacity of programmers and midwits to appreciate them.

And btw, the map doesn't end at the edges of the image. This is merely one corner of an entire city.

The same scene from ground level, meanwhile, looks like a different scene!

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You'd hardly know it's the same scene from another angle if I didn't tell you, which is why I keep gushing about the camera, because with deft camerawork you'll be seeing these angle transitions as you play with a view to maximizing the dramatic impact of every scene. It's a whole new job for the poor GM to master—or a dedicated cameraman. You won't believe the difference this makes to the game, and you'll wonder why the programmers insist on fixing the camera in game after game after game (because they have no dramatic sense).

And you're not even seeing the scene with miniatures! Or with weather and magic effects!

Some more gems to feast your eyes on:

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Surreal effect.

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Cutest moathouse ever. BUT he makes the mistake of showing the "carpet" around the edges of the set. When I am running the game, the players will NEVER be able to see the edges of the set, and the same goes for screenshots. The entire illusion is destroyed when you can see the edges.

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Oops wrong folder, sorry about that. It can't possibly be something that's coming soon, there's just no way.
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Re: Cult Engine 3 (internal codename: TaleSpire)

Unread postby icycalm » 17 Feb 2024 22:33

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InfiniConstruction™ technology, unique to Cult Engine 3.

Programmers said it can't be done. They said it is impossible for mankind, it is beyond human ken, buildings HAVE to appear out of nowhere in videogames, there's no way to make them be built plank by plank.

And yet icycalm did it with just a bit of coding on the side.

This is what uberprogramming looks like. This is uberman technology.
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