• the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      11 days ago

      Fallout 4 took 7 years to develop and still felt rushed. Exactly how far in advance do you think they knew about the show?

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        11 days ago

        Options:

        • high quality remaster of older game (FO4, FONV, etc)
        • reuse FO76 engine to make a new game, with a few graphical upgrades
        • story DLC releases for older games

        Any of those could’ve been done in the time they’d know about the FO show release target.

        • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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          11 days ago

          much of a game’s development time is spent creating assets, using a new engine doesn’t mean your existing low fidelity assets suddenly look better, just better lit

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            11 days ago

            Eh, a lot of it also has to do with designing things, not the producing assets. If you’re just doing a remaster and upgrading assets that already exist, it should take a lot less time than building something from scratch.

            • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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              11 days ago

              that’s just simply not true. if you look at the project lifecycle for a game very little resources are spent in preproduction, the bulk of the time is in production. preproduction usually has all of the core mechanics and ideas implemented by the end, then it’s just about executing on that plan. there’s not a lot of experimentation and iteration once you are in full tilt production mode

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                11 days ago

                I’m not saying “game design,” but things like deciding on art style, optimizing balance between fidelity and performance, etc. AFAIK, that’s all “production” stage things. Assuming it’s the same studio as built it the first time, they’ll still have the original artwork, which probably just needs to be touched up and reexported. That’s a lot less work than building something new from scratch.

                In fact, you probably need minimal assistance from developers since all the gameplay elements are already there, you’d just need a small group for making some tweaks here and there to keep consistent performance, and maybe add in a little bit of fanciness here and there (e.g. tweak shadows, maybe some RTX if you go crazy). None of that is particularly time-consuming for a developer to throw in, so once the art team is done freshening up the assets, they can prep for release.

                I’m thinking a project like that could be completed in 2-3 years, depending on which game they pick and how far they want to take the remaster. That’s definitely in line with the timeline for a TV show.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          reuse FO76 engine to make a new game, with a few graphical upgrades

          They did do that. It was called Starfield.

        • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          Probably the best we’d get for story DLCs would be for FO4 or 76 because there’s absolutely no way they’d create new content for a game over a decade old that isn’t Skyrim or the latest entry in another series of theirs that is either fallout or fallout or fallout.

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      These Bethesda open world games take a LONG time to make. Even if they knew it was going to be made 7 years from now, there’s no guarantee it will be good or that it won’t be shelved. It’s better to just go at your own pace.