Project Godus: Don't believe his lies

[Murdoc]

  On 9/13/2013 at 11:06 PM, Dewar said:

In the demonstration I was shown at PAX, there are varying levels of terrain deformation as you level up your god-hood. At one point he was able to double-click and create a pretty large outcropping with one action. But yes, that did look kinda tedious.

Yeah you get that early on, it didn't help that much to make it more enjoyable.

 

I think it's really just down to what I expected vs. what they set out to make. It's a lot more social gamey feeling than I anticipated.

[bakelite]

The amount of clicking you have to do decreases dramatically once you get the statues that gather belief from nearby houses.

I found the first two or three hours quite tedious, but now I'm six hours in and really enjoying it.

[Murdoc]

six hours to get to fun is not a time investment I'm willing to put into games anymore. But thanks for the heads up. I'll go play populous and get fun withing the first 6 seconds.

[Thrik]

I have to admit that while I've not followed the game's progress too closely since backing it, it's not really going in the direction I was imagining it would. I was expecting something somewhat reminiscent of Black & White, but of course without the animal side of things. I was also expecting the art to look better; while I knew it'd have the style it's got, it doesn't seem realised as well as it could be. In fact, that footage where Molyneux showed the game with that interviewer looked downright rough — the way the terrain just popped up at the edges of the screen as it moved around looked weak.

 

We'll see where it goes, but it seems certain that this is going to be far from the kind of thing I was hoping it might be, as well as from being like Populous (which I'd probably enjoy).

[brkl]

If those people invented the shovel they wouldn't need their useless god.

[Thrik]

Heh, I just saw someone describe the current version of Godus as like The Simpsons: Tapped Out. I don't know if anyone here has played that game, but it was probably the game that singularly made me absolutely averse to F2P games. Endless tapping and waiting — unless you spend lots of money. I guess the name was meant to be some kind of joke about that, but I didn't expect it to literally be the most borderline maliciously crafted game I've ever played with an apparent sole purpose of extracting money from your wallet.

 

If Godus has gone even slightly in that direction then this game is as good as ruined.

[SecretAsianMan]

  On 9/14/2013 at 5:04 PM, Thrik said:

Heh, I just saw someone describe the current version of Godus as like The Simpsons: Tapped Out. I don't know if anyone here has played that game, but it was probably the game that singularly made me absolutely averse to F2P games. Endless tapping and waiting — unless you spend lots of money. I guess the name was meant to be some kind of joke about that, but I didn't expect it to literally be the most borderline maliciously crafted game I've ever played with an apparent sole purpose of extracting money from your wallet.

 

If Godus has gone even slightly in that direction then this game is as good as ruined.

 

That would be ironic.  I was also at his PAX keynote and he had a slide about how he hated that things like Farmville were being called God Games.  But if Godus ends up being the same thing without the F2P, would it be any better?

[BigJKO]

I hope you guys offer this as feedback to 22 cans. It is a beta, after all. If they're ever going to streamline the interface, it'd be now.

[Zaarin]

Took me two minutes to realize I had to click on the rocks the two guys were hacking away on. Not a great start.

[Dewar]

While I have not played the game, nor do I disagree with the opinions expressed here, I want to point out it's an early beta (alpha really, since it isn't feature complete) with balance issues specifically called out in the known issues section of the patch notes. Like BigJKO said, post on the 22cans forums, influence game, maybe it will turn out to be something you like in the end (or maybe not) but it isn't doomed yet.

[thestalkinghead]

the fact that it is going to be a persistent multiplayer has totally ruined the interest i had in this game, it sounds like it would really stress me out, like it would require me to play everyday else MY GAME will get ruined by other people

[Dewar]

They haven't even talked about what interactions will be possible between different folks on the world map. Right now, PvP is only available through specialized combat maps.

[osmosisch]

I love the looks, I'm not so sold on the gameplay, but I have reasonable hopes.

[thestalkinghead]

  On 9/16/2013 at 6:16 PM, Dewar said:

They haven't even talked about what interactions will be possible between different folks on the world map. Right now, PvP is only available through specialized combat maps.

no matter what the restrictions are, there will still be other people in my game, and i don't like that sort of thing, it would be like if minecraft was only on online servers.

 

what if i am near some other player and i don't play for months then when i come back they have encircled my town, i would much rather have a jupiter sized planet of my own to be the god of, and not share it with other players

[Frenetic Pony]

  On 9/16/2013 at 7:33 PM, thestalkinghead said:

no matter what the restrictions are, there will still be other people in my game, and i don't like that sort of thing, it would be like if minecraft was only on online servers.

 

what if i am near some other player and i don't play for months then when i come back they have encircled my town, i would much rather have a jupiter sized planet of my own to be the god of, and not share it with other players

 

There is a single player only mode from what I understand.

[thestalkinghead]

if there is, i may get into the early access, but i will have to research it a little more, especially since i am not sure if the game is eventually going to become a free to play game or not, it's hard to keep up with sometimes

[Dewar]

Early access is single player only right now, since they don't have a server infrastructure up yet. I'm not sure about future plans.

[thestalkinghead]

it's on my radar of games i will probably get, but if it becomes clear that it will eventually become an online persistent F2P multiplayer game i will pass on it 

[SecretAsianMan]

He seemed pretty enthusiastic about the multiplayer.  He made a big deal of how large the world was (the size of Jupiter) because he said the game would require all the space, meaning he expects everyone to fill it up.  Then again, that might just be another of Molyneux's grand promises.

[Frenetic Pony]

This is 

 

 

And a huge new update... and it's better. You can do more stuff. That's all I got so far. Kind just enjoying it while listening to the podcast. It's just relaxing. I may actually now think this is worth the $10 or whatever I spent for it.

[Murdoc]

Started it up for a few minutes to see whats changed... it is in fact better, but not sure if I would say good.

 

There is less clicking just to get shit done, but now feels minimalist, at least at first, where you just click, wait, click again, wait, the whole thing still feels like a facebook, casual playing experience where I am not meant to really be paying attention to it at all times. Its just click the prompt, wait, click the prompt, wait, continue.

 

The active element of shaping the terrain has gotten way better but its still less engaging than populous, which was kind of the core issue I had. The "powers"/upgrades and such is still linked to this card/sticker system which just feels really confusing why that presentation even exists, like why cards, why the obtuse interface to upgrade? I don't understand.

 

I've probably mentioned this earlier in the thread, but both Molyneux and Wrights earlier works really influenced me as a designer and the sim/god game genre remains one of my personal favorites. However, if this is Molyneux current idea of what a "regenesis" of the genre is, I think it's time we part ways. The stuff he seems to be focusing on isn't the hopes and dreams Populous gave me, instead he's redoing all the mechanics that didn't need to be reworked and ignoring the ones that did. I want more simulation, more elaboration on culture and religion, more customization and variation of my civilization, stuff like that.

 

Maybe in a couple years this game will go somewhere, but considering their progress over the last year, it seem to be be meandering up a mountain at a snails pace. I should try Reprisal again, because I think that might be the thing I hoped for out of this.

[Thrik]

It's very disappointing to see how things have gone with Godus. Progress really does seem to have been incredibly slow, and it's hard to see things about the gameplay that are legitimately fresh and original. In many ways, it just looks like a really poor version of Molyneux's own god games of the past. While I appreciate that it's a relatively low-budget affair, it seems so far detached from the soaring ambition of Black & White that I just can't see why I'd bother playing it. It also seems like something that's unlikely to hit the mainstream at this point, because the hype has all passed. I feel kind of bad for the guy whose ultimate reward was being a god of gods in Godus, because that's seeming like a pretty crappy reward right now.

[Murdoc]

Yeah, I've always admired Molyneux for ambition, execution may be spotty, but I see the intent and really enjoyed it.

 

I don't quite understand the intent with Godus, it's not a trip down nostalgia lane nor is it a refreshing take on what he has already done.

 

With a funded project, 22 full time employees(I assume) I don't get why nothing is happening on this thing. I'd really be curious as to the internal story over there, because it doesn't add up. I hate when I see people complain about developers not being fast enough developing a project or something, but as someone who has gone through the ringer more than a few times, I just look at where they were and where they are now and scratch my head.

 

I can only guess either it's being wildly mismanaged or they are holding back content until it's ready, for whatever reason, but it doesn't ignore the fact that the content isn't knocking my socks off to begin with.

[brkl]

Wasn't Godus ready ages ago, and then they redid a lot of it because of how crap it was? Nothing's probably happening because they made the game which people hated, redid it to save face and are now over it, maybe?

[Dewar]

As far as I know it's never been anywhere near ready. The multiplayer server structure hasn't been played with at all (there's limited 1v1 arena type things now, that's it) and there are supposed to be 7-ish distinct ages and the beta only has one in it.

After hearing the guy talk in person, I really really want this to be good. He might be one of the most charismatic people I've ever met in person.