Neofeud

[Cassiebsg]

That... is... incredible!

[Blondbraid]

Man that background is MASSIVE how many years did it take you to complete?

I'd hazard a guess that some of all the identical cells were copy-pasted, but it's impressive none the less.
Just the scale of that thing!

[SilverSpook]

Thanks Cassie, Anas and Blondbraid. 

@AnasAbdin: Not quite years but it certainly felt that long, hehe!  This technically started in like April and I've come back to the original concept every couple months or so.  I guess with Neofeud the theme is, "Go big or go home!". 

[SilverSpook]

Let There Be Movement!



(Click here for the SUPER HUGE version of this animation)

With essentially all backgrounds completed, September has been the month of motion -- specifically, animation.  I've been hard at work bringing life to the static world-images, which takes time, but time well spent if it increases immersion.
As was mentioned in the previous post, the Neofeud Alpha version is very nearly finished, and, schedule permitting, I hope to have that out to game testers by November (crossing pneumatic robot fingers). 

I've had a bit extra on the plate, as our five and two year old have just started preschool, and the wife and I are currently seeking out a potential new home we can afford. (I don't know what your area is like, but Honolulu's rents are going through the roof!)  The Big Island of Hawaii, with its community-oriented, free-spirited/thinking culture seems like just our place.  Rest assured though, that work on Neofeud continues at maximum humanly-possible speed, and I intend to have this thing finished before the big move.

[Cassiebsg]

oooooohhhhh.... addictive!
That is awesomely alive! Well done.

[Blondbraid]

So dazzling, I have a hard time tearing my eyes from it!

[AnasAbdin]

Man this would make an awesome splash screen!

[SilverSpook]

@Cassie: If only I could bottle it up and sell it on the street

@Blondbraid: You have to put on the shades like Doctor Searle in Sunshine.   

@AnasAbdin: Sounds like a cool idea!  Yeah it would save time for sure to use it as the splash and I already put a bunch of work in. 

[SilverSpook]

Neofeud now has k-rad, neon-lit, feathered 80's hair!

A screenshot of one of the central characters. Also, some scintillating, neon-ensconced dialog for you, as well as a song lyric from k-rad new-retro-wave group, Le Cassette. (Was listening to their album on repeat while digital painting this.)

[SilverSpook]

The Three Laws of Neofeudal Robotics.

1. A robot may not injure, or though inaction, allow harm to come to a member of the Neofeudal Royalty. The Reigning Monarch's safety supersedes all other Royalty.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by a Neofeudal Royal, with the Reigning King or Queen's orders taking precedence over all other princesses, princes, corporate and banking executives, religious leaders, media personalities, and other royal members, human, transhuman, AI, and otherwise.

3. Upon proven death of original body, all backup clones, and erasure of all uploaded consciousness-gestalts of the current Reigning Monarch, the ascension of the rightful heir to the throne occurs immediately. The new incumbent sovereign gains supreme entitlements of the First and Second Law of robotics.


Progress continues!  As a lot of artists intuitively know, the work is never finished; there simply comes a point where the brush is throne to the ground and one stomps off in protest, to binge on Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones on Netflix.

So, to set a hard limit, I'm calling this work done by the end of this month, and  the first Neofeud alpha will be out for testing. 

So any potential game-bug finders and future voice-over larynx-wielders, get your Windows updated, your Linux line-itemized, and please don't leak my Illuminati conspiracy to destabilize Hillary Clinton's presidency through video game commentary to Wikileaks!  (Or do, if that will give Neofeud a bump in the hashtag wars and Steam rankings!)

So yes, testing of Neofeud set to reboot at the start of November!

Thanks again to all supporters, feedbackers, 'good job!' sayers, music contributors ( @minxilla ) monetary contributors ( @minxilla
Ian
Noirjyre
@benjaminpenney)
Prior testers, future testers, voice actors / actresses, and people who plan to buy and play the game at some point! 

Just as another reminder, if you do decide to back Neofeud on Patreon and your patronage equals or exceeds the eventual price of the game, you get it for free, in addition to whatever perks are listed!  However, once the game is completed, the Neofeud-related perks may not be available, so act now if you were planning to buy the game anyway!

[Cassiebsg]

Looking huge!
And I'm now looking forward to get back testing this puppy.

[AnasAbdin]

Looking huge!

I agree. I spend long hours on my little backgrounds. I can't imagine how much time SS spent on this one. Even though there's a lot of copy/pasting involved in creating such backgrounds but still the finishing touches must take days 

Keep up man. I can't stop getting amazed of your work.

[Blondbraid]

Awesome! All this looks so exciting!

[SilverSpook]

Thanks Cassie, Blondbraid and Anas.

AnasAbdin: I agree. I spend long hours on my little backgrounds. I can't imagine how much time SS spent on this one. Even though there's a lot of copy/pasting involved in creating such backgrounds but still the finishing touches must take days 

For the "Royal / 0.1-percenter" locations, I was into the concept of differentiating them from the "Commoner / impoverished / 99%" by making all of the High-City castles, skyscrapers super-polished and super symmetrical, with a lot of straight-on, almost worshipful shots.  The Blomkampian terrestrials, on the other hand, are almost all asymmetrical, patchwork shanties and collapsing Affordable Housing Projects with completely random -- but also completely personalized and creative -- uses.  Even the characters are patched together, including the cyborg protagonist and the robot delinquent kid with his mix-and-match chassis and limbs.

The symmetry helps a lot, as painting the backgrounds in around 4000 x 2000 then downsizing to 1366x768 does indeed take *epochs* of time and feels like running a marathon with a ball and chain at times.  Especially with scenes like the Fuclrum Palace whose sheer grandeur is the paramount feature -- I feel the architectural splendor and hubris require that insane level of detail to really deliver the message of utterly astronomical wealth and power.  I'm trying to visually convey what the world 'trillion dollars' actually means, as I think it's not something people can really comprehend, even though we hear it thrown around a lot, in the news.  What would a royal, multi-trillionaire in the year 2135, live in?  It would probably take a week at least for each of those backgrounds, so symmetry allows some time-savings there.  But yes, the finishing still takes a lot of time.

@Cassie: Soon, soon!

[SilverSpook]

This is how you rig a Presidential Election in Neofeud:



(Click here for the big version)

Don't forget to blame it on Russia!

[Blondbraid]

Now that's what I call overkill!

[Cassiebsg]

I won't want to be living on the lower level there...
Good job!

[AnasAbdin]

That's awesome!

I'd suggest to reduce the gif dimensions though

[SilverSpook]

@AnasAbdin: Done.

@Cassiebsg: Yeah, you get to be collateral damage down there!  Bummer! :o

@Blondbraid: Yeah there's a lot of that in Neofeud.

[AnasAbdin]

Man you're awesome! I can see your gifs on my phone better now!