Fate of Atlantis 2

[Lt. Smash]

hi, I wanted you ask if anybody knows what they have already done on FOA2 and what they're doing at the moment.
I heard that they're redoing their engine again, is that true?
And where can I download IP-Scumm 2.0? On their mainsite their is no link to download but I'm sure it has been released sometime ago. Maybe someone could upload it, please?

thanks

[Radiant]

To my best knowledge the project is dead.

Of course I hope I'm wrong about this.

You should be able to find IP Scumm here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/amberfisharts

[blueskirt]

The project is still underway, even if they don't want their project to be as flamboyant as FOY. I know they are still making progress with their engine, and drawing backgrounds. They also met in person several months ago to discuss, work on the game design and story. I still have no idea about their completion percentage, or whether the project will be released before or after 2040. It's pretty much all I know of it.

[Miez]

even if they don't want their project to be as flamboyant as FOY.

We're flamboyant?

[AGA]

I think BlueSkirt meant "productive".

[Radiant]

We're flamboyant?

Say, what is the status on FOY, anyway? That demo was fun.


(edit - FOY, not FOA, oops)

[Lt. Smash]

@ Radiant:

when I go to the download link there comes an error "NO FILE PACKAGES DEFIENED".

Is there another site to download it?

[Jens]

Lt. Smash, check your personal messages.

FoY you mean, Radiant?

[blueskirt]

We're flamboyant?

I think BlueSkirt meant "productive".

I'm pretty sure I meant "flamboyant". Like "announcing, hyping and postponing a simple demo for a whole year" flamboyant. Like "spoiling everyone 30 game's backgrounds just in the first year" flamboyant.

Flamboyant.

[Snarky]

You actually mean something more like "high profile", or "over-hyped". "Flamboyant" is... different.

[Steel Drummer]

You actually mean something more like "high profile", or "over-hyped". 

Both of which perfectly describe FoY. FOA2 actually looks promising, but they haven't really released anything big for it so far.

[Sam.]

oh no he didn't!

[blueskirt]

oh no he didn't!

Then it's a "Arrrrrrr! FOY reveals way too much, it leave no place for imagination!" kind of flamboyant.

But seriously, what I meant was if you followed the first year of the project, checked the various website designs, forum, rolling demo, interviews on some websites and read the several articles that appeared in both The Inventory and the AGSezine, chances are you'll have easily seen between 25 and 30 different backgrounds, and back when the project was announced with "60 to 75 rooms to explore", showing that many backgrounds in such a short span might have been a little bit too much in the fans feeding and spoiler department. Hopefully the number of room to explore was increased to more than 100 and some old backgrounds will probably be re-drawn or edited, but the damage is already done.

Then there was the demo that was announced, hyped, delayed, postponed, lost, re-worked, re-announced, re-hyped, beta-tested, delayed, re-beta-tested and finally released for an entire year and that left some thinking "shouldn't they have put all this energy in the final game instead?".

I think that FOA2 may have once thought about following FOY's steps, but at some point they paused for a second, looked at FOY's public relation decisions, and decided to take a direction that was at the total opposite of what FOY did: release very little to none screenshots to not spoil anyone anything, keep a low profile until a significant part of the game is done, and if they ever do a demo, it will probably be tech demos to show and test new features rather than show how the final game will look. It's probably because FOY was so showy released too much teasers that FOA2 is so shy now.

[m0ds]

At the end of the day, the FoA2 team are leading as normal lives as we are. You have to remember they did once have a 20 something strong team. Surely now they're not all part of it but they like to work with several people in each department. Our core team consists of 5 people, the demo was the work of 10. What bugs me about FoA2 is that they had 20 strong people so that was plenty of backup in each area but still little progress was apparently made. But that's not to say that let themselves down. I too played the little engine test, and it was awesome. Perfectly emulated. Like our early demo, it featured temporary text and stuff. Now, we have to also remember that FoA2 have been working on the story for over 6 or 7 years. Possibly 8. We've got a full story, mapped out perfectly, but because we use one writer, who is the only writer I can really trust for the job - and he has lots of time pressures like running a business, he can't necessarily create a huge output of work. Neither can Miez, he runs a business. Neither can Jan, he has education to maintain, and neither can I, always. So that's a team of 5 people struggling, god knows how a team of 20 are doing...

It's funny when you say you've seen so many backgrounds. Back in the days of the original interviews we didn't have Lorn, we didn't have a superb script and so we didn't have a proper clue as to how big, how many rooms etc the game would have. All the screenshots you've seen in magazine articles are, the majority from the demo, or one of the other demos we WERE going to release. Bimini is a large location in the game, but what's to say the others aren't pretty big too? And there's a whole load of them. So really, you've probably seen about 10% of the background art from the game at most. FoA2 once had popularity because they posted updates of progress. ANY progress is GOOD progress, both teams know that! The problem FoA2 have faced is that they've dissapeared, given unclear answers etc...there hasn't been someone at the forefront to point their finger and attractably direct their project forward. Which is a shame. Stalwart, people like that in older times seemed to be the driving force. But now it's as if the driving force is gone, or there just isn't one. If FoY shows screenshots, at least people who are awaiting it can see quite clearly things are being done and they will one day be playing in that new screenshot.

I wouldn't call the project flamboyant either. We've got a website. We've got some screenshots. Thats about all we've had to do to amass a huge internet crowd. I posted the demo news here, AG forums and maybe 2 or 3 other sites. The rest...well, you tell me! If there were 5 people that knew about the game from conception to demo, I'm still pretty sure it would've encountered as many problems. I wanted the game to be out in 2001, so if you think I'm trying to be flamboyant then you're mistaken! The only thing I will say is that I can kind of see from your point of view that some of my decisions might be a little frustrating...people wanting FoY to be open-sourced, people wanting to see all the old working tech-demos etc. Releasing that kind of thing would make people like BlueSkirt think exactly what he is thinking. We are being flamboyant by releasing so much giveaway material. So that's why I don't :p It will make it more fun for fans to play when the project is complete

Also, and finally on this matter. I don't want FoY to be a mish-mash of 600 different developers. The people I want to reward are those who are enthusiastic and reliable, confident & capable. The fact we've been all over the shop with different programmers, artists etc isn't in the least a worrying factor for me, nor a factor I think is a major problem. The development of this game is a learning curve for all of us. And just a hobby!! Therefore, it's actually been quite a positive process of finding the right willing team-mates.

Now, I don't particularly like rants about FoY for the simple fact that it's hard to put across to people that we really aren't that bothered about releasing a game to you until we're satisfied it's ready, and by which "ready" means "its frickin' awesome"...so, back to subject. As far as I know FoA2 is alive, just not doing much. But they should. Because then they can take all the pressure off us.

[Miez]

^ What he said.

[m0ds]

^ and then what he said 

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Flamboyant is Kinky Island.  I'd like to check out the engine they made for foa 2.  The goraud shading and map stuff looks cool.

[blueskirt]

Well, regarding their team size, it's pretty much the same as FOY now. If you look at their website, it was reduced to 10 members, with 4 of them that only work on the engine, I guess that explain where they are investing their energies right now.

So really, you've probably seen about 10% of the background art from the game at most.

Good to hear!

[Jens]

at first - you all have your reasons to feel like you feel about FoA2 and FoY. Everyone may have his opinion for his own reasons after all.
Yes, perhaps the FoY-team releases too much screenshots and info for some people (not for my taste btw); and yes the FoA2-team does it the other way around. I mean - they have a website talking about their project. Then again they don't release anything about the status. They should decide whether they want to go public or not. At least a friendly personal statement like: "Sorry, we will need a lot more time because or team is so small and won't release updates in the near future." could be added. But then again I don't really care. I'm happy with what I get. That's better than nothing.

And then there is that strange tension between FoY and FoA2 that I do not understand. Some people are talking about negative and positive points and which is better or worse. Why not let every team have its own style? Are both teams in contact with each other, behind the scenes? Guess not, because what m0ds writes is afaik not really correct and too generally (and negatively) expressed.
What I know about the FoA2team is that the effective team is very small, just like screen7(4 or 5 working, 3 of them coding) and that the times with the huge amount of members wasn't productive because of their quality. The FoY-team will remember those times for themselves too (if not, look here: http://web.archive.org/web/20010702225818/screen7.adventuredeveloper.com/foy/download.htm ).

Every team depends on the good will of others who support their projects. And everyone who's interested will profit from it one day. There's no reason to talk negatively about one of the projects in general, just because they all have their reasons to be as they are.

[m0ds]

No tension between the teams as far as I know, herby. Tensions are created by the "fans" who assume things In the past, I've offered to help with sfx & music to FoA2 many times.