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Has a dev ever done a bigger about face than The Astronauts? (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter)

Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was a well received multi-platform open world narrative exploration horror game which was at least partially based on the canceled game "Come Midnight."

Their next game will be a PC exclusive wave based dark fantasy first person shooter.

The devs have a history in their previous work with the game Painkiller of making first person shooters but I'm surprised they didn't choose to capitalize on the success of their previous game with a sequel or something with similar gameplay.

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Trailer | PS4

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game focused on exploration and discovery. As a private detective Paul Prospero communic...
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Come Midnight internal demo 2/4

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Witchfire Teaser

The new game we're working on, a dark fantasy shooter called Witchfire. More info and screenshots: http://www.theastronauts.com/2017/12/new-game-witchfire/
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AndyMc1888

Member
Jul 16, 2019
1,020
Plenty
A plague tale to flight sim
Killzone to horizon
Mid development halo to halo :D
And now playground with fable
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
Yeah, I loved Ethan Carter's world/atmosphere so much but I know some people had an issue with the out of order episodic story telling, but I was fine with it. I have it on Steam and Switch. The Switch port was done partly in house by the Astronauts and is superb, one of the best looking UE4 games on the Switch.

When I found out their next project, I was a little disappointed personally, but not ruling out checking it out later.
 
Desmond

Desmond

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,387
No joke, I had to look up what about face means, seems to mean a u-turn or flip flop?

Supposedly about-turn is used outside the US, but I have never heard that used wither hahaha
 

Karsha

Member
May 1, 2020
2,513
Its one of my favorite "Do nothing" games, Im still salty about the ending though, it takes a lot from the narrative just for shocking value imho
 
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Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
Nabs said:
Wouldn't Ethan Carter be the about face?
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Kinda sorta? Ethan Carter was the first game from the new studio formed by devs that worked on Bulletstorm and Painkiller. I think they wanted to tell the tale from Come Midnight but didn't have the budget for or didn't see the need for combat mechanics so they made it a purely adventure game.
 
antitrop

antitrop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,595
Desmond said:
No joke, I had to look up what about face means, seems to mean a u-turn or flip flop?

Supposedly about-turn is used outside the US, but I have never heard that used wither hahaha
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It's used for controlling the direction of formations, such as marching bands. Left and Right Face is a 90 degree turn in that direction, and About Face is a 180 degree turn to the opposite direction.
 

Deleted member 21709

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
23,310
Magog said:
Kinda sorta? Ethan Carter was the first game from the new studio formed by devs that worked on Bulletstorm and Painkiller. I think they wanted to tell the tale from Come Midnight but didn't have the budget for or didn't see the need for combat mechanics so they made it a purely adventure game.
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What is 'Come Midnight'?

Witchfire seems more like a return for them, considering what the devs were known for. I hope it comes out.
 
Paroni

Paroni

Member
Dec 17, 2020
3,418
Klei Entertainment has done lots of different genres. I think the longest they've stuck to one element is Shank and it's sequel (two beat 'em ups), and Mark of the Ninja (side scrolling action game) and Invisible Inc. (turn based game) both having major stealth aspect.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
I think this prize easily goes to Brace Yourselves. From Crypt of the Necrodancer / Cadence of Hyrule (2D fantasy rhythm action roguelite) to Industries of Titan (3D sci-fi city building sim/strategy). Just watch these two games back to back and tell me what they have in common (other than "overhead perspective" I guess):

 
DopeyFish

DopeyFish

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,796
Just wait until you see the old PC devs and what they used to make

Epic games (sidescrollers, Pinball), DICE (Racing games), Blizzard (sidescrollers and racing), id Software (sidescrollers), Bethesda (hockey games)

None of these game companies are no longer known for the stuff they first started to make
 
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Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
inguef said:
What is 'Come Midnight'?

Witchfire seems more like a return for them, considering what the devs were known for. I hope it comes out.
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A canceled detective game with combat elements. I linked to a video in the OP.

happygamer.com

Canceled Horror Game Come Midnight Has Revealed Some Gameplay Footage Of What The Title Might Have Been | Happy Gamer

It is common in the game industry for games to be canceled for almost no reason. Sometimes its a budget issue, other times publishers...
happygamer.com happygamer.com
 
Rover_

Rover_

Member
Jun 2, 2020
5,189
Weltall Zero said:
I think this prize easily goes to Brace Yourselves. From Crypt of the Necrodancer / Cadence of Hyrule (2D fantasy rhythm action roguelite) to Industries of Titan (3D sci-fi city building sim/strategy). Just watch these two games back to back and tell me what they have in common (other than "overhead perspective" I guess):

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i had no idea hahaha, this must be fun for the studio.
 
5taquitos

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,889
OR
DopeyFish said:
Just wait until you see the old PC devs and what they used to make

Epic games (sidescrollers, Pinball), DICE (Racing games), Blizzard (sidescrollers and racing), id Software (sidescrollers), Bethesda (hockey games)

None of these game companies are no longer known for the stuff they first started to make
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lol yeah for sure, same with old console devs, Naughty Dog made RPGs and fighting games
 
Messofanego

Messofanego

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,176
UK
Paroni said:
Klei Entertainment has done lots of different genres. I think the longest they've stuck to one element is Shank and it's sequel (two beat 'em ups), and Mark of the Ninja (side scrolling action game) and Invisible Inc. (turn based game) both having major stealth aspect.
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They also have two survival management games, Oxygen Not Included and Don't Starve. The latter of which is their biggest hit and they continue to make content for. Then there's a first person arcade platformer, Hot Lava. Klei and Double Fine are the most eclectic indie devs I know.
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
The Talos Principle: A cerebral puzzle game with a deeply philosophical story



The dev's main game series? Serious Sam, the biggest, dumbest game around.
serious-sam-4-planet-badass-8.jpg
 
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Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
Lukemia SL said:
I'm not tooo familiar with the developer's history here but does Alien Isolation count?
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Yes although reading the wiki for it they brought in a lot of outside talent since they had no experience with that type of game and presumably they were fired afterward as they have gone back to making the kinds of games they are known for.
 
Lukemia SL

Lukemia SL

Member
Jan 30, 2018
9,384
Magog said:
Yes although reading the wiki for it they brought in a lot of outside talent since they had no experience with that type of game and presumably they were fired afterward as they have gone back to making the kinds of games they are known for.
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That makes sense I don't know too much about the studio I just knew Isolation was different to what they usually do.
 
Alek

Alek

Games User Researcher
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
8,471
AndyMc1888 said:
Plenty
A plague tale to flight sim
Killzone to horizon
Mid development halo to halo :D
And now playground with fable
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Many of these really aren't that big of a jump. Take Horizon for instance, it's essentially a third person shooter most of the time. It shares a lot of its DNA with Killzone, even down to the sci fi designs.
 
Matttimeo

Matttimeo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
762
I'm always reminded of 40K: Space Marine by Relic whenever I think of games that are a bit left field when you know the company that made them. Its arguably not the first action shooter they've made (the Outfit predates it) plus its not the first 40k games they've made. But to have this fast paced arcady shooter/brawler to come out of a studio that primary makes real time strategy games must have been a bit of a shift for them.
 
AIan

AIan

Member
Oct 20, 2019
4,860
Toylogic went from "Happy Wars" and "Happy Dungeons" to NieR Replicant Remake. What~

Edit: apparently they also made a survival horror game in between the Happy games.
 
toadkarter

toadkarter

Member
Oct 2, 2020
2,011
Hah, I initially thought it was about the loss of goodwill from the devs for taking a "neutral" stance on GamerGate...
 
PS9

PS9

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,066
Rockstar Games made a game about sentient unicycles before they went on to the PS2.

SNES_Uniracers_cover_art.jpg
 
Edge

Edge

A King's Landing
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,012
Celle, Germany
"a bigger about face than The Astronauts"

Sometimes I think I don't understand English. 🤨
I have no idea what OP means.
 
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Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
JamboGT said:
Gran Turismo to Omega Boost?
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You're still controlling a vehicle but yeah quite different. They picked up some talent to make the game apparently.
Similarities between Omega Boost and Sega's Panzer Dragoon series led to a rumor that former members of Team Andromeda, dissolved in 1998, had joined Polyphony Digital. This rumor turned out to be true as the lead designer and programmer on Omega Boost was Yuji Yasuhara,[SUP][1][/SUP] who had worked on Panzer Dragoon Zwei.

And then he stayed with them through Gran Turismo 6 before making a bomber man game.
 
ChemicalWorld

ChemicalWorld

Member
Dec 6, 2017
1,741
KDR_11k said:
The Talos Principle: A cerebral puzzle game with a deeply philosophical story



The dev's main game series? Serious Sam, the biggest, dumbest game around.
serious-sam-4-planet-badass-8.jpg
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This here is the truth.

I was gob smacked playing Talos, I never knew Serious Sam devs had it in them to go in this direction. And a great game it is.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
I'd say Enix in the early '80s was pretty much the poster child of throwing ideas at a wall.

Even just focusing on Yuji Horii, he went from Love Match Tennis...

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To some of the first visual novels (some of which being pretty mature)...

2233174-6001_3.png


And then, finally, Dragon Quest, which is basically the OG JRPG and the company's bread and butter.

Dragonquest-300x243.gif
 
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Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
KDR_11k said:
The Talos Principle: A cerebral puzzle game with a deeply philosophical story

The dev's main game series? Serious Sam, the biggest, dumbest game around.
serious-sam-4-planet-badass-8.jpg
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That's a very similar departure honestly. I'm surprised neither studio decided to combine the action with the puzzling for a sequel since they both know how to do both. That's the kind of thing which might get more universal acclaim.
 
KORNdog

KORNdog

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,001
Speaking of witchfire...where the hell is it? Have we heard anything since that initial teaser?
 
Triggerhappytel

Triggerhappytel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,044
Rocksteady going from Urban Chaos: Riot Response to Batman: Arkham Asylum is probably the steepest increase in quality between subsequent games of any dev I can think of.
 
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