Let there be dark (introduction)
This announcement date isn't an accident - it really is a joke to start yet another project after I've tried to start something so many times before. Since I quit Cities: Skylines modding years ago, I've been looking for a new "anchor" for my game and 3D art hobbies to focus on. I tried to learn Unreal to make my own game. I tried making fancy buildings. I tried creating realistic highly detailed models for commissions. But I don't actually like any of these things. Some realistic/modern game graphics stuff is interesting in a technical sense, sometimes it's just noisy and blurry garbage, but none of it can make a game immersive for me.
What's really on my mind most of the time is old games, whether it's playing them (which I rarely do these days) or just watching gameplay videos of them, it's these old (usually early 2000s) games that I like the most. For me the purpose of games is to forget about reality and just escape, and over the last 10-15 years the need to escape has been steadily increasing... Games used to be made by and for people who like games, but these days it's been infected by ideologues, activists, profiteers, lawyers, and of course some who are just there because they need a job. Feels like the OGs have been pushed out and replaced or just left.
So why don't I try to emulate what I actually like? That's the idea with Temnograd - to make something that looks and feels like it's from over 20 years ago, something that is heavily influenced by my favorite games and other media (but hopefully will develop its own unique character as well).
Speaking of influences - GTA III is my favorite game of all time. It came at the perfect time. I remember the exact frame I saw (driving a police car from Callahan Point towards Atlantic Quays) when I first saw it being played at my dad's internet cafe. The atmosphere of it, the weather and color grading, the reverberated sounds, every part of it is totally infused with the character of the people who created it and the time when it was created.
Max Payne 1 & 2 are in a similar league for me.
I liked Mafia 1 & 2 as well, although those are further away from the vibe I'm trying to capture here.
And even though the aesthetics are totally different, I have to mention Mirror's Edge, which I've replayed hundreds of times to keep my mind off things...
The other source of inspiration and reference for Temnograd are the locations in post-soviet eastern Europe during the 90s and early 2000s. I think the gloomy atmosphere of some of the games I mentioned goes hand in hand with these locations. I grew up in Latvia, Valmiera, which isn't such a doomer urbanscape, but the influence of the past is still there and does give some nostalgic elements to it.
I also wanted to mention some related movies as well so here are images from Lilya 4-Ever (2002) - an amazing and depressing movie, Cold Souls (2009), and Lost in Translation (2003) - not as relevant but it's my favorite movie of all time.
Over the last year or so I've been experimenting with mods and tools, learning what are the possibilities and workflows of creating content for GTA:SA. The reason I'm going with SA instead of III is because it's basically the same game but more advanced, has more features, and most of all has way more mods, tools, and documentation available. I'm also constantly jumping between single-player and SA-MP to make sure the mod works in both contexts.
Here's a sneak peek of some future content:
Soon there will be more blog posts explaining my approach to map planning, graphics decisions, and showcasing some progress with map objects and vehicles.