Dogs Of War Vu

Sim/Strategy/War => Games Discussion => Topic started by: Asid on August 25, 2017, 03:45:30 PM

Title: Black The Fall
Post by: Asid on August 25, 2017, 03:45:30 PM
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/header.jpg?t=1500299598)

F   R   E   E   D   O   M     I   S     C   O   N   T   R   O   L

Official Site: Here (http://www.blackthefall.com/)
Official forum: Here (http://steamcommunity.com/app/308060/discussions/)
YouTube Channel:Here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvDaLCisUxpsZV8TLWEOT7A)
Steam: Here (http://store.steampowered.com/app/308060/Black_The_Fall/)


Single-player


Trailer
https://youtu.be/pmtcKFXbkY8


About This Game

After decades of toil, an old machinist plots his escape from the oppressive grasp of the Communist regime. Through hidden passages, shadow and grief, he struggles. Ingenuity, reflexes and deception are his tools. Along the road, he befriends the most unlikely creature, an abandoned little robot. Could they escape this bleak and deadly world, together?

Our  Protective and Abusive Surveillance

(http://www.blackthefall.com/uploads/7/5/1/7/75177745/447426253.gif)

In the past decades surveillance evolved a lot, as both Orwell and Huxley have envisioned at the beginning of the century. Our safety used to lie in the hands of the local police officer, the personal guard, the handmaiden or the Communist neighbor, while today it’s in the hands of a modern Big Brother feeding on Big Data.

(http://www.blackthefall.com/uploads/7/5/1/7/75177745/531274890.jpg)

For our safety and comfort there are CCTVs, GPS tracking, Wi-fi, listening capabilities on mobile phones, laptops and even routers. Online behavior tracking is delivering us the ultimate personalized experience, but with every social media login it is also recording our every move in order for our profiles to be as accurate as possible for commercial use or political manipulation. That is for ads and news to be delivered in a way we’d buy without knowing we’re sold to – easily and willingly.
The only problem with (over)protection is that there’s a fine line between useful and abusive. We’d love to know that criminals can be tracked down by GPS or recorded phone conversations, recognized in CCTV footage and have their plans uncovered, before they even happen. And sometimes this actually happens, while other times surveillance is intentionally misused.

(http://www.blackthefall.com/uploads/7/5/1/7/75177745/menacing-surveillance_orig.png)

Living in a world thorn between Orwellian fear and Huxleyan pleasure, we need to throw a clear-eyed look at mass surveillance and define the lines of when surveillance is appropriate.


Features

• Unravel the puzzles buried within the oppressive atmosphere of a dystopian dictatorship
• Harness the power of a stolen designator tool to manipulate both man and machine
• Befriend a lonely lost robot and earn its loyal companionship
• Take your shot at overthrowing a Communist State inspired by real world events

Awards
(http://www.blackthefall.com/uploads/7/5/1/7/75177745/all-awards-sep2016_1_orig.jpg)


(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_f512eb76ab861b65f22807177508383bf0caabdf.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_bb9d8ce0d31088e71a6cf749cd50002ad1d9837a.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_9641e4221ce7973fc3e1a51421efc9d2f1438646.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_9d34dd7619fbfe5508fc7dddd8b223c23d1ec9be.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_1be758075a0dd2257aabbe1ab1bc1efe93fa3063.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_494c2f1cb95f89e61c5d67ce3a6a4c5ac977d116.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_9da3435bff265e4c2ac523968927b79acffd6ac3.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_15d86e9d4a51e20d48bb53c81bd613a3f02a6637.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_523ab688f1544fab5838be62f93439fa31498e80.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/308060/ss_4811ebd1d6a55aa5755f3b2284a4ca5a23c84eb2.1920x1080.jpg?t=1500299598)

(http://www.blackthefall.com/uploads/7/5/1/7/75177745/whos-this-guy_orig.png)
Title: Re: Black The Fall
Post by: Asid on September 30, 2017, 11:00:35 PM
Black The Fall in Real Life
26 SEPTEMBER   - BLACKTHEFALL

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/70f2c7a185d18ac7808c0bc3fbf9a67b1c6f08ea.gif)

To wrap up the melancholic journey we started with in the FAQ section and continued with the Communism related blog posts[www.blackthefall.com]. shaping the context of the real life events that inspired some game scenes, characters and mechanisms, we thought of sharing with you a couple of real life photos, that served as inspiration for some game scenes.

Communism intended to be the religion of efficiency, pragmatism and equality through hard work and community values; the ideal sharing economy. Within this paradigm, the individual, the soul, the mind, the spiritual, were all considered distractions from the path they drafted for humanity: progress through physical work and equality for everyone. Sounds awesome? Well, perspectives: consider being equal to the ones on top for a few seconds. Lovely right? How about being equal to the less fortunate? This is a question we usually forget to ask ourselves when we think of equality, thanks to our illusory superiority[en.wikipedia.org] & friends[en.wikipedia.org].

The Church

With this purpose in mind, progress through hard work, factories were built in the urban areas and farmers were brought to the cities. Old houses and churches were wiped out and blocks of flats were built instead. And this is pretty much where the Romanian story breaks apart from how religion and the regime got together in the Communist bloc. Although the Roman-Catholic church was severely persecuted by the regime (churches demolished, priests thrown in prisons and tortured), the Orthodox Church was quite a strong ally of The State[en.wikipedia.org] (lots of priests were agents of The Securitate). It was a win-win deal: the submissive Church would continue to keep their lands and exert power, while also supporting the Communist doctrine, like a bad-ass marketing agency that has the best influencers, and an audience reach the size of internet access market in developed countries.

[WARNING: spoilers ahead! If you’re the type who likes to be surprised, you’d better stop reading.]

There’s still a romanticized view of how Communism persecuted the Church in Romania, but there's also the harsh reality of the snitches. Some confessions went directly to the files of The Securitate acting like an ancestor of web cookies. For such a a sneaky maneuver we just had to allocate a secret room and an achievement in Black The Fall.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/c47cbb2a9981cc9cc77f9dba93a4bd285103e6b1.png)

The Queues

The State had monopoly over any type of production and distribution, that was the rule and it was ok-ish for a while, but in the ‘80s the sugar hit the fan[en.wikipedia.org]. Rationing made everyone’s life about survival. The rations for one portion were: half a bread a day, one kg of sugar/flour/rice and oil a month. On Christmas each person could have one kg of oranges and half a kg of chocolates. Store clerks had real power through their direct access to food, so the exchange network grew very strong among them. In the 80's offering bread to get some darn eggs was a victory for you and your family.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/b59d5feb2fb1fe7b38ec11f3a5df957213e11366.png)

Besides the lack in food variety; electricity, hot water and heating were also scarce. Moreover, each family could have the gas tank refilled once a month. You’d have to wake up at 2-3 am and queue for that as well. Queue can sometimes be fun. Look at Gamescom queues: fun! However, the ones I’m talking about didn't involve weather chit-chat, nor celebrity gossiping, but lots of quarrels, especially around Christmas when the pressure bringing your family together for a warm meal in a heated room was so high.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/9f635fb7861b15a2c4f1c9c31b875a20d8c94e9d.png)

Public transportation was not breezy either. In this frenzy of saving money through resources scarcity, people had to hang on the trams or buses on their way to work. Just like modern Japan, without the fancy people pushing you inside the train.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/9e359b216ae704c21b2bd90e203f66c338b65d9e.png)

The Revolution

The Romanian Revolution[en.wikipedia.org] is a mystery not yet entirely solved in terms of who was shooting who and why. It’s maybe an event too recent and to hurtful to be openly discussed. I mean not out of shyness, but for safety reasons for those involved.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/8a5c5770b8059f0a514e52ba5053ae8e0f6ddcd1.png)

Anyway, there are a few undeniable facts: the high number of injured and killed[en.wikipedia.org], the burning of the National Library[en.wikipedia.org] and consequent loss of thousands of books and manuscripts, the confusion, the hasty trial and shooting of the Ceausescu couple and the high hopes of the Romanian people for a normal life: abuse free and independent.

(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/6260789/b6ec181f8bf2fad77d9847ee7bfe34b140f36600.jpg)

And just like any high quality set of expectations, this one was filled with all the positive aspects of the new happy life to come. Some people were ready to take on the responsibilities that come with the power of choice. While others became melancholic for the times when the state used to provide some food, a job and shelter, like a conscientious authoritative parental figure that always knows what's best for you.

#FreedomIsControl
Title: Re: Black The Fall
Post by: Asid on December 11, 2017, 10:38:13 PM
V 2.5 is now live
The Fall - OverTheMoonGames

The Fall Part 2 is basically wrapped and we're in the final stages of console submission. Additionally, we're part of a promotion that'll be announced in a week or so. This means it's a good time to update the build with a few tweaks I've been meaning to add.

First of all, we've revamped the default control scheme. the "Toggle Aim" setting is now on by default, and the controls are closer to what we've got in part 2 (although not exactly, as it's a different game). The decision to do this took a while because when I initially created The Fall, I wanted the controls to be more active, so that players had a tactile sense of exploring their environments. However mostly, players just had a hard time with the controls. As a result, they have now been replaced with a much more simple scheme. This of course can be disabled from the settings menu.

Second, we've got two small graphical upgrades. Arid's character model will now rotate to the correct facing, as opposed to popping to it. Additionally, we've fixed a long standing bug where the text inside of data points can flicker when you move.

Thirdly, we've fixed a bug where achievements weren't triggering as complete until the game was closed.

Lastly, this patch includes an engine upgrade to Unity 5.6.4p1