Quite Soulless

Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:12:00 GMT


Quite Soulless is what I imagine The Divine Comedy would have looked like if Dante Alighieri was a basement programmer and he was eating mushrooms and drinking Mountain Dew all day. As the old adage goes: “May you live in interesting times, with interesting games.” (Currently downloading the 600 MB demo, what!)

(Source: Paul, via this thread)

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Comments

  1. policedanceclub said 43 minutes later:

    YES!

  2. Quetz said about 2 hours later:

    what ;_;

    somebody hold me

  3. GonzoRob said about 2 hours later:

    interesting discussion going on at :

    http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=14806

  4. Turniper said about 2 hours later:

    Ouch, that woman yawned in technicoloro

  5. Turgid said about 2 hours later:

    That video basically told me it’s some kind of adventure game, with poorly done graphics. The story and gameplay may be awesome, but the video gives little indication of it…

    The website mainly told me they have no idea about web design. Why should I be interested in this game?

    I’m not putting it down, I really would like to know what the game and gameplay is about.

  6. Skofo said about 2 hours later:

    “The website mainly told me they have no idea about web design. Why should I be interested in this game?” BECAUSE IT IS AN AMAZING GAME OKAY?

    Don’t judge games by their websites! SHAME ON YOU.

  7. Skofo said about 2 hours later:

    P.S. Even though it is an awesome website.

  8. king said about 2 hours later:

    “The website mainly told me they have no idea about web design. Why should I be interested in this game?” Because web design and game design are not the same thing?

  9. Valkyrie said about 3 hours later:

    ROFL @ 1:06

    Wow. That may be one of the most interesting game trailers I have ever seen.

  10. KNau said about 3 hours later:

    Whatever you do, don’t look at the Dwarf Fortress website! Those goobers don’t know a thing about web design and thus game design.

    I prefer to think the developer is trying to be ironic and therefore the website is funny and nostalgic. Otherwise it would be a crime against humanity!

  11. Skf said about 3 hours later:

    “’m nt pttng t dwn, rlly wld lk t knw wht th gm nd gmply s bt.” Cnsdr dwnldng th dm. Tht’s wht t’s thr fr.

  12. Don Hilo said about 3 hours later:

    This game looks wonderful, I wonder when it will be the time that some retro 3d games will appear. You know, polygon art and crappy 3d is the future of game aesthetics.

  13. Cobalt said about 4 hours later:

    It looks like a rainbow threw up.

  14. Paul Eres said about 4 hours later:

    “You know, polygon art and crappy 3d is the future of game aesthetics.”

    I agree – low-poly 3D is the new retro!

  15. Zeno said about 4 hours later:

    Succinctly, why the hell should anyone play this game?

  16. corpus said about 4 hours later:

    Clearly, if you don’t get this game, you’re not indie.

  17. Zeno said about 4 hours later:

    I tried playing the demo. It was maybe the worst thing.

    Why do you make me cry, TIGSource?

  18. Whatever said about 4 hours later:

    “Because web design and game design are not the same thing?”

    No, but they are related enough for one to have a good grasp on the other.

    The game looks, simply put, INSANE. I’m downloading the demo just to see whether its the fun insane or the bad kind. I don’t mind low-poly 3D but the animation are STILL weird and awkward to watch.

  19. To be honest... said about 4 hours later:

    I downloaded it. One of the WORST installers I had seen in a long time, it will make you install shit like 7zip and Adobe Reader for no reason (even though I already have both installed) You can cancel this if you are still conscious after waiting for so long for the file to uncompress.

    The game LOADS every time a new camera angle is needed (meaning FREQUENTLY). What’s the point of using real time generated graphics if you have such a big download with crappy high-res graphics that take forever to render.

    Technically it is POORLY created and executed. Try it and you will see. I will still give it a try because the video looks good, but my hopes are dying already…

  20. Paul Eres said about 5 hours later:

    Did you read its license agreement? That alone is worth the 600mb download!

  21. Paul Eres said about 7 hours later:

    Okay, I made a Let’s Play video of this game for those of you who want to see what it actually plays like (click on my name to see it).

  22. deadeye said about 7 hours later:

    Cockroach with a machine gun

  23. AmnEn said about 7 hours later:

    wtf? no, seriously wtf? There are some games which are fun because they’re trash. This one isn’t one of them. What’s this? The Indie Gaming equivalent of a Rick Roll? You’ve been quite soullessed? Language just doesn’t come with enough words to describe how awful it is. Thankfully Internet has offered us ways to compare levels of awful and this one is having a group hug with a certain Doom Fanfiction Story. Yes John, you are the demons.

  24. Adamski said about 11 hours later:

    It hurt my brain to take in everything that was happening. Too many details and colours to manage at once IMO.

  25. Jimmy Curbstomp said about 13 hours later:

    Wow. The graphics make me want to get out my Sega Saturn.

  26. Advenith said about 13 hours later:

    You know, if the game looked like it did in the trailer and wasn’t horribly broken, this could be great. The retro graphics feel really eerie… Even back when I first got a computer in, like, 1995, nothing looked quite that messed up, with the possible exception of Alone in the Dark. It’d be fun to see someone utilize it.

  27. gnome said about 17 hours later:

    Extremely intriguing… Downloading demo now.

  28. rndll said about 18 hours later:

    Masochists.

  29. Guy said about 19 hours later:

    Advenith, nobody talks like that about the original alone in the dark! :P

  30. Guy said about 20 hours later:

    And seriously, I don’t see any connection between the artwok in this game compared to the one in alone in the dark. Alone in the dark had excellent art work and graphics to its time. Remember, there were not always 3D games. And low poly 3D games don’t necesseraly look bad.

  31. Stij said about 22 hours later:

    Are intentionally terrible games the new good games, or what?

    Seriously, Derek, I expected better from you.

  32. rndll said about 23 hours later:

    @Guy: Well, it does have similar camera angles to ‘Alone in the Dark’ (at least that was my first thought when watching the video, I haven’t played AitD in over a decade).

  33. rndmgy said about 23 hours later:

    This post is hurting TIGSource’s credibility. Let’s see what’s on Pigscene.com…

  34. Paul Eres said about 24 hours later:

    I think beauty is in variety and distinction and weirdness too, not just in quality and polish. Although I would probably not willingly actually play this game any more than I did in that Let’s Play, I think the trailer is worth watching, I’ve watched it at least five times.

  35. policedanceclub said 1 day later:

    This game is so indie it hurts my eyes.

  36. Whatever said 1 day later:

    The fact that the camera angles are remiscent to Alone in the Dark is well-worth telling me that the game is shit. Fixed-position cameras are bad, simple as that. They are ugly, they are unmanageable and they make the game much harder than it should be.

  37. Rocknards said 1 day later:

    Who lacks the imagination and humour for this? :,(

  38. Paul Eres said 1 day later:

    Didn’t Silent Hill have fixed-position camera angles for many of its parts? I didn’t mind them in that game.

  39. CMspice said 1 day later:

    The game has a great aesthetic if you have the taste for it.

  40. Advenith said 1 day later:

    Fixed position camera with certain control schemes works, depending on the type of game. I personally like it, on occasion.

  41. Deacon Blues said 1 day later:

    Dig the strangeness and aesthetic, hate the controls and interface. Oh well. Better luck next time, Awesome Name Developer Guy.

  42. null said 1 day later:

    Killer7 had a fixed position camera. This game despite being rather bizarre, is no Killer7 though.

    Such an awesome concept, too bad the game is quite unplayable

  43. null said 1 day later:

    Also the old Resident Evil games had a fixed camera too, if I remember correctly

  44. rndmgy said 1 day later:

    It is not the God-damned camera, it is how it isn’t playable at all! Which is a shame, but I always wonder how people release games that are so OBVIOULSY broken. Seriously, don’t you have some amount of criteria? Some common sense?

  45. Paul Eres said 1 day later:

    Yeah, some people don’t like to do any playtesting before releasing a game, and obviously this guy is one. Personally I prefer using as many playtesters as possible, for a really long time, before releasing, especially if it’s a commercial game and not freeware.

    And it’s not just the game, the entire way he’s going about selling it is bizarre: 600 MB demo? Sold on lulu.com?

    As my friend TeeGee said, some indies pretend to be crazy, but this guy genuinely is crazy.

    I still admire all the work he put into it though. I would like to have enjoyed the game, I went into playing that video intending to enjoy the game, it’s just that the controls and brokenness of everything got in the way of enjoying its weirdness.

  46. BeamSplashX said 2 days later:

    I like the idea of no longer giving Rick free publicity. I believe “obscure indie game”-rolling should be the next step in informing the general public.

  47. falsion said 2 days later:

    I wonder if this guy intentionally made the game “bad.” I used to do the same using Klik and Play, making games with bad clip art graphics made in a few seconds just to see how people would react to them.

    I mean, I saw his main site and a lot of it seemed like satire, but then again he could be serious and maybe this game isn’t really a joke, not to him at least. He is attempting to actually sell it to people after all.

  48. falsion said 2 days later:

    Actually you know what, nevermind. I think this guy is indeed genuinely crazy.

  49. null said 2 days later:

    Yeah. Google his name or email address and you’ll find forum posts of him actually hiring people to audition for vocal roles in his game, among other things.

    If he was merely joking, I doubt he’d go through all the trouble and work that hard to actually make the game. Just read his posts and you’ll see that this guy is serious.

    But even despite the hard work he put into the game, the end result, well, isn’t exactly what I’d call good.

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