Talon Game

Refractory Studios

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Version 1.2 released; new game mode, new map, misc improvements

#1 2014-08-03 04:37:48

D2Junkie
Rookie Member
Registered: 2014-08-03
Posts: 1

Drumming up interest in Talon...

(Long post ahead. You've been warned.)



Hey guys, D2Junkie from Planet Descent here. I know I'm a little late to the party - I'm an active musician and took about a year away from the PD forums to focus on recording and promoting my debut rock album. To the point, I completely missed the release of Talon, and upon returning, I took immediate interest, downloaded the demo, and subsequently bought the game.

Reviving quite an old thread, I gave my thoughts about the game, and so far it's started some fresh discussion between a few PD old-timers. Truth is, there is serious potential for this game, and Richards weighed in on the situation by saying it's been tough to market this game.

I want to start by saying it won't be hard finding Descent fans online. Pretty much every major gaming news outlet has had something to say recently about it's unique gameplay, and total conversions and 6DOF mods are frequently reported. All told - Descent is nearly as fondly remembered as Doom, but Doom comes up in conversations more frequently only because it's the granddaddy of the FPS - which is seemingly all that anyone plays these days. 6DOF has all but been lost in gaming today - which I would say results from the general quality of the genre's resurrection attempts. For a long time, Forsaken was really the only one worth playing, and it's still no Descent. Talon is the first game I've played in a long time that absolutely nails the 6DOF controls and concepts without aping the conventions of Descent.

But it's hard to communicate that. To the average gamer, Talon will look like yet another indie Descent-clone; a gameplay relic destined to die in obscurity along with the hopes and dreams of all who had longed for an admittedly unnecessary Descent 4 (let's be honest, all we really wanted was more D1/D2 with next-gen graphics at the time). I refuse to let that happen: Talon is the first game that's gotten me this excited about 6DOF since the time I found Descent 2 in a dollar bin at GameStop as a child. So I'm asking the Talon team and this small community to really sell this thing; to get out there and make Talon successful first for the sake of Refractory Studios and second for the sake of the still-alive-and-kicking 6DOF community.

I don't come without ideas. In fact, PD's Scyphi had his own that I would like to share: PC gamers love content and even more so creating content. If there are map-making and modding tools, package them with the game! You sell a multiplayer game with 5 maps, and you might sell a few copies. You sell a multiplayer game with 5 maps and the tools necessary to make more, and you might bring many more on-board. This could be the easiest way to convince gamers that Talon is worth the asking price - they can be an active part of its development.

Secondly, and this is maybe a bit ambitious - arcade-style singleplayer/co-op. I'm not an FPS guy, but I think Halo: Reach absolutely killed it with it's arcade "Firefight" mode, where strategically differing maps had waves of progressively stronger, well-armed enemies pouring in over time, and with points being awarded for kills. I honestly can't tell you what the campaign was like because I just had entirely too much fun playing Firefight to even care about it. I think a mode like this could be hugely entertaining and easily implemented on a map like Frontier - especially with a friend tagging along. Descent 1 and 2 were simple - every objective was the same, it's just that the missions got more challenging as they went. Think of it as Descent in microcosm: you simply learn to survive and adapt (and score!) more quickly. There are other variations of this type of gameplay that could make things more interesting.

Thirdly, there's marketing. Simply put, people need to know about Talon. Heck, I didn't until a couple of days ago, and here I am shamelessly begging people to spread the word. I don't know anything about marketing, but there absolutely MUST be a campaign to get the word out. Fifteen bucks is cheap for the only game in years that really gets the formula right for a genre that most people forgot about only because no one actually got the formula right. Now it's just a matter of convincing people it's worth it.

So tl;dr: Talon is great, needs players, has some potential for bringing in new players. Who's with me?

Last edited by D2Junkie (2014-08-03 04:41:27)

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#2 2014-08-03 19:48:45

sdfgeoff
Beta Tester
Registered: 2013-09-27
Posts: 103
Website

Re: Drumming up interest in Talon...

The problem is that Scott (the developer) hasn't been around for a while, due to, I believe, having a child. As a result, there is no-one to drive marketting, as no-one else feels comfortable doing so.

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#3 2014-08-24 18:22:35

blindlight
Rookie Member
Registered: 2014-08-24
Posts: 1

Re: Drumming up interest in Talon...

I made a 6 degrees of freedom group on steam just now.. it is a good time to reorganize and raise awareness about the various new 6dof projects, consider joining, i made a post about talon along with some other great games.  https://steamcommunity.com/groups/6DOF

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-de … 0-6419795/

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