What will HTL do after TLD ?

[peteloud]

Recently, while waiting for the next new region in Survival, I have been playing a few other computer games.
 
Some of these games are brillant in many respects. The detailed countryside of Red Dead Redemption 2 and This Land is My Land is beautiful, if you have an expensive graphics card.  But I don't want to pay $500 for a graphics card to play a $50 game.

The social history of Assassin's Creed, Unity and Syndicate, with hundreds of people in the streets of revolutionary Paris or Victorian London is fascinating and very educational too. AC Valhalla is very good too.  They even play well on my AMD R7 360 graphics.  But after a while the games become just more and more of the same old thing. I checked out a few other survival games too, but they were disappointing.

In spite of its dated graphics, which is easily bettered in recent games, TLD is still my favourite game by a long, long way.  

I think that HTL has been very wise in its production of TLD. By not having high res. imagery and lots of characters with life-like moving faces, a relatively small, emerging game company has been able to produce a top-ranking game on a much lower budget.  Full marks to HTL for keeping the graphics simple. It was a smart business-like move.

I think that the success of TLD has been in HTL's attention to detail in the gameplay. Throughout TLD players must pay great attention to keeping warm, food, health, weaponry. If you don't, you die.  In so many of these other games food, clothing & warmth and even retrieving lost arrows is a mess and is done very badly. Playing TLD needs serious thinking about planning to cope with the harsh, pseudo-real conditions.  Alternatively, investigating and using spoiler websites, of which I diasapprove, presents an interesting but different challenge. I suspect that these challenges appeal to particular types of people, especially IT oriented people.

What now fascinates me is what will HTL do next. If/when HTL apply their skills to a new game with the latest graphics they could produce something unbelievably good.  I'd even buy a new graphics card for it.

What will HTL do next ?  

Edited November 3, 2021 by peteloud

[piddy3825]

@peteloud, are you on Steam?

Just curious cause I too have been changing up and checking out some other games whilst waiting for the new region to go live in Survival mode.  There's a ton of titles for under $20 USD that you might find interesting.  I just picked up Frozenheim which looks pretty promising for a Viking survival town builder kinda of game.  
I also picked up, The Forest, which I almost instantly took a dislike to.  Not sure what what put me off, but part was the controls and everything was too shiny due to the photo realistic aspect of the game and the objects in it.  You get accustomed to the beauty of TLD and its relative simplicity so it can be hard to remain objective when evaluating other games sometimes.  I get that.

I too am eager to see what Hinterland does next.  I just hope it doesn't take as long to bring about the 5th and final episode as it did for #4.  I am besides myself in anticipation of the final act.  It looks like it's gonna be amazing...

 

[Leeanda]

7 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

@peteloud, are you on Steam?

Just curious cause I too have been changing up and checking out some other games whilst waiting for the new region to go live in Survival mode.  There's a ton of titles for under $20 USD that you might find interesting.  I just picked up Frozenheim which looks pretty promising for a Viking survival town builder kinda of game.  
I also picked up, The Forest, which I almost instantly took a dislike to.  Not sure what what put me off, but part was the controls and everything was too shiny due to the photo realistic aspect of the game and the objects in it.  You get accustomed to the beauty of TLD and its relative simplicity so it can be hard to remain objective when evaluating other games sometimes.  I get that.

I too am eager to see what Hinterland does next.  I just hope it doesn't take as long to bring about the 5th and final episode as it did for #4.  I am besides myself in anticipation of the final act.  It looks like it's gonna be amazing...

 

I'd suggest having a look at Robin hood Sherwood builder! The graphics are stunning!

[odizzido]

I tried The Forest for like 30mins....I just didn't like it at all.

I hope hinterland does well. It seems that the company considers their employees to be human beings instead of meat to be pushed through a grinder. At least on the outside.

Either way I doubt I will be getting their next game. I don't like games with DRM so yeah.

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, odizzido said:

Either way I doubt I will be getting their next game. I don't like games with DRM so yeah.

You raise an interesting point about gaming in this digital age.   Not having to be dependent on the internet for game play makes a lot of sense.  Especially if you reside in an area where accessing the web may be problematic.  The only thing that I can say in support of Steam or entities like them, is that at least they are a digital repository for my 200+ collection of video games.  It does allow me to manage what titles inhabit the limited space on my SDD...

[ajb1978]

Personally I would like to see a medieval setting. Or at least 1800s, where the modern conveniences simply don't exist. Or if they do, they're considered cutting-edge science. Using cooking techniques like jugging or preservation techniques like potting to address long-term nutritional concerns. And where a simple deep puncture could lead to death simply due to lack of proper understanding of medical procedures or sterilization. Think Dungeons & Dragons except there are no potions, and where your remaining HP is literally your chance of recovery. Got 9/10 HP? There's a 10% chance you die from complications!

[odizzido]

5 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

You raise an interesting point about gaming in this digital age.   Not having to be dependent on the internet for game play makes a lot of sense.  Especially if you reside in an area where accessing the web may be problematic.  The only thing that I can say in support of Steam or entities like them, is that at least they are a digital repository for my 200+ collection of video games.  It does allow me to manage what titles inhabit the limited space on my SDD...

I buy almost all of my games on GoG. Mostly DRM free and it has my library of games just like steam but I can play them anytime.

The one thing valve is doing though is promoting linux. I plan on switching to linux soon so I may end up supporting valve/steam a little more because that has value to me.

[peteloud]

11 hours ago, odizzido said:

 . . I don't like games with DRM so yeah.

What is DRM ?

 

@peteloud, are you on Steam?

Yes.

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by peteloud

[A Lamp]

2 hours ago, peteloud said:

What is DRM ?

Digital Rights Management.

In a poor choice of words it's an aggressive forms of protection against piracy.

[Cr41g]

22 hours ago, peteloud said:

In spite of its dated graphics

 

I'm not sure I agree with this... the graphics aren't dated by any means. The game has been done in an art style reminiscent of the Group of Seven painters... which is about as Canadiana as you can get.. just because a game hasn't been created in a photo realistic style doesn't make it dated.

The Group of Seven

 

 

[ChillPlayer]

To answer the topics title, I don't know - probably no one outside HTL knows - but what I wished for is another survival game of some sorts. Either TLD(2) in the same style but in summer as it was once halfly planned or a complete overhaul with realistic graphics or something completely new. Some PVE-only, coop-free multiplayer survival game would also be cool, just to have the ability to meet other survivors ingame but still having to rely on myself to survive.

Whatever it will be, I would wish that there won't be a story mode, just sandbox and all resources being spent on delivering the best possible sandbox environment. The story episodes are fine and entertaining but they are like fast-food, quickly played through and quickly forgotten with little to no replay value. Which is sad for all the effort HTL has put into it. Sandbox on the other hand is a long lasting and ever rewarding experience, has huge replay value and can easily be kept fresh with constant updates, even years after it's release.

So to formulate it more clearly, I hope HTL works on TLD2 sandbox-only with 4 seasons and other survivors to meet but not fight or coop.

Edited November 4, 2021 by ChillPlayer

[Sir Major M.oos.E Sr.]

On 11/3/2021 at 2:14 PM, peteloud said:

What will HTL do next ?  

A sidescroller beat em up. No doubt no question. ☠️

[odizzido]

17 hours ago, peteloud said:

What is DRM ?

 

@peteloud, are you on Steam?

Yes.

 

DRM is what dictates when where and how you play a game. A Lamp is quite correct in saying it's aggressive. It routinely stops people who purchased software from actually using it. Personally I think companies like adobe should have to offer full refunds of software where they turn off their DRM servers but here in north america we lick the dog poo off the boots of big corporations and beg to be kicked.

[ajb1978]

16 hours ago, Cr41g said:

 The game has been done in an art style reminiscent of the Group of Seven painters...

From Milton Mailbag #31: "I wanted the world to feel like a moving watercolour painting, full of colour and beauty, and the art team has done a fantastic job of delivering on that."