Where did the beautiful trees go?

Since a picture (or in this case, a video) paints a thousand words, take a look at the prototype footage of TLD on youtube:

So in short i'm wondering - what happened to those beautiful trees? After seeing these i kinda whish we had them ingame...

For that matter, what ever happened to the Northern Lights?

I actually prefer the way the trees look now. They may not be perfect but I think it's prettier and they look more fleshed out to me. I could do with a bit more variety in trees, though. I love seeing the occasional birch trees and the newish birch bark.

But +1 missing the aurora borealis! I'd love to see that! Maybe not exactly the way it looks in the early game, but I'm sure they could do it beautifully. Not like I need any more reasons to get distracted gazing at the night sky.

Full person animation for eating and various actions?

I forgot that promise, is this going to happen?

There even seemed to be more voice acting than we have now and that wolf appeared to be more life-like than anything I have seen for quite some time in TLD.

Fairly certain those trees are standard Unity assets. At any rate, we chose to go with a more distinct art style that was unique to our game.

As for the first person animations, I'm not sure I'd call that a "promise", but I do note that he mentions it in the video. It's also worth noting that we've discussed hands and first person animations a couple of times in the past, and have opted not to include them for now, as we now feel they could potentially drastically change the way the game looks and feels. Additionally, creating that animation at this point in time seems less essential than building and refining the more crucial elements of the game. I cannot say with certainty whether we will end up deciding to include these things in the future.

Bottom line here is that this is essentially a prototype video from two years ago. A lot has changed since then, and will continue to change in the future. Some things you see will eventually be included (aurora), and others might not. We definitely appreciate all of the support along the way.

"In the final game we'll have full first person animations for these actions."

Well it doesn't sound like a pinky swear, but it really does sound like something that will happen.

It's certainly more than just mentioning it.

When you say that you have "opted not to include them for now", just how far does this "now" reach?

Is that for the final game?

For the next 6 months?

2 years?

I cannot say with certainty whether we will end up deciding to include these things in the future.

Sorry to say I've shared all of the information I have for now. I chose the wording I did because I do not know long-term goals and intentions regarding these items. Just want to be clear about that to avoid confusion or speculation =)

I actually prefer the way the trees look now. They may not be perfect but I think it's prettier and they look more fleshed out to me. I could do with a bit more variety in trees, though. I love seeing the occasional birch trees and the newish birch bark.

yeah thats one of the things i'd like to see. one of the early trailers "How far would you go..." while there was only two tree models, there was a sense of underbrush i'd like to see in the game, not everywhere, but in some locations, it could make hunting and avoiding wildlife more interesting.

only on mystery lake, seriously some of those trees that are on the mountains and around the lake, could use some rotation or some variability in size. you might not see it up close, but when you take a step back you can see that you'll have groups of trees all with the same orientation.

I cannot say with certainty whether we will end up deciding to include these things in the future.

Sorry to say I've shared all of the information I have for now. I chose the wording I did because I do not know long-term goals and intentions regarding these items. Just want to be clear about that to avoid confusion or speculation =)

I think that's a sad precedence (or maybe it's not even the first time this happened), because things that we were told will be in the final product, may never actually see the day of light.

And that's not because they turned out to be too difficult to make but because someone changed their mind.

Some things you see will eventually be included (aurora)

YES!

Cool, hadn't seen that old video before. I like how the wolf stalked the player then. I guess a game is a complex thing to create. So it seems natural that you make some changes to your original concept on the way. Interesting.