Hi Bryan, I'm really pleased that you've decided to make the games as a series of complete games rather than as parts - all too often you've forgotton the story by the time the next part comes (if it comes at all!) I really liked the integration of the FMV characters & enjoyed the story immensely. I'm sorry that there were so many negative comments. It might have helped to have had the ingame map 'updated' as you discovered rooms/items etc as navigation was obviously the major issue but I'm so glad I persevered with it!

I'll say this, it's the best FMV I've seen. The problem for me was navigation. I look forward to seeing what you've done with Relics 2.

Gil.

Becky,

Honestly, it's production budget coming into play again. If we were a big studio with a real budget, we would have had a sound stage built for the game, or at the very least, picked an ideal place to shoot, not been at the mercy at who will let us. While this school was interesting from the perspective of it being a combinations of several experimental architectures, it became frustrating for making sense of navigation. Even being IN the building you had a tough time figuring out where you were and where you wanted to go.

And, of course, the janitorial staff literally moving everything around every day didn't help. It threw off days of work because we had to move things back to make them consistent. And even with our efforts, it bugs me to find so many inconsistencies in the game!

With Relics 2 we went in burned by the lessons learned from the first experience. So while I can say shooting live footage with actors presents many challenges, I can't say any medium is perfect. In 3-D your quality is limited to your budget (or the talent of your volunteer contributors). Spending the same amount of money on actors as you would an animator for 3D characters would give you two different results, the FMV will have a half dozen or more live actors with lots of cut scenes while a 3D version will give you one or two characters in limited cut scenes.

When all's set and done I do find FMV facinating as I feel it really puts you "there" as a player. Unless 3D is done to a hollywood level, there's a disconnect, you're reminded they're 3D models, not people. That's not to say I'm knocking 3D, it's just the ups and downs of FMV vs 3D is a topic I could talk about all day

-Bryan

Hi Bryan --

It's intriguing to hear some of the "making of Relics" details! More cutscenes with "real live" characters is a good trade-off, IMHO.