Retro Dungeon · 3D Realms
Didn't catch the showcase? That's alright. You can check out the latest trailer for Combustion above. Wishlist Combustion here . Follow 3D Realms on Twitter . Follow Slipgate-Ironworks on Twitter . Join the 3D Realms Discord . Join the RIPOUT Discord . Join the 3D Realms Subreddi
Didn't catch the showcase?
That's alright. You can check out the latest trailer for Combustion above.
Hello everyone! It’s me, Fredrik, director of Combustion back again for another pawgress report. Today I am going to highlight one aspect I am very proud of which is the signature look and vibe of Combustion. Let’s get into it, shall we? Atmosphere Combustion intends to have a da
Hello everyone! It’s me, Fredrik, director of Combustion back again for another pawgress report.
Today I am going to highlight one aspect I am very proud of which is the signature look and vibe of Combustion. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Combustion intends to have a dark atmosphere that permeates the city Norrune where the game takes place. It’s dark, industrial, but should also feel lived in and believable.
It is of course difficult to describe “atmosphere”, as it is more of a feeling and about the totality of sound, music, visuals and even mechanics. But what I find in development is that one informs another and everyone in the development team has an understanding of the atmosphere the game intends to have by just seeing or listening to the contributions of others. A very organic, living form of development I am happy to see build up the world over time.
To make the world feel just that much more real, there is a button dedicated to smelling.
(Atmosphere you can almost smell it. Calico can describe it to you)
Commuting through Norrune.
Norrune nightlife
One thing I feel gives life to a scene is to always have something “alive” about it. Even in a completely still location with no other people, there’s a gust of smog, a sparking fuse box, a billowing flag, a swarm of flies around trash. It’s a living concrete jungle, the city called Norrune.
(Music video)
The world of Combustion is inhabited by a variety of animal persons and takes place in a city made up of oil rigs. Questions quickly arise as you walk through the urban environments of this concrete jungle such as… how do these people live?
While the game never gets bogged down into specificities, the goal is to have things make sense with an underlying thread of logic. Little bits of scenery, conversation, advertisement, etc that helps sell the world as a real place.
Bathroom. Notice there are stalls, urinals and sinks in different sizes
Combustion feature 5 different toilets (Not counting the 3 different urinals)
The definition for good sci-fi worldbuilding is little cleaning robots to fill out the scene.
Tonally, Combustion is a colorful noir. It has the same degree of contrast and harsh shadows as the black and white cinematic classics such as “The Maltese Falcon” or “Sunset Boulevard”. The light (And subsequent lack of it) becomes not only a great way to highlight the important things of a scene, but becomes a visual metaphor for our characters’ state of mind. The changes and transitions in lighting are there to say something about what our character is feeling or thinking. It might not be the most realistic, but the game certainly has an elevated sense of reality about it at times.
Applying more modern lighting techniques with a modern game engine really helps make the game feel authentic, though it technically isn't. Its bloom and volumetric lighting really become something akin to watching one of the pre-rendered backgrounds of the era via a glowing CRT monitor.
Our lead character Calico is one with deep inner conflicts and who witnesses a great many things in the span of the game. In a lot of ways I feel the light, scenery and details that are given priority in the environment are in a way filtered or skewed in an emphasized way to really underline that we are seeing the world through his eyes.
And it's those eyes and the person attached to them we will be exploring in the coming updates as it is through Calico we experience the story. The world he sees, the people he knows and how he sees, listens, thinks, talks and walks through life should be an interesting thing to share next, so look forward to that.
You can say a lot with very little
While Combustion is a dark and gloomy setting, it actually uses a lot of color in its lighting
Volumetric and dynamic lighting
That’s it for the second development update. We’d love to hear what you think, what you want to know and what you want to see from the project in these updates.
And if you haven't done it already, don't forget to add Combustion to your wishlist!
Realms Deep is back, baby! On September 30th, you are cordially invited to a late-night talk show event featuring our beloved host, Jared R Bair. 3D Realms brings updates from numerous titles under their diverse portfolio, including Its highly anticipated classic RTS Tempest Risi
Realms Deep is back, baby! On September 30th, you are cordially invited to a late-night talk show event featuring our beloved host, Jared R Bair.
3D Realms brings updates from numerous titles under their diverse portfolio, including
Its highly anticipated classic RTS Tempest Rising, action-adventure FPS Phantom Fury, immersive sim Core Decay, sci-fi horror FPS RIPOUT, dark-fantasy FPS GRAVEN, dieselpunk action-rpg Combustion, Ion Fury’s Aftershock expansion, and maybe even an exciting surprise or two. Other developers and partners at this year’s Realms Deep include the return of New Blood Interactive, Running With Scissors, Slipgate Ironworks, HYPERSTRANGE, Dread XP, Hellforge Studios, Fulqrum, and Retrovibe, as well as THQ Nordic, Prismatika Games and many more, making their debut into the show!
And who knows, maybe there will be a few interviews? Maybe a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence.
WHERE: http://twitch.tv/3DRealms
WHEN: 8 PM CEST / 2 PM ET
Hey, everyone. A new soundtrack visualizer for Combustion just dropped. You can check it out below. And if you haven't wishlisted the game yet, you can do that here . And make sure to follow 3D REALMS on twitter .
Hey, everyone.
A new soundtrack visualizer for Combustion just dropped. You can check it out below.
And if you haven't wishlisted the game yet, you can do that here. And make sure to follow 3D REALMS on twitter.
It's our second Combustion visualizer, coming straight from composer Emperess Corp . "Midnight" - the perfect ambience for working the beat on the dismal Norrune streets. Wishlist Combustion here .
It's our second Combustion visualizer, coming straight from composer Emperess Corp. "Midnight" - the perfect ambience for working the beat on the dismal Norrune streets.
Wishlist Combustion here.
Hello everyone! My name is Fredrik , director of Combustion. A common question I get from people is “What is Combustion?”. That, dear reader, is something I hope to explain in these developer blogs. I think a good start to answer that question is to look at and explain how Combus
Hello everyone! My name is Fredrik, director of Combustion.
A common question I get from people is “What is Combustion?”. That, dear reader, is something I hope to explain in these developer blogs. I think a good start to answer that question is to look at and explain how Combustion started and what works inspire it.
The original idea for Combustion was literally to just make something with little low poly critters.
Even after technology pushed graphical fidelity into higher resolutions, my love for low poly graphics persisted. I still loved to see what people were doing on less powerful hardware such as the Nintendo DS, PSP and even smartphones.
I never grew out of that look.
The one thing I wasn’t sure of was the theming. Being into pen-and-paper role-playing (nerd), I defaulted to a fantasy/medieval theme at the time. It didn't take long before I decided to explore other themes and settings that I enjoy rather than resting within my fantasy world comfort zone.
This time in development was great for developing the necessary skills in low poly modeling and texturing.
I decided to make the game’s setting a more contemporary one, instead. I also decided I would do one in a style I feel that’s often neglected (and hard to nail down) called “Dieselpunk”. There are a variety of “punk” genres, the two most popular being steampunk and cyberpunk. Roughly speaking they are defined as exaggerations of the Victorian era and the not-too-distant-future.
Dieselpunk to me is decidedly 20th century and features exaggerated technology, but through a more contemporary filter. It sits in the middle between the two styles in time.
The initial idea was for the game to take place in the 1930s until eventually I settled on something that took place in the 90s. “Develop what you know”.
The initial design for Calico was a black cat, but that was changed after it became clear that a black cat would be really hard to see in dark environments, something the dieselpunk aesthetic has a lot of. The calico fur-pattern, with its black, red and whites, ensures the character always has low, high and mid tones.
The police theme was inspired by games like Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid and even Batman.
Stories of high ranking agents, vigilante detectives and military special ops are fun and interesting, but I wanted something more down-to-earth so I put my character Calico to the pavement and gave him the City Norrune as his beat to walk.
Once the time had been picked, the pieces began to fall into place. Being a low poly game set in a fictional, exaggerated 1997 opened my mind to have a game inspired by all of my favorite games from that video game era. The Playstation-era of games features a multitude of games with a darker visual tone. Games such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2 and Oddworld all encapsulate dark and industrial looks that you really didn’t see a lot of in the 16-bit era.
My goal with Combustion has always been to create something that is in the spirit of the era, yet wholly unique. As such its inspirations are many and I enjoy being a bit of an alchemist with those influences, conscious or otherwise. A good example of this would be Calico’s uniform, whose tailor obviously has been to Raccoon City, Shadow Moses and Midgar.
With a camera style like Metal Gear Solid, dieselpunk aesthetic like that in Final Fantasy 7 and Oddworld, and the constrained exploration and interactions like the original Deus Ex (And much, much more) I hope that Combustion will be an interesting experience.
The dark PS1 aesthetic also helped decide the theme of fire in Combustion
The game has seen many varied experiments in gameplay during development. A fun fact is that the game initially had combat similar to that seen in Punch-Out purely due to the fact that it would avoid the challenge of developing AI that moves through a 3D environment.
What Combustion is now and how it plays I think will be very interesting. Now the game is fully-realized with moving characters, jump mechanics, exploration, NPC interactions, RPG mechanics and novel interactions. Basically, all the things I always wanted this game to have. I’ve even been able to realize the smallest ambitions, like giving the game a dedicated smell-button. As these dev logs go on, I’d be happy to share more of the game’s core mechanics and some interesting traits.
Don’t forget to wishlist Combustion, follow us on social media for more updates to come.
That’s it for now! I’ll see you in the next update!
- Fredrik S
Greetings, lovely people. Fredrik Strøm (Littlenorwegians) speaking here. I’m the director and creator of Combustion and I will be the one writing these update posts during the game’s development. It's come a long way since I was a solo developer. After joining forces with 3D Rea
Greetings, lovely people.
Fredrik Strøm (Littlenorwegians) speaking here. I’m the director and creator of Combustion and I will be the one writing these update posts during the game’s development.
It's come a long way since I was a solo developer. After joining forces with 3D Realms, the team has expanded; I am happy to announce that starting from March, I will be working on Combustion full time.
It’s been a while since we opened this Steam page and released our FAQ page. The response has been absolutely fantastic and we’re very excited about going into next year in full production to make Combustion everything it can be.
Your support really does mean a lot.
AI is the latest and greatest push to get the core mechanics of Combustion ready. The game will have a responsive and reactive AI-system to really play to the strength of a game with immersive sim qualities. Characters will react and engage in a believable manner. Civilians will flee, enemies will call for backup, firefighters will fight fire, etc.
There will be many types and all will take part in an allegiance system
Allies (Police, EMTs, Firemen)
Enemies (Criminals, robots, gang members)
Neutrals (Civilians)
There will also be a feral state living NPCs can enter, where they become enemies with and to everyone nearby. Very excited to showcase this in the coming development updates.
Combustion has a mission-based structure. Meaning you select main and side-missions from a menu. But in-between these levels, key areas of Norrune will be open for you to explore. This is where you’ll talk to NPCs, shop around, interact with the world and see how the city is doing.
Since Realms Deep a lot of work has been put into building these environments.
Benjamin has joined the Combustion team to make quality sounds to bring the world alive.
He’s done a lot of good work already and we’re convinced he’ll deliver the best!
Here he is recording sound on the project Call of Saregnar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdVo1kglYWY
We wish a very warm welcome to a new member on the team, Isabella. She’s just joined the project and will be doing lots of work involving characters, props and so on. Here’s an example with her first piece for one of the NPC types in the game, the oil rig mechanic.
That’s it for the first of many coming development updates. We’d love to hear what you think, what you want to know and what you want to see from the project in these updates.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2145090/Combustion/
What is Combustion? Combustion is a 3D Action RPG with mild immersive sim elements. In this game you play as police constable Calico who has to maintain order in a wild world where every person is an animal. You’ll be making arrests, conducting interrogations, following clues and
Combustion is a 3D Action RPG with mild immersive sim elements. In this game you play as police constable Calico who has to maintain order in a wild world where every person is an animal. You’ll be making arrests, conducting interrogations, following clues and performing emergency services, all in an effort to quell a growing chaos.
The year is 1997 and Norrune, the city of oil rigs, is in trouble.
A great war has ended and so has the world's dire need for oil, Norrune's chief export.
Rising tensions and a struggling economy has naturally led people to protest, riot and some, turn to crime.
You play as officer Calico, a rookie cop with a harsh upbringing, trying his best to bring some order and stability to a dire situation.
He's also trying to do the same with his own fractured life.
In the midst of this chaos rises a figure named Scorch, whose ritualistic assassinations and speeches frighten many and inspire some to want to see the whole city burn down. All in an attempt to end the unnatural way of industrialized lives people are currently living.
Calico must do all he can, along with his colleagues and friends, to stop Scorch, chaos and any criminal elements. The thin line between order and chaos must not be broken.
He must not let the fire that keeps him going to die out, nor let wild emotions of others burn the city down along with its people.
Combustion’s development started with Fredrik Strøm (Littlenorwegians) and his company Retro Dungeon. The game was later picked up by the publisher 3D Realms. This is when the team size grew to a small team of up to 10 people working on the project in some form.
We don’t have any plans for a Multiplayer mode right now.
Our current plan is to release the game on PC (Windows). We will consider other platforms later on.
4-5 hours normal gameplay with additional playtime via optional missions and side content.
No, we are aiming for a full release.
We are currently targeting to release the game in 2023. Once we have a more precise release date, we will inform everyone through the Steam News.
We haven’t decided about the price yet. We will announce it as we get closer to the release date of the game.
We have not decided yet about the exact list of supported languages, but our plan is to localize the game in various languages when it launches.
Thank you! You can support us by adding Combustion to your Steam Wishlist, and by spreading the word around about our game!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2145090/Combustion/
From the bygone days of 1997, Combustion is a dieselpunk Action RPG inspired by classics of the PSX-era. As rookie cop Calico, you must restore order as a mastermind serial-killer sends a wave of terror across the city. WISHLIST NOW ON STEAM!
From the bygone days of 1997, Combustion is a dieselpunk Action RPG inspired by classics of the PSX-era. As rookie cop Calico, you must restore order as a mastermind serial-killer sends a wave of terror across the city.
WISHLIST NOW ON STEAM!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2145090/Combustion/