ville.monkkonen: (...) you're probably right about the increased requirements and the graphics comparisons. Although it's mostly a matter of opinions which ones are better. (...)
But honestly, if you're playing Driftmoon, you're probably not going to do it to see the fancy graphics. :)
(...) but the real deal with the Enchanted Edition is the half a years work we did with the game content, which we thought was the most important thing here, and we're eager to hear what you think of it!
Hello ville.monkkonen, dear developer!
Thank you for your response and your own personal opinion on the subject I brought up!
Just for anyone's information, I am still enjoying and frequently playing old and even relative "early" 3D games, such as Neverwinter Nights and Dungeon Siege--even prefering the first titles over their sequels. The first Gothic is one of my favourites until today. And those do not shine neither with highly detailed 3D models or environments nor high resolution textures!
Of course, it is a matter of opinion. And that is what I intended to express.
After your confirmation regarding some of the graphical adjustments of the enchanted edition, I watched more gameplay videos on youtube of the new enchanted edition and five to six year old footage from the original version from game start until parts of the elder tomb dungeon.
I skipped the story parts (dialogue content & decisions) and tried to not get spoilered too much. So far, I really like the gameplay and the amount of environmental details despite the engine limitations!
Unfortunately, I could find only one gameplay footage of the enchanted edition, which is confirmed to be played on the PC instead of mobile platform. Hence, I acknowledge that it is a very limited source for comparison, and that I do not know of the hardware setup nor of the chosen or even available game settings. (In his first three videos the person shows only the keyboard layout tab of the ingame options.)
Nevertheless, do I want to report some more of my observations (and ask you some more questions) to explain, why I think that in my opinion the presentation of the original game is more charming and more appealing to me than the one of the enchanted edition:
- 1.) I already mentioned the overall lighting in the scenes in my former post, put want to address another detail observed besides the implementation of more binary and therefore inferior shadows and the "overexposure" in the newer version.
=> What happened to the day-night cycles? Is this feature not implemented anymore in the enchanted edition, or is there an option that merely disables it?
(The few gameplay footages of the enchanted edition--the one on PC as well as a couple on mobile devices do not show it.)
- 2.) I agree with you about the improved geometry of the palm trees and their foliage. However, I prefer the (sorry for the lack of a better word here) more "original" look of the ones in the original game version. They have a kind of originality, and I do like both the partial transparency and, especially, the little swinging animation, which the new ones do not have.
- 3.) Another thing that hampers for me the overall impression of the scenes' atmosphere in the new enchanted edition are the missing roof tops of the buildings--they are always / permanently culled out (or not even rendered at all)!
In the footage of the original game there are roof tops that fade in and out depending on the position of the player with respect to the building.
- 4.) Further differences are some missing or relocated interior details, such as missing wall tissues or curtains in the dining hall and the ground carpet in front of the bed of the bedroom within the first building after returning from the well.
And, more importantly to me, the lack of the ground covering fog effect in the running traps chamber within the elder tomb. (Which I consider a huge loss of atmospheric detail and more so, when combined with the more binary, pitch black shadows.)
- 5.) I apologize for pointing out even more things, but the water animation at the river beds or beach areas looks more convincing in the original version, as well. In the enchanted edition the anchor points for the "sea" / water level animation seem to be too close to each other, maybe too regularly and the animation cycle is a little too fast, too--resulting in an awkward, unconvincing oscilation effect of a "stationary wave". In the original version the water level seem to me to rise and smooth out more "authentically".
- 6.) Although, I do like the change in text font for dialogues and notes / books to a more elaborate one (while still readable, also thanks to obviously scaling text sizes), I prefer the philosophy and implementation of the dialogues in the original game. The difference is, that in the original the bottom part of the screen shows the dialogue and fantastic portraits in a black box (similar to other classic roleplaying games) while maintaining a larger view of the surroundings and actual characters in the 3D game world. The new enchanted edition on the other hand replaces this with a fullscreen semi-transparent dark dialogue box, covering the entire scene (which a "softening" dithering filter is being applied to in the background) and adding a very tiny zoomed-in cut-out of the 3D character you are talking to and of its proximity, which is merely in the size of the portrait image and seemingly right beneath of it. I do not know, but it feels redundant, even inferior (in its implementation) and highly "immersion" breaking to me.
- 7.) And finally, for the time being, I hope that the constant colored text-overlay for highlighting interactable objects and items to pick-up can be toggled on and off in the enchanted edition's option menu!
While watching higher video resolution footage on youtube I did recognize, that the new enchanted edition kept intact the way more subtle little blinking star highlights on items to be picked up from the original version! These are actual enough in my opinion.
This subtle direction towards items and no constant name display (nor colored outlines [as in some other games]) for interactable objects allow for more exploration and thus, the great sensation of satisfaction when discovering something by your own. By the way from the little I watched, I could see, that you "teach" or lead the player towards the experimentation with a new interactable object by introducing them within the player's path anyway.
The blatant and permantent display of colored object and item names is totally "immersion" breaking for me!
It reminds me more of the loot-hunting (/ "click-fest") action games similar to the Diablos, Titan Quest and alike, which focus almost entirely on large floods of enemies and collecting rare item drops. From what I got, Driftmoon does not fit into the category of such kind of games, and does not even want to. It is instead much more story and adventure-like puzzle focused!
=> So, please, if it is not already implemented, allow the player to toggle this feature on and off in the ingame options--preferable even with a hotkey button to switch the option quickly during gameplay, like the hotspot function in more "modern" point & click adventures. This way it could satisfy both player types and still prevent constant overlooking or "pixel-hunting" by players.
I think that I do get how much effort and work went into both the original Driftmoon game and its recent port as enchanted edition in a new game engine for multiple platforms! And in no way I want to diminish your work, dear developer. It clearly is a passion product. I have high respect for someone like you and your wife to create and continuously support your game.
For sure there are some tradeoffs to be considered from the technical or even financial perspective.
Still, I came to the conclusion that I without doubt prefer the presentation and "feel" of the original version and currently am only interested in buying the game, if and when the install file(s) for the most recent original version (v.1.016g according to GOG.com game forum) are being made available again as download for customers of the Driftmoon Enchanted Edition.
The aspect of the excluding change in system compatibility towards 64Bit-only operating systems, as mentioned by the user AstralWanderer, can be added to my reasons for wishing for the original game version in parallel to the newer one!
=> Maybe some of my remarks regarding the version differences could be implemented additionally in the enchanted edition (if not already available) as option to be toggled between new and old version by the player. But I would understand, if that would exceed beyond what you intend or are able to invest further into this product, and would rather continue with a completely new product.
Thank you for your attention! And I apologize, if anything of what I have written on behalf of your creation seem to be offensive.
As soon as I can have my own first-hand experience on both Driftmoon versions here from GOG.com, I report back to you with my feedback!
Kind regards,
foxgog
P.S.: Maybe, just maybe, it was the initial (or former) Driftmoon cover image here on GOG.com that let it slip through my attention in the past. Because its layout and color scheme with a foto-like illustration of what seems to represent your wife seemed more akin to the image style in covers of Hidden Object Games, such as from "Artifex Mundi" and others. The current cover since the enchanted edition gives me a much better fairy tale & adventure feel instead. So, a commendable change, I think!
