Canceled Conan singleplayer game

No RPG elements? It probably goes here!
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rusty_shackleford
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Canceled Conan singleplayer game

Post by rusty_shackleford »

Was reminded of this when reading a post here. There was a single player Conan game being worked on at Funcom that was shown off by one of the developers, and was since canceled. There's a gameplay video of it buried inside a very long video about REH.

~28:30 if the timestamp doesn't work on your end. Enjoy.
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rusty_shackleford
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

If you're wondering how they got so much of the game up & running in 6 months, it's based on the same codebase as Conan Exiles:
Image

'ConanSandbox' is the same name used for Conan Exiles game directory.
Later in the video you see them pull up the admin menu, it's the same one used for Conan Exiles.
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KnightoftheWind
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Post by KnightoftheWind »

The codename was literally "Steinberg" lol. Not sure if I like what they were doing, as a lot of it seems to have that slow-walking "cinematic" game flair that I absolutely hate.

It does show that there is a lot of unexplored potential with the Conan brand in video games that has yet to even be attempted. All this technology at our disposal, yet all we get is live service, mass produced tripe.
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Post by rusty_shackleford »

KnightoftheWind wrote: March 30th, 2023, 02:26
The codename was literally "Steinberg" lol. Not sure if I like what they were doing, as a lot of it seems to have that slow-walking "cinematic" game flair that I absolutely hate.

It does show that there is a lot of unexplored potential with the Conan brand in video games that has yet to even be attempted. All this technology at our disposal, yet all we get is live service, mass produced tripe.
'Steinbit'

Also, check near the end of the video, they planned on adapting stuff that usually never gets touched on by Conan adaptations.
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KnightoftheWind
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Post by KnightoftheWind »

"Steinbit"?, must have misheard then. Well ambition is one thing, but designing a fun game is another. When I saw the footage it reminded me of basically every AAA game made in the 2010s. The same third person view, the same sort of art style and visual design. It gave me the unshakeable impression of "been there, done that". I think the best time for a Conan game was in the early 2000s, right when graphics were getting really good but developers were still trying different things.

But for now, the best "Conan"-esque game is probably Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder. Nice art style, fun hack and slash gameplay, but left abandoned on the arcades. Never to be ported or remastered.
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Post by wndrbr »

For me, the game that got closest to Conan stories was Blade of Darkness. It may not be a direct adaptation, and it was very light on story (you just progress from one level to another while chopping up enemies to bits), but they nailed the vibe.

The cancelled Conan game sounded really cool on paper (i.e. when I read Bylos' post), but the actual gameplay video was pretty disappointing. It looked like your typical run on a mill Sony game.
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Post by Gregz »

I have a lot of love for REH and his Conan stories, but games are not the same medium as film or short stories. Cinematics are a surefire way to disengage the player from your game, especially a Conan game. The key attribute of Conan is his intensity. Cinematics are not only boring, they remove the sense of immediacy and agency from the player, which is the last thing you want to do in a game like this. A Conan game should allow me to feel like this guy:

Image

If I can't play that guy then I'm just another NPC. I have the same problem with Star Wars or Dune games. If you're not playing the Mary Sue then you're just another extra in their universe, and like @KnightoftheWind says upthread, a "been there, done that" feeling is the exact opposite of what you want to create for the player in a Conan game.

The more I think on it, the more I believe a Jedi Knight-style treatment would be better for this. The game should be fast, and Conan should be extremely agile with superhuman abilities, because that's essentially how he's drawn in the original stories. All of the "realistic physics" crap from a legacy engine destroys that possibility from the outset.
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Shillitron
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Post by Shillitron »

A Single player conan would of been amazing although this demo is kinda meh.

Climbing was not available for many months (year+ ?) in Conan Exiles..
There is a climbing system in this single player demo..

Both systems are completely different.. this one seems to lock you to ledges and acts like Assassin's Creed. The one in Conan Exiles is far more free form / simple and lets you climb any non-damaging material.. Was this changed for simplicity of a surival game or because of latency issues?

EDIT:

When they originally discussed Conan Exiles they never mentioned it being based on a failed single player game.
Funcom is very ROI focused.. they are not considered a very profitable company. Maybe this game was considered too expensive and was only justifiable to money crunchers as a survival game (hoping to capture rust market share)
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Emphyrio
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Post by Emphyrio »

That's fine. Conan as a character is not very exciting a hundred years on. There's not really anything he has that any RPG ripoff barbarian doesn't.
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