Posted February 14, 2006 Crossbeam Studios Entertainment is a small group of independent developers who are currently working on a few titles: ‘Darkness’ is one such title, a tale of vampires over-running the world, and another is still unnamed. However, the studio’s main focus at this time is ‘Orb’, a game that they hope will be heading to the Nintendo Revolution. You can find Crossbeam Studios Entertainment’s official website on the link below; http://www.crossbeamstudios.com/ Orb is an action/adventure game that features RPG elements such as masses of customisation and an intrinsic plot. Crossbeam have been designing and testing the game for the best part of 5 years, and have finally decided that the game would be best suited to Nintendo Revolution, but unfortunately, they have yet to get a hold of a software development kit. They are ploughing on with a demo version for PC in the hope of attracting Nintendo's interest and admiration, as well as impressing publishers in the future to enable them to get a hold of an elusive SDK so that they might switch development over to Revolution. The team are confident that they could utilise just about any unique feature that Nintendo might throw at us with their new console. The storyline goes that there was a great war between two nations, Kulon and Delphire. Those from Kulon destroyed all, including women and children, and one of the fiercest warriors of their army decides to crown himself ruler of the land. From this position of power, he goes a bit ‘megalomaniac’ (to put it lightly) and decides that he wants to control absolutely everything about everybody’s lives, including their beliefs. To do this, one of the world’s Imanti, the ‘Guardians of Faith’, must be captured. However, it doesn’t go without a hitch – the Imanti that they abduct has three students, who are adamant that they will get him back. As is often the case, though, things are not all that they seem and things are a lot more complicated than they first appear… Orb promises at least 30 highly detailed main locations with over 70 interconnecting areas, along with detailed weapon and magic systems. There are to be 6 playable characters that can each wield one of five weapons, which in turn can all be customised into 15 separate forms. Of course, these characters are not the only ones to feature in the game – there are over 50 secondary characters and over 100 tertiary characters, too. A vast world history including culture, religion, magic and landscapes has also been written from scratch over a period of around 4 years - with this amount of detail, it’s no wonder that the game has received praise with a ‘Best In Class’ award during university, beating out 120 other projects due to quality of dialogue, characters and an abundance of creativity, even receiving a huge compliment in being compared to Nintendo’s own ‘Legend Of Zelda’ series. To show how much is going into the game, these beautiful pieces of concept art have been released. Click the thumbnails below to see the full-sized images. Character Artwork 1 Character Artwork 2 Character Artwork 3 Character Artwork 4 Character Artwork 5 Character Artwork 6 Character Artwork 7 Landscape Artwork 1 Landscape Artwork 2 As if that wasn’t enough, we also have an MP3 sample of some of the music in the game. Right click and ‘save as’ to download it and listen. Music MP3 Character Info: First Screenshot (presumably from the PC demo version); Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 It looks terrible. That 3D screenshot is nothing but a render picture - I bet there is no "engine" coded yet. Like usual only pretty drawings and nothing else. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 I think it looks alright so far,hope they get it published,its one im gonna watch for Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 I like what I'm hearing so far, lets see how it plays out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 if it playes as good as it sounds then i think it could turn out good. i mean 5 years is a long time. i dont like the artwork though, it seems unfinished, i dont know how but it just does to me. theres something wrong with them Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 if it playes as good as it sounds then i think it could turn out good. i mean 5 years is a long time. i dont like the artwork though, it seems unfinished, i dont know how but it just does to me. theres something wrong with them The artwork is a bit odd,for me its the eyes and chin that makes it look strange.Chins square-ish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 Yeah It doesn't look great; but it's another brand new developer who has chosen to support the Revolution! And no doubt they're supporting the Rev not just for its fantastic new capabilities, but because as Nintendo have said all along it will be a system that near enough anyone will be able to afford developing for; which means what Nintendo set out to do is working! I'm sure there's no way the developers could afford to bring this game to any other console Also the screen is only from an early PC demo, so if the game does go further and the developers spend 2 years or so developing the game on the Rev itself; it could turn out great! All the developers/games the better! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 Like usual only pretty drawings and nothing else. not even pretty drawings..................their, well, very avrage in fact, terrible :shock: and the story line realy isnt anything special.......from what im hearing at the moment.. please may the powers that stop this game right now. because i said already today i havent been let down with ninty, but that could change things. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14, 2006 Mm looks ok, not sure if i'd get it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 That doesn't sound or look very good We can't expect every small developer to be a wonderchild though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Why are you all bashing. They are some students/private delvelopers who made their first project! The scene looks nothing like rendered directly out of 3DS or maya... It looks like a gameengine, imo!!! They won a price for this project @ a university! Make it better and then start bashing! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Sorry, didn't see that. However, this won't make it to a professional quality game then. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 The graphics look like Everquest 2 graphics, wich isnt a bad thing i guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 I think anything good needs a lot of time not only in development but also in concept stage and with 5 years into it, there must be a lot of things thought out. While the storyline seems to be very standard the amount of characters and weapon system could be quite interesting (if it isn't too complicated). And any support for Revo is good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 "Crossbeam have been designing and testing the game for the best part of 5 years, and have finally decided that the game would be best suited to Nintendo Revolution." 5 years for a few drawings and one screenshot? Coincidence that all of a sudden many developers nobody ever heard of are jumping onto the Revolution train? Common sense tells me that this game won't be playable on anything but the developers mind if at all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Why are you all bashing. They are some students/private delvelopers who made their first project! The scene looks nothing like rendered directly out of 3DS or maya...It looks like a gameengine, imo!!! They won a price for this project @ a university! Make it better and then start bashing! I think anything good needs a lot of time not only in development but also in concept stage and with 5 years into it, there must be a lot of things thought out. While the storyline seems to be very standard the amount of characters and weapon system could be quite interesting (if it isn't too complicated). And any support for Revo is good.Finally!! Thankyou!!2 people that haven't just knocked the game based on first sight!! Support is support! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Looks like it has potential. Get them a publisher and make this game happen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 @Retro_Link: I am glad that you still can put so much faith into this project. I really envy you for that - but over the years I somehow more and more become pessimistic. And the whole project did not look very good to me at all. Come on which serious developer which is suppossed to be nearly finished with its work (5 years, engine, ...) has a PayPal link on its homepage which refers to some strange [email protected] adress? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Sounds interesting. And it doesn't look so bad imo. E3 will be exciting! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 @Retro_Link: I am glad that you still can put so much faith into this project. I really envy you for that - but over the years I somehow more and more become pessimistic. And the whole project did not look very good to me at all. Come on which serious developer which is suppossed to be nearly finished with its work (5 years, engine, ...) has a PayPal link on its homepage which refers to some strange [email protected] adress? LOL, I hadn't actually checked out their website! But that's just it; they aren't a serious developer and I think alot of people just aren't getting that! I don't really know what to make of the game, it could turn out to be terrible! At the moment it reminds me of Galleon in its early stage (when it was going to be released on GC aswell); that took about 5 years to be developed and was made by a relatively small team of developers I think. I don't think Galleon ended up selling well, but it was another game on the market, from a new developer (?), that then gives that developer experience and confidence to go on and try something else which could turn out much better! The most important part of this piece of news is that Nintendo's goal of offering a developer friendly system (that even the most inexperienced can develop for) is working! If Nintendo can get all this new support for their system now then hopefully it can be carried over to future systems and every now and again a new exclusive developer may come along (only capable of developing for the Rev) that creates something fantastic; which Nintendo could then buy into! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 From the looks of things, I've seen it all before, but I guess it's best to wait until more information is out, especially to why 'it's more suited for revolution'. Although, I do credit it for the background and lighting in that screenshot. Very nice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Why are you all bashing. They are some students/private delvelopers who made their first project! The scene looks nothing like rendered directly out of 3DS or maya...It looks like a gameengine, imo!!! Read their forums briefly and you'll discover it was just a model test. Hence rendered in a DCC program. They won a price for this project @ a university!Make it better and then start bashing! They apparently won prizes for the script, and nothing else. So no one has actually played this so called game in production except themselves. It looks like there actually isn't anything there to get excited about......I'm with system_error on this one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 Damn, if they won it for the script I could've won that as well Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 15, 2006 and if i had gone to the toilet for five years saving the load, well! bottom line is, better end product. wether or not this is not the end product of the game. even if they spent another 2 years on it with nitys backing their will be somthing far better out to play....its obsoleat before its time Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
