Penumbra (The Hatch) Demo Released!

[Julio Jerez]

Ahh this is very cool.
How you get a game to be listed in Gamespot, do they pick and choose or do you have to submit it?

[Yezide]

No idea actually It just popped up there, we never submitted it.

[Julio Jerez]

I was reading more, and I see it is kicking ass everywere.
congratulations.

you were saying that the game was not good enought to be even be a finalist. I would i like to meet the judges.
I guarantee you that this is not a credible and honest organization, more likely it is one of does corructed self serving group where the winners are already selected. Boy you will be surprice how many they are floating around.
I bet you they most be kicking themself in the ass now, what a blonder.
To win on those so call context you have to be a big contributor or paid a hefty adveticement.
Maybe the best thing that it happen to you was not to win after all, and win the public

I see that almost 100% of people are given 4 and 5 start, and there is always acasional renegate fanatic that gives 1 (maybe the same judges of the context)

[Yezide]

Yeah that competion was kinda *, but it learned us the valuable lesson that you shouldn't let a few people crush your dreams by saying your stuff is no good.

And talking of gamespot, Penumbra is on gamespy aswell now

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/718/718272p1.html

Man, this last month has really been something We where about to give up on the game and just sent it out some some websites for fun. After it got on Megagames all hell broke loose The school servers we hosted it on kinda crashed and was unaccessable for all other students and Megagames own server almost went down as well

Now just 3 - 4 weeks (can't recall ) after it was first posted on mega games we have over 100 000 downloads over the net Really fun I must say.

[Dr_D]

Wow! Congrats man. That's one hell of an accomplishment, as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't really suprise me though. That game is really neat.

[Julio Jerez]

Wow they really like it, check out this:

Penumbra
Frictional Games
License: Free
...
Scarier than F.E.A.R. and more realistic than Half-Life 2, this independently created title is not to be played in the dark.
...

The proprietary 3D engine looks as good as anything commercially available (except for some flashing textures on my Radeon X1900-based graphics card), and the physics are so realistic that most of the puzzles are based on moving stuff around with a unique, hand-based, interactive cursor. A sleek production by a small team, Penumbra looks, sounds and feels like something you could buy off the store shelves.

The reviewer named names, this is going to create some swelling and controversy on some commercial middleware companies for sure. I take it as an accomplishment in some ways.

My friend I think you already had created enough noise that some big publishes will be looking at your company or team. If you play your cards right I think we are witnessing the birthday of a new household name in the industry.

Yeah that competion was kinda *, but it learned us the valuable lesson that you shouldn't let a few people crush your dreams by saying your stuff is no good.

This is so right according to some of the die-hard fanatics an self appointed experts on some forums, Newton is just a piece of inferior software that not body should even look at.
Not only have they discontent for it, they make extraordinary efforts to prevent other people from using it.

Just member us the poor people when you are rich and famous

[Haddd]

The gameplay is really amazing!!!

[Sury]

Hey man, congrats !
I'm really pleased that your game got so much attention, because it means that if 'no one" makes something cool, they can become "someone", and that gives a big impetus to indie developers like us.
Thanks for proving it's possible !

[MiggyE]

From another review:

http://news.soft32.com/penumbra-review_1790.html

In conclusion: Best free game I have ever seen. This game is an example for the big publishers that are throwing huge sums of money in developing always the same commercial trash.

Pluses: really amazing physics engine (try to pick up a bucket, you will have the impression of having it picked up by yourself); good graphic effects like bloom or blur;

Hooray for indie development!

[Yezide]

Thanks for all the kind words

WE are no on the fileplanet.com main page as well Too bad they don't have link to our homepage though, o well can't have it all

[CarlKenner]

Can you NOT make a Hebrew translation of Penumbra.

Hebrew is only spoken in Israel, and then only as a second language.

Israel is under an international boycott due to its apartheid regime and occupation of Palestine, the same as South Africa was.

Not to mention Israel's recent attrocities against Lebanon. It would be highly inappropriate to create a Hebrew translation in the current situation, as suggested on your forums. That would be an endorsement of genocide.

(I tried to post this request on its forum's hebrew translation thread, but a racist moderator deleted it and banned me.)

[Twixn]

I'll say it again , I think its awesome.

Its good to something indie of this quality, and its good to see it
recognized. Well done, I could only hope that my indie projects
get as much attention (when they are this mature).

Although, I find it annoying that Newton is thought to be 'inferior'.
So many things I should say, but I will keep the fanboy quiet.

-Twixn-

EDIT: Removed some of my post, I shouldn't react to flamebait.

[Dr_D]

That makes me wonder... Did you guys write the shader code also? And which method did you use for shadow casting?

[Yezide]

Dr_d:
Written all shadercode etc by myself. Game uses a stencil shadow volumes, with some modifications to suppoer non closed meshes.

[Yezide]

I hope u don't think I am bragging too much but this was just too cool.

Scan from PC Gamer (US version I think):

http://www.uploadfile.info/uploads/b04e9b1c6e.jpg