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How Focus Testing Turned Insomniac's Overstrike into Fuse (Video)

Lebneney

Banned
What a shame. I remember watching the Overstrike trailer and thought to myself, okay... this should be pretty fun. When I saw Fuse, I lost complete interest in it and to be honest the characters looked really boring and seemingly lifeless.
 

zsynqx

Member
I really wonder what Insomniac is working on now other than Ratchet. Maybe another Sunset Overdrive, but the Game Director on that game left the studio a couple of months ago and from interviews prior to release it appeared that was his "baby." They are making a VR game but I was under the impression that not all the studios resources were going towards that. Does anyone have any idea what else they may be up to?
 

Garlador

Member
I really wonder what Insomniac is working on now other than Ratchet. Maybe another Sunset Overdrive, but the Game Director on that game left the studio a couple of months ago and from interviews prior to release it appeared that was his "baby." They are making a VR game but I was under the impression that not all the studios resources were going towards that. Does anyone have any idea what else they may be up to?

Edge of Nowhere for the Oculus Rift
Edge of Nowhere
 
B0caj5xCQAMMkFf.jpg

I love this. A lot of times focus testing just leads to a game being as stale and generic as possible to try to appeal to as many people as possible.
 

Garlador

Member
So is that what the bulk of the studio is working on?

Doubtful. They're still working on Ratchet with the brunt of the studio, I wager, while also perhaps working with that upcoming film version coming out next year.

I'm sure they have something else in the pipeline, but they probably won't announce it for awhile.
 

Lime

Member
Wasn't the original trailer just something that Blur Studios did based on Insomniacs concept assets and not actually Insomniacs idea of the game's tone?

Sorry if it was talked about in the video, I'm on my phone
 
Wasn't the original trailer just something that Blur Studios did based on Insomniacs concept assets and not actually Insomniacs idea of the game's tone?

Sorry if it was talked about in the video, I'm on my phone

They actually had a working version of the game with that style, but it was changed because playtesters thought it was for kids

“The game started out with a much more stylized and campy direction. We were actually going for something on the level of Ratchet & Clank, except with humans,” Allgeier said. “Maybe it was going to appeal to gamers who, we thought at the time, might be in their late teens. The industry’s changed quite a bit… We would focus test the game in front of a lot of gamers, and get their opinion. These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox games. We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds. So we decided that we needed to make a game that had an older appeal.”

Allgeier later said that “that’s kind of the reason for the delay. It’s like moving the herd of elephants, or turning the ship. Just turning a massive ship into a different direction and charting a new course.”

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/28/always-independent-the-story-of-insomniac-games?page=7
 
There's a whole quest centered around killing the fuck out of a focus group (less sociopathic than it sounds) in Sunset Overdrive. Definitely still some bitterness there :p
 

Ithil

Member
They actually had a working version of the game with that style, but it was changed because playtesters thought it was for kids



http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/28/always-independent-the-story-of-insomniac-games?page=7

Amusingly enough this style of game appeals more to older players than the generic style they defaulted to does, the opposite of what they went for. It doesn't appeal to teens because teens are usually in that stage where they're afraid of being seen as 'kiddy" in any way.
 

Shredderi

Member
I was excited for the game after the initial reveal but couldn't give a fuck after the second reveal. What a shame. I'm gonna make a quess and say that Insomniac won't put too much stock in focus group feedback in the future. That decision failed them big time.
 

Garlador

Member
There's a whole quest centered around killing the fuck out of a focus group (less sociopathic than it sounds) in Sunset Overdrive. Definitely still some bitterness there :p

Sunset Overdrive has the spirit of Overstrike at least. Campy, colorful, over-the-top.

I really wish it had done better and launched a new franchise.
 

Z3M0G

Member
There's a whole quest centered around killing the fuck out of a focus group (less sociopathic than it sounds) in Sunset Overdrive. Definitely still some bitterness there :p

LOLOL seriously? haha if so this is great...

Now that they are working on a Ratchet & Clank movie-tie-in-remake, it really feels like they are back to doing what they were praised for... I hope their spirits are high. Because the last decade must have been pretty rough!

I still need to finish A Crack In Time... I'm not proud to admit that...
 
I'm pretty sure focus testing overall hated the ending of TLOU. Druckmann called them all peasants, gave them the finger and stuck to his guns to give me one of the best endings in a video game.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
I bet they are kicking themselves after seeing how successful a cartoony shooter can be like Team Fortress 2, Borderlands, and now the new hotness Overstrike. Two of which have a lot of blood and gore. It could have been beautiful.

I think they got the message now though. Even Uncharted seems slightly cartoony, especially with the colors.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
Sorry for the necro bump, but I was considering making a new thread:

Perhaps Insomniac should take another shot at Overstrike

Then I did a search, found this thread, watched the video, and realized that it would have been rather redundant...

My original thread was going to use the following points:

- BO3 campaign is making me miss playing FUSE, flawed game, but was FUN with friends! ...for a short while... until you quickly max out your skill tree and there is no reason to keep playing...
- return to original Overstrike concept, artstyle, and original characters
- don't pretend Fuse never happened, but rather learn from its mistakes!
- Larger skill tree
- Less focus on the specific weapons (FUSE was a bad idea to stick to)
- Let the scientist character be the creator of advanced tech, not Alien Magic
- Crafting system for gear, collect materials and allow the Scientist character to create new stuff or upgrade current gear (rather than using Loot drops and end up just being a Destiny clone)

But... the more I thought about the concept, the more I realize that it would be a nightmare to make this game stand out now against games such as Destiny... and there is still The Division, which I bet is a nightmare to get to market right now as well...

I didn't know this thread was a necro, then I found this as the necro post.

I loved the heck out of Resistance 2's Co op. Overstrike/FUSE was supposed to be something that could appeal to Resistance 2 Co op mode fans. I didn't play the CoD thing, but I get what's going on in it. I doubt Insomniac will make another shooter, but I really really loved Resistance 2 co op. Thanks for the good times Insomniacs, so good!

Resistance was the same as FUSE, easy to cap out the skill trees, nothing to do when you cap them, other than feel like you're stealing other people's progress (in R2 that is), by destroying everything. Getting the crazy scores at the end lose it's appeal, and then you stop playing. It's so fun when you're gaining upgrades and going against challenging stuff though.
 

VLiberty

Member
I bet they are kicking themselves after seeing how successful a cartoony shooter can be like Team Fortress 2, Borderlands, and now the new hotness Overstrike. Two of which have a lot of blood and gore. It could have been beautiful.

I think they got the message now though. Even Uncharted seems slightly cartoony, especially with the colors.

Fuse, as it was released, is still more cartoony than Uncharted imo. We're up there, for sure. I don't know why most people got the idea that Fuse is a monochromatic dudebro generic shooter, cause it's anything like that. It's very lighthearted and, surprisingly enough, a lot of locations are very colorful. I mean, this was quite great


That said, I liked much more Overstrike. The thing that got me the most was the fact that it reminded me of The Incredibles.
 

Garlador

Member
Fuse, as it was released, is still more cartoony than Uncharted imo. We're up there, for sure. I don't know why most people got the idea that Fuse is a monochromatic dudebro generic shooter, cause it's anything like that. It's very lighthearted and, surprisingly enough, a lot of locations are very colorful. I mean, this was quite great


That said, I liked much more Overstrike. The thing that got me the most was the fact that it reminded me of The Incredibles.

Fuse had a few areas that had some legitimate color and life to them... but even watching that video, 90% of it was in pretty drab, dark locations.

While stuff like this existed...

Far too much of it was a typical drab, muted color pallet like this:

Orange glows were the primary color in every area, and that got rough on the eyes after awhile, personally.

Again, personally, I'll take Overwatch's explosion of color and vibrancy.
Hnnngh, so good.
 

Ploid 3.0

Member
I wasn't comparing, but Uncharted games have a mix of cartoony and realistic, deliberately trying to avoid instances of uncanny valley as seen in that Medal of Honor game. Even Uncharted 4, it has more polygons yet they still seem to make it not look ultra realistic, but slightly cartoony, or a touch of caricature, though it could just be the saturated colors and the hand animation touch ups that compliments the motion captures.
bABF3Sj.jpg


TLOU http://i.imgur.com/ejSaxpU.jpg?1

Again, Uncharted games are very colorful, as are Ratchet and Clank games, Resistance had tweaks with it's colors during the development of R2 I believe. I remember complaints of color, and Insomniac releasing new pictures displaying the colorful maps. It seems like something Insomniac goes back and forward on with their shooters, wanting it to be very popular, and around the time of R2 which kinda ditched a big weapon wheel in favor of 2 weapons (Halo), added elements of CoD, and so on.

I really want ND to make another full cartoon game again to see how it would look.

And yeah, I remember some of FUSE had a lot of color.

Edit: Overwatch is like a explosion of skittles, so sweet, so good.
 
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