Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

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Tchernobog
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Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by Tchernobog »

So it looks like Postal III is dead in the water. Akella, the publisher, has fired the main development team at Trashmasters and is refusing to let RWS update the game, remove the caustic DRM, release the SDK, or allow anyone do any Linux/Mac/Console ports. Vince Desi himself has admitted that Postall III "still does not work" and now it appears that there is very little they can do about it.

I wrote a little postmortem about the situation (with developer quotes) on another forum:
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php? ... #post-4026

The good news is that RWS is looking to the future, and so far the most promising idea is for making a new Postal 1 remake. Since RWS basically has no funds, they are thinking about going the Kickstarter route, especially after all of the buzz generated recently over Double Fine, the new Leisure Suit Larry game, and Wasteland 2. You can find more information about the idea on my postmortem.

If you think this is a good idea, please comment so on this forum thread:
http://runningwithscissors.com/main/ind ... 855#msg855

If they get enough encouragement they will be more likely to start the ball rolling.
Last edited by Tchernobog on Tue Jul 10, 2012 06:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by Tchernobog »

So I bought the new Linux builds for Postal and Postal 2 off Desura while they were on sale:
http://www.desura.com/company/running-w ... sors/games

I am quite happy with the quality of the new build compared to the one I was previously playing, as a lot of little things such as level load times are working better and the music in certain locales (mall, club, police station, etc) are now working. I am currently working on getting some of the mods working with it.

I am also enjoying playing the original Postal more than I thought I would, though it is a bit irritating that it is hardset to be 640x480 and as such messes with my desktop icons (though that is as much Xfce's fault as the games).

At any rate, while RWS has basically backed away from the Kickstarter idea, they are still interested in doing a "reimagining" of the original Postal with more modern technology. I am currently pushing for them to use Unity for it now that it is finally getting Linux support and since they are also very intereted in porting the game over to mobile devices.

And a little more has come out about the Postal III debacle, or as they are calling it now, the "Russian Postal spin off" out of frustration:
http://runningwithscissors.com/main/ind ... opic=292.0
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by BEAST »

I still don't know how RWS could have screwed up PIII. The Source engine seemed like an inspired move (even though they could have still given the Unreal technologies a chance). I looked at videos of the game, and it seems that the only problems were the third person camera and the absence of free-roaming gameplay in favor of mission-based restrictions. Maybe the third person gameplay wouldn't have been so bad if the PIII stuck with the structure of PII. Still, there were a lot of wasted opportunities by not making it first-person, and the game might have benefitted from immersive scripted sequences a la HALF-LIFE combined with the freedom of PII.

I've only managed to play the POSTAL games recently (including isometric POSTAL 1). I think POSTAL 1 deserves to be remade as a mod for POSTAL 2. P1 seems like it's darker than PII, though both games share the same main voice actor. The first game's version of the narrator kept talking about the "Hive Queen" being responsible for the crazy people coming after him, and the for the people he believes should be destroyed. Can you imagine the Postal Dude, after he gunning all throughout 1997 America, finding himself battling gigantic insects in an underground hive, and facing off the Hive Queen he thinks is responsible for his recent misadventures? It would be like Caleb's hunt for Shial meets ALIEN.
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by Tchernobog »

Read the links - they go into some detail about how the project got derailed and how RWS goals were destroyed by chaos and a little incompetence on the part of Akella. It is a real sad day when even the Russians have shark publishers these days.

In other good news however, it looks like Resurrection Studios has actually gotten themselves back together enough the revive their past attempts at puutting out new reworked and improved versions of both A Week in Paradise and Eternal Damnation. The idea of doing this is not new, and work had been done on them previously, but it seems to have finally been kicked into high gear again.

Here is a video showing some of the changes they have done to the first level of ED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qj7iqXr1DE

Looks better doesn't it? :)

EDIT: I should also probably mention that RWS is also trying to get Postal 2 on Steam again, so if anybody is interested they can check out it's Steam Greenlight entry:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... 3000640%22
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by BEAST »

Now the question is how will RWS remake P1. Isometric 3D with better in game saving function? Third person perspective (heaven forbid)? FPS? I hope not FPS, because I wanted to remake P1 as a mod for P2! Not that I know how to mod, least of all P2 :oops: .

I need to play Eternal Damnation at some point. Thanks for the updates, Tchernobog. :)
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by Tchernobog »

BEAST wrote:Now the question is how will RWS remake P1. Isometric 3D with better in game saving function? Third person perspective (heaven forbid)? FPS? I hope not FPS, because I wanted to remake P1 as a mod for P2! Not that I know how to mod, least of all P2 :oops: .
The P1 option is still being discussed that's for sure, and I'm very much in the belief it should remain faithful to the original (as in being dark and morbid with a little dark humor in there) ... Maybe, although I'm leaning more towards a re-imaging than a remake, or even an entirely new type of game all together just inspired by P1's style. For example P1's controls are not great and in this day of duel analog pads it would be insane not to take advantage of that, so rather than the 'tank' type controls of P1 you would be able to move and shoot in two directions at once. This would of course change the way the game is played so therefore much more would change.
http://runningwithscissors.com/main/ind ... pic=155.45
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Re: Postal 1 remake on Kickstarter?

Post by Tchernobog »

I have been writing some reviews for Gaming on Linux and endeavoured to give the first game a little write up:
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php? ... ncut.1114/

I was originally intending to get a review of Postal 2 up instead, but that is a hard one to review obviously. I shall return to it at some point though.
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