Milton Mailbag -- Dispatch #9


Raphael van Lierop

Recommended Posts

  • Hinterland

5b807aee07ffe_MiltonMailbag-site_forumcopy.thumb.png.272d05c1582302ca19b731064d346661.png

Hey community!

We're knee-deep in finalizing a hotfix so I'm stealing a few minutes from other work to respond to a few Mailbag questions. I'll try to make it longer next week.

Onward!

- Raphael

*****

Question from @Luciën:

Quote

 

I remember checking the website daily for the vigilant flame update. And then, one fine day you published the seemingly not so very much related post about diversity in Hinterland Studio's.

I support the idea of promoting and actively stimulating diversity within organisations and game studios are no exception from the rule. But what made Hinterland decide  to publish this shout out to the world at this point? What makes Hinterland so passionate about the subject?
Do ideas about diversity influence the game production - I would imagine story wise? In Wintermute we're still looking at what is most commonly the norm, a white  heterosexual couple.  What would it take to portray a homosexual couple in a game story like The Long Dark (so, without putting the emphasis on the sexual preference but on things that you know, are emphasised in the current storyline such as survival and building trust)?

 

I made a post about the importance of Diversity on June 4th  because June is Pride month, a month dedicated to celebrating diversity. :)

As for the other stuff -- you can ask me again once we're finished WINTERMUTE.

*****

Question from @FireCraft78:

Quote

Is there any hope of having some of Hinterland merchandise available in an European retailer ? These 16$ shipping are a bit stopping me from buying a 25$ poster :$

Yeah I know shipping costs are not great. To be clear, we don't make a profit on shipping -- in fact for some items we actually absorb some of the shipping cost just to try to keep the item more accessible for people. We also source high-end merchandise -- we could buy cheaper t-shirts, cheaper ceramic mugs, print posters on thinner paper, etc. but we wouldn't be happy with that quality.

We explored the idea of setting up shipping palettes in the US and in Europe to help reduce shipping costs, but at our current scale the economics don't really make sense. As we scale up with more merch items at more price-points -- which is one of our goals -- we may be able to revisit that. Ultimately, we'd love for all our players to own some little bit of physical merch to strengthen their connection with the game and with our studio. :)

*****

Question from @romerabr:

Quote

I don't know if somebody asked this, but there is an interesting theory that appears in the forums few days ago... Are you really a werewolf, and this is why you take wolves side in the game? 

Hmm...let's sit together under a full moon to find out. :wolf:

*****

Question from @greatwhitegamer:

Quote

Hey Raph! My question are the TLD physical copies going to be in places like Walmart or Target? If so, TLD is about to be introduced to ALOT more pepole. Cheers! :coffee:

Yup! That's the idea. :) In the mean time, you can pre-order from one of these sources: https://www.thelongdark.com/news/the-long-dark-console-physical-disc-pre-order/

****

Question from @kkanden:

Quote

Have you ever thought about adding compass to the game. A lot of the time I find myself lost using the map because i don't really know which exact direction I'm supposed to go. Is it supposed to be part of the game or adding a compass would actually fit into the way you want the game to be?

Yup! We've talked about it a lot. The geomagnetic disaster would mess with compasses, but aside from that, we want our players to navigate the world using landmarks and sun position.

*****

Question from @Smellyfries:

Quote

 

Once you finish Episode 3 and have fixed all of the possible bugs that you can find, what will your next project be? 

Will it be adding a new system, mini game, or possibly a new map?

 

Current post-Episode Three plan = Episode Four (+ Survival Mode update(s) as we're able).

*****

Sorry for the short Mailbag but keep the questions coming and I'll dig into some of them next Friday. Have a great weekend. Also, in case you missed it, we released a short Dev Diary video today, talking a bit about our retail release with Skybound: 

Also: Hotfix coming to all platforms next week!

- Raphael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin pinned and featured this topic

Thanks for the reply! From what I understand, I can feel some diversity coming up in some Wintermute episode? Ohhh goody! Well, that might just be a sneak preview to the story's follow up. Is Astrid putting her life at stake for her new lover and is she afraid that Will will be sensitive over the subject? Will we ever find out, yes sirree!

Aside from your answer, I'm looking forward to the hotfix, hope I don't get burns from that. Not good for my health ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The Long Dark is like being inside a moving watercolour painting that's trying to kill you." Like it.

I still think it's weird to be releasing a retail version 3 months before the story mode is scheduled to be gutted and overhauled, deleting everyone's progress. But anyway.

Looking forward to next week's hotfix!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2018 at 5:25 PM, ThePancakeLady said:

So, @Raphael van Lierop, no timeframe given for Pancakes. But, a timeframe given for a hotfix. 

I hate to disagree with you, but beef jerky has been in the game for years.  Meat candy.  Sweet, sweet meat candy.  That's all I need!

In other news, my results came back from the doctor, and my blood type is sodium.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, greatwhitegamer said:

Agreed. I love beef jerky. But why does it have to be so expensive?

It's time consuming to make, to be honest!  It takes time for a steer to grow to the right size to be slaughtered.  Then the meat has to be processed, someone's gotta take the time to remove all the fat from the leanest cuts of meat, slice it into strips, marinate it, dehydrate or smoke it, package it, ship it out...  I mean if you want to dedicate a day to it, you can make jerky in your own oven at home, it's just....really time consuming.  I mean there goes your whole day--you're not leaving the house while that project is underway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

It's time consuming to make, to be honest!  It takes time for a steer to grow to the right size to be slaughtered.  Then the meat has to be processed, someone's gotta take the time to remove all the fat from the leanest cuts of meat, slice it into strips, marinate it, dehydrate or smoke it, package it, ship it out...  I mean if you want to dedicate a day to it, you can make jerky in your own oven at home, it's just....really time consuming.  I mean there goes your whole day--you're not leaving the house while that project is underway.

Well, thanks for the answers @ajb1978 & @MarrowStone. We've actually tried making beef jerky at our place before on a dehydrator and it was really good! In my opinion, it was better than Jack Links or anything like that.... Wait, why am I talking about beef jerky on the Hinterland Forums?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2018 at 5:05 PM, Raphael van Lierop said:

Question from @greatwhitegamer:

Yup! That's the idea. :) In the mean time, you can pre-order from one of these sources: https://www.thelongdark.com/news/the-long-dark-console-physical-disc-pre-order/

Just got my Tracking number.  Don't even own a PS4.  But I have a friend who misses Montana and figure this is the next best thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, admin said:

Update: @Raphael van Lierop is busy working on various things for the game and so isn't able to do a Dispatch this week. Please continue to leave questions in the Questions thread and he'll be back next week.

Ah, PAX West? Some networking, keeping up with what other studios are doing and talking about? If so, I hope everyone from the team that is able to go, has a great time, learns a lot, and gets to see folks they haven't seen for ages.

And if not, wishing all American team members a Happy Labor day, and hoping all you Canucks, and folks from other parts of the globe, have a wonderful, safe, and healthy week.  Raph has earned a little break from our constant questions and pestering. 

And 2 weeks should give him plenty of time to consider how to add those delicious, magical, fluffy, Real Maple Syrup covered Pancakes to the game.  ANd the flat cast iron griddle we need to make them perfectly round and golden brown, on both sides.  ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin locked, unpinned and unfeatured this topic
  • Admin unlocked this topic

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.