The 2020 Dev Run: As Big As The Launch Run (?)

[NeilF]

It seem they always did some work here and there over the years for space legs and I guess atmospheric planets too.

Whatever come in 2020, it's big and I'm sure they have been working on it since a few years already.

There is also that: (was found in 3.3 beta files.)

Source: https://youtu.be/-WzS-n0EiCI

Yeh! What ever happened to missions? Another design mishap that didn't see the light of release?

 

[VR Golgot]

Yeh! What ever happened to missions? Another design mishap that didn't see the light of release?

Who knows, they were only ever an accidental reveal in the beta files.

They do seem like a placeholder test for me. (Say like the sort of thing you’d play through a video feed in the cockpit ). So could easily just be an experiment that got abandoned.

Having actual animated NPC characters does feel more like a glossy DLC target than a freebie addition though, so guess we’ll see if they make it in to the big release. The Oct 2018 date of discovery puts them after the start of full production. (And the further signs of apparent DLC / Legs work in the files in April 2019 suggests they continued doing DLC work in a shared build with the main game, although they seem to have split them now as no more signs have emerged in later updates).


EDIT: Just as some bonus errata that might tally...

It occurred to me that the Leggy Cmdr Chronicle vid popped up just before the start of the DLC work:

Source: https://youtu.be/4M8ZeHZSZ3o


Given there are grounds to think game assets were used in it...

Spoiler

Cockpit entry and exit have been factored in:

^^Cmdr Chronicles animation seemingly using working game assets^^

Ship entry and exit have been factored in:

^^Cmdr Chronicles animation also seemingly using working game assets^^

I do wonder if there was some win-win behaviour there. IE using some skunkwork assets / animations that were coming together. (Giving the video some extra gloss, and letting them do an extra sneaky sneak-peek of what was going on )

Bit of a stretch maybe

 

[VR Golgot]

Some bonus quotes that caught my eye regarding pre-production / resourcing:

MCV/DEVELOP 964 January 2021

[The on foot experience is] something we've played around with a for a number of years, experimenting with different ideas for gameplay, but Odyssey in its current form started taking shape around the beginning of 2019

We've averaged around 100 developers working on the project with a peak of around 140

In terms of its scale, and in large parts its development, Odyssey can definitely be compared to a new game.

PC Gamer 05/01/21

However, as for the actual build-up to having a significant amount of developers working on it, the tail-end of 2019 is when we really started ramping it up.

(And as a bonus, something entirely tenuous )

Spoiler

The date in this ('early days' looking) concept art would date it to late 2017. But of course the date could easily not be from the time of creation:

PC Gamer 05/01/21

If it were the case though, it would be intriguing if they were already playing with a legs + atmos hybrid DLC in late 2017.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

All this is why nothing got fixed.

 

[VR Golgot]

All this is why nothing got fixed.

If you like. It's certainly why the main game has been in borderline maintenance mode since 2019.

But on the plus side, we get a big chunk of dev all in one go soon ¯\(ツ)/¯

Which may be more coherent / impactful overall than the equivalent Seasonal output, with its fractured features and delivery. Guess we'll see...