D&D General Hidden Path Making 3rd Person Open World AAA D&D Video Game

Hidden Path Entertainment is recruiting for an "AAA, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise." The game will use Unreal Engine 4. The company has made games like Raccoon Lagoon, Witchblood, Defense Grid, and has also been involved with Age of Empires and Counter Strike.

An open-world game is one like the Grand Theft Auto series, where the player is free to roam across the world. Other examples include Fallout, Assassin's Creed, and more.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

AAA means "The very tippy-top of quality and fun", although, yeah, 'big budget' is usually associated with it. But if there is one thing that creating vid games has drilled into my head...repeatedly and without mercy...is that More Money != Mo'Bettah. I mean, look at a few games released 'recently'. None of them were "big budget"...typically a dude or three making a game for funzies that they ended up putting out there and charging $10 to $20 for. Do the same with some of the recent "big budget" games and they are overpriced AND flop/buggy.
..
"Indie" games that are AAA but made by a guy or two:
...Valheim (two guys, expanded to a few more after initial release; $22 Canadian x 4 million copies sold...do the math)
...7 Days to Die (three guys taking an idea one had over Thanksgiving; $28 Canadian x 14 million copies sold...)
...The Forest ('a small team'...I'd guess...3 to 5?, figured 'Lets do a game!', so they did; $125k initial budget, kickstarted; $23 Canadian x at least 6 million...up to 10 million copies sold)
...Stardew Valley (ONE guy!; $17 Canadian x 10+ million copies sold)
..
Then go look at the numbers for oh, Cyberpunk 2077, Warcraft III: Reforged, Fallout 76, etc, etc, etc. Compare the amount of money spent to develop and market them, versus how much money they made.
..
Anyway, long story short'ish... AAA is a signal to "be very, VERY wary!...and immediately check to see if it has and "surprise mechanics" incorporated. (...go search for "EA Surprise Mechanics" for a good, but sad, laugh!).
..
All that said...I'm "reservedly optomistic"...mostly because the company made Racoon Lagoon. A nice, quaint, fun and interesting little VR game that both me and my daughter play on Oculus. If they can keep as "focused and consistent" a game as RL, that will be very good!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wouldn't Breath of the Wild be a better open world point of comparison than Grand Theft Auto? Although I could certainly see a rogue-focused urban D&D open world game.

 

[Zardnaar]

Hiya!

AAA means "The very tippy-top of quality and fun", although, yeah, 'big budget' is usually associated with it. But if there is one thing that creating vid games has drilled into my head...repeatedly and without mercy...is that More Money != Mo'Bettah. I mean, look at a few games released 'recently'. None of them were "big budget"...typically a dude or three making a game for funzies that they ended up putting out there and charging $10 to $20 for. Do the same with some of the recent "big budget" games and they are overpriced AND flop/buggy.
..
"Indie" games that are AAA but made by a guy or two:
...Valheim (two guys, expanded to a few more after initial release; $22 Canadian x 4 million copies sold...do the math)
...7 Days to Die (three guys taking an idea one had over Thanksgiving; $28 Canadian x 14 million copies sold...)
...The Forest ('a small team'...I'd guess...3 to 5?, figured 'Lets do a game!', so they did; $125k initial budget, kickstarted; $23 Canadian x at least 6 million...up to 10 million copies sold)
...Stardew Valley (ONE guy!; $17 Canadian x 10+ million copies sold)
..
Then go look at the numbers for oh, Cyberpunk 2077, Warcraft III: Reforged, Fallout 76, etc, etc, etc. Compare the amount of money spent to develop and market them, versus how much money they made.
..
Anyway, long story short'ish... AAA is a signal to "be very, VERY wary!...and immediately check to see if it has and "surprise mechanics" incorporated. (...go search for "EA Surprise Mechanics" for a good, but sad, laugh!).
..
All that said...I'm "reservedly optomistic"...mostly because the company made Racoon Lagoon. A nice, quaint, fun and interesting little VR game that both me and my daughter play on Oculus. If they can keep as "focused and consistent" a game as RL, that will be very good!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

This AAA usually means big budget from major studio. Also successful (overall).

A few franchises have had some duds lately.

The press release is PR. None of those games are AAA and it's not a major studio. It's basically hype. Examples of AAA franchises (generally see recent duds)

Fallout
Call of Duty
GTA
Red Dead
Assassin's Creed
Halo
Zelda
Mario

There's more that's off the top of my head. There's usually a certain amount of prestige as well. A hit game isn't AAA but if they have sequels that succeed, a big budget etc it probably is.

 

[TwoSix]

Wouldn't Breath of the Wild be a better open world point of comparison than Grand Theft Auto? Although I could certainly see a rogue-focused urban D&D open world game.

People say GTA because GTA III was the genre originator. (There may have been a few others before it, but GTA popularized it.)

Saying a game is like Breath of the Wild has other implications, like that it's really open world and doesn't give you much guidance as to where to go. It's much more oriented around exploration than a lot of other open-world games (which encourage exploration but are generally revolve around a set of missions.) It's like comparing an adventure path to a true sandbox in TTRPG terms.

 

[GMMichael]

...and it will still be completed before Elder Scrolls VI. But how will it compare to Elder Scrolls V?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Looking at Hidden Path's releases, I am doubtful that this is actually going to be AAA. Open-world is a more concrete term, but there are a ton of open-world games that are terrible. Heck, isn't Neverwinter Online practically open-world?

 

[EthanSental]

When is that other forgotten realms game that the released clip has Drizzt running an weird POV angles? Is that’s also the unreal engine?

 

[Lidgar]

When is that other forgotten realms game that the released clip has Drizzt running an weird POV angles? Is that’s also the unreal engine?

Ouch. I had thankfully purged that atrocity from my memory...until now!

 

[Zardnaar]

When is that other forgotten realms game that the released clip has Drizzt running an weird POV angles? Is that’s also the unreal engine?

Baldurs Gate 3?

That's not an engine problem.

 

[Parmandur]

Huh, that seems like a big deal. At first I was a little concerned that it is using Epic's Engine, and then I released games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake use it, so clearly that doesn't mean much nowadays...

It would be more concerning if it wasn't using the Unreal Engine.