Thinking Outside the Hull - PAX East
Hugh
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
This coming PAX East 14 (Apr 11 - 13, Boston) will be the first time Subnautica is publicly playable, anywhere. Normally, when Unknown Worlds goes to PAX, a PC maker (often Alienware) provides us with machines. This time, we're up the creek without a paddle - We haven't been able to secure free machines.
It is very hard to show a game without machines, so we need to think outside the hull. What do you guys think about this idea: Unknown Worlds will build 12 mini-ITX 'submersibles' - Small machines with Subnautica branding on them. They will be bespoke, beautiful and feature more power than their small size suggests. They will run SteamOS - So will effectively be 'Steam Machines.'
They will be used to show off Subnautica at PAX. They will be locked in clear cabinets during the show for protection from grubby PAX hands!
Each one will be offered to the Unknown Worlds community at ~5-10% below their purchase cost. You will be able to buy them - And each one of the 12 machines will include the PAX build of Subnautica. That playable build of Subnautica will be made available to no one else, and will the only way someone outside the show floor can get access to the build.
The end result is: You get a custom, powerful gaming machine for less than its cost, that includes a never-to-be-seen-again development build of Subnautica.
What do you think?
It is very hard to show a game without machines, so we need to think outside the hull. What do you guys think about this idea: Unknown Worlds will build 12 mini-ITX 'submersibles' - Small machines with Subnautica branding on them. They will be bespoke, beautiful and feature more power than their small size suggests. They will run SteamOS - So will effectively be 'Steam Machines.'
They will be used to show off Subnautica at PAX. They will be locked in clear cabinets during the show for protection from grubby PAX hands!
Each one will be offered to the Unknown Worlds community at ~5-10% below their purchase cost. You will be able to buy them - And each one of the 12 machines will include the PAX build of Subnautica. That playable build of Subnautica will be made available to no one else, and will the only way someone outside the show floor can get access to the build.
The end result is: You get a custom, powerful gaming machine for less than its cost, that includes a never-to-be-seen-again development build of Subnautica.
What do you think?
Comments
And at a super ballpark price of $600, that sounds like a sweet price. Especially with the branding.
This is cool - We could definitely wear that cost!
It may take a bit of work to get SN running on Linux. People have reported issues with the terrain test on Linux, so I guess Unity is not perfect when you're really pushing its limits.
Get a large aquarium. In it, place a smaller aquarium which barely holds the sub-PC. Fill up the large aquarium with water and fish, etc. Add plants to hide the wiring. If you can rent the big aquarium, total cost should be under $200.
Live animals always attract more people, doubly so if they are swimming with a gaming PC.
Again, the main issue I see is that only 12 people will actually get to see the game.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Great idea! I have always wanted to see a pc like this. Also the increased price would be great since it's in low numbers.
Without gorges, do you really think more than 12 people eventually will get this game?
Probably not worth doing for all of the PCs. Perhaps have 3-4 of the 12 as "showcase" watercooled PCs. Give them place-of-pride in the booth at PAX and offer them at the higher price afterwards. Think of it like the tiers on Kickstarter or in the Reinforcement program.
However the idea of custom building a subnautica machine might be fun for another type of contest? Give away a few access keys to the coolest fan made subnautica rigs?
From the games perspective - No, we need to ensure that a very early, very rough Subnautica build runs at 60fps at 1920 x 1080 on the show floor. If the prototype proves OP we can definitely spec down.
From the water loop perspective - Absolutely! Who needs a custom loop on a stock-clocked i5? But any Subnautica themed machine should surely be water-related! Customers could potentially overclock the bejesus out of them after their show floor service, though!
pc´s and simply can not live with something premade.
the steamOS is a good idea in general but useless unless it supports windows games, because lets face it all the "full grown" games are on windows (simulation/strategy/rpg/shooter) and on linux steam u get 4 AAA-Titles, maybe 15-20 good indi-games and a bucketload of cute little simple minigames.
dont quote me on the numbers, but thats roughly what i could find for steam on linux.
to bring in another number: i currently own 269 games on steam only 10 of them would even run on linux.
what im trying to say is: dont get overly exited about steamOS its a nice idea but its probably gona fall short.
ps: just to wrap up the steamOS arguments: if a gamer wants to play pc games on the tv he is allready doing that, the technology to do that is allready out for like a decade. and yes you could play windowsgames with steamOS if you stream them over your network but people do that since 1995 without steamOS and if your only option is wireless the lag is noticable.