Tuesday 31 May 2016

Community Corner - May 2016

Greetings,

Welcome to our second Community Corner. In this post we'll be taking the time out to look over what's been happening within the Atom Universe community. This month, the community (that's you) have shared a whole wealth of creations.

Let's take a look at some of the things we've enjoyed the most!

Forums: Community member, FlammableAce has been hard at work envisioning how the in-game menus should look. His work has not only caught the eyes of the Community and Atom Universe Community team, but also the eyes of the Development team as well! You'll be able to find FlammableAce's work within this thread.



Blog: Community member and J.F.C & The Virtual Community Editor TrishaBaby, recently took the time out to interview Game Mechanic's very own John Ardussi. Trisha, interview with John is very thorough and must read for all PS Home lovers! You'll be able to read the full interview here.


Facebook: Mid May, we hosted a competition on our Facebook channel, the task was to create a head gear accessory for Adam or Eve. One lucky winner had the possibility to see their accessory get implemented into Atom Universe and the runner ups won access keys to Atom Universe's PS4 Early Access. ICYMI, you'll be able to find the winners of the competition here.

Overall, it's was a very exciting experience seeing everyone's submission and we'd like to say thank you to everyone that took part in the contest. Down below are a couple more pictures from the contests that we wanted to give a little shout out to.  

Joe Murray's Googly Eyed Glasses.

Sam Eeckelaers' Crown of Atom Universe. Fit for a Queen (or a King)

Robery Ernst's Call-A-Dapter, a must have accessory for the secret agents of today.

Twitch: Avid GTA V Streamer and long term PS Home Fan Devil00Angel, recently got her crew together in GTA V and in a pure art attack moment, recreated the Atom Republic logo by using red cars! You'll be able to see Devil00Angel's work come together in this stream.

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YouTube: Community member and YouTuber Fanblade, has been play-testing and logging each version of Atom Universe on his channel. If you're interested in seeing what's new in Atom Universe or you'd like to see Atom Universe evolve over time, Fanblade's YouTube channel is definitely worth subscribing to.

   

17 comments:

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  2. Thank you for mentioning my interview with Game Mechanics for J.F.C & The Virtual Community in this month's Community Corner! For those who hadn't seen, there were a few other interviews I had done before that one. The first 2 were with SubD Studio, the designer of AU's Mirage House & Cave House:
    Introductory Interview: http://tbaby84.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/exclusive-interview-with-subd-studio-one-of-the-content-creators-for-atom-universe/
    Follow-up Interview on Remastered Mirage House: http://tbaby84.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/mirage-house-updated-by-subd-studio-for-atom-universe/

    I also interviewed another former PS Home developer who will be creating content for Atom Universe, Engine Giant:
    https://tbaby84.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/interview-with-engine-giant-entertainment-about-atom-universe/

    More interviews and articles are in the pipeline and you can find them all on my Wordpress website which is the Editor's Blog for J.F.C & The Virtual Community: https://tbaby84.wordpress.com

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  3. We would hope that you could be original with the in-game menus for spaces & misc, We are trying to shy away from a PSH mimic/gimmick.
    For it to become a PSH successor like it's going to be, Creative genius is key, Not to semi replicate something that was already done.
    Just our opinion.

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    1. People want a PS home not enything else or you can play something else like sims or such, i like it finaly looks like home

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    4. I think the friends menu (2nd screen shot) looks pretty cool & we really didn't have something that looked like that in PS Home. However, the 1st screen shot does look very similar to the Navigator we had on PS Home and I believe bestscreenname made the same comment on the AU forums, saying that it looked like a "reskin" of what we had on PS Home. I do see slight differences in orientation, but I agree it looks too similar. Drawing from PS Home concepts like the navigator are ok IMO, but I also agree that in order for Atom Universe to take things to the next level, which Tanguy has repeatedly said, we should have something new and fresh. For example, what is seen in AU with the holographic player menu was original and suits the overall special/futuristic theme for Atom Universe. So overall I definitely agree with you that the idea is to come up with original and unique ideas and not be too influenced by UI designs of PS Home. Like Tanguy said, the idea is not to replicate PS Home but to create something better for the next generation and this applies to all the UI as well. The navigator we had for PS Home was ok for that game, but with the newer technology being used to develop AU (UE4), I too think something different and better can be created there.

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    6. @sweetheart90 Because much of the AU Community are former PS Home users, I know many of then "want a PS Home" or something very similar. However, keep in mind that the true vision for Atom Universe which has been stated by Tanguy, CEO of Atom Republic, is not just to replicate it. With the newer technology (Unreal Engine 4) and new platforms (PS4 & PC) the AU dev team can make something even better than PS Home was, inspired by things that made it good but also learning lessons from things that weren't so good with it (just like all games, no game is perfect and can be improved upon), coming up with fresh new ideas to differentiate it from PS Home and make an even better social game/virtual world. I think what you may have meant is that people want a game to fill the void of PS Home being gone, which is fair. But as far as how it looks, including things such as menu design, fresh new ideas are what we need. Tanguy doesn't want AU to just be a replacement for PS Home, but a new social game/virtual world for the next generation. So while there may be some similarities here and there, the idea is to build something even better that will have the "spirit" of PS Home to make former PS Home users happy, but also bring new things to the table that they will like too. If it just ends up looking like PS Home, then the newer technology and platforms will not have been fully leveraged. I think this is underlying premise of what J.F.C & The Virtual Community was trying to say with which I agree and I think Tanguy would also based on what he has told us. PS Home was a good game for the PS3, but an even better one can be created for the PS4, PC, and next generation consoles like the PS5, PS6, etc. Also think about the future of AU with VR support and how that will impact concepts such as navigation and the associated UI for it. Keep in mind that the entire AU team with the exception of Tanguy and Dena (our CM) did not use or develop for PS Home, which is good because that brings a whole fresh set of ideas with input from a couple people who do actually have experience with PS Home (along with AU community members who were PS Home users, of course). Also keep in mind that because the game is cross-play with PC, AU is now opened up to a whole new set of users who never used PS Home but have a lot of experience with other social games and so the "PS Home perspective" doesn't exist with them. So for all these reasons, I don't believe it is necessarily a good idea nor is it the vision of Atom Republic to just create a "PS Home" with Atom Universe.

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    7. I completely understand why some think it may be too similar to the navigator (It is influenced by it) however do note that the whole holographic thing has already been done before in recent video games, so that idea is not exactly a fresh one either (For example just look at Ark Survival Evolved on PC,Xbox,PS4(coming soon to ps4) that has the hologram menu coming out of the hand (this is not a bad thing, just not as ground breaking fresh as you may have thought).

      I'm glad you think the second screenshot is cool (and original, I hope. Neil seem to disagree though, which is something he will always do when it comes down to me being the creator.

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    8. My point about the holographic menu was that it was new and creative relative to what we have seen in PS Home since a majority of the AU Community are former PS Home users. If similar concepts are used in other games, so be it, and I never said it was "ground breaking". I most definitely think it is fresh and new from the perspective of most PS Home users and it suits the spacial/futuristic theme of AU very well, even if similar designs are seen in other games like "Ark Survival Evolved". To most PS Home users it would be new and that is the main point. Again, as I have stated above, the goal is not to be too influenced by PS Home and replicate it which sweethear90 and others seem to want done with AU and that does include UI components also. When I said I thought the 2nd screen shot of the friends menu was pretty cool, that was in regards to the fact that we didn't have something similar in PS Home which is in line with Neil's point and with which I agree. I'm sure there are elements within your design for that 2nd screen which are inspired by other games as well and so I'm sure it's not entirely original (I see influences from instant messaging application UI's, for example). In general influences from other UI's is inevitable for all designs whether it's yours of those of the AU dev team. But to both Neil's, mine, and Tanguy's point, the idea is to come up with something different than what we have seen with PS Home. Since we didn't have something that looks similar to your 2nd screen shot in PS Home, then that is a positive thing. But as far as whether I like it or not apart from the fact that it doesn't resemble something like we had in PS Home? Well, I think it's ok, but not great. It's a straight forward UI that provides good information but the layout seems quite pedestrian IMO. I think something more futuristic (even if influenced by other games or applications) and "4th dimensional" would be better suited for AU. Layouts like that and definitely the one for your navigation screen (which is again too similar to the one we had for PS Home) could utilize a less rigid layout. Since users may spend a lot of time in such menus, I think they need to be more visually appealing. Plus, as I mentioned in a previous comment, since AU is being developed with new technology (UE4) for new gaming platforms (PS4 vs PS3), more things can be done to utilize that technology. As it applies to such UI's, I think more immersive and visually appealing UI's can be created than the ones you have shared. The main menus for AU are a good example which I think would look great in VR as well. So the concept of the 2nd screen shot is good because we need something like that, but I'm not really keen on it's layout/design. These UI's would probably be ok for a PS Home-like game running on a PS3, but IMO something better can be done for AU developed with UE4 for PS4 and PC.

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    9. Whats so wrong with a home replica, 99% of People want that or atom whuld never got fundeed in first place, i did not plage to get a space game but a home for ps4 if i had known that i whuld never have pladge its sad some of you dont want a home consider it what People want...

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    10. @sweetheart90 there is nothing wrong with a home replica, but I don't agree that 99% of people want that. The purpose of Atom Universe is not to completely copy PS Home. Due to multiple copyrights it cannot do that anyway. It is not that we don't want a PS Home, we want something better, sweetheart90. Similar concepts like personal spaces, public spaces, avatars, social features like text chat, interactions, poses, dances. Those are all concepts that we had in PS Home and will be in Atom Universe. What I am saying is that it doesn't have to "look" exactly the same and it shouldn't because the game is on a new platform using newer technology. Think of if Sony were to create PS Home for the PS4 (and they will not do that by the way), they would make it look better because the PS4 is a more advanced gaming platform than the PS3 and so the graphics would be better. So what I mean by "different" and "better" applies to more advanced user interfaces and more realistic graphics for the environments and avatars. Hopefully you can see in the Alpha and Early Access versions of Atom Universe that the graphics are indeed better than you saw in PS Home. The main menu system that you see when you first start the game is also different and futuristic. So what is being done with Atom Universe will indeed appeal to former PS Home users by giving them all the same kind of things they had before. When I said it will not "replicate" it, I meant it won't look exactly the same because it shouldn't. It will look and feel even better than PS Home was for the PS3 and be more worthy of a game running on the PS4 taking advantage of the platform and utilizing the more advanced technology. So Atom Republic is absolutely considering what people want. Hopefully if you have seen the Alpha and/or Early Access versions of the game you can see all these elements that I mentioned that were present in PS Home too. Again, Tanguy said he wants to take what we had with PS Home "to the next level" with some of the same concepts which I mentioned but also adding more things that we never had before. And I believe that will make all former PS Home users as well as new users happy. I hope what I have said now, makes sense.

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  5. Well said. Everyone I know from home want a home on ps4. One that has spaces like Home had. The space theme is okay. But if it's all about space. I think everyone will wind up going to Nebula. If Atom brings back Atom Park. I know it will be the hang out place. Not the hub.

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    1. Please see my comment to sweetheart90 above. I think both of you might have misunderstood what I was saying. My comments were for the user interface for the menus that Luke (Ace) provided. We were saying that one of them looked far to similar to the Navigator from PS Home and I didn't think the layout of the other one was that good. But my point of not copying PS Home was not to copy exactly what it looks like as far as these menus and everything else. But conceptually, of course it won't just be about space. There will be private spaces and public spaces. For public spaces we currently have the Hub and Arcade Plaza. And if you look at the private spaces, you will see that they look very realistic and aren't about space either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuiyukEbB8g
      Don't those look great?
      And yes, Atom Republic plans to bring Atom Park to Atom Universe in the future, but again it won't look exactly the same but instead even better than it did on PS Home with even better and more realistic graphics. It could be even bigger too. So all the concepts you remember from PS Home can come to Atom Universe like I was telling sweetheart90, but will look even more realistic than they did in PS Home on PS3. So don't worry, former PS Home users will get what they want in terms of having similar features, but they will just take on different forms and hopefully look even better. :)

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