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Join the team behind Bombshell for a special forum Q&A session!

We have invited two guys from the team behind Bombshell to come to the forums and answer all your pressing questions! The creators of the top-down explosive RPG will be hanging out with us here from 6pm GMT to 8pm GMT, but - as always - we’re giving you a head-start on asking questions.



Visiting the GOG.com forums, we've got:

Scott Miller (ScottMiller3DR)
-- The founder of 3D Realms and currently an adviser for the company.
-- In the past, he has worked on Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, Max Payne, Shadow Warrior, and more.

Fred Schreiber (freschism)
-- CEO at Indie developer Interceptor, and the Vice President at 3D Realms.
-- He has been working on games all of his life, from Rise of the Triad to - currently - Bombshell.



Now that we’ve gotten introduced to our guests, here are some ground rules for this Q&A to work as smoothly as possible:

1. Not all questions might get answered during the Q&A, but feel free to read along!
2. Be nice. No abuse, harassment, name-calling and the like.
3. Don’t spam. This will help keep the thread legible and keep our guests involved.

Let’s get this show on the road!
Hi Devs,

Have you planned any other projexts and are you going to change them due to the heavy critique of Bombshell? Since you previously answered you honestly set out to make a great game, what do you think went wrong?

I don't know if I'll risk the purchase of this game since even Techraptor panned it pretty bad, even though they praised the style.
Hi Scott and Fred. Thank you so much for doing Q&A here.

As a fan of Apogee and 3D Realms, I'm really excited to see a new game by 3D Realms. You website says that, "the first new game from 3D Realms in a decade has gone gold!" How fast time flies! I hope your game becomes successful, yet it seems like the first reviews and sales were not what you hoped for. My question is if Bombshell does not sell well, how would it affect you future projects? Do you have any smaller backup projects or plan? I really don't want another decade to see a new 3D Realms game.
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WBGhiro: Hi Devs,

Have you planned any other projexts and are you going to change them due to the heavy critique of Bombshell? Since you previously answered you honestly set out to make a great game, what do you think went wrong?

I don't know if I'll risk the purchase of this game since even Techraptor panned it pretty bad, even though they praised the style.
Filtering out the obviously unfair reviews (2/10's), we're focusing on the ones that gives the game a fair chance for what it actually is. A lot of the better reviews (Like IGN), gives a good amount of feedback where we can improve. All of this is part of our internal post mortem so we can keep making great and better games.

The the low score reviews of the game, just doesn't justify a 2/10.

Something definitely went wrong. Wether someone has it out for 3D Realms specifically, or if we completely missed the mark with Bombshell, we can't say. But it is something we have to look into.

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Accatone: Hi Scott and Fred. Thank you so much for doing Q&A here.

As a fan of Apogee and 3D Realms, I'm really excited to see a new game by 3D Realms. You website says that, "the first new game from 3D Realms in a decade has gone gold!" How fast time flies! I hope your game becomes successful, yet it seems like the first reviews and sales were not what you hoped for. My question is if Bombshell does not sell well, how would it affect you future projects? Do you have any smaller backup projects or plan? I really don't want another decade to see a new 3D Realms game.
Thank you!

Yes, it will affect the studio. We're a small independent studio. For instance, we've never done a Kickstarter. We depend on loans and investors.

That means that our financial situation is at a way bigger risk if a game doesn't do well. But we won't leave without a fight, so don't worry! ;)
Post edited February 01, 2016 by freschism
Hi,

not sure that I'm too late.

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m1mb: Have any other works have been influential on the game? Whether you take that to mean other games to compare to, or something that inspired the setting or aesthetic.
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freschism: With Bombshell we wanted to create something unique. A mix of genres and styles we really like. We wanted to take the controls from a twitch shooter, the graphics from an FPS, and mix it with an isometric view.

It's hard to compare it to anything out there. We were primarily inspired by 90'ies action movies, cheesy cartoons and over the top comic books.
1 - Don't you think it's a source of the problem? It's possible the game didn't found its public because those who bought it couldn't figure well its genre and imagined/expected something it wasn't.

2 - I searched twitch shooter and couldn't find a clear definition, more a gameplay approach (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_gameplay)

I'm too old to enjoy high focus on reflex, did you thought of that aspect when you designed the game and choose orient the gameplay to reflex? No way I mean it could be the source of the release problems, but don't you think dev shouldn't start think target too the older players that are probably a population slowly growing in comparison of other ages of player? (for mention I'm going closer to 60).
Post edited February 01, 2016 by Senestoj
Hi Fred, what did you learn from your work on Rise of the Triad that changed how you went about making Bombshell?
Well first of all congratz on releasing a game. Gonna play it as soon as i have some spare cash.

Now. Developers behind duke nukem. Did that include only duke nukem 3d or Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem Forever (at least first 2-3 versions) / Prey/Manhattan project as well?

If so, is there a possibiltity of leaking/releasing all earlier duke nukem builds? (prior to switching to UNREAL 2 (fixed) engine)

And, also, since you have access to apogee/3dr stash, can we expect...hm.. say commander keen hd pack release?

P.S. i was working on pseoud-fan remake (nda'd access to tv/fury3/hellbender sourcecode, thanks to Mark Randel) of terminal velocity at one point, but progress got stalled. :V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWa1sosGfEU
What would it take to pitch it and work in team with you guys to make it see the release?
Post edited February 01, 2016 by smoketh
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smoketh: Well first of all congratz on releasing a game. Gonna play it as soon as i have some spare cash.

Now. Developers behind duke nukem. Did that include only duke nukem 3d or Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem Forever (at least first 2-3 versions) / Prey/Manhattan project as well?

If so, is there a possibiltity of leaking/releasing all earlier duke nukem builds? (prior to switching to quake 2 engine)

And, also, since you have access to apogee/3dr stash, can we expect...hm.. say commander keen hd pack release?

P.S. i was working on pseoud-fan remake (nda'd access to tv/fury3/hellbender sourcecode, thanks to Mark Randel) of terminal velocity at one point, but progress got stalled. :V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWa1sosGfEU
What would it take to pitch it and work in team with you guys to make it see the release?
Hi there!
Only a small handful of the old team is back at 3D Realms. Scott Miller, Joe Siegler and Bryan Turner. Everyone had a small hand in all of the titles you mention.

We can't answer any questions about that unfortunately. That's a question for Gearbox.

Bethesda owns Keen, so it's very unlikely that we'll be working on that.
Hi : D

Scott might remember me from facebook (Stergios)...

I haven't bought the game yet but I will do in the coming days... But from what I've seen it doesn't look like a 2/10 game. Seriously... It seems to me that since the release of DNF they want to shutdown 3D Realms by calling every game released with the 3D Realms logo on it, the worst game of the decade or the worst game ever and shit like that.

Let's hope sales won't be affected for wrong reasons...
high rated
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Rottman3D: Hi Fred, what did you learn from your work on Rise of the Triad that changed how you went about making Bombshell?
Hi Rottman! A lot! The entire project management part got a complete overhaul, as well as the overall professionalism. Back when we started working on ROTT we were still a mix of "Modders" and proper developers trying to make something really cool. Today we're a proper studio, and our quality standards in pretty much every department has been improved a lot. :)
Are there any plans to release Bombshell (and Rise of the Triad) for Linux? The lack of a Linux version is the only reason I haven't bought it yet
high rated
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Senestoj: Hi,

not sure that I'm too late.

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freschism: With Bombshell we wanted to create something unique. A mix of genres and styles we really like. We wanted to take the controls from a twitch shooter, the graphics from an FPS, and mix it with an isometric view.

It's hard to compare it to anything out there. We were primarily inspired by 90'ies action movies, cheesy cartoons and over the top comic books.
avatar
Senestoj: 1 - Don't you think it's a source of the problem? It's possible the game didn't found its public because those who bought it couldn't figure well its genre and imagined/expected something it wasn't.

2 - I searched twitch shooter and couldn't find a clear definition, more a gameplay approach (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_gameplay)

I'm too old to enjoy high focus on reflex, did you thought of that aspect when you designed the game and choose orient the gameplay to reflex? No way I mean it could be the source of the release problems, but don't you think dev shouldn't start think target too the older players that are probably a population slowly growing in comparison of other ages of player? (for mention I'm going closer to 60).
That might be part of the explanation. We didn't specifically think about the age of the average player when designing the game. But you do have a point, and it's actually not something we've been thinking about. It is a reflex heavy game, with a pretty steep difficulty. We'll add an easier mode to the game, in patch 1.1 :)
Hi developers.

1. Is Bombshell a series? Can we expect to see more Bombshell-s in the future?
2. Based on negative and underrated reviews, Is there any plans to release an enhanced version of Bombshell? And do upcoming patches include additional features/contents?

3D Realms is one of the my favorite game companies, 3DR games made a lot of good memories for me. I'm sure we see great games from 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment in the future. Good luck. :)
high rated
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adamhm: Are there any plans to release Bombshell (and Rise of the Triad) for Linux? The lack of a Linux version is the only reason I haven't bought it yet
Linux ports are not always as straight forward as you might think. It's a lot of work and resources required for a very small demographic. It is something we've been looking into. We'll keep you updated!
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ZORGGR: Hi : D

Scott might remember me from facebook (Stergios)...

I haven't bought the game yet but I will do in the coming days... But from what I've seen it doesn't look like a 2/10 game. Seriously... It seems to me that since the release of DNF they want to shutdown 3D Realms by calling every game released with the 3D Realms logo on it, the worst game of the decade or the worst game ever and shit like that.

Let's hope sales won't be affected for wrong reasons...
I think some reviewers were affect by three key factors:

[1] They were expected Sci-Fi Diablo, and instead got a top-down shooter with RPG-lite features. Partially our fault, because we called Bombshell an "action RPG", not realizing that we'd be mistaken for being a Diablo-style game but with more action.

[2] The game definitely has several difficulty spikes that turned out to be much harder than we anticipated. Note that we are racing to fix this asap.

[3] The version of the game that was reviewed still had 200 bugs/glitches that were NOT in the released version on Steam. So, we were unfairly dinged for having bugs that were only in the review copies, given out a week before release.

My hope is that players will play the game and see that it's not anything like the lower review scores we've gotten. IMO, the game is a solid 7 at worse. It's not a Game of the Year contender, but it's super solid high-action fun with a lot of nice features and gameplay that is rarely seen nowadays.
Post edited February 01, 2016 by ScottMiller3DR
low rated
Ok Scott and Fred you've released another game that sucks under the 3DReals name, how do you feel stealing money from people giving them such bad games? Do you feel good? Isn't time to change job and stop making games given the fact that you aren't able to make them anymore?

Or you'll keep releasing these shitty games for other 20 years? I just want to know, here all the users didn't have the guts to tell you this, but I do, STOP RELEASING THIS SHIT!!!!

YOU SHOULD HAVE KICKED IN THE ASS THAT INCOMPETENT OF GEORGE BROUSSARD YEARS AGO, HE HAS DESTROYED A GREAT COMPANY LIKE 3DREALMS, IT WAS A MULTIMILLIONAIRE COMPANY LIKE ID Software, YOU'VE ALLOWED THAT IDIOT BY DESTROYING AND REDUCING IN BANKRUPT A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY LIKE 3DRealms, now from this company comes out only shit, I repeat, YOU SHOULD HAVE KICKED IN THE ASS THAT IDIOT OF BROUSSARD ( You and the other team members) YEARS AGO, the most incompetent CEO/Founder I've ever seen in my life. Oh, finally, it's been years I wanted to say that and finally I did it. This is what I think. Sorry.