The Tomorrow Children

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
Q-Games details visual tech behind The Tomorrow Children, first gameplay footage
Published 3 days ago. 6 comments.

A look at the PS4 game's cinematography, lighting, and geometry.

Q-Games has detailed the visual technology behind its upcoming PlayStation 4 game The Tomorrow Children.
“When the project started we had a meeting with Mark Cerny and he said ‘I want Q-Games to do something that’s a little…outside the box’,” Q-Games president and executive producer Dylan Cuthbert said. “So I took that to heart and decided to use the PS4′s awesome compute power to drive three things.”
Those three things are cinematography, lighting, and geometry, each of which The Tomorrow Children in its own unique fashion.
Find the details below, as detailed by Cuthbert.
Cinematography


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I immediately drove the technology towards “cinematography” which I think is a much more visually stunning style compared to CG that strives to be realistic. Realistic graphics give us directly what we can see, but cinematography also gives us what we imagine we’re seeing. So for example if you are looking at a green field on a cloudy day, the raw photons hitting our eyes are actually a bit of a dull green but the brain’s imagination (and this is different for every person) spruces up the image we are seeing, making it more stimulating and exciting.

Pretty much every movie you have ever seen has gone through this kind of ‘colour grading’ process, the most recent ‘fad’ of which is a process called ‘orange-teal’ which boosts orange in the highlights and blue in the shadows plus a number of other tweaks. Recent TV series such as Breaking Bad, Utopia and True Detective rely on this heavily to set up atmosphere and scene tone.
So I thought to myself, why not do this for games too – but not via a few simple ‘tone mapping’ parameters, let’s go the whole hog and create a professional cinematic colour grading process. And we have two major advantages over cameras and their sensors. The first is that a modern 3D pipeline generates a larger dynamic range of colour which gives us more freedom, and the second is that we have ‘Z’ information for every pixel which lets us introduce Z as a parameter into the colour grading process. This lets us do things such bring up black levels in the distance, or even swizzle colours around a little based on distance from the camera.
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Lighting

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With that cinematic feel to everything, we started investigating how to get a ‘pre-rendered’ look to our 3D in realtime and we decided we were going to have to go all out and do something that no-one is doing. So we researched and invented something called ‘cascaded voxel cone ray tracing’. The concept is a little complex but it involves calculating and storing light and its direction around the player as she moves in ever increasing cascades of data.
Because we have volumetric data (the voxel cone part) it means we can bounce light around fairly cheaply and any one pixel on the screen has up to three bounces of light hitting it, and from all directions too. Now, by the third bounce, the light is quite diminished in power but it makes that subtle difference that tricks the eye into thinking it is looking at something with true presence.
Interestingly most Pixar-style CG movies that you have seen are only using one bounce and although they beat us in detail because they can spend 30 minutes or more rendering one frame, our lighting is a lot more subtle and effective. For example, we can move a big red object around in real time and watch the sunlight reflecting off of it bounce onto the surrounding objects, and then watch that light bounce again onto other nearby objects that wouldn’t normally be lit (indirect lighting).
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Geometry

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We needed some other new tech to build the game around so we started looking into techniques to do deformable landscapes. We wanted something you could dig and mine, or create shapes in but we didn’t want anything too strongly grid based; we wanted it to feel more real. So we went with something called Layered Depth Cubes, which is a way to represent the world without using polygons. Instead, it’s represented as volumes, which are then converted to polygons as needed (for example if the player goes near them and they need to be actually drawn on screen).
The benefit of not using polygons means the data is far easier manipulate and we can do boolean options (addition/subtraction) on the data to cut out holes or to add details and the whole structure remains solid and intact.
The added advantage of course is this all ties in with the lighting above to give it quick, easy-to-access data structures to bounce its light through!
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PlayStation 4, Clips, Gameplay, Q-Games, SCE, SCEA, SCEE, The Tomorrow Children

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Top, PlayStation 4
40 minutes of The Tomorrow Children gameplay
Published 22 hours ago. 12 comments.

See Q-Games' upcoming PlayStation 4 title in action.

Q-Games debuted the first footage of its upcoming PlayStation 4 title The Tomorrow Children during an Extra Life live stream on Raptr’s Twitch channel Friday.
The 40-minute premiere is led by Q-Games president and executive producer Dylan Cuthbert, who you’ll see mine, defeat kaiju, and create items at the work bench.
Watch the footage below. An alpha test for The Tomorrow Children is set to run between October 30 and November 12.
[YT]ZFNwZdaGqZM[/YT]

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PlayStation 4, Top, Clips, Gameplay, Q-Games, SCE, SCEA, SCEE, The Tomorrow Children

source: Gematsu

 

[zenith16]

Why didn’t I Hear about The Tomorrow Children before PlayStation Experience? December 9, 2014 . 4:01pm

was drawn into the game by its unique look. All of the characters are clones of humans. The real humans are gone.

The system is breaking down, people. When you hear about really nifty games, you’re supposed to tell me. Shout at me on Twitter, send up a smoke signal, or something. Don’t put me in a situation where I don’t know a unique game like The Tomorrow Children exists until I see it at an event!

Unless, perhaps you don’t know about it either? It’s a plausible scenario, as Q-Games and Japan Studio’s PS4 game hasn’t gotten a lot of widespread attention. I mean, aside from its Gamescom 2014 announcement, it’s been shadowy and mysterious.

I was drawn into the game by its unique look. All of the characters are clones of humans. The real humans are gone. They’re sealed away, sleeping in matryoshka dolls, and it’s up to these puppet clones to work together to recover them and restore towns. The figures are haunting ones, eerie dolls that mechanically roam about towns.


Given their goal of restoring humanity and mechanical nature, it’s a perfect fit for the use of Czech imagery and Communist propaganda. Characters are urged to work for the good of their specific town, traveling to islands to mine resources. It’s dangerous work, as venturing into darkness can cause the unknown to attack. Lights are needed, and working together is advised for the greater good. Indeed, community was even stressed in this early, alpha build on display at PSX. I constantly saw other The Tomorrow Children players, but only when they were also performing actions. Otherwise, they were invisible. If I did see one, though, I could contribute to the work, adding to my own prowess as well as gaining resources for the greater good.

Not that there were any humans to save in this demo. It was too early for that. Or any opportunity to really start upgrading the specific town I had spawned in and “joined.” Instead, I found myself first diving into work breaking down a monster that had attacked the this town earlier.


Yes, there are monster attacks. Judging by the remains I saw, they’re huge beasts. When one comes, the clones can build towers to defend the area and defeat it. The defeated creature becomes a shell of its former self, which can be mined. It’s an intriguing system.

The Tomorrow Children triggered my imagination. There were a few classes available in the demo, like civilian and miner, but the only changes so early on were the ability to get a few extra stat points here and there. Some tools were available to make mining easier. Still, I have a feeling there’s potential here. Especially since players will be able to work together to make their town a home. Though, if someone wants, I did learn it will be possible to migrate to other towns either for business, pleasure, or to find a new permanent residence.

I suppose the best thing to say is that I’m hopeful. The Tomorrow Children seems like a game that is taking inspiration from a title like Minecraft, rather than flat out copying it like many other clones we’ve seen appear. The notion of working with a community to recover and rebuild towns, surrounded by such unique trappings, makes me want to investigate more and see what the future of this dystopian game could look like.

Read more stories about Japan Studio & PlayStation Experience & PS4 & Q Games & The Tomorrow Children on Siliconera.

source: Siliconera

 

[zenith16]

The Tomorrow Children

PlayStation Experience 2014: Building Your Future (Interview)

Elyse caught up with Q-Games Founder Dylan Cuthbert at PlayStation Experience 2014 to get more details on what to expect from The Tomorrow Children!
Views: 1,431 | Posted: 12/10/2014

source: GT

 

[zenith16]

Players Of The Tomorrow Children’s Alpha Version Created Some Weird Stuff. December 28, 2014 . 10:59am

They built a strange and enclosed TV room as well as a massive helter skelter tower that you can float gently down from with a parasol.

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PlayStation Japan has released an overview video of Q-Games’s sandbox action game The Tomorrow Children. It features footage captured from the game’s recent closed alpha build. You can view it above.

Dylan Cuthbert of Q-Games narrates over the video footage to explain what you’re watching. Cuthbert explains that you play as a “projection clone” that has been sent out into the voidspace, which is all that’s left of the Earth after a failed experiment in 1960s Soviet Russia.

Your goal is to restore humanity by collecting Matryoshka dolls found on various islands and after defeating monsters in the game’s world. It’s played online with other players and so the idea is for you to work collaboratively to restore as much as the world as possible, building it brick by brick from the resources you dig up.

You can see some of the creations that players of the alpha build came up with in the video. This includes a strange and enclosed TV room, a helter skelter that stretches high up into the sky, and that you can float gently down from by using a parasol. You’ll also see a Godzilla-like creature being defeated, hover cars being driven, and an island that looks like a whale.

You can find out more about The Tomorrow Children in Siliconera’s preview from the PlayStation Experience event.

Read more stories about PlayStation 4 & The Tomorrow Children & Videos on Siliconera.

source: Siliconera

 

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
Screenshots: No Man’s Sky, Shadow of the Beast, The Tomorrow Children, more
Published 52 mins ago. 4 comments.

Fresh screenshots from the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

New screenshots of several upcoming PlayStation 4 games have come out of E3.
Get the list below.

• No Man’s Sky – 7 screenshots
• Shadow of the Beast – 7 screenshots
• Tearaway Unfolded – 13 screenshots
• The Tomorrow Children – 8 screenshots
• Until Dawn – 5 screenshots

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PlayStation 4, E3 2015, Hello Games, Media Molecule, No Man's Sky, Q-Games, SCE, SCEA, SCEE, Shadow of the Beast, Tearaway Unfolded, The Tomorrow Children, Until Dawn

source: Gematsu

 

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
The Tomorrow Children launches this fall
Published 54 mins ago. 5 comments.

New trailer shows what life is like in the game world.

The Tomorrow Children will launch for PlayStation 4 this fall, Sony Computer Entertainment and Q-Games announced.
Q-Games has been adding “tons of new features previously unseen in trailers and the closed alpha” last fall, as well as “enriching the story and setting.” This includes “strange and magical tools, cute and unique clothing, and bizarre and imposing structures.”
In The Tomorrow Children, players take on the role of a “Projection Clone” as humanity claws its way back from the brink of extinction. The E3 trailer, posted below, shows what a glimpse of life in the game’s world is like. Players will control the fate of their town and the world itself as they expand it from a nearly empty outpost into a lively home filled with shops, facilities, and more, all while defending it from invaders.
Watch the E3 trailer below.


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View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
visit gallery »



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PlayStation 4, Clips, E3 2015, Release Dates, SCE, SCEA, SCEE, Screenshots, The Tomorrow Children, Trailers

source: Gematsu

 

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
The Tomorrow Children beta slated for January 21
Published 5 hours ago. 15 comments.

Join the beta for an exclusive costume.

Sony Computer Entertainment and Q Games will host a beta for The Tomorrow Children from January 21 to 23, it’s been announced.


All beta participants will receive an exclusive costume for the full game as a bonus.


Interested users can sign up at the game’s official website.


Watch a new trailer below.
[YT]M7g8MJJIlmE[/YT]Read More

PlayStation 4, Betas, Clips, PlayStation Experience 2015, Q-Games, SCE, SCEA, The Tomorrow Children, Trailers

source: Gematsu

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

this was supposed to release this year =[

 

[zenith16]

News on the beta (Glorified Demo actually, but any ways )



The Tomorrow Children’s PS4 Beta Kicks Off In January, Register Right Now. December 9, 2015 . 4:00pm

You can register to be part of the North American
and European closed betas for The Tomorrow Children right now.

[YT]M7g8MJJIlmE[/YT]
Q-Games will be hosting a closed beta in North America and Europe for its PlayStation 4 multiplayer sandbox adventure The Tomorrow Children starting January 21st.

If you want to get in on that beta then you’ll want to register for it right now. If you’re in North American you can sign-up here. Or, if you’re in Europe, you’ll want to sign-up here.

By participating in the closed beta you’ll get an exclusive costume to wear inside the game. You can see it in the image above.

The Tomorrow Children is set in a “retro-futuristic, cold war-themed, post-apocalyptic alternate timeline” and has you playing as the titular kids as they restore the Earth’s surface after a Soviet experiment went very wrong.

Read more stories about PlayStation 4 & The Tomorrow Children & Videos on Siliconera.

source: Siliconera

 

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
[FONT=&quot]The Tomorrow Children launches September 6[/FONT]
Published 8 hours ago. 14 comments.

Available first as a paid early access title.

The Tomorrow Children will launch for PlayStation 4 as on September 6, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Q-Games announced.



While the game will eventually be free-to-play, it will be available first as a paid early access title.


The game is a combination of action, simulation, strategy, and social gaming that puts players in the role of a “project clone,” tasking players to work together, in an alternate future Soviet Union in order to restore civilization to a world annihilated by a failed science experiment.


You’ll gather resources, build and customize your town, build defenses, fend of kaiju monsters, and more.


For $19.99, the Founders Pack will include the following:

• Bourgeoisie papers — This is your first step to becoming a resident of The Void. By earning the “rezidenty” status, player’s will have the privilege to participate in creating structures and items to build your town, access to new tools, and the ability to build your very own house within the town. Also includes five F2P invitations to send to friends.
• Lv1 Arms License — Unlocks access to higher-tier weapons at the weapons dealer in town (purchase items with in-game currency earned by completing various labor tasks).
• Lv1 Tools License — Unlocks access to higher tier tools at the tool dealer in town (purchase items with in-game currency earned by completing various labor tasks).
• Eagle Corp. Jetpack — This high-end Black Market paid item will take you to new heights, allowing you to reach otherwise inaccessible areas on tops of “islands” to mine resources and find hidden items.
• Special costume — “Miner Gear” costume to customize your in-game “projection clone” character.
• Exclusive PSN avatar pack — This is a pack containing three exclusive PSN avatars limited to the Founders Pack.
• 1000 Freeman Dollars — Currency that can be used at the black market to purchase a variety of high-powered weapons, tools, and more, and can also be used as bribes to government officials for quick personal benefit. (This is separate from the in-game credits collected from the town’s City Hall after completing various labor tasks, which are used at the normal vendors in town.)
• Bourgeoisie Paper holders will also receive five invitations to send to their friends, granting them access to the F2P game client before full public release. Invited comrades can enjoy the F2P game for free, and upgrade their experience with the Founders Pack if they choose.

Founders Pack owners, as well as those invited by Founders to experience the free-to-play game early, will be able to purchase additional Freeman Dollar packs via the PlayStation Store to purchase Black Market items in the game.
The free-to-play version of The Tomorrow Children will launch in “the coming months.” When it does, the Founders Pack will be replaced by the Frontier Pack bundle, including additional content and Freeman Dollar currency.
View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
visit gallery »








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PlayStation 4, Gamescom 2016, Q-Games, Release Dates, Screenshots, SIE, SIEA, SIEE, The Tomorrow Children
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source: Gematsu

 

[zenith16]

PlayStation 4
[FONT=&quot]The Tomorrow Children is now free-to-play[/FONT]
Published 5 hours ago. 11 comments.

Work together to build and defend your town.

The Tomorrow Children is free-to-play starting today, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Q-Games announced.



The game launched as a paid “early access” title back in August and was always planned to go free-to-play. Alongside the free game, there will be a $19.99 “Frontier Pack,” which includes “Bourgeoisie papers, Lv1. Arms License, Lv1. Tools License, EagleCorp Jetpack, three avatars and 500 Freeman dollars.” PlayStation Plus members will also get an exclusive costume.


To celebrate the game’s free-to-play launch, a bonus Halloween costume (pictured) will be provided for a limited time (between October 26 and November 2).


Q-Games has also released a major update to the game, addressing user feedback and adding a selection of new content, including new islands, tools, costumes, void powers, facilities, missions and much more.






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PlayStation 4, Q-Games, SIE, SIEA, SIEE, The Tomorrow Children
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source: Gematsu