Future Plans for Culpa Innata [Both Game + Book], Fan Feedback much appreciated!

[FKA I Criceti Gemelle]

Long story short, I managed to get in contact with B. Barmanbek when I contacted his old company, Momentum DMT, regarding the propects of the book's sequel. As promised in the other discussion, I've gotten permission to share our correspondence thus far. Bear with me, and forgive me for posting the emails by the block. I didn't want the compromise the integrity of Mr Barmanbek's responses by trying to summarise. ;__;

Originally posted by B. Barmanbek:

27/01/2016

... I don't get to reply to mail from fans very often, as the mails from the info link on my old company's website rarely gets to me (nor I have the time). But your mail must have been at the right place at the right time.

Also this is a moment that I need some feedback. I didn't have time to update the website for a while, so I'm quite isolated from reader/player feedback. I suspended my writing of Culpa Innata sequel (it's about 70% complete) because I felt that something was missing from the first book, and that I couldn't reflect all that I wanted to convey. I felt this all along, but there was a lot of pressure to release at the time. I have even worked on the manuscript, and included plenty of edited out stuff and came up with an updated version (call it version 2 if you wish). I'm not sure what to do with this version 2 just yet.

Right now I'm working on a new game, a prequel to the Culpa Innata. But this one is a shooter, and a violent one at that. It will be about the Eastern Bloodbath times. The game will be of high quality and will be aimed to a new fan base outside of the traditional adventure fans. But I'm not sure what the reaction of the existing fans like yourself will be like. Would you like to share your thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance...

I remarked that the STALKER game series comes to my mind, I suppose in part due to the lore of the Eastern Bloodbath (was this covered in the game? It was briefly touched on in the novelisation). Do consider reading the book if you haven't, it really enhances the experience of the game.

At this point, I didn't think my opinion alone can suffice, so I asked to share with y'all. :3

Originally posted by B. Barmanbek:

30/01/2016

Yes, please share our correspondence with other fans, I'd like to hear from them. Are they just game fans, or also book readers? Also be aware that the release of the prequel will not be for another 1.5 - 2 years. Although, the book version 2 or book sequel might be out before that. I'm not sure.. It's very hard to market a book, as it has no visual content.

The prequel will not be a FPS. It will be in the third person, like Tomb Raider and Uncharted. We plan to have some puzzles but definitely not as much as to call it an Adventure, but perhaps an Action/Adventure like they bill the Tomb Raider. My aim is to make the prequel a much better looking and playing game than either of those two games. With first Culpa Innata, my objective was to make an Adventure as good as the Longest Journey (some claimed it turned out even better). Visuals were not a priority, as I wasn't sure if my team at the time was capable of making world class graphics. We only had some edge on face modelling, expressions, and lip-syncing. So we focused on storyline and playability. This time the focus is all three: Storyline, playability, and visual/technological excellence. And sound! We have big surprises in sound design.

Since the first days I developed and wrote the Culpa storyline, The Bloodbath always intrigued me. I always envisioned a day that I make a shooting game about the Bloodbath. My other favorite is the Danish Blockade. By the way, did you see the Bloodbath graphic novelette we included with some releases of the game (Italian and German)?

Best,

Burak

I haven't seen the novelette unfortunately. :(
Annnnnd there ya have it. I'm only replying to this last message now as I was busy all day yesterday. :(

So! What say you, eager fans? How does it sound so far?

This is Hamme, signing out!

[deathknight1stclass]

I think it sounds pretty interesting. From how he described it, it sounds like it would differ from the original in the way dreamfall:the longest journey differed from the original longest journey. Which wouldn't be a bad thing in my mind since I loved both those games. My main concern is that the action elements, if done poorly, would detract from the overall experience.

I want an interesting story that fleshes out the cupla innata lore, not another generic action game.

[FKA I Criceti Gemelle]

Originally posted by deathknight1stclass:

... My main concern is that the action elements, if done poorly, would detract from the overall experience.

I want an interesting story that fleshes out the cupla innata lore, not another generic action game.

I have these similar reservations as well, though in my part, it's because I don't actively seek out action adventure games unless I was invested in the game's lore in the first place.

I've also seen a fair share of poorly executed indie action adventure games that leaves me just a tad leery of the genre as a whole...

If the prequel is billed as anything other than Culpa Innata, I might not notice it immediately. Although, the backstory might still draw me in to give the game a shot.

Nevertheless, as you've mentioned seeing as The Longest Journey/Dreamfall segued gracefully, this reintroduction as an action adventure can be a welcome change for Culpa Innata.

[Meat Gave Me Chest Pain]

If it is going to be an action shooter, I won't be all that interested even with a great story. Even with high quality games like Mass Effect and Bioshock, I can't take the story too seriously due to the nature of game mechanics.

For example, there could be this bad ass villain but when you fight him, you find out the AI of the villain is very predictable and not badass at all.

Dreamfall was also more action oriented than TLJ but it still had emphasis on adventure, action was only added where it added to the story, not distract from it.

I have read the book after finishing the game and it was really good. Playing the game first and then reading the book was great because it helps you be invested in the world and then visualize the writings. I would love to read the sequel as a book.

[FKA I Criceti Gemelle]

Thank you both for the feedback so far. Regarding the radio silence, I'd been meaning to post up the last reply I'd received from Mr. Barmanbek but I've been preoccupied with several personal projects, so please forgive me on that part.

Regarding this next reply, he addresses the minor differences between the European and North American releases because I brought up that some players have noted that the Steam edition may be missing some key plot details (related thread here). He's also included a copy of the comic that came with the Italian and German editions of the game, which I've gotten permission to share (download below!).

I also suggested crowdfunding to back any future releases related to Culpa Innata, bearing in mind Shenmue's recent success on Kickstarter. Though I understand that it will take some effort to garner media attention prior to launching any projects, and CI has been on hiatus for several years now.

Originally posted by B. Barmanbek:

Culpa Innata comic[onedrive.live.com]

The original comic idea came from a necessity. I was publishing Culpa in Italy myself, I had contacts to distribute it through the Italian newspaper kiosk network. Italians buy all kinds of stuff from kiosks, including video games. The reason games were sold in kiosks was because they would bundle games with magazines and sell them for full game price, which would make them qualify for a very low sales tax. All our competition was doing this. So I weighed the cost of having our own comic vs burden of high tax, and it was worth it. Then we included it in the German release as well. But the North American publisher was too stingy for it. So were the Russians.

There are tiny content differences between the European and North American releases, based on difference of sensitivities between the two sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, violence is the most sensitive issue. The scene where a bound Bogdanov being executed was gonna make the Culpa rated 18. I didn't think it was worth to jump a full rating level over one scene. So we made some changes to the cameras and the player saw Bogdanov at gun point, but not the actual shooting. This made Culpa rated 16 in European releases. This scene was not a big issue for ESRB. For ESRB, the problem was nudity and sexual content (which PEGI didn't care about in Europe). Because of this, we edited out a nightmare (this nightmare would have made Culpa rated NC or something) since many bricks and mortar stores didn't prefer carrying games above M. I was thinking without that scene Culpa would have been rated T, but Sandra's dirty talk pushed it up to an M rating still. So when people talk about an uncut version of Culpa Innata, I guess they mean that nightmare.

It's very impressive and encouraging with what happened with Shenmue. It appears like on average people pledged around 100 dollars. Crowdfunding is a maybe. It's difficult to manage expectations of a crowd.

Best,

Burak

Also, I apologise for not having it occur me to ask a couple of posts back, but: As fans of the game, what are the other things you'd like to know about Culpa Innata, or what you expect out of it? Share your opinions here while in the meantime, I'll ask Mr Barmanbek if there are any other platforms for to reach him. I personally don't think I make a good correspondent, haha

That's all for now. I think I might share this thread on reddit for a little extra exposure.

[FKA I Criceti Gemelle]

Originally posted by Conclave:

I have read the book after finishing the game and it was really good. Playing the game first and then reading the book was great because it helps you be invested in the world and then visualize the writings. I would love to read the sequel as a book.

This is important and I agree with this very much.

[vioray]

I really hope the future plans involve patching full subtitles (steam version only has them in cut-scenes) into the steam version!

[icy_april]

Culpa Innata has quite interesting storylines and even a message - I loved (and still love) it for its political and philosophical layers underneath a decent whodunnit mystery. I know you can't label a game like this without make it sound boring, but, actually, CI is all else than boring. It is exciting and intriguing and fun to play. So I even bought in on steam again, to back up my original, after I saw it here. Thus said... I waited for a sequel/follow up or prequel since I played it the first time and thought any news on a next CI would be good news to me...


A shooter-CI for me would not be good news for me, though.

As long as games with a great storyline exist, that don't allow point&click gamers somehow to get around shootings/action scenes without breaking their fingers on keyboards/gamepads/whateverdevices that need more attention (and physical abilities) beyond left- or right clicks, I feel left behind.

Tech and coding have made so much progression, why does it still seem impossible to provide accessibility for more than one type of players in a game? Even games advertised/tagged as "point&click" sometimes demand the use of wsad PLUS mouse... (I'm pixxed about all of those who let me fall in that trap, btw)

There _are_ some (sadly, too few) games that allow being played with different input methods, though, and I strongly hope that CI2 could/would/will be one of them.


TLTR:
If there's the slightest possibility, please let there be a choice for perhaps something like a "point & click story mode" in the game options!

(Of course I do not want a p&c option for e.g. a multiplayer mode, that'd be plain unfair, imbalancing and rigging any gameplay. I do _not_ want to gain points against people with more dactylistic abilities than I have, I only want to be able as single player to play through a great storyline, which, I'm sure CI2 will have! )

[cybiotic]

I loved the game mostly for it's character depth and story-line that had something new and more advanced to say. I'm miffed that the creators felt they had to make cuts to both versions in order to conform to a less mature audience since I feel the cuts compromised the original vision and watered-down the underlying messages and meanings. I read the book and liked it but thought it was less tight and hence lacked the impact of the game.

I would read the sequel book anyway though. However, although I don't mind venturing into action-adventure territory if the emphasis is heavily on the adventure side, I definitely wouldn't play a shooter. For me, action detracts from the immersiveness of adventure games and like the previous poster I don't have the hand-eye coordination for action anyway.

[gordonfreeman01]

The comic link does not work anymore due to some changes in OneDrive, any chance of a new link?

I am currently evaluating whether to purchase the Steam version of the game to support the developers as The Adventure Shop seems to have shut down and the uncut version is no longer available for sale anywhere. Would be nice if uncut were put on GoG.com, please support the release via voting on the wishlist: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/culpa_innata

[heleanthia]

Originally posted by icy_april:

Culpa Innata has quite interesting storylines and even a message - I loved (and still love) it for its political and philosophical layers underneath a decent whodunnit mystery. I know you can't label a game like this without make it sound boring, but, actually, CI is all else than boring. It is exciting and intriguing and fun to play. So I even bought in on steam again, to back up my original, after I saw it here. Thus said... I waited for a sequel/follow up or prequel since I played it the first time and thought any news on a next CI would be good news to me...


A shooter-CI for me would not be good news for me, though. :sad_creep:

As long as games with a great storyline exist, that don't allow point&click gamers somehow to get around shootings/action scenes without breaking their fingers on keyboards/gamepads/whateverdevices that need more attention (and physical abilities) beyond left- or right clicks, I feel left behind.

Tech and coding have made so much progression, why does it still seem impossible to provide accessibility for more than one type of players in a game? Even games advertised/tagged as "point&click" sometimes demand the use of wsad PLUS mouse... (I'm pixxed about all of those who let me fall in that trap, btw)

There _are_ some (sadly, too few) games that allow being played with different input methods, though, and I strongly hope that CI2 could/would/will be one of them.


TLTR:
If there's the slightest possibility, please let there be a choice for perhaps something like a "point & click story mode" in the game options! :scotch:

(Of course I do not want a p&c option for e.g. a multiplayer mode, that'd be plain unfair, imbalancing and rigging any gameplay. I do _not_ want to gain points against people with more dactylistic abilities than I have, I only want to be able as single player to play through a great storyline, which, I'm sure CI2 will have! :piermont:)

I am adding my agreement to this poster's excellent comment. I would love to see a sequel but prefer NOT to have a shooter/ action version... (and strongly hope that the developer sees these comments and considers this....)
Interesting how Culpa Innata was compared to the Longest Journey and yes, I do think it is even better..

[FKA I Criceti Gemelle]

Originally posted by gordonfreeman01:

The comic link does not work anymore due to some changes in OneDrive, any chance of a new link?

I am currently evaluating whether to purchase the Steam version of the game to support the developers as The Adventure Shop seems to have shut down and the uncut version is no longer available for sale anywhere. Would be nice if uncut were put on GoG.com, please support the release via voting on the wishlist: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/culpa_innata

Thanks for the heads up, link has been updated! It's really unfortunate that the Adventure Shop has taken down the only known unavailable uncut version. :(

So it's been a while since I've looked at these posts, and life got in the way such that I haven't had a chance to get in contact with Mr. Barmanbek.

I can't remember if it's been mentioned somewhere in the above posts but the devs held back from publishing the uncut version of the game in North America because, being stamped with the 'M' rating as it is, they'll run into legal issues with the ESRB should they leave in the more "risque" scenes. Blech, what could be more risque in this day and age, yanno? That said, it's a regional issue.

It's gonna be a long shot but if GOG ever does put up a DRM-free edition of the game (maybe the uncut one at that, that would be a very very big bonus), Steam's gonna have a run for its money lol

All that said, thanks for all the feedback everyone, really appreciate it! I'll try to get back in contact with Mr Barmanbek asap :)

Hamme

[gordonfreeman01]

On a side note, the comic (and some nice wallpapers and posters) are part of the uncut edition for which a patch is now available for the Steam version at:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=697262043

[FAHNENJOKER]

Hey, nice to hear at least some news about possible sequels! I played the game back in the day. It has its flaws and its looks haven't aged well (or were already dated at the time), but I love the world and characters B. Barmanbek created and it will always have a place in my heart.

I am just finishing the novel, which is really a great book! I would love to read a sequel or play another adventure as Phoenix (a shooter prequel not so much though). Any recent news from the creator? :)

[Ellyps]

I'd love to see the sequel to Culpa! The story is engrossing, the dialogues are great and I really liked the various characters and the way the plot was evolving. It ended somewhat abruptly, I was disappointed not to be able to see the results of the investigation. So many unanswered questions! So many things yet to be explored! And I was so eager to travel to the "Rogue state of Russia" (that's where I live actually)) I would certainly back the project if it emerged on kickstarter or somewhere else, and I would definitely like the 2nd game to be a true successor to the first one, a nice classic point-and-click adventure, not a shooter. I guess the change of genre would kill the story completely since it relies heavily on dialogue and puzzles. I really hope to see Culpa Innata 2 released one day. I miss Phoenix too)
The game definitely has many fans in Russia, by the way)

[cybiotic]

Yes, add my vote! Having already played the uncut version (by playing it in Russian), I'd be more than willing to pay for it twice by purchasing any uncut English version.