HMS Marulken to become Subsim Project

[Onkel Neal]

From the devs

Hello everyone!

We have some very important news. The game has been successfully funded, but not through Kickstarter. We have established a partnership with Subsim, one of the biggest submarine simulator communities.

After discussing with the Subsim community we have decided on some changes to the game that deviate somewhat from what we have promised in the kickstarter campaign. Because of this, we have decided to cancel the Kickstarter campaign. We don’t want to make any promises we don’t keep, so we feel that cancelling the campaign is the right thing to do.

The changes will not affect the game mechanics, but does affect the story and setting. We have decided to not make a alternative history game about Sweden, and instead make on a more realistic, German U-boat game. This decision will be a disappointment for some, and please others. This is why we have decided to cancel the Kickstarter and start off on a clean slate.

The new version of the game will have a new name, which will be revealed soon. It will feature co-op gameplay with dynamically generated missions. The players will man aType VII German U-boat.

For those of you that want early access, the game will be released as an early access game on Steam, when the new Type VII U-boat interface is implemented.

Thank you so much for supporting us, and we hope that you will follow the development of the new project! Updates and details will be available on the Facebook page and also here.

Best regards
Einar and Oscar

From the time I started Subsim, back in 1997, I have always dreamed of being part of the production of a multiplayer sub game. When Skvader Studios notified me back in Aug 2015 that they were working on a co-op sub game, I had a look and asked them to keep me posted on its progress. When they sent me the demo, and I had a chance to try it, I was really impressed. No, it's not Silent Hunter 5 (but it isn't finished either), but it had a real charm to it. There were concepts in the game design that appealed to me very much.

I immediately pledged the maximum amount. A few days later I raised the pledge another $100. The Kickstarter campaign rose slowly, too slowly to suit me. I reached out to the devs and offered a proposal; I would fund the development of the game for up to a year, including living expenses, hardware, software, and licenses, if they would agree to switching the base unit to a Type VII U-boat. And I am pleased to report that we came to an agreement.

The new game (name to be announced at a later date) will retain much of its original scope and flavor. We will try to retain the Swedish sub adventure, I am sure we can fit that in as a Special Mission. There will also be other Special Missions with designated objectives. There are some features to be added, others to be polished, but we will be careful not to overreach and jeopardize the project. . We want the game to do what it is made to do and do it very well, even on early release. And that is, to provide co-op and multi-sub dynamic convoy battles in the North Atlantic, Baltic, and North Sea.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. I will be moving to Sweden soon, I hope I can find some Dr Pepper there. I hope we can make this a community effort, your support and interest will be crucial. You've never let me down in the past, I have no doubt we will succeed and this could be the first step to a true U-boat/Escort/Convoy simulation. Wish us luck!

Good hunting!
Onkel Neal
SUBSIM

[Gwenydd]

And I was worried the kickstarter wouldn't make it. This is wonderful news both in that the sim will be funded and in the new historical German type VII aspect.

Keep up the great work guys!

Gwen

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome Back To The Subsim Community > Gwenydd

Why is Gwen being shown as a 'Bilge Rat' when she is a 'First Officer'?

[Gwenydd]

I was wondering that myself =P

[blackswan40]

Christmas as come Early this year as we say in my neck of the woods Mytholmroyd Hebdenbridge West Yorkshire The Lads (Onkel Neal) Played A Blinder has anyone told bernard we have a Submarine Simulation Situation
Once Again Nice One Neal Good Job Buddie

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by THEBERBSTER

Why is Gwen being shown as a 'Bilge Rat' when she is a 'First Officer'?

The ol' Custom Title bugaboo. Fixed

[rainiere]

Wow, this is very interesting news! Best of luck!

[nsomnia]

Is the move a joke or serious?

Now I have some competition, competition is always healthy in the free market.

Big news from our end this weekend. Good timing!

Keep on trucking team + N.S.!

[Leo_93]

This is fantastic news, I'm glad that this game will soon be realized as I was worried that the kickstarter might fail as I too had made a pledge on it. Also the first thing I saw in my email was "kickstarter canceled" and I almost fell out of my chair, but then I saw funding successful because of subsim and I was delighted.

[Rydogdav]

Ok. Onkle Neal, please take no personal offense, but d**n you. I was really looking forwards to this game. It was going to be innovative and unique. It wasn't going to be another Silent Hunter, or a second Dangerous Waters. It was going to become the first Sweedish Submarine Simulator, complete with an alternate history story. But now, you changed it with money, just like Minecraft (I know it's a stretch of a comparison and a childish one, but still, the comparison's there). It was going to bring something new to the table and make the game incredibly interesting, and also give the developers the option to use what ever design and type of technology they wanted. Now, you're paying them to change a 4 man design, to a 20 man design when we can barely scrap together 12 men for 3 subs. It seems unfortunate and unfair to this amazing concept.
However, the news of full development funding for this great team is very reassuring that, whatever this game turns out to be, there will be a final product that I will look forwards to for an amazing game. And for that, I thank you Mr. Neal. Keep up the good work! (P.S: I am totally keeping Build 144, even if the newer U-Boat version surpasses it completely)

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Rydogdav

Ok. Onkle Neal, please take no personal offense, but d**n you. I was really looking forwards to this game. It was going to be innovative and unique. It wasn't going to be another Silent Hunter, or a second Dangerous Waters. It was going to become the first Sweedish Submarine Simulator, complete with an alternate history story. But now, you changed it with money, just like Minecraft (I know it's a stretch of a comparison and a childish one, but still, the comparison's there). It was going to bring something new to the table and make the game incredibly interesting, and also give the developers the option to use what ever design and type of technology they wanted. Now, you're paying them to change a 4 man design, to a 20 man design when we can barely scrap together 12 men for 3 subs. It seems unfortunate and unfair to this amazing concept.
However, the news of full development funding for this great team is very reassuring that, whatever this game turns out to be, there will be a final product that I will look forwards to for an amazing game. And for that, I thank you Mr. Neal. Keep up the good work! (P.S: I am totally keeping Build 144, even if the newer U-Boat version surpasses it completely)

I'm hearing alot of sell out comments and a lot of positive comments. They are directly related to casual players and old salts. I agree and disagree with all your points which I won't say how or which but a man puts a lot of love and effort into this website if he wants to take the benefits his hard work reaps and put it on his dream there's no better feeling. The move to Sweden I still question as a joke however. Neal and co has alot to learn and the Swedish two have a lot more to live up to now. Not just part kf the community but -the- community. Gonna be some interesting posts on the next days to come.

What the... this is awesome!
I didn't care about this project at all because it was about some Swedish sub.
Now I learn that it will shift towards German VII boats.

Today is a good day.

[Zerim]

So, I downloaded the game ~2 days ago based on a recommendation from some of my friends from Eve Online, so I'd like to chime in and speak as someone who knows very little about submarines and hasn't played a sub game before.
I'm very happy that it's been funded, because what you have at the moment is special. This game has the potential to be quite popular among mainstream gamers (your own Google Analytics may provide insight). At the moment, the game, as incomplete as it is, isn't just some obvious clone of another game, and it provides extremely memorable gameplay for groups of friends, with serious, tense, scary, funny, and enjoyable moments, somewhat similar to Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes or Spaceteam. I'd like to offer a few pointers, though as you've decided to fund development, it's your money, so feel free to disregard them.

1. Mainstream gamers do not care about the submarine type, and they won't care about what's historically accurate (beyond tangible things like armament, instrument quality, or other special equipment). I'm sure the controls at each station in the current game are dumbed down compared to real life, but they're still not 100% intuitive--please try to avoid making them unnecessarily complicated in the name of accuracy. If you happen to have an abundance of development time, consider a simple mode (i.e., similar to current) and a realistic mode for some stations. That said, elements of realism can make a game really educational and interesting if you don't scare the player away.

2. I'm sure this will sound almost as bad as #1 to many of you, but don't obsess with the story to the detriment of gameplay; the alt-history Swedish setting was cute, but unless you hire a professional writer or an enthusiastic historian, people will likely hit escape to skip the roleplay portions, as we did. However, that doesn't mean good historical story elements would go unnoticed--I'd love to be thrown into this guy's situation and have to solve it. (I'd personally rather have two somewhat historically inaccurate submarines in different eras than one perfect WW2 submarine. Just don't rule out the possibility of a later DLC release with Cold War-era boomers with similar gameplay :)

3. Be careful not to uproot everything that's done if you're going to be changing a lot--Unity is a great choice of an engine, with a nice asset store, and it should allow you to move into VR, which to me is an obvious step for this game. I'm surprised at how good the game already looks, especially the ocean waves and the smoke around the generators; avoid going full ARK: Survival Evolved (which is UE4 and visually pretty but crippling-ly optimized) unless you're certain you could deal with the downsides. Custom 3D game engines are the death of small teams.

4. Don't be afraid to monetize the game some to offset expenses as you develop, especially if the demo goes viral before the 'corrected' version is complete. That said, you can't and shouldn't rely on the chances of it going viral, and don't over-promise or under-deliver like ~75% of Steam Greenlight games. I wouldn't hesitate to drop $5 on the game as it currently is if it had a few more core features (listed below), as this is exactly the kind of game I'd buy for a few hours of weekend fun assuming core functionality is in place.

So, things that need to be priorities (aka, I'm just gonna make the post longer and throw suggestions for the game as-is)-
1. Game saving and loading. I soloed the current mission (6-8 kills!), and it took me a few hours in one sitting. For long duration missions, saving is a must; without it and autosave, expect people to ragequit and leave bad reviews.
2. Player models for multiplayer. I know they've posted some WIP 3D models, but invisibility is an awful placeholder--just a standard Unity player capsule would be way better than nothing, and should really be in the very next version.
3. Tweaks to the user interface/experience, both in the menu and in game.
In the menu: various things like mouse-over color changes are simple to add and very helpful to the user.
In the game: the papers ('O' and 'F' keys) being affected by lighting will lead to some great gameplay as people try to read their orders as their lights flicker due to lack of power... however not being able to read because it's too bright in the EWAR room is lame. In addition, WASD should work if you're not holding right click. Consider the option to make right click a toggle instead of a hold.
As a bonus: the fact that radio broadcasts are in German is a nice touch, but having to open up Google Translate doesn't help immersion, no pun intended. If you plan on having realistic languages, add a translation cheat sheet or AI crew translator or something.

tl;dr- The core gameplay has tons of potential mostly regardless of historicity. Good luck with its development!

[daft]

Firstly, awesome news! I really approve of the new direction!

Secondly, you're moving to Sweden?! Now, I haven't been the most Active member on Subsim, but I've been here for a looooong time now (before my current forum nick namn I had another which I lost the password to), and Subsim and consequently you Neal, have come to mean quite a bit to me throughout the years. So IF you really are moving to Sweden (Stockholm I assume), I insist that I finally get a chance to meet up and buy you a couple of beers.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Zerim

Just don't rule out the possibility of a later DLC release with Cold War-era boomers with similar gameplay

We've got you covered, check back this weekend (Very very late Saturday GMT or Sunday) mail has been shipped out and should be arriving in port anyday now. :

Edit: Just noticed top 100 of 35,500 on indieDB in my siggy, thanks for the publicity Neal & Co!