LET'S PLAY! Terminus Machina + Update news

First off, apologies to all loyal Terminus Machina fans, superfans, acolytes, Ameribank busters, et. al. for the conspicuous absence of updates.

Secondly, I'm happy to announce the:

I've recently received a few requests for help completing Terminus Machina, which is apparently the, "Most challenging Deus Ex Total Conversion".

If anyone is interested in doing a solid Let's Play of Terminus Machina, I'll consider adding it somewhere on the TM website and/or to a News Update.

I'll give out some special awards for "Fastest Time", "Most Creative Playthrough", "Funniest/Most Entertaining Playthrough", if there are at least a few takers!

On that note: please comment here if you're interested in doing this.

Alright revolutionistas, Illuminati-busters and Hex Gen hacktivists: let's get re-installing Deus Ex! #reinstallsDeusEx

And now, what you've all been waiting for:

Many commenters have asked in one form or another, "If/when can we expect to see some updates or an expanded version of Terminus Machina with more maps, missions, and generally MORE of this game?"

As a preamble: Thanks for playing the game, and enjoying it enough to want more! I'm glad that so many people have loved it enough to garner such a high rating! Actually let's do a quick scorecard in celebration of Terminus Machina's achievments:

• 9.6 rating on Moddb!
• Almost 1700 downloads and counting!
• 230 members!

Now, onto the less sunny story. On completing Terminus Machina, I discovered myself suddenly in a life phase of mass-disruption, which included complicating factors such as:

a.) Needing to get a full-time job

b.) Having a family

a-b.) Needing to keep full-time job for the family

c.) Great Recession Depression 2.0 making all of the above more difficult.

As such, I discovered I would not have the time nor the headspace to continue game development unless I really tried to put out something with commercial viability. Basically, it was going to be difficult or impossible to make games on par, quality-wise, with Terminus Machina, unless I was making some money from the endeavor to keep my lights on, keep a roof over our heads, keep the babies fed, and all of that reality.

I tried along with a small team of volunteers to put out a big expansion pack of levels and such, with myself as the distantly attached attache, providing directional, cultural, and moral support sort of like a Queen of England doing my "Royal Wave" of approval toward concept art or the Dalai Lama, briefly making appearances Forum-side to drop a few cryptic and possibly-inspiring koans of wisdom to the developers.

Unfortunately, this was probably unrealistic to even attempt, and I apologize to all the diehard volunteer TM modders who put work into building the Terminus Machina II ship only to see it capsized by Captain Silverspook's RL-storms and general unavailability. Absent at the wheel.

I realize now it was more difficult to materialize without the kind of continuous, undivided attention that I put into this total conversion from 2011-2012 when I created it.

Still, keeping my head down in a somewhat unfulfilling job far outside the scope of my college major (sound familiar!?!?) left me feeling like I was living life with blinders on.

There was a splinter on my mind, and it was the need to know what The Matrix is. Topple MJ 12 make awesome games.

Knowing that I would need to pursue any future projects as commercial ventures, and that the scale of a full-3D game in a -- let's face it -- archaic, tough-to-debug engine like Deus Ex 1 would involve world-devouring amounts of time, time which I did not have.

I would need to pare down the scope and shoot for something most likely 2D, with way less physics. So I began shopping for other engines and platforms.

I loved the equally cyberpunk Shadowrun Returns, and kicked around the idea of doing an SR module, but that turned out to be too difficult. I tried playing with Unity, but it also turned out to be too headachily beyond my reserves of attention to figure out how to do what I wanted.

Ultimately I happened upon Adventure Game Studio, and it was love at first point-n-click. Ability to release as commercial game? CHECK! Super-easy development with short learning curve? CHECK! Thus I began Project Neofeud:

Here I could focus on the sci-fi / spec-fiction story, which was always my favorite part of Deus Ex/TM, without having to take on the many hats of 3D animating, mapping, programming, etc... So I started building the story, a kind of inverted Terminus Machina, where the AI and machines are not here to destroy us, but rather become a new underclass. "2033 - We create AI. Sentient robots arrive, but not as our Terminator overlords or our Singularity saviors -- conscious machines are humanity's unwanted bastard children."

So this is where I am now, deep into development of Neofeud.

What does this all mean?

There is always the possibility, but unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment for the scale of game development that an expanded Terminus Machina or Terminus Machina II would deserve.

I have been kicking around the idea of crowdfunding (i.e. Kickstarter campaign) a bigger, better, awesomer version of Terminus Machina which would feed a core "engine" of developers from 2D/3D artist to mappers to programmers, with myself as design director, spiritual guru, resident game Tyrant, etc...

A couple of preconditions would need to occur, before the TM reboot, though. Namely:

1.) I'd need to finish Neofeud. It's almost too much just working on Neofeud, working a day job, and shuttling kids to preschool etc., so doing both simultaneously would require me to become Doctor Manhattan or produce an ACTUAL quantum teleportation/time machine. I.e.: not possible.

2.) I'd need to find a new engine, or some work around the extant issues of the DX1 engine and IP issues. As much as I love DX, I think I'd need to take Terminus Machina II to an entirely new engine, one which might make things easier to implement and debug, and less legally un-sellable (Eidos or Squeenix or whomever owns rights to DX and so we can't sell Terminus Machina). Again, the old Maxim: "Time is Money."

So the TLDR: a reboot/resurrection/full-length version of Terminus Machina is possible, but it depends on several factors including the kind of support that can be rallied by the fans.

So please, keep on spreading the good word and thank you again for making this mod possible! I surely would've given in to The Man(s In Black) sooner and ceased and desisted on Terminus Machina development except for all of the encouraging words from you all. Just hearing one positive comment can make it all worth it!

Besides words, if you have donated to Terminus Machina in the past, bought the soundtrack or do donate in the future, please let me know. I am also trying to compile a list of such supporters to add to the site, as well as a spot in the credits of Terminus Machina, when I get to doing an update. Any donation amount is appreciated!

Oh, and before I forget: a special shoutout to Deus Ex: Nihilum, the most awesome and faithful total conversion of Deus Ex in existence. Period. Don't be a philistine tool of the System: go get it, NOW!

Also, special thanks again to the post-2012 release Terminus Machina devs:

AlphaCodeOverride for undying support in terms of testing, cheerleading and a whole variety of other contributions.

JCDenton2000 for some great mapping work

xen0phile for taking on programming tasks after I tapped out in 2012.

AlvinD2008 for putting together some great modeling and animations.