The Hong Kong Massacre gets a bloody good debut trailer
The art will be 3D in the final game.
The Hong Kong Massacre sure looks like Hotline Miami directed by John Woo, but that's in no way a bad thing. We first caught a glimpse of indie developer Vreski's homage to 80s and early 90s east Asian cinema last month in a couple of gifs, but now we can see a minute and a half of actual gameplay.
It looks ace with the slow-motion mechanic and dynamic environments helping distinguish it from Hotline Miami's more minimalist aesthetic. There's dust, debris, sparks, and papers that litter the landscape when a firefight breaks out, lending a thick, balletic atmosphere to the combat. Even if it's a clear riff off of Dennaton Games' psychedelic modern classic, The Hong Kong Massacre still looks pretty great.
Now let's hope it stays that way, as the whole game is being ported to Unity and will be remade in 3D. "The idea from the beginning was to keep the 2D top-down style when moving to Unity, this will probably not be the case," explained developer Vreski on the TIGSource forums. "Instead all the graphics will be made in 3D with a top-down camera with small perspective on it (although if you want a orthographic camera this could be an switch option of course). Still testing this out but it will most likely stay that way. I have a very talented 3D artist that has taking over the graphic part and it is looking very promising already."
"The game will look much more nicer [sic], with shadows, textures and all that," Vreski added. "It will allow the world to be more 'alive' with real physics on objects, destructible objects like doors will also help to create a better 'action feel' in the game."
The developer noted that this move will slow down development time, and the evolving aesthetic might not be to everyone's taste. "It might move away too much from the original concept graphic-wise (as seen in the trailer), so it might actually feel a bit like a different game for some people. (Don´t worry it will still be very bloody.) I guess we have to wait and see."