blog: developer blog #6

Feb 13, 2009 Derek Smart

This is going to be a pretty short dev update because I’m totally wiped out after Sergio and I – as well as some of the content guys (Alexis, Joerg et al) – have been pulling some sixteen hour days for what seems like days on end.

As we start putting in the finishing touches to our game, a plethora of content that went in this past two weeks have helped to put the final pictures together. We’ve started replacing the remainder of the legacy 3D content placeholders with the newly completed versions. These include the new weapon models, 3D cockpits, scenery elements etc.

Populating an open world game, even one in which there are only eight bases (about 20km sq. each) in a 400 sq. km world, is no easy task. Its not like we’re building a real-world city the likes of the excellent GTA-IV -and which I’m sure took an army of content providers three or four years to do and several million. My goal has always been to ensure that the “areas of interest” (i.e. the bases) are populated enough such that they are interesting, worthy of the time spent and don’t bring the target machine to its knees. I think we’ve accomplished this to the extent that unlike other flight capable games (where you fly up high and see a blurry mess down low), the game looks quite good at any altitude and plays well. Given that multiplayer takes place in the same game world, performance is a big concern of mine.

The game world was built with expansion in mind. So depending on how popular the game is, the plan is to release new vehicles, aircrafts, weapons, inventory deployables, new bases etc. We also plan new career modes which also feature new scenarios focused around another (what? surely you didn’t think only these four survived the crash did you?) team of survivors (lol! I kill me) stranded elsewhere (think new massive maps!) on the planet.

The new Frontend GUI was basically completed about a week ago, but since then a few tweaks and other interfaces (comms, orders stats etc) have been finalized and cleaned up.

Martin has also almost finished with our integrated server browser/chat lobby, stats and leaderboard backend etc. This enables those who want to track their multiplayer stats to register a unique gamerID. From that point on, any server they play on with that gamerID, their stats will be saved and restored. With this, any registered user can view their profile or leaderboard (which will also track the Gammulans vs Terrans kills) stats. Quite a bit of stats are tracked, so those pages are just work-in-progress atm and populated with minimal test data for now. The whole thing should be live and ready within the next two weeks or so. The good thing about rolling our own tech is that we get to control our servers, nobody can close them down, change the TOS on a whim, tell us what we can and cannot do on them etc. I think I also mentioned in a previous update that with ours, gamers in the lobby can chat with others in the game, and vice versa. We are also planning on integrating voice chat, but have to make some final decisions in the coming weeks about that. I know there are many third party solutions our there, but having an integrated solution is probably better. We’ll see how that goes in the coming weeks. If we can’t get it in by release, we’ll definitely do something post release.

Also this week I also finished with an important (at least to those stranded on the ground) feature which enables all careers (with the pre-requisite XP) to jump into and use Surface-To-Air Missile and Surface-To-Air Laser (aka artillery) units to shoot down airborne targets. Since there are fixed and mobile versions of these units, I can’t wait to see how far some poor sap thinks he can get with a mobile unit when there’s someone airborne with one shot one kill Air-To-Surface missiles. At the very least, the burned out crater on the terrain, showing his previous existence, should be worth some Youtube videos. Some of the shots I released today show my character entering an MK1P SAL unit, manning the auto-targeting guns and driving it around for a bit etc

I HAVE to talk about this: Sergio (my trusty XO), also did the graphics preset and handling for the R.A.N.D.O.M thermo-nuclear device earlier this week. I’m not even going to do shots or movies showing what happens when it goes boom because that would just spoil the whole thing. It is freaking awesome!!. Heck, no matter how good you are at the game, you should try and fail that last mission just to see what happens when you fail to locate and/or disarm this devastating weapon.

The race to end of March is in full throttle. Until next time, enjoy today’s batch of awesomeness.

» «

3 Comments »

  1. Mark A. Flacy says:

    Wow. I can’t wait to get my grubby paws on it. (PC version, though. I don’t own a console and probably never will. I fully understand your arguments about releasing for the console first and have no issues with it.)

    Posted on February 13, 2009 @ 10:48 pm

  2. Luke K. says:

    Ah, it’s great to see what’s coming up soon, let alone how well it’s coming along. I may just have to plonk down the money for both the PC version and the 360 version to see how it all works out. Can’t wait, Derek. I haven’t been this excited about a game series in a good while.

    Posted on February 23, 2009 @ 12:20 am

  3. Derek Smart says:

    heh, wait’ll you see the air combat tutorial video I made over the weekend and released today. I will post links to it in my dev blog update later today when the mirrors have it up.

    Posted on February 23, 2009 @ 9:20 am

Leave a comment