Post by echocdelta on Jun 12, 2016 13:59:03 GMT
Hey everyone!
I got a bit lax on updating and being present here, I kind of took a back seat once our peeps were on the forum as I was focusing on managing Genesis and Earthlight (our other game).
First question, big question, are we dead? No! The fact that anyone has to ask that is definitely my fault, we're actually quite the opposite with some really close deadlines coming up for the game to be submitted to the PAX Australia showcase this year.
So the big news/stuff:
- We're currently engaging in a sprint that will see a public-ready demo of Genesis. The deadline for this (hard deadline) is July 6.
- We now have terrain sculpting so you can build mountains, or caves, or whatever. For anyone who knows UE4, you'll know this is some crazy stuff to have working in (last test) 120FPS. Our target is 90FPS for VR and 60FPS for non-VR.
- We've almost completed half of our tech/backend items for Phase 01, about 3 weeks earlier than scheduled.
- We've got a website coming up soon and we'll be able to start engaging with the public a bit more freely.
- We're currently working on the 4.12 integration for UE4, so that's been chewing up some of our tech resources
- We've got procedural terrain working so we can generate a new map at each play.
- Biggest priority is having the AI 'understand' the updates to terrain during sculpting; currently the AI has no problem scouting for, seeking resources and building towns with surplus but it needs to be able to update to changing conditions.
- Things can catch on fire and fire can remain on assets/bounce on assets.
- We now have a dedicated audio person who'll be adding music and... audio stuff... to the game.
- Usability testing is still rolling, the VR component of the game plays really well. One of our techs forgot he was in VR and there is a video of him crawling out of a cave he built by the sea.
I'll try to collect all the material we have and update/link it here. Our company twitter and the individual staff's twitters have been updating stuff regularly but it's better to curate it here.
What is the PAXAus Deadline?
The PAXAus deadline is on July 6th and is the submission of our game into the Indie Showcase, which means it has to be playable as a standalone executable. If the game is selected for the showcase we'll be exhibiting to the public at PAXAus but also ramping up our public profile by a fair margin, along with further resources. We're pretty confident we'll make this deadline but no guarantees, never know what can go wrong.
Why do we care about this deadline?
The deadline also represents the time when we can have tangible working gameplay to show, as well as start reaching out to people for pre-pre-pre alpha feedback so we can iterate on Phase 01 before moving onto further stuff. We want this game to be built with input from a community of people so it's important to be able to send it out. The big caveat I'm hoping to clear is that we're hoping to send out non-VR builds, so I can PM people here to send really early builds to get feedback on things that people like, want and dislike.
What is terrain sculpting?
Terrain sculpting, or 'Surfacer', is the magical brain child of Alex and Kris, the two main engineers on the project. It's essentially like Tilt Brush but with dynamic creation of terrain features, complete with material changes and a solid performance. Best description is that it's terrain manipulation in VR. We're working hard to make it work with UE4's navmesh and AI systems, which if able will probably be a big deal.
What is the AI doing?
Currently our baseline AI is capable of being spawned with a town center/idol and seeking out resources around the vicinity. Towns will grow and die based on basic resources, but will seek out and grow unchecked if they're able to secure resources. We've been working hard to run simulations and we're confident we can start implementing more complex behaviors, like homelessness, faith generation and building on sites themselves (like mines).
Can towns be destroyed?
Yes, you can smash and burn houses or forests. The AI currently responds by rebuilding on the site when able to, but lack of forest will negate the ability to collect wood. We'll be hoping to iterate on this with more behaviors, as the baseline stuff is working as intended now.
Why are you guys so slow?
We're currently working within a self-funded project within a larger company, as such we're often limited to just how much we can throw at Genesis without first seeing if people will like it, or enjoy it, or buy it. The advantage of this is that we're not really based on the funding/goodwill of people who might not get a good game, but the downside is that we're also having to work on other stuff at the same time to ensure we're all employed (although the tech team has been working regularly on Genesis). That said, our PAXAus sprint is actually most of the company with everything and the kitchen sink thrown at it, so, as the kids say 'yolo'. Development is actually a bit faster than we anticipated, but gamedev can be glacially slow in general.
What happened to the updates?
I actually got slack. I wasn't seeing much responses or engagement and Godus bombing out completely meant that we kind of focused on development, not outreach. That's totally my bad and I'll try to make up to the people who messaged/DM'ed me. Remember you can always reach me anytime on my personal accounts. We'll spin up a lot more presence coming up now, as it's a bit stupid that we didn't post anything cool here when we had it.
I got a bit lax on updating and being present here, I kind of took a back seat once our peeps were on the forum as I was focusing on managing Genesis and Earthlight (our other game).
First question, big question, are we dead? No! The fact that anyone has to ask that is definitely my fault, we're actually quite the opposite with some really close deadlines coming up for the game to be submitted to the PAX Australia showcase this year.
So the big news/stuff:
- We're currently engaging in a sprint that will see a public-ready demo of Genesis. The deadline for this (hard deadline) is July 6.
- We now have terrain sculpting so you can build mountains, or caves, or whatever. For anyone who knows UE4, you'll know this is some crazy stuff to have working in (last test) 120FPS. Our target is 90FPS for VR and 60FPS for non-VR.
- We've almost completed half of our tech/backend items for Phase 01, about 3 weeks earlier than scheduled.
- We've got a website coming up soon and we'll be able to start engaging with the public a bit more freely.
- We're currently working on the 4.12 integration for UE4, so that's been chewing up some of our tech resources
- We've got procedural terrain working so we can generate a new map at each play.
- Biggest priority is having the AI 'understand' the updates to terrain during sculpting; currently the AI has no problem scouting for, seeking resources and building towns with surplus but it needs to be able to update to changing conditions.
- Things can catch on fire and fire can remain on assets/bounce on assets.
- We now have a dedicated audio person who'll be adding music and... audio stuff... to the game.
- Usability testing is still rolling, the VR component of the game plays really well. One of our techs forgot he was in VR and there is a video of him crawling out of a cave he built by the sea.
I'll try to collect all the material we have and update/link it here. Our company twitter and the individual staff's twitters have been updating stuff regularly but it's better to curate it here.
What is the PAXAus Deadline?
The PAXAus deadline is on July 6th and is the submission of our game into the Indie Showcase, which means it has to be playable as a standalone executable. If the game is selected for the showcase we'll be exhibiting to the public at PAXAus but also ramping up our public profile by a fair margin, along with further resources. We're pretty confident we'll make this deadline but no guarantees, never know what can go wrong.
Why do we care about this deadline?
The deadline also represents the time when we can have tangible working gameplay to show, as well as start reaching out to people for pre-pre-pre alpha feedback so we can iterate on Phase 01 before moving onto further stuff. We want this game to be built with input from a community of people so it's important to be able to send it out. The big caveat I'm hoping to clear is that we're hoping to send out non-VR builds, so I can PM people here to send really early builds to get feedback on things that people like, want and dislike.
What is terrain sculpting?
Terrain sculpting, or 'Surfacer', is the magical brain child of Alex and Kris, the two main engineers on the project. It's essentially like Tilt Brush but with dynamic creation of terrain features, complete with material changes and a solid performance. Best description is that it's terrain manipulation in VR. We're working hard to make it work with UE4's navmesh and AI systems, which if able will probably be a big deal.
What is the AI doing?
Currently our baseline AI is capable of being spawned with a town center/idol and seeking out resources around the vicinity. Towns will grow and die based on basic resources, but will seek out and grow unchecked if they're able to secure resources. We've been working hard to run simulations and we're confident we can start implementing more complex behaviors, like homelessness, faith generation and building on sites themselves (like mines).
Can towns be destroyed?
Yes, you can smash and burn houses or forests. The AI currently responds by rebuilding on the site when able to, but lack of forest will negate the ability to collect wood. We'll be hoping to iterate on this with more behaviors, as the baseline stuff is working as intended now.
Why are you guys so slow?
We're currently working within a self-funded project within a larger company, as such we're often limited to just how much we can throw at Genesis without first seeing if people will like it, or enjoy it, or buy it. The advantage of this is that we're not really based on the funding/goodwill of people who might not get a good game, but the downside is that we're also having to work on other stuff at the same time to ensure we're all employed (although the tech team has been working regularly on Genesis). That said, our PAXAus sprint is actually most of the company with everything and the kitchen sink thrown at it, so, as the kids say 'yolo'. Development is actually a bit faster than we anticipated, but gamedev can be glacially slow in general.
What happened to the updates?
I actually got slack. I wasn't seeing much responses or engagement and Godus bombing out completely meant that we kind of focused on development, not outreach. That's totally my bad and I'll try to make up to the people who messaged/DM'ed me. Remember you can always reach me anytime on my personal accounts. We'll spin up a lot more presence coming up now, as it's a bit stupid that we didn't post anything cool here when we had it.
