Hellmarch

Yep, It's March already which means that we should be done soon. Which we hopefully are. It's just a lot of work to be done with first.

The game is looking prettier then ever though. We've added some neat effects like rocket tracers and explosions and stuff that look much better. We've tracked down most of our game breaking bugs and we're working on getting our game to work with the installer/launcher/patcher that we have received from our publisher. There have been some new graphics for the Control Points that can be captured done which shall be added to the game any day now. There have been real time shadow's added and shaders have been polished, though they probably have to be polished again since we discovered that some of the lightning settings actually are set in the level files... which it should not!

My dear Rangers striking a severe counter attack versus the AI.

But we promise that we're working harder then ever and the game is really starting to be fun to play. The AI need some fixing since its a bit under aggressive at the moment, but the multiplayer is really dramatic and intense (which might sound odd for a turn based game). We started an inhouse tournament last Friday night and we had some really nice matches. I can confess that I were kicked out after my first game though versus our animator/particle effects/texture artist and his smoke grenades/sniper rifles combination. In my defence however, I can add that he is among those who has played the game in multiplayer most of us. I really long to get the game out so that you all can try it out!

Until next time

/Laxen

Textures and shaders and ambient occlusions and…

Well. There has been a real face lift when it comes to the ingame graphics of the game lately. It's been some work to get it done, but the good devotion in the team made it less painful. We've added a touch of more colour to the game and increased the contrasts in the textures to make it me lively. Also we have added a new shader that is supposed to do some ambient shadows, creating contact shadows between meshes and the ground. Exactly how it works I do not know, but it makes things prettier, though we still might have to polish it a bit to make it more distinct.

Also we've started to get the sounds for the game ready for implementation. And as soon as that is done and we have made a fully functional launcher/patcher application we should be able to launch our very first beta! After that there is only bug fixing, balance testing (with a little outside help we hope) and getting the game ready for release and then we're there.

Volksgrenadiers prepared for an enemy assault.

Stealthed commandos being ambushed as they try stealing a Control Point.

Airborne to the rescue!

The final three

We are planing to get the game done for April 1st (no, no joke). This is however NOT the release date, so don't get too excited, there are several other things that must be done before a release is possible. But anyhow, this means that it is less then 3 months lefts of our production. That's not much. Not much at all. During the time we will have to get the campaign (-s), balance and bug fixes done. We will do our best to succeed, this we promise you. And the work in making the game prettier has gone quite well, soon we will be ready for some serious ingame footage to post, along with the new commercial website. Below are some screens taken for texture studies (these are still not the final textures, we are working on contrasts, colour levels etc. to get it better).

When it comes to the beta, we will not release it until the graphics are fixed and some gameplay bugs has been eliminated, but it won't be very long until that is done now. We really look forward to people out there's reactions! Hope you will enjoy the game as much as we do once you get to try it out.

Fallschirmjagers getting into positions to take those pesky Brits out.

"Kommandant, over zer!"

Attack action feedback.

Note that this is still work in progress.

Drum roll…

We are currently preparing for a lot of stuff. Besides Christmas which is a hassle with most of us in the team having to get away from this island where we are working to visit near and dear back home, we are currently working on a new commercial website, which together with a press release from our publisher will make the game's new title official (research or wait for official announcement). This besides actually working on our game, which by the way is getting very close to have all parts in the right places now. During the spring we will hopefully only have game testing left to do, which should not be underestimated, so make sure everything works, is fun and is balanced. It will probably have us up early each morning and late each night until we finally get our release version done.