The Byss Project

Hi all,

I thought I would do a post about the newest project I'm working on. As things have stalled with the first group I joined, I decided to go out on my own and look for help to develop a game.

Recruitment has been going very smoothly, and our development team is nearing 20 talented artists, programmers, audio designers and writers. We're excited to get started and I can't wait to see the progress we make.

Ok, so about the game...

Our project is going to be a browser-based/standalone game that features squad-based RTS gameplay with heavy RPG elements for character customization. The player will essentially command a squad of mercenaries (~ 1-8) with the option to swap out the "controlled" member at any time, assuming the role of any of the player's active members. Each member will be designed to have particular roles for strategic integration in combat. 

We are planning to design the game mainly as an RTS, while still having various avenues of gameplay for different player-types. These would be exploration-based "lore" missions where the player would traverse the environments, find secret items and discovery the history of these planets. Others would be less squad oriented, and focus on particular combat roles, such as stealth/assassin or a brawler-type. Then the larger RTS combat sequences would generally follow the main storyline, allow for multiplayer gameplay and open us up for procedurally generated events, such as an "invasion event" where nearby players would be notified and able to participate as they saw fit.

The game will be set in the "final frontier" style sci-fi setting with a slight cyberpunk mix for a slightly dreary ambiance. Our art-style will be semi-realistic, similar to what you might see in Krater (http://www.kratergame.com/).

Included are a few pieces of concept art that were done by one of our artists. These are the early stages of our assassin "class" template design. Throughout gameplay the player with run into other entities that might be interested in joining the squad, these characters will be developed with personalities and identities, as well as a "class". The reason I keep putting quotations around class is because the player always has the option to change items and abilities on any member of their squad. Meaning that the player can completely alter the characters they find throughout gameplay to be tailored to the player's needs.

More to come soon!

Development Dilemmas

Extinction is still in the early stages of preparation. Though at first we were sure we wanted to use Unity, we are looking into what technology might serve as best at this point due to lack of funds for Unity Pro. The pro version ($1500) offers us significant advantages, obviously, but our main motive is the LOD swapper- something that is essential to high-quality 3d graphics games. We've come up with two solutions:

- We have some resources on our team that may allow us to create a spectacular cinematic to help stir up some attention for the game on a crowdfunding website. If we can get the funds for Unity Pro, we'd like to stick with it as it presents less of a learning curve for our members who are unfamiliar with Unity.

- Our other option is to switch over to the UDK engine - our hesitation in doing this is obviously not with the engine itself, it's a premium product with excellent tools and support. We are afraid that many of our folks will have a harder time getting used to the engine and it's pipeline process, particularly for animations. In the UDK 3.0's, animation must all be imported as separate files and then strung together in the node editor. Provides for more fluidity, but obviously more time and aggravation for animators.

Just a few thoughts as the work is unpaid and some of our members are inexperienced in game development and it's internal processes. More to come on that...

Extinction

Been quite a while since I've posted... Unfortunately, Thrones of Iron as taken a back seat to life stuff... I recently got myself back on my feet with a Web Programming job in Bethesda. Currently I'm looking to branch out through linkedIn to find projects and opportunities to continue developing games on the side while I put things back together (i.e. my bank account and massive debt)... so I've taken up working on a small project with an individual from the UK, John Snowdon, called Extinction.. we're developing Extinction for the PS3 using Unity 3D... it will be an action-adventure game set in the prehistoric era, which is neat because I'll be able to model some dinosaurs..pretty sweet :)

Below is the concept art for the player-character...

Thrones of Iron!

Hello all,

My biggest and most recent undertaking has been to gather a team of student and/or professional game designers to create an MMO Role-playing game and Real-time strategy hybrid. We are working in the Hero Engine and have been developer with a team of 2 people for about 5 months now. Hence why it's time to expand (despite the fact that it's an MMO :D )...

You can check out the website here: http://galaxyforgegames.com/

Or our blog: http://galaxyforgegames.wordpress.com/

Or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/galaxyforgegame

And check out our demo video below!!!

I've been working as the artist for this game. All models (except the character and leafy trees) were created and textured by me. I'm proud of the progress I've made as a 3D modeler and this project has been a great portfolio building experience.

Hopefully with a new team at our fingertips we will be able to make significant progress over the summer.

Keep posted! Cuz I'll keep posting!

Blog Migration

Hello all,

This is my new blog - as you can see I am migrating my old blog to this one, so there's a huge influx of posts that I want to include. I want this blog to act as a living portfolio and progression of my work.

My current project has been Thrones of Iron - an MMORPG/RTS created in Hero Engine.

Also a Super Smash Bros. fighting style game made in a senior project class at the University of Baltimore.

Project Neuveau

Been a long time, folks…

I’m entering a game contest hosted by my school (University of Baltimore) where team of up to 4 must create a game within a 3 month period of time. Judges will be from game companies located mostly in Baltimore, but also, we’re going to have a judge from Blizzard come humble us with his presence (lol…but no, seriously, that’s pretty big). The contest will allow you to use any software, but must adhere to three overlying themes of time, dreams and moral ambiguity.

Anyways, my partner and I just had to throw out our last idea due to issues with the networking capabilities of Unity. We’re moving on, however sticking with Unity, and going to mobile devices.

Our game design is going to be casual/social for hopefully people of all ages. Basically we want to mix up the mechanics associated with the Pokemon RPG’s and the concept of a Chia pet. The player (you) will being the game with the option to choose either a monster that is related to time and dreams. You will play as your monster and roam through mostly open-world environments, fight other monsters, gain skills and abilities and customize your monster. 

As you fight different monster types, you will have the option to stash away your current monsters in a safe place (think of the WoW hunter stables), and pick up this new monster to customize, mix-and-match abilities and add to your team.

We want to move this project toward a multi-player atmosphere (hence the social genre) where players with either Andriods or iPhones can battle other players via their mobile devices. When players win battles they will gain points and ranks in order to progress their monster further in the world of competitive monster training! If you opponent’s monster has an unlearned ability, you will have the option to learn it as a result of winning the battle.

This game will allow for heavily customized characters, multiplayer modes, RPG elements, single-player adventure game atmosphere, MMO world scales and very unique skill sets.

Let me know your thoughts!

Game Design Proposition

I recently played a game on Candyland.com called Monster Trucks 2 by Divo Divo. It was a 2D sidescroller where you drove a customized monster truck through a variety of wild courses. The goal was simple - get to the end of the track without destroying your car. It’s not as easy as it seems. The cars can flip and fall far more easily than expected. However, this adds to the fun of the game. Once you get the hang out it you can whirl your car around with style! After completing the races you have the choice to try the trick or trial runs through the previously completed courses, as well as moving on to new courses. You can spec your truck to exactly the way you want it - lowering or raising shocks, moving wheels around, etc. - all of which change the physics of the vehicle.

The game reminded me of Off-Road Velociraptor Safari by Flashbang Studios and even some aspects of GTA. What I loved most about those games was the physics created for cars - and of course the way you could relentlessly mash your vehicle into objects or people - or other cars (at least in GTA for the last one). Even Halo has some fun aspects when driving vehicles - going off ramps, boosting and crashing none the less.

I’d love to take the monster truck game and turn in into a 3-D sandbox game. Instead of simply completing races on a 2-D course and trying NOT to smash your car up, I think it would be awesome to have the game simply about destroying things. The setting would be in an everyday city with people walking around, magazine stands, other cars, etc. and the more destruction you cause, the more points/cash you rake in. Spend the points on bettering your vehicle, or perhaps adding stuff around the city just to obliterate in more fun, exhilarating ways. The player could have the option to enter races around the city, or perhaps destruction derby’s to compete against other violent vehicles. Ramps, cliffs, hills and the like would be strewn in various places around the sandbox. Doing tricks off of them could earn the player extra cash to play with, or just watch their vehicle careen into the side of a building. Furthermore, add in a multiplayer aspect so you and your friends can simultaneously thrash the city or just do it to each other!

I realize that the idea can seem rather mundane and could get boring just doing the same thing over and over. While it’s a game that would keep the reward/ratio very high, there wold be very little new content to entice players to keep playing. One way I see around this would be to have the player progress through different cities as “stages”, each one getting either more complex or more enforced. I think, however, if made to be multiplayer that would add significant replay value to the game. Also adding in secret upgrades, for example blades that protrude from the hubcaps that would slice apart other vehicles or pedestrians. It would also be necessary to add in micro goals so that there was always an alternative to demolishing the environment. I believe that while this wouldn’t be a game anyone would play for hours on end, it could be very pleasing for a 30 min devastation binge. It would certainly fall under the “casual game” category, with a violent, gory twist.