Companies:
Mode 7
Today, I feel that this column is aptly named.
We're in the midst of organising an event for Nottingham's Gamecity festival; this will be the first large-scale public event we've ever done, and the first time we've given our new strategy game Frozen Synapse a public airing.
The game's still at an early stage but I frankly don't give a fuck any more - people are enjoying playing it right now and I'd much rather get it out there and deal with any negativity about the graphics not being complete as that arises. I want to make as big a noise as possible about this game throughout development so that people get as excited about it as we are.
Our tech artist is frantically scrabbling to get systems working so the game looks passable; Ian (Lead Designer) is beavering away on a game mode that will be applicable for the event; I'm dealing with bizarre atrocities like unloading regulations, local flyering by-laws, security arrangements, banners, flyers and human beings.
I had a couple of hours earmarked for some of this stuff this morning, and have ended up spending five. Fantastic.
I love Gamecity - it's friendly, unpretentious and born out of a genuine love of games as an artform. We've come from me demonstrating Determinance in a dark tiny room to about twelve people at Gamecity 1, to this huge thing we're running this time around. I hope it pays off.
In other, more general news, we've had some minor breakthroughs on the art side. Here's the current state of play:
As you can see, we've just got some very basic lighting working, as well as some of the parallax effects for the background. It's very difficult to actually realise concept art in a lot of instances: our artist is constantly trying to find sensible ways of creating the effects we need which won't break people's CPU's (and GPU's), and at the same time deal with me constantly banging on that it doesn't look like the concept.
Explosion: a very big part of any action game. This is a good attempt at the "white flash" component of an explosion - we should have a few different elements working in tandem to create a big chunky effect, eventually.
Ian is currently working on a new game mode he's calling "Disputed". Our current main game mode "Secure" is brilliant fun but incredibly mentally intensive: a bit like playing four games of chess at once. With Disputed, Ian's aiming for something more casual that can just be played on an odd whim between huge bouts of Secure. I'm hoping that he pulls this off - it'll really be a big deal.
I've been working on the music, trying to come up with a really mindblowing piece to go over the menu. The menu is one of the only times in a game where the music can stand on its own and be completely linear, and I think a lot of composers neglect this, opting for bland ambience. I'm going to bring out the big guns!
Cheers for reading - check out our podcast, new to SPOnG this week! If you want to ask us anything about the game, just post a comment or grab me on Twitter and I'll be sure to answer it here and on the podcast.
Game City Details – Where to Find Us
We'll be in a huge tent, for seven hours, in Nottingham's market square playing our game against anyone who wants to come in and try it. It's on Friday the 30th October, 10-5pm if you're in that part of the world. I'll be the one crying and beating my head against a tent pole: if you're in the area please come and show your support - I'd really appreciate it. Here are some details
The game's still at an early stage but I frankly don't give a fuck any more - people are enjoying playing it right now and I'd much rather get it out there and deal with any negativity about the graphics not being complete as that arises. I want to make as big a noise as possible about this game throughout development so that people get as excited about it as we are.
Our tech artist is frantically scrabbling to get systems working so the game looks passable; Ian (Lead Designer) is beavering away on a game mode that will be applicable for the event; I'm dealing with bizarre atrocities like unloading regulations, local flyering by-laws, security arrangements, banners, flyers and human beings.
I had a couple of hours earmarked for some of this stuff this morning, and have ended up spending five. Fantastic.
I love Gamecity - it's friendly, unpretentious and born out of a genuine love of games as an artform. We've come from me demonstrating Determinance in a dark tiny room to about twelve people at Gamecity 1, to this huge thing we're running this time around. I hope it pays off.
In other, more general news, we've had some minor breakthroughs on the art side. Here's the current state of play:
As you can see, we've just got some very basic lighting working, as well as some of the parallax effects for the background. It's very difficult to actually realise concept art in a lot of instances: our artist is constantly trying to find sensible ways of creating the effects we need which won't break people's CPU's (and GPU's), and at the same time deal with me constantly banging on that it doesn't look like the concept.
Explosion: a very big part of any action game. This is a good attempt at the "white flash" component of an explosion - we should have a few different elements working in tandem to create a big chunky effect, eventually.
Ian is currently working on a new game mode he's calling "Disputed". Our current main game mode "Secure" is brilliant fun but incredibly mentally intensive: a bit like playing four games of chess at once. With Disputed, Ian's aiming for something more casual that can just be played on an odd whim between huge bouts of Secure. I'm hoping that he pulls this off - it'll really be a big deal.
I've been working on the music, trying to come up with a really mindblowing piece to go over the menu. The menu is one of the only times in a game where the music can stand on its own and be completely linear, and I think a lot of composers neglect this, opting for bland ambience. I'm going to bring out the big guns!
Cheers for reading - check out our podcast, new to SPOnG this week! If you want to ask us anything about the game, just post a comment or grab me on Twitter and I'll be sure to answer it here and on the podcast.
Game City Details – Where to Find Us
We'll be in a huge tent, for seven hours, in Nottingham's market square playing our game against anyone who wants to come in and try it. It's on Friday the 30th October, 10-5pm if you're in that part of the world. I'll be the one crying and beating my head against a tent pole: if you're in the area please come and show your support - I'd really appreciate it. Here are some details
The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and does not reflect those of SPOnG.com except when it does.
Want to vent your gaming spleen? Send 900 words max of well thought-out, deeply analysed opinion and we may even run it. Send in 900 words of incisive but mostly brutally angry invective, and we almost certainly will.
Companies:
Mode 7