It's been almost a month since our last news post, so we'd like to give you a little update about what we're currently up to and what's on the schedule for Barrage.
Multiplayer functionality
As mentioned in the last post, one of our main tasks at the moment is implementing working multiplayer. Obviously, this is extremely important since Barrage is primarily a multiplayer game, and for that reason, it's best for gameplay purposes that the game is built from the ground up with the focus on multiplayer. We're pleased to announce that our recent hard work has paid off, and we now have a fully working client version to play with, although we're by no means finished yet! Next up on the to-do list for the multiplayer functionality is a lobby/matchmaking system to replace the basic placeholder system that we currently have.
User interface
The second 'under construction' part of the game that's seen a lot of attention recently is the user interface. Due to some problems that we encountered with the integrated Scaleform interface, we decided very early on in development to write our own UI framework instead. Even though the components we're using ingame have been in the game for a long time, we were still missing additional elements necessary for a main menu. This has now been remedied and we're slowly pulling everything together with items such as dropdown boxes, sliders and textfields being added. All that's left to do is to hook it up with the config files so you can actually edit the values!
Orbits
Besides all the fun stuff mentioned above, we're currently also overhauling the core of the orbit code. The current orbit code works very nicely and allows a wide variety of interesting orbits, but we'd like to take it to the next level and we're now gravitating towards (fantastic pun) implementing a true n-body simulation for the planetary orbits. This would allow unprecedented flexibility and open up some really exciting new gameplay options, such as the ability for players to influence or alter the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies during the course of the game. We can't promise anything at this stage, but we're working hard on it and it's looks rather promising at the moment.
What else?
Of course, there are a few more features that we're currently planning on adding but aren't yet ready to reveal. For now, we'd like to try out a couple of ideas that will allow the gameplay to be fast-paced and have significant mechanical depth with a bigger portion of micro management. We're looking forward to updating you on our progress soon.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask us!
