DarkPlaces engine

Aside from a few screenshots here and there on Twitter, this year has been rather quiet from Doombringer's development information. There were a slight update released (0.1999) during spring, but that was just to fix some bugs with the previous version. But a lot more has been happening behind the scenes, and with this update we start lifting a bit of the lid on what has been cooking.

Singleplayer

Creating the game's multiplayer were really only the first step on the roadmap. As single player was the ultimate end goal of making the game. The reason for making multiplayer first was because it allowed the game to be focused on the player aspect first, creating a small controlled game that could be considered more or less complete even without the single player being added.

Now that has developed a fair bit further than originally intended, and the single player aspect of the game has been given a lot more attention. With some test maps being developed, a simple campaign system, enemies and the respective resources. We'll show more of this later.

Enemies

Right now we want to focus on some of the enemy designs. We've been working long and hard on creating the required enemies for a single player game, and a lot of headway has been made in that department. As some of you can see in our older screenshots, there have been models in development from the very beginning. Though attention towards completing these has been diverted to other areas for a while. That being said, during the last year, a lot of work has gone in to bringing a base roster of enemies to completion. One of these has already made it into the game (though so far only as a playermodel). The others has been worked on at the same time, to make sure that the first models made don't look noticeably worse or different from the last ones made.

The golem will be a heavy tank character that will unload a hellfire of Gotlung gun ammo on toward you. A smaller less armored variation of this character is planned as well, which will drop grenades on you from above.

Notice that none of these models are 100% complete at this stage. There's still cleaning up to do, and a mudbox detail pass to really get them completed where we feel they can be used to bake the details onto a low-poly mesh.

As you can see, there's going to be a sort of army class of enemies that got similar features. But will act and look slightly different from each other. Once textured, their colors will distinguish them further as well. For instance, the Pawn will fire single cartridge shots at you, while the Soldier will be carrying a Shotgun, the Enforcer will be firing bursts of cartridges, and the commander will be using his deadly Tesla coil to rend your flesh from your bones.

There will also be a selection of monster enemies such as the Gorger and Aswang

The Gorger, a massive lump of flesh dashing towards you with it's big chompers is looking to make you into minced meat, while the Aswang, a lot more nimble, will leap long ranges to reach you where you thought you would be safe.

Higher ranked enemies will be more elaborate though. Such as the Vizier , a powerful religious leader in Sil'ocy's heirarchy. This battle ready warlock will have an aggressive attitude towards you, but will offer a helping hand to it's fallen brethren.

While the Bishop, the Viziers superior, will have more control over what happens to YOU.

That will be all for now, we still have a lot more things that has been worked on. But I will save that for the time being.

In the mean time I'd suggest you take a look at the VOD from last EU cup we had this summer. It was a great show of skill from the players and as always a great many thanks to Jehar of Tastyspleen.TV for hosting it.

Happy new year to all of you. And look out for more updates in the near future.