New SITREP standard
Our current Deadlock release process consist of 2 to 3 week sprints. In order to optimize our production-flow we have decided to rearrange how we do our community updates; hence this Friday's missing SITREP. When we release an updated Deadlock version this includes a Battle Report (changelog, article etc.); our SITREP's will continue, but on a mid-sprint release schedule.
So:
Every 2-3 weeks (sprint): An updated Deadlock version is released
Every mid-sprint: A SITREP is released
Please remember that you can support the development of Interstellar Marines by upgrading your profile to Spearhead or Frontliner, or by purchasing a few Support Medals in our [Shop]
Read last SITREP [Here]
Team debriefing
Kim (ZPSHicks)
Game Director
"Let's put this new in-depth mid-sprint SITREP to the test, shall we! :)
One of my commitments this sprint was/is to create a new series of intense bullet impact effects and have already managed to get my hands plenty dirty setting up and tweaking particle systems for metal, concrete, crates, glass and soil.
Besides the obvious joy of creating realistic particle systems in general .. I've also really enjoyed staging a few particle elements with a transparent Vertex Lit material shader; partially allowing us to have light affect particles (still very crude, but enormously potential with further iterations in the future) ... I must confess that I've already spent several hours just emptying magazine after magazine into a concrete wall on the Playground map; to satisfyingly observe how the debris smoke are lit by a flickering red ceiling light. :)
I've additionally started iterating on a marine 1person / 3person tazer impact effect for our in-dev "get paralyzed and paralyze others" game loop and will also be revisiting the Mainlines map before the update next week as we're committed to creating a new cool "war zone" weather mode.".
Mikael (heks)
Lead Programmer
"First part of this sprint I spent on working with Nicolai on the weapon firing tech. We ended up delivering a pretty decent design for how-to easily expand the audio immersion for weapons in the future.
Since then I've mostly been working on getting the code ready for the kill and be killed loop.
After todays mid-sprint testing session (coinciding with the SITREP now) I have a few concerns regarding our build & deployment pipeline. Proclaiming that it is error-prone and cumbersome is a gross understatement. Automation is what is needed but once again we'll have to carefully plan it, so we do not lose momentum on the game-side".
Jesper Andersen (Scribblehead)
Concept Artist
"SARA: Entry mismatch. Subject appears to be offline. No record stored this week".
"Gert stopped by the office last week and we all gathered around the computer for a good rundown on all the things we're currently working on! The two unknowns in the picture are Maria and Claus (Kims wife and kid) and if heks (camera guy) had yelled SMILE, we could've looked more picture-friendly! :)".
Anders (cptKickASS)
Lead Artist
"New week old features. In order to get our lights to work in multiplayer I had to rework the code as a state-machine. It took longer then expected, but i finally have it working for our SITREP today. At the same time I have been working on our camera setup and a script to control post image effects so that we can show impact in FPS. Next week is going to be all about ragdoll".
Jess (NecroSonic)
Level Designer
"SARA: Entry mismatch. Subject appears to be offline. No record stored this week".
Nicolai (Reese)
CEO & Composer
"This sprint has been pure joy and (j)awesomeness. I've personally learned a huge amount of basic coding and so far (with some help) I've successfully developed and implemented a system for handling footsteps, movement and impacts sounds; all triggered and based upon different surfaces and materials. Oh yeah, I (we) did create a nice little weapon firing "loop' and end" script as well with some pretty nice immersion features I'll get back on at a later stage.
For the rest of the sprint I will be working with the audio part of the kill and be killed and some more tech stuff. The coder police (heks) require that my code always stays clean and nice so that will probably get some attention as well before we release.".
Picture of the Week 0052 - Week 06 February 2012
First proper mid-sprint build test on our staging server; a lot of new sounds and particles help establish one hell of a dynamic environment and we're just getting started! :)
Full Picture of the Week media section available [here]
Thanks for your support and feedback on our community website.
Feel free to preorder and support us by upgrading your profile.
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME
Nicolai (Reese) & the team at Zero Point Software
