Item Tracker
After some inactivity in the programming dept. things are back on track again. As announced one of the features we're currently working on is the item system and everything related to it - such as the OC-typical item tracker. AtomicJo looked into this matter and, while some tweaking is still needed, the results look pretty presentable:
But what is the item tracker without the typical HUD voice (e.g. original OC footage at 0:32)? If you think you can do the job, don't hesitate to apply and your voice will guide the player in our next demo!
Note that the "focus borders" are placeholders from CW. As it happens we're looking for Flash designers right now. If you have experience with designing Flash websites or other user interfaces, take a look at the open jobs.
Oasis 1.2
While working on the components of the actual game (story, assets, levels) and other stuff (document procedures, ...) kept us busy in the last months, we decided to give you something playable again soon: Oasis 1.2, our next demo!
As the name suggests we don't consider it as pure technical demo anymore (e.g. demonstrating the possiblity of nonlinear dialogues and persistent levels). This one will feature all the core components of the game.
If you tried Oasis 1.1 you probably know what was missing: some action! (read: combat system and enemy AI)
Additionally the whole questline and dialogues were rewritten and our leveldesigners Demogorgon and Linkin Muse rebuilt the oasis level from scratch and tweaked the island level.
This milestone will also incorporate the feedback we received from the technical demo, while under the hood many systems have been revised to enable easy porting. Expect it... ehm... well, at least before the release of the...
... Cryengine 3 SDK
When we decided to use Crysis (Wars) and CryEngine 2 as technical base for the project, we got a state-of-the-art engine with great tools for the price of not being able to create a standalone game.
As the UDK was released, many Unreal Engine based mods went indie and while no real struggle emerged about changing the engine inside our team, spirits were down a bit since the Crysis Wars SDK is in some ways buggy and not really well documented (much time was spent on figuring out how to do something that could be explained in not more than three lines). Additionally there was the feeling that even after finishing the project some players MAY hesitate to try the thing if they have to buy another game in advance or download a ~6GB demo (even in the times of high-speed internet).
When Crytek recently published a release date for the Cryengine 3 SDK and confirmed it will come for free for noncommercial projects, things have changed for the better: we'll be able to release open Outcast as a standalone game!
Although everyone in the team is excited about the new perspectives (going indie, better documentation, regular updates and bug fixes directly from Crytek), we're trying even harder to reach a new level of quality in our last CryEngine 2 (and Crysis Wars) based demo in order to have a good starting point when the battle of the SDKs gets into the next level this summer (UDK - Unity - CE3 SDK).
Jobs
Want to jump into CE2 based game development (and learn using the tools) to be ready when CE3 SDK gets out? Always wanted to work in a team, that's determined to reach AAA quality in all fields, to enhance your portfolio? You can apply for:
- Female Voice Talent: be the voice of our HUD! See Youtube.com at 0:32 for an example in the original Outcast game
- 3D Artist: everything from simple decoration to architeture, animals and characters
- Flash artist: always wanted to use your skills to design an user interface of a game?
- Action Script programmer: Give some functionality to our HUD and menus.
- Gamedesigner: You're always complaining about dull quests, imbalanced weapons or THAT huge design flaw? Here is your chance to make it better! You should be ready to learn some tools and do some scripting - but that's worth it, right?
- Writer: Like writing stories or plays? How about giving more depth to our storyline or creating some ingame dialogues?
- Translator: make sure Oasis 1.2 gets localized to $YOUR_LANGUAGE as well!
If something of this is appealing to you check out the detailed job descriptions or fill in the application form.
So far for now and Happy Easter to everyone!
i could translate it to brazillian portuguese (if its in english, of course)
another question, ingame user interface designed in flash?
u sure?
flash is slow, it could pull down the game fps, plus, i didnt hear of any games that used flash huds
u sure u want a flash designer?
the Crysis/Crysis 2 HUDs and menus are implemented using Flash/Action Script as well, so yeah we definitely want a Flash Designer ;)
And it's not a 100% Flash, some features are disabled for performance reasons.
Nice update.
Btw if your going to CE3 feel free to add your mods news to:
Moddb.com
Thanks, will do so with the next news posting :)
The egg is as big as the bloody bird!!!! O_O how is htat physically possible?!XD
You found the "easteregg" of the wallpaper :D
oh that's terrible XD
DELAROBE this uses Scaleform GFX and of course it doesnt slow the game at all who did tell you such an big lye? and you dident hear any games? check out crysis 1, warhead and crysis 2 mass effect 1 and 2 both used scaleform even borderlands
Awesome, I was hoping for an announcement like this after CE3 SDK was revealed.
Looking good as always guys!
So,this is the end of openOutcast-cryengine2? You will switch to CE3?
The code acces for CE3 free is full code acces?
If yes, i have a question for you, team. You will consider support api's like OpenGL an OpenAL for oOC?
Thx for the news!! highly hyped with your project =)
It's pretty sure we'll switch to CE3. OpenGL and OpenAL support depend on CE3 supporting those standards and I fear that won't be the case.
awsome work man , you are very skilled..
Great and very needed addition! Hope some more work is done to the movement animations fluidity and expressions on characters along a few neat effects like heat distortion on the distance and dust kicked up while walking /running.I also hope Cryengine 3 is easy to develop and not a learn everything from the begining procedure but an improved cryengine 2 leap.
Good luck !