Dev Blog #30: State of the Game II news

In our last update we reported on “DevCon” and the team’s associated visit to TankFest 2016. In this blog we are going to take a brief look at what’s been going on behind the scenes in recent weeks.

CRYENGINE 5

We have virtually completed the migration of our code, maps and substantial asset library across to the latest CRYENGINE 5 (CE5). We have been taking the opportunity to review some of our older textures and update them for both CE5 and Physical Based Rendering (PBR).

With over 780 textures to update it has taken some time, but the end results are well worth it. We are 70% complete on the updates and we look forward to showing you the end results once complete and the ugly “replace me” placeholders have been banished completely.

We're grateful for the continued support from Two Big Ears, who have provided us with an updated version of 3Dception which we have implemented into the newer engine.

We aren’t quite ready to officially migrate across to CE5 as there are a few stability issues we want to iron out before switching the whole team over. In the meantime we are working away on CRYENGINE 3, which is a more stable platform for now. We hope to make the switch in the near future.

Aside from “actual” development we have been reviewing our internal workflow and systems to make sure we aren’t missing out on new methods, tools, or efficiencies. A good example of this is our version control system. At present we use Subversion. It’s reliable, but tends to bloat in terms of sheer size, as all the files are stored in the same place on the server. An alternative could be Git LFS (Large File System), which stores the large files on a separate server and a pointer file is used to keep track of the file instead, and also has the added opportunity to directly pull updates from the CRYENGINE Git repo.

DEVCON

The culmination of the three day event we dubbed “DevCon” was the full day design meeting. This was a golden opportunity to get into some of the gritty details of the game mechanics which have been scheduled for implemented later in the development process.

We have become very good at working together without being physically close, but sometimes it really does help to have different expertise in the same room to discuss and work through ideas. We discussed a huge range of topics, from tweaks to one of our core game modes based on our testing, to rally points, radiomen, squad leader abilities, and many other things.

It was a very productive day but unfortunately we don't have the space to tell you all about it, so we made a video instead.

Recruitment Spotlight

C++ PROGRAMMER

We are looking for skilled, motivated, and passionate programmers that are able to work well in a team. We want to work with people like ourselves, that are open to feedback, interested in WWII, and of course like to have fun. Experience with CryEngine and network programming is certainly not required if you're willing to learn. Must have knowledge of C++. C# or Lua would be a bonus. Our next update will be on 12th August but in the meantime you can find us on social media from the links below.