ODRadiant Now Available For Download! news

Hey all, I have a new update for you today, and this ones sexy. Like cheese. You like cheese don't you? Cheese is amazing. What do you mean you don't like cheese? Well then we can't be friends. I mean, you have cheese on pizza, and pizza is like, the best thing ever. Because of cheese. Wait where was I...? Oh yeah, OverDose! So, today I bring you some new media, but more importantly the news that ODRadiant is now pretty much finished and available for public download. So what are you waiting for, Christmas? Oh you are... Well, that's nice.

For those not in the know, we have been working for many years with really subpar tools. Hacking in support to existing editors was not only hard, it was also very buggy, and never really gave us the results we wanted. What's worse, it meant that when asking people for help with mapping, they were greeted with the most useless, cumbersome way of mapping you could think of.

In short, it was pants.

So we decided that enough was enough, and looked into making our own.

Many moons passed, many arguments developed, many stressful evenings trying to explain to a coder why a feature he's never used was important, or a coder trying to explain to an artist why it just wasn't as simple as I thought. We laughed. We cried. We kissed (No tongues). Then... We got there. Buzz and Nicolas worked their magic and created a level editor from the ground up with the sole purpose of working with OverDose. It was clean. It was fast. It had new features. But best of all, it was bug free. Remember those days of manipulating verts and having them go crazy? Gone. Remember loading your map up and finding textures suddenly misaligned? Cya. Remember compiling your map and noticing massive gaps and missing surfaces? So long, buddy!

This thing WORKS, and it works well. And best of all...? Its available to download. Like, right now. See, this button says so. And buttons don't lie. Just look at Donald Trump.

Do note again however that this release is simply the editor and a few base files for it to run. It doesn't include content such as model, texture and sound media. So those of you making levels with this version will need to grab our full asset collection if you want to use it fully with pre-existing stuff. That's available to anybody who wants to try, but of course we won't be making that public so easily, as that's all our content. So, get in touch if that's what you need and I'll hook you up.

Game wise, the game is really coming along. We are still short on media, which includes weapons, players and levels, and as such are really looking for new blood to come on-board and help. The good news is that right now the game is at such a stage that we can drop these in and see them working and blending correctly as they should be, making the whole thing much easier than before. So, if you fancy yourself a good mapper, a good character artist, a good weapon modeller, or a good animator, then please get in touch, because we really badly need people like you on the team. While I can't promise payment at this time, do know that you will be helping a very ambitious indie development team fulfil their dreams, and as such I can maybe throw you a few lolly pops your way, or maybe a t-shirt with my face on it. Hell, once the game hits, lets just say I keep very good records of who did what, and I'll say no more. But do let me know your shirt size.

With such a small team, things are looking good seeing the stage we are at, and I would love to finally be able to say "my whole team" rather than "the couple of guys".

For a taster of what we are up to, here's a little preview. But if you don' feel good enough to get in touch, all I'll say is... Let me be the judge of that. E-mail me at: odium "at" team-blur-games "dot" com.

Things are looking great! The limbo menu is pretty much complete, the options menu now works and lets you set all video and sound stuff, and the HUD works a treat with just a few still in progress features left. Our scriptable language gets more and more feature complete every day. I really feel that people will have a great time working with this and modding. And best of all, like everything in OverDose, none of this is hard coded. So, from the weapons to the classes to the particles to the UIs, its all scriptable. Great stuff.

I'm currently looking into getting the website and forums back online. These things cost time and money, two things we are short on these days, but I do see it as something I miss. A good community. So, give me a little time, and I'll see what I can do :)

I did originally have a short video by Bob Geldof here, but he didn't like the fact I wouldn't let him rename the game to "Bobs super happy fun time" and had to remove it. Donating to the OverDose project means the world to us. We are passionate, hard working gamers who want nothing more than to see our dream project come to life, but one thing always stands in the way, the time versus money argument. I myself have just recently become a father to a baby girl and work a full time job, so things like funds for new talent is something I just can't afford on my own. Websites, hosting, everything costs money these days. What I will say, is that we keep records of every donator and helper, and those of you who donate over a certain amount receive a pre-order promise, that is once the game is released, because you were a part of its creation, will be gifted a copy of the game. Regardless of contribution, every donator gets their names in the credits, no matter how large or small. So, if you can spare 20p, why not donate and let us life out our dreams. Thank you.