2008 Day One - Free Stuff & A Fun Three Years
by Alan James · 01/01/2008 (9:36 pm) · 9 comments
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to 2008! So here's the scoop...we've now owned our TGE license for three years and one week.
Yeah!
Looking back on the past several years, looking at the body of work we've completed and the work that lies ahead I'm pretty happy.
No, we haven't released Code Name: Monster Island, or Dwarf Quest or Swords of Avalon (more about this later), or any of the smaller projects we've been working on, but we've learned so much that I can't imagine how we could have handled releasing a title and missing out on all the false starts and fumbling and the volume of knowledge gained.
We've started our own studio during that time, Really Really Good Things Studio to be exact, and our own content site www.monsterpacks.com both of which have generally been well received. ( BTW, if you got your "Downtown District Update" and good, bad or indifferent, I'd like to know what your thoughts).
I've done some contract work and I've donated to a few projects, and as much a I can stretch myself I'll keep at it. There are a few other big things in the works (big for us, that is) but we'll cross that announcement bridge when we come to it. Let's just say this is an incredible community to be involved with. Along with this all, I hope to be able to help out Ian Roach as much as possible with the areas I'm most familiar with, terrains and buildings and I hope to see him get Illumina out the door this year.
Some sample corridors that will end up in Ian's hands:
Currently Code Name: Monster Island is on the far back burner, but it is not forgotten. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from putting together a smaller project that might not ever see the light of an open release, mainly being made to play "in-house", i.e. with my kids. If there ends up being some interest we'll consider releasing it. Have to wait and see.
So you're saying, what about the free stuff? Ok, I've been knocking out some decals and bb plants for this other project, and I figured that everyone can use bullet, broken glass decals and bb'd plants so I zipped up the lot of them and uploaded them for everyone to have. Everyone has been generous with their knowledge and time and we really do appreciate it. The only stipulation is that they can't be sold as unique work. The decals were created utilizing a great deal of the brush work of Stephanie Shimerdla at www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com.
BB' Plants sample images
www.reallyreallygoodthings.com/contentpacks/bbplants.zip
Decal sample images
www.reallyreallygoodthings.com/contentpacks/decals.zip
Oh, and the other little project. It's a little FPS mech game using the mechs from www.3drt.com. Had some Christmas money coming, so I picked them up and have been porting up some of the things from my 1.4.2 build of CN:MI into TGE 1.5.2. It's called "Swords of Avalon", the Mechs themselves named after the swords of the Arthurian Mythology.
Here is a link to some screens. Let me know what you think. And if you'd like to see it released some day, either free or very affordable, let us know.
Swords of Avalon
And here are a couple videos (same thing different sizes and formats) - (Should be completed uploading by 1AM Pacific Time, so if you get a dead link, try a little later, I've got to go to bed, I have to be at work in 5 hours...):
Crappy capture #1 - approx. 20mb
www.swordsofavalon.com/video/SOAVIDEO1A.wmv
Slightly less crappy capture #1 - but bigger DL - approx. 150mb
www.swordsofavalon.com/video/SOAVIDEO1A.mpg
- Alan & Kyle
Really Really Good Things Studio
Welcome to 2008! So here's the scoop...we've now owned our TGE license for three years and one week.
Yeah!
Looking back on the past several years, looking at the body of work we've completed and the work that lies ahead I'm pretty happy.
No, we haven't released Code Name: Monster Island, or Dwarf Quest or Swords of Avalon (more about this later), or any of the smaller projects we've been working on, but we've learned so much that I can't imagine how we could have handled releasing a title and missing out on all the false starts and fumbling and the volume of knowledge gained.
We've started our own studio during that time, Really Really Good Things Studio to be exact, and our own content site www.monsterpacks.com both of which have generally been well received. ( BTW, if you got your "Downtown District Update" and good, bad or indifferent, I'd like to know what your thoughts).
I've done some contract work and I've donated to a few projects, and as much a I can stretch myself I'll keep at it. There are a few other big things in the works (big for us, that is) but we'll cross that announcement bridge when we come to it. Let's just say this is an incredible community to be involved with. Along with this all, I hope to be able to help out Ian Roach as much as possible with the areas I'm most familiar with, terrains and buildings and I hope to see him get Illumina out the door this year.
Some sample corridors that will end up in Ian's hands:
Currently Code Name: Monster Island is on the far back burner, but it is not forgotten. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from putting together a smaller project that might not ever see the light of an open release, mainly being made to play "in-house", i.e. with my kids. If there ends up being some interest we'll consider releasing it. Have to wait and see.
So you're saying, what about the free stuff? Ok, I've been knocking out some decals and bb plants for this other project, and I figured that everyone can use bullet, broken glass decals and bb'd plants so I zipped up the lot of them and uploaded them for everyone to have. Everyone has been generous with their knowledge and time and we really do appreciate it. The only stipulation is that they can't be sold as unique work. The decals were created utilizing a great deal of the brush work of Stephanie Shimerdla at www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com.
BB' Plants sample images
www.reallyreallygoodthings.com/contentpacks/bbplants.zip
Decal sample images
www.reallyreallygoodthings.com/contentpacks/decals.zip
Oh, and the other little project. It's a little FPS mech game using the mechs from www.3drt.com. Had some Christmas money coming, so I picked them up and have been porting up some of the things from my 1.4.2 build of CN:MI into TGE 1.5.2. It's called "Swords of Avalon", the Mechs themselves named after the swords of the Arthurian Mythology.
Here is a link to some screens. Let me know what you think. And if you'd like to see it released some day, either free or very affordable, let us know.
Swords of Avalon
And here are a couple videos (same thing different sizes and formats) - (Should be completed uploading by 1AM Pacific Time, so if you get a dead link, try a little later, I've got to go to bed, I have to be at work in 5 hours...):
Crappy capture #1 - approx. 20mb
www.swordsofavalon.com/video/SOAVIDEO1A.wmv
Slightly less crappy capture #1 - but bigger DL - approx. 150mb
www.swordsofavalon.com/video/SOAVIDEO1A.mpg
- Alan & Kyle
Really Really Good Things Studio
About the author
#3
01/02/2008 (1:02 am)
More Mech games - yeah!!! Except simplify the textures a bit, the detail is lost in the garish textures on the Mechs. Just have simple chipped metal plates. 
#5
01/02/2008 (7:22 am)
Looks great. Thanks. 
#6
Can't wait to see your next content pack
01/02/2008 (7:33 am)
Great work I know this is going to be a great year for you and your brother in quality of content packs and games. Can't wait to see your next content pack
#7
Take one futuristic content pack of corridors and tunnels and combine with dungeon generator code = ALIENS!!! anyway great progress.
01/02/2008 (10:01 am)
Those Sci-fi corridors look great, any plans for content pack based on those. If so consider one already gone.Take one futuristic content pack of corridors and tunnels and combine with dungeon generator code = ALIENS!!! anyway great progress.
#8
Thanks for the plants I was about to look for some. Nice schedule.
Stephanie is doing a great job with her brushes, a real talented Photoshop artist.
When can we play that mech game?
01/02/2008 (12:27 pm)
Waow! nice work Alan and family! 8)Thanks for the plants I was about to look for some. Nice schedule.
Stephanie is doing a great job with her brushes, a real talented Photoshop artist.
When can we play that mech game?
#9
Swords of Avalon really has come together fast. I'm trying now to avoid "feature creep", but I still want to add in jump pads and teleporters along with a filled out weapons array, cool powerups and a nice ranking/scoring system that encourages competion. Beyond that, there really isn't anything else I want to have in it...no persistent worlds, no per level inventory, none of it. So hopefully soon!
@ Ian, thanks and I hope to deliver in 2008 some great content to help you out, so we all can see Illumina go gold!
@Kevin, Kyle has expressed interest in picking up work on "Dwarf Quest" and that's probably best since he's actually the one familiar with databases and SQL, although it will probably end up being something that we use Prairie Games MMO Kit for, have to wait and see. It's kind of on the side burner also.
@Johnny H., definitely a possibility. The original intent was in fact a Sci-Fi content pack, but I keep getting side-tracked on this thing or that. I have to take another look at the geometry to make sure it would snap together nicely, but don't be suprised if it all doesn't end up in a pack of some form or another...
@Stephan, thanks, btw did you guys get the link to download the "Downtown District" Update? If so, let me know how it's working out - if you've had a chance to mess with it. If you didn't get the email, write me and I'll resend the link. Kyle is in the middle of a very nice update to the site, it's going to be a lot easier to navigate and we are going to include all of the free stuff we've given away before along with the regular packs there, as well as a few new free things and some tutorials, since we've learned so much in TGE through the wonderful process of breaking it and then fixing it...=P
Oh, and here are some Swords of Avalon powerUPs:
-Alan
Oh, and does anyone have an opinion of flying mechs/combat planes in with the ground mechs? In or out? I'm having a little trouble with the player selection between a standard player and spawning as a vehicle, so I wasn't sure if I was going to include any or not, but if everyone thought it would be cool, then I'll figure out the player/flyingvehicle selection and include them.
.
01/02/2008 (4:43 pm)
@Everyone, Thanks! Swords of Avalon really has come together fast. I'm trying now to avoid "feature creep", but I still want to add in jump pads and teleporters along with a filled out weapons array, cool powerups and a nice ranking/scoring system that encourages competion. Beyond that, there really isn't anything else I want to have in it...no persistent worlds, no per level inventory, none of it. So hopefully soon!
@ Ian, thanks and I hope to deliver in 2008 some great content to help you out, so we all can see Illumina go gold!
@Kevin, Kyle has expressed interest in picking up work on "Dwarf Quest" and that's probably best since he's actually the one familiar with databases and SQL, although it will probably end up being something that we use Prairie Games MMO Kit for, have to wait and see. It's kind of on the side burner also.
@Johnny H., definitely a possibility. The original intent was in fact a Sci-Fi content pack, but I keep getting side-tracked on this thing or that. I have to take another look at the geometry to make sure it would snap together nicely, but don't be suprised if it all doesn't end up in a pack of some form or another...
@Stephan, thanks, btw did you guys get the link to download the "Downtown District" Update? If so, let me know how it's working out - if you've had a chance to mess with it. If you didn't get the email, write me and I'll resend the link. Kyle is in the middle of a very nice update to the site, it's going to be a lot easier to navigate and we are going to include all of the free stuff we've given away before along with the regular packs there, as well as a few new free things and some tutorials, since we've learned so much in TGE through the wonderful process of breaking it and then fixing it...=P
Oh, and here are some Swords of Avalon powerUPs:
-Alan
Oh, and does anyone have an opinion of flying mechs/combat planes in with the ground mechs? In or out? I'm having a little trouble with the player selection between a standard player and spawning as a vehicle, so I wasn't sure if I was going to include any or not, but if everyone thought it would be cool, then I'll figure out the player/flyingvehicle selection and include them.
.
Torque Owner Ian Roach
Awesome work as always. Cant wait to see what you deliver in 2008