Games Week Debrief

Hi guys,

We've been very busy over the past fortnight.

A few weeks ago, we pushed to enter a Scourge of the Skies Demo into the Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) Student Showcase.

GCAP 2015

We're very proud to say the we were lucky enough to be chosen from the many entries.

Along with 5 other student teams from around Australia, we presented our game at the GCAP conference on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th of October.

We cleaned up our Alpha Build, and added a few new features to really spice up the game.

The new Whirlwind feature in Action (top left)

People who tried Scourge seemed to like the game. We really appreciate the feedback they had for us, and it was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet industry leads and professionals.

We presented a streamlined Instruction Tutorial as part of the GCAP build.

Our Cinematic Presentation was something we tried to highlight.

It was also awesome to meet other students from around Australia and share some stories with them.

I also finished the week with a visit to PAX, where I got to meet some more indie devs, see some cool student projects, and of course, try some upcoming Triple A titles.

Even though we're doing all this exciting stuff, we haven't stopped working hard on Scourge of the Skies. We'll have our Beta build up and running soon, and we'll be sure to leave a link to it here.

For now, you'll just have to keep an eye on the skies.

 :) Catch'ya Soon!

Surviving Alpha

Hey guys!

It's been a while, and we've got some cool new changes to Scourge.

Scourge of the Skies Alpha Demo is available now.

For the last month, we've been heads down, working hard to add as many features as we could before our alpha deadline.

We're happy to announce that we've added some of the most exciting and most requested features to Scourge.

These include, the much requested mini-map and score indicator,

A GUI minimap and score indicator courtesy of Harry and Andy.

improved physics

It's now easier to fly without losing passengers!

and vehicle weapons/countermeasures.

The pink streak heading towards Player 1 is an 'fire and forget' Homing Missile.

Of course, to compliment these new additions, we've also re-textured and polished much of the art, changed player controls and added a streamlined tutorial to the game.

Our cinematic instructions make for a smooth tutorial.

Basically, the last month has seen us taking big steps towards making the game we envisioned. I couldn't be prouder of the team and the effort they've put in over the last few weeks. They really stepped up to the challenge, and I hope you guys can feel the difference when you play the game.

If you'd like to check out these changes, improvements and the latest gameplay, feel free to try our Alpha demo:

Download (136 MB Zip Archive): 
https://github.com/patferguson/Storms-Project/releases/download/v1.0.0/ScourgeOfTheSkies_Alpha.zip


4 Xbox controllers are required to fully enjoy the experience. 

We've still got a lot to do, and we look forward to showing you future builds. For all Scourge of the Skies updates, check back here, and keep an eye on the skies.

Meet the Factions!

Finally, we get to unveil our Airship clans! In engine! With gameplay! 

These ships have been in development for a while, we're very happy to unveil them properly now! 

The Navy - Proud fighters, the authority of the air. 

The Tinkerers - Resourceful technocrats, scavenging the skyworld.

The Vikings - Violent marauders, warriors wandering the winds. 

...and, of course, The Pirates - Flying buccaneers, the scourge of the skies. 

We're very excited to have these guys in the game. They really breathe life into the skyworld and allow us to flesh out the world of Scourge of the Skies!  

Hope you guys like the look of our clans. We're aiming to have a new playable build up and ready in the next few days. Remember to keep and eye on the skies!

Synaptic Feedback And Friends

Hear that sweet buzzing sound?

That's our controller rumbling across our worktable! We're happy to announce that we've finally got vibration in!

Feel the difference!

This is one of the new features we're working on this week.

We're also adding a winner screen, new art models, a co-op team game mode and the very exciting 'Slip-Stream' speed boosts. 

We've got a lot to do, but we'll have the next build up and running as soon as possible. Remember to keep checking back here, and keep an eye on the skies!

R & D

This week marks the beginning of our month-long research and development phase.

One of the cool things with a game like Scourge is it's creative reach and flexibility. Since we've had our prototype approved, now is the time for us to start fleshing out the game.

Previously, we've focused exclusively on the core of the game - now we get to look at doing all the exciting juicy things we've been talking about for ages!

For instance, a much requested 'Team' game mode (2 v 2) seems like a natural extension of our existing 4 player Free-For-All, so we'll be looking into that soon.

Yellow team.

Similarly, we've just begun implementing airship destruction to the vehicles. This means that the balloons that stabilise the player's ship can be popped - and this will effect the player's movement.

Green player is tipping to the side because they've lost their port-side balloons.

Unfortunately, we don't have unlimited time to experiment with this cool stuff, so we have to plan out what we really, really want to achieve, and stick to it.

SO MANY FEATURES - SO LITTLE TIME!!!

Pipeline

This week, we're happy to welcome our newest member, programmer Andrew.

He comes to us with high recommendations, and we're glad to have him on board.

We've leapt upon the opportunity to have him play-test the game with fresh eyes, and he's already given us some useful feedback.

We're always eager to get new- fresh play-testers trying out Scourge.

Now, we're keen to get him integrated comfortably into our workflow.

Naturally, this has got us examining our code base and in-engine structure - and let's face it, we could probably use a clean out!

Getting ready for our internal project review, we just threw things together- hence the term 'Rapid Prototyping'.

However, its the time for us clean out the old and unused code and make sure the project is neat enough to sustain long-term development, especially now with another programmer joining the team.

Think of it like spring-cleaning... except everything is written in C#... and that damn designer doesn't use proper coding conventions half as much as he should!

Skybox For A Skyworld

Lately, we've been tackling a mountain of documentation and task allocation. While this stuff is really important, there's no denying that this is the unglamorous, boring part of game development.

So it was a really nice reprieve today when we got to try out our new sky-box, courtesy of our artist, Elouise.

She says it's still a work in progress, but already it really suits the style of Scourge.
When we got it running in-engine, it was immediately apparent how well it complimented our existing environment.

This is because Ello has also designed and created the floating sky islands, the houses, the windmills and a lot of the other iconic landmarks in our sky-world.

This is awesome, as not only does it have a cool cohesive atmosphere, but having this environment in the game early acts a nice visual reminder of the fun, cartoony style of game we're striving to make.

Cheers Ello!

Playtesting And Developments!

Over the last few weeks, we've been getting great feedback from our play-testers.

While the project is generally going well, some of the little things needed tweaking before we pulled back the curtain and unveiled the Scourge prototype to the world.

This screenshot was taken during one of our latest play-testing sessions:

If you look at player two's screen (blue), you'll see a cyan beam of light in the distance. 

In response to previous player feedback, we found it necessary to make player bases stand out at a glance, so we added gigantic colourful laser lights! Since then, players have reported navigation to be somewhat smoother. It's great that their comments can help us with our iterative design. 

The next screen capture depicts Scourge at it's most exciting:

Players one, two and three (purple, blue and green) are competing to catch the falling cargo. 

player two was going well, but player one has just rammed them, knocking their precious cargo overboard.

Ironically, player one is about to be rammed by player three. 

But while all this is happening, sneaky player four has taken the opportunity to head to their base to score some points.  

For a while now, we've been designing Scourge to have action packed moments of gameplay just like this. However it's been really rewarding actually watching them emerge in-game during the 4-player play-tests.  

Welcome! Hola! Hello!

This exciting new blog is record of ongoing work from a dedicated team of students at The Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Melbourne Australia.

We're proud to announce our newest project in development, a split-screen, multiplayer game: 

With majestic pirate airships and a beautiful floating sky-world - Scourge has a traditional steam-punk core, with a gooey coating of 4 player mayhem and a drizzle of slapstick humour on top.

Confirmed Features Include:

• Navigate your steam-punk airship in a fully realized 3D world!
• Swoop in and catch falling passengers on airship's wide deck!
• Use physics based controls to maintain your airship's buoyancy!
• Jettison cargo using your airship's custom trapdoor!
• Feel the impact of collisions with other players, as you knock their cargo overboard!
• Xbox controller support! 

And there's a whole lot of super-secret other stuff we're working on that we'll be sharing with you over the coming weeks! 

It's early days, and "Project Storms" already looks great in-engine!

For all the latest developments, keep checking back here.

And remember... Keep a eye on the skies!