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News Index: [ LATEST ] [ Jan 07-Dec 07 ]
[ Sep 06-Dec 06 ] [ Mar 06-Aug 06 ]
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New screenshots
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1st August 2007
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What's this? Another news post already? Yep, sure is. :-) We have uploaded some new pics to the Screenshots page and will
be regularly posting more as the various screens in the game become finalised.
We've put a picture of the new in-game GUI that displays all the information a player needs
during play. This is (from left to right) Mission Name and Objective, Crew Morale, Infamy score,
current Gold and Ship Name with health and ammo indicators. The compass in the lower right is work
in progress, but will look similar when finished although possibly slightly smaller.
As well as the new GUI, we have also given a sneak peek at a couple of the campaign maps. Each location
shown on a campaign map is an individual mission that will remain available to a player until completed.
Merchant Shipping missions, however, are always available and allow a player to conduct commerce raiding
to ensure a steady supply of gold.
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Further Developments
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31st July 2007
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Well... as mentioned in the previous news item, Harvey and I are still undertaking some freelance work,
so our work on Buccaneer is painfully slow, but steady. There are improvements going in weekly
and we shall be posting some updated screens very soon.
Harv is busy building low LOD (Levels Of Detail) models for all the ships in the game as well as animating
flags and pennants. The latter have had to be reworked since moving to the new
Torque Game Engine Advanced. The the move
to the new engine, while improving the overall appearance of the game, has thrown up a number of issues that
we are steadily working through. The latest of these that has been overcome is the functionality of our compass,
thanks to a Torque guru found in the Help Wanted section of the Garage Games Marketplace. We highly recommended
this route to anyone else who finds themselves with too many jobs and not enough time. :-)
In other news, it is also worth noting that I now intend to resurrect my blog (Nev's Weekly Whinge)
that has been dorment even longer than this news page. It won't have any information relevant to the release of
Buccaneer, but will have some choice pieces for those of you with an interest in airsofting,
World War 2 tanks, heavy metal and tropical fish. :-)
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A Breath of Wind
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15th June 2007
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The website has been becalmed of late and an update was well overdue.
This has been chiefly due to our need to acquire fresh funds to keep
the project going. As a result we have both had to take on a few months of
outsource artwork for another AAA title (We already have a Stickman Studios credit
on both
Colin McRae DIRT and
Brian Lara International Cricket 2007).
All this, unfortunately, has the knock-on effect of
slowing down our own project. It's a difficult balance, ensuring that the
game keeps moving as well as lining the Stickman pockets to ensure a steady
supply of teabags to the studio. :-)
Since our last news posting we have implemented nearly all of our new gameplay
ideas and everything is linking up nicely. Gold, infamy and crew morale are
all working as they should and a player's ship is now fully customisable.
Added to this is a Dockyard where a player can now trade in their current
vessel for a new ship. At the moment there are 14 ships to choose from,
each with their own strengths and weaknesses, value and unique appearance.
Most will be initially unavailable to a player and will unlock as missions
are completed and Infamy is gained.
As well as unlockable ships, the campaign map also features unlockable areas.
A player will be able to choose from approximately a dozen missions at the
start of a campaign and as they complete tasks, more of the map will be revealed
to them, allowing them to venture further from their home port. Most missions
will be flagged as completed, and locked on the map once a player has achieved
the listed objective/s, but some will be repeatable. These latter missions
(chiefly commerce raiding against merchant shipping) are designed to allow a
player to top up their Infamy and gold and to improve crew morale, all vital
if a campaign is to be completed successfully.
Additionally there are a number of "treasure islands", the locations of which
are hidden and can only be unlocked upon discovery of clues located within other missions.
Essentially we are fleshing out the game with more depth and believe that the extra effort
will all be worthwhile in the end.
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Enhancing Playability
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27th March 2007
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After completing a Technical Demo and pitching it into a few different quarters, we have been
assessing all the feedback we've had and adjusting a good number of game aspects as a result.
It was a very worthwhile exercise. Sitting as close to the project as we do, it's always good
to get some unbiased feedback from another pair of eyes. So we've spent a good deal of time this week
restructuring how the game will work in single player mode to make it (in our opinion at least) infinity
more playable.
We took the decision to move from 15 large, set, multi-objective, single player levels that were linked
together via a plot, to 50 (yes, FIFTY), smaller, single objective levels linked via a campaign map.
The latter gives the player total choice of mission selection and also
their campaign direction. We are also currently implementing a Home Port where players can repair their
ship, upgrade it (cannons, sails, hull, etc.) or buy a completely new one from a list of available vessels.
Although this may seem like a lot more work, we've found that simply getting the existing levels to work
in the new engine is going to be more time consuming that creating the new levels in a different way -
making the new engine work for us rather than struggling against it. The new campaign system will not only
add depth to the gameplay, but will increase game speed and enjoyability. Players will now have to balance
their plundered gold, ship ammunition, health and customisable statistics as well as crew morale - the latter
will drastically affect their Infamy score. The Infamy score is a player's running high score that slowly
ticks away as they play - the longer it takes to complete the campaign, the less effective the pirate captain
and thus the lower the score. The rate at which the Infamy ticks away is controlled by crew morale - so the
higher the morale the slower the Infamy loss. This Infamy can be boosted and added to during missions as
objectives are met and towns and ships plundered. Crew morale can also be boosted by timely Rum Rations and
sharing of plunder.
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Torque Game Engine Advanced
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4th March 2007
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The website update is now back on track after a couple of very frantic weeks porting Buccaneer
over to the new engine. But we definitely think it was worth all the effort as it is now looking better than ever. You can
check out the graphical improvements yourself on the Screenshots page, where I will
also be adding some in-game movie clips once I've sifted through them and found some that best show off the gameplay.
It is worth adding that all of these screens and the movie clips to follow have been captured from our demo.
Yes, that's right, the demo is done and will be available to download in a couple of weeks once a few bugs have been
ironed out and the level has been balanced a little better. But with Harvey off to GDC next week and me still with
website revamping to do... not a lot is going to change on the demo level this week. So a (very) little more patience. :-)
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Website revamping
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17th February 2007
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As regular visitors to the site will have noticed we are having a major overhaul of the website. We decided that it was looking a little
tired and needed a new look to coincide with the latest improvements to the game itself. The game has consistently moved forward
over the past couple of months and now we are porting it into the new
Torque Game Engine Advanced. Harv has been slowly introducing parts of the game to the new engine and it is already
looking very nice indeed. As soon as we're happy for the new look Buccaneer to be seen we will be posting some very "dapper"
screens and adding some desktop wallpapers to the Downloads page.
We are also adding a new front section to the website as previously all links to our site dropped you straight into the Buccaneer site.
So if you haven't seen it yet, check it out here Stickman Studios. It is still very much under construction,
but new content will be appearing almost daily now as well as daily postings on our new blog pages.
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Buccaneer Update
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8th January 2007
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OK... it's been a while since we posted, far too long in fact. Apologies for this but the initial testing did rather throw up quite a few new problems on top of those we were already aware of. Many of these have now been fixed, but the main news is that we have fully functioning AI ships! Previously we had some simple AI ships that would follow a spline (badly) and simpler turrets that would (occasionally) fire at you when the mood took them. But our code warrior has been busy over Xmas and the results are looking, to quote Harv... "Very dapper!". So the single player game has jumped dramatically over the festive season and we now have aggressive ships that will pursue a player as well as active turrets (cannon emplacements) that are only too eager to send you to the bottom.
So what else is new? All single player mission triggers are now fully functional so that the campaigns will run from start to finish. This, coupled with the AI opponents, mean that we can start testing and balancing the single player campaign. We also have our new water resource in, so frame rates will pick up considerably and the game will now be Mac compatible too. The current water needs some tweaking with regards colour and specularity, but we will post some new screens as soon as this is done.
And... yes there is more... after listening to many of the cries of the testers, we have added a compass to the game GUI, so you will know at all times where you are on the map. This is particularly important for finding your way back to your home base in the multiplayer game. Currently the compass also displays all shipping, both friend and foe, but this will be removed as it takes away half the fun of stalking an opponent round an island chain if they know you're coming.
So quite a lot happening really, but plenty more to do before we can launch the official demo. We will probably organise another testing session before then with all the bugs ironed out, so a big thanks to everyone who helped with the last one - hope you can spare the time to join us for the next. :-)
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News Index: [ LATEST ] [ Jan 07-Dec 07 ]
[ Sep 06-Dec 06 ] [ Mar 06-Aug 06 ]
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