I have finished the pregame lobby! The new lobby is functionally better, is designed with the future in mind, and I feel looks pretty nice as well! And now, the next big undertaking is the Garage. As I get to each screen, the design gets easier and easier, as there is a larger pool of assets to reference. The difficult …
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The Epitome of Waste
The battle was still raging. The white plumes of missiles and rockets arched across the skies, as the warheads ascended and then crashed onto their targets. The golden treads of tracer rounds cut through the air, as the shells flew straight and true. The staccato sound of gunfire and explosions echoed through the hills in a crescendo of fire and …
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State of the Game #235: The value of progress
Wow, it’s been a very busy week! I have been spending a lot of time this week getting things ready for other people, as this week marks the first time there are 3 people other than myself working on MAV. I am still continuing to work as well, of course, but at a bit of a reduced pace as I …
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Evening News
Good evening. This is Travis Bailey, and welcome to the Evening News. We’ll start with the ongoing crisis in Luanda. The clashes between rioters and security forces started one week ago, after the depletion of the stocks of flour and vegetables in stores. There is still no plan to replenish these stocks, as the food situation in the sub-equatorial …
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State of the Game #234: Back to work with a change of pace
I’m back from vacation! It was a very lovely trip, we went and saw many parts of the south west and west coast of the US. Of course, I couldn’t stop working entirely, but without my developer desktop, I was a bit limited in what I could do. So, I started working on an end to end solution for linking …
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State of the Game #233: Vacation
This week, I am doing something I haven’t done in the over 5 years I have started MAV. I am taking a family vacation! I know some of you might have been expecting an update this week, since I promised a suprise, and I am sorry to disappoint you with that. However, the surprise is actually already in the …
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A Piece of Heaven
“So, he did everything to save the flower, dad?” The boy’s words almost went over Jié’s head. Although the eyes of the miner were centered on the display in his son’s hands, his mind was drifting way beyond the cartoonish pictures bouncing under limpid blue skies. “Are you listening, dad?” This time the boy managed to …
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State of the Game #232: Tease
One week left in the month! Time keeps on flying and the work is just shooting though. I ran into a bit of a snag this week as I continued to ponder the exact methods and game flow I wanted to put into the new pre-game lobby. In wanting to support screen sizes ranging from 720p to greater than 4k, …
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0.6.16.1 Build Released
This is a minor patch. Knock back effects on cockpits has been reduced by a factor of 100, across the board. Yes, a factor of 100.
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Welcome to the Revolution
The second troop transport shattered, more than exploded, when the rounds tore through its flat flank and emerged from the other side. The innards of the vehicle flew over the scenery in a multicolored shower of armor plates, internal components, and hapless soldiers. The assailant then trained his crosshairs at the last of the eight-wheeled transports and fired a final …
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State of the Game #231: The goodies pile up
So, another week of great UI work for me! I have finished up the single player menu and the multiplayer server browser and have moved on to the pregame lobby. The pregame lobby is getting a bit more than just a visual uplift though, as it needs some new functionality to better fit MAV as a game right now and …
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State of the Game #230: Just keep working
This week, I am in a heads down, bulldoze through, full force work mode. I have been falling behind, significantly, with the rate of my production. It’s painful to me to admit, but it was because I was not enjoying what I was doing. Sometimes, important != fun, and I have really let that get in my way in the …
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Brasswolf
At that moment, the memory that hit her more strongly was one of emerald fields, azure skies and a warm breeze. Her parents had been farmers, growing corn in the wide plains of Colorado, their hearts and minds turn earthward while their daughters dreamt of the starry depths of space. As they grew, though, reality settled in. The …
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State of the Game #279: UI Preview
After continuing to work on the UI, I figured it’s time for a bit of a preview! This should give you a good overview of the style that will be present in the final version. Functionality wise, it’s greatly improved from the current version. Less clicks to do the same actions, all while better communicating the functionality to the players. …
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State of the Game #278 : Cresting the hill
Another week of UI work down! This week I have been hard at work on the new flow of the single player game options screen. A LOT of what this new UI/UX experience is focused on is making things very easy to understand and for controls to operate in an intuitive manner. There is of course an ascetic upgrade happening …
State of the Game #277: MAV Tournament!
I have been continuing to work on the new UI layout, design, and flow this week. But who cares about that right now? You need to go sign up for the very first MAV tournament, hosted by Raksal! The format is a 2 v 2 siege match, but single entries are allowed. If you are looking to find a partner …
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State of the Game #276: The last 90%
Well, it’s into the details we go! This week, I have been hitting a LOT of the 90-90 rule. This is the simple principal of the first 90% of the project taking 90% of your allocated time, then the last 10% taking the next 90% of your time 😉 And of course, what better way to run into this rule …
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State of the Game #275: Experimenting
Running a one man development team can be very freeing, but the one problem that I am always trying to tackle is how to do things better and faster. I need to be able to create content and features at the same pace and quality of as a team of 50! Recently, I have been running some experiments with content …
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State of the Game #274 : Skar she blows!
It’s Update time, and this one is going to be BIG! And by big, I am referring to the new heavy cockpit, the Skar! Look at the size of that beast! This cockpit, available at level 1, is the biggest, most durable cockpit in the game. With a starting durability of 2248 and variants going up to 3628, this cockpit …
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State of the Game #273: Full Throttle Ahead!
Wow, these weeks just keep coming faster and faster! I suppose that’s a good thing, but it gets hard to keep up all the time! Hey, did you know M.A.V. had a Kickstarter? It totally did! Well, it’s time to start cashing in some of those long awaited backer rewards! I have sent messages to all backers that are eligible to …
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State of the Game #272: Digging Deeper than a Europa Miner
Hey everyone, sorry for the later State of the Game post, I have been in my own personal jail of debugging! 🙁 But really, it’s a good thing! The great thing about digging deeply into a set of code is that you can fix things you might have overlooked before, as well as all the monitoring that I have added …
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State of the Game #271: Safe and Secure
Welcome to this weeks State of the Game! You may notice a little icon in your browser url bar this week. That’s right, Bombdog Studios has gone fully SSL! Previously, our login and checkout process were encrypted, but it was brought to our attention that people wanted to see a little more security while they browsed the site as well. …
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State of the Game #270: The March Update Has Arrived!
It’s here! This month has been quite the whirlwind! The March update has been more than just in game work, that is for sure, and this trend will continue through out the coming months. You can see this out of game work in our newly announced Partnered Streamer program [Apply Here!], of which we currently have 5 partners, with many …
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State of the Game #269:
I have been spending most of the month working on many secret projects. Some will be revealed soon, others will be more long term. I am VERY excited about each and every one of them! I don’t typically drive my own hype, but these projects are going to be BIG! For those that have been around here awhile, you are …
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State of the Game #268: PAX East Recap!
WOW, what a whirl wind of a weekend! WARNING: This is going to be a VERY picture heavy post, and most of the are selfies 🙂 It all started at an incredibly busy Austin airport. Apparently flying during the SXSW festival is going to be a crowded affair. The best thing though was I was sitting around 3 awesome guys …
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State of the Game #267: Let’s Prep for PAX East!
Wow, it seems like just yesterday that I was at PAX south! It’s that time again and I will be heading up to Boston this Friday to be attending PAX East! I have my stickers ready, my massive stack of business cards, my heavy coat, and my exclusive MAV brand sweatshirt! [Thanks to the Bombdog studios master of merch 🙂 …
State of the Game #266: A Face Lift!
Did you notice anything different on the site today? That’s right, the website is getting some nice polishing touches through out. It started with a better experience when creating an account, has migrated to a completely new homepage, and will likely be touching the entire site before I am done. As exciting as web development can be, something more interesting …
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State of the Game #265: Post Release Bliss
Oh, what a beautiful week! Last week saw the release of the February update and a quick hotfix for some minor issues. This week, I have been gathering a lot of data on the new heat system and working on more and more secretive projects! One of the most fun and interesting things I have added to the game has …
Hotfix 0.6.14.1
Fixed overheating fireworks. Heat damage threshold is set to 85. Fixed Alpha 2 Silver camo not showing correctly in certain cases. Fixed Alpha Gold camo not showing correctly in certain cases. Fixed the M-RAD radiator collision issues.
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State of the Game #264: The February Update is Here!
In January MAV brought in the Ice with No Mans Pass, but with February it’s bringing the heat! The heat system is in place and acts as it’s own damage type now. This means that Flamethrowers and ground fires will no longer do direct damage, but will instead add heat to the parts they touch! Each part has a few …