Hey everyone, welcome to another State of the Game!
First off, I would like to introduce a new member to the Bombdog Studios team.
You may have seen him around, as he has been a very active member of the community since the first day I launched M.A.V.. Gavin Verity, a.k.a. LegacyElite84, will be joining the Bombdog Studios team as a Community Manager. Gavin has already been helping me a lot in this role, taking an active part in the community by organizing multiplayer games, posting youtube videos, helping users solve issues they might be having, and generally being a great advocate for the player. He was already a moderator on both the message board and Steam, so having him take on this role officially just made sense. You can congratulate him either on the message board or steam, or even send him a nice email at LegacyElite84@bombdogstudios.com. Now, when players mistake him for the developer and send him bug reports, he won’t have an excuse!
I also promised you some more concepts!
The idea for a cave level, I believe, actually started on the message board. There was a user created sketch of a glacier canyon, with several levels and bridges adding lots of cool verticality to the level design. That lead me down the path of thinking about the unique game play differences that a cave level would have. With a ceiling, it would be harder to lob support fire across the level, and with the twisting passages, it would suit the soldier role very well. Of course, the team that has the better commander and scouts would be at a huge advantage in setting up ambushes and pushing up the flank.
Here are the rough draft concepts:
The idea for a cave level, I believe, actually started on the message board. There was a user created sketch of a glacier canyon, with several levels and bridges adding lots of cool verticality to the level design. That lead me down the path of thinking about the unique game play differences that a cave level would have. With a ceiling, it would be harder to lob support fire across the level, and with the twisting passages, it would suit the soldier role very well. Of course, the team that has the better commander and scouts would be at a huge advantage in setting up ambushes and pushing up the flank.
Here are the rough draft concepts:
And here is the final result:
Doesn’t that look like a level you want to play?
Now, this level came from the idea of the twisting passages of the cave, but what if you removed the roof to allow support fire and even some high ground for snipers. That would change up the dynamics quite a bit. Maybe even add in some destructible passage ways. This lead to the scrap yard:
And the final result:
Please, go check out Marius Andrei’s other works as well, because the are FANTASTIC!
That is all for this week’s ‘big’ news. I am continuing working on the commander update, I now have the fully working “up-link area” system along with 2 new deployment parts, both deploying the previously mention up-link relays. I have some work left to do on the overall system, like ensuring you are only seeing information if someone on your team is a commander and there is a continuous up-link area. I also got in some rough passes on more movement sounds, which include mech stomps, torso twisting, and better wheel and tread sounds. Later this week, I will post a non-state of the game blog post (unheard of!) detailing how the Steam early access launch went, so stay tuned!
Everyone, have a great week!