Greetings Pioneers!

Thank you for the excellent feedback so far on our next iteration of the game which is still available to play in our experimental branch. It’s been immensely constructive for us to have some live player feedback at this stage.

We’re looking to push another update out to the branch next week which will have a whole host of changes and additions. In the meantime we’ve been working towards cleaning up and additions of the most wanted features that we feel will give everyone the most bang for their buck!

Remember you can stay drunk on our workaholic ways by checking out our Trello Boards for the latest on our designs and development tasks!

Here’s what we’ve been progressing with this week:

John – Lead Designer

This week it has been further balancing and identifying all of the components needed to build a refined initial experience. My main focus has been weapon balancing and design tweaks for the updated material scanner with Ricky whilst also finishing off the designs for fuel. I’m next going to be working with Tristan to get the final components together for the new Mining system and then it’s fuel and energy.

Matt – Art Director

We’ve been wanting to get more things that explode into the game for quite a while. So here I am with a huge smile on my face because those things that explode are now about to start exploding. This means more effective ways of breaking into bases and dealing with any non-allied defences!

To start the fireworks here’s the current frag grenade I’ve worked on for both first person and world models.

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been looking at fixing a couple of crashes we were having with the AI, plus I’ve also been looking at possible way to try and optimise our Octree generation and updating while in game. My next task is to start working towards getting AI to spawn inside the colony bases scattered around the new map.

Tristan – Senior Developer

Working on implementing tree smashing, so throwing of creatures favours the direction of the nearest tree trunk in the direction of the throw. We loved seeing trees break when this happened so expect more exciting smashing moments.

Managed to finish our updated power system as well. Once this is in the game your Eden Kit effectively becomes a power transmitter, so any power from generators will only be effective inside the radius of your Eden Kits. I’ve also started work on our fuel system this week which we believe will be a huge game changer.

Joe – Environment Artist

This week I finished my revamp of 7 bases for the new experimental branch level! My goal was to make each base unique, fun to explore and tell a little bit of a story too… Soon I’m hoping to work on new assets for these bases to flesh them out further. I can’t wait to get your feedback and opinion once the next update hits.

I also spent a day reworking all of the loot crates; adding in the new items, removing the old and tweaking all the drop chances. When the next release drops there shouldn’t be any more useless empty crates or items out of place. I also added in Matt’s new meshes for the roads and fixed a few minor level bugs along the way.

Yves – Senior Developer

Focusing on the final stages of multiplayer optimisation for building large structures, this is coming a long nicely and will be ready for testing shortly.

Ricky – Developer

This week bought a few changes to the HUD Scanner design so I’ve been implementing those additional little bits, then I’ve also been working on bits and bobs towards tutorials, the opening cutscene and objectives for so others can be on the working of those. Moving on from that the consumables are now placeable in the Consumable slots of the UI Menu and on the bottom bar of the HUD so they can be used with quick keys 6 through 0 by default.

Nigh a week goes by barren of fixing bugs so one has also been looking into those. One has been sorted which means peoples save games from the original experimental release a couple of weeks ago can still be loaded in the current release.

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been working on a short introduction sequence to the game for single player in which you wake up near your crashed dropship. There are items scattered around that can help you in starting out.

Marcin – Designer

My entire week was spent implementing an entire new world economy to the game. Yes, that’s right, in the next release, pretty much every single item you find or make will be brand new. A potential exceptions may be the food and water, because they require a whole pass all of their own, which may not make it in at the same time.

That means that the game will likely be slightly less balanced than it is right now economy-wise, but hopefully only for a short while. Gone will be ironite, tennal, and microcrystals for example, and instead you’ll find titanium, computer chips, and sulphur. I hope it’s as exciting for you as it is for us!

Tom – Character Artist

It’s Creepy Crocodile time. Working on this much larger water biome creature!

Simone – Concept Artist

Hello everyone! This week I have been digging into getting the storyboard’s sequence all done so the team can work from it. As well as the storyboards I have been working with Matt on detailing up a Drop Pod design and am currently working on refining the design. Hope you all had an awesome week and see you again next week!

Andy – Lead QA

After the last update I have been working with the team to implement the new minerals (including a balancing first pass), the new and improved scanner and the new power system. I’ve also been correlating the feedback you guys have been leaving for us onto our trello boards and testing the fixes the devs have put in.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix