ORION: PRELUDE RETURNS (COMING 2014)
ORION: Prelude has been a part of Spiral since nearly the very beginning. It was originally inspired by and designed to be a spiritual successor to our first free prototype, the ‘ORION: Source Beta’ which was built as a modification for the Source Engine. It was created as a Weapon Mechanics demonstration / feedback test and featured the ORION IP as well as class-based gameplay between The Carriers and The Altair.
‘ORION: PROTOTYPE’ (2009-2010)
The ORION: Prototype was built as a free product as a Source engine modification. This was going to be the first publicly released prototype with the ‘ORION’ name and it focused on the Player-versus-Player (class-based) combat and Weapon mechanics. It saw release in December 2009 with another large free update in June 2010.
*Note: Keep in mind that the ‘ORION: Prototype’ was lacking in two of the IP’s 3 main pillars: Jetpacks, Mechs and Dinosaurs. There were no vehicles and no dinosaurs in any form in this prototype. It was still received rather well and averaged 7’s and 8’s, it won Mod of the Month at Fileplanet for January 2010 shortly after its release and it offered a really focused, linear sense of fun. It only had one single game mode called ‘Lockdown CTF’.
‘ORION: PRELUDE’ IS BORN (SUMMER OF 2010)
In the Summer of 2010 we wanted to do a proper successor to the ‘ORION: Prototype’ – something that would captivate the full ORION experience. We needed to build the ‘ORION: Prototype’ but it absolutely needed the Dinosaurs and vehicles now that we had our weapon systems tested in the public and improved behind doors courtesy of the Prototype. This was where ‘ORION: Prelude’ came in and was assembled. Most importantly we needed to brand out as an indie developer (Spiral Game Studios) and recreate this on state-of-the-art technology. This is where the Unreal Engine 3 came in. This is also when ‘ORION: Prelude’ grew from the one game mode to 3 modes including Lockdown CTF, VITAL and Retro DM.
Full article
http://spiralgamestudios.com/post/77018495383/a-prelude-within-coming-2014