Hello, everyone! justaw0rm here, with a team update in the new year! We have got some big plans for you in 2018, and we would like to take you along a quick sneak peek of what we have been working on. A couple of the folks from the development team have kindly given us a quick summary of some recent progress they’ve made along with some tasty screenshots and a quick description of what they’re working on.
Please note, what we’re sharing is work-in-progress, so it does not represent what the game will look like in its final form. We’re excited for 2018, and we’re so glad you have decided to be a part of this with us! Let us know what you think in the comments down below!
First off, we have a few screenshots created by Tim Bergholz, and he’s meticulously designed the model of a P350 and an M1014. Trust us; you’ll get comfortable using these two when the time comes.
Continuing on the theme of weapons, MzK has done a phenomenal job of animating an MK18 and a sledgehammer.
When making these animations, I want to make them entertaining to watch for casual players, but also a treat for gun nuts to appreciate. Barrels wobble, optics jiggle, and bolts rotate. I'm getting to work on a lot of different guns in first person games such as the CX-4, DT-11 and other civilian firearms. I want to get these weapons to feel as stable as possible concerning animation, and I know it'll pay off by the time NMRIH2 ships!
nay0r, with some progress on the Palisades Center “mall" map.
So this past couple of months I began work on our third map, a mall map based of the Palisades Center based just outside of NYC. The map is already taking great shape even after only a short period developing it. I’m super happy with how it’s turning out, and it will be a great addition to have in the game which we sadly lacked in the first game having any kind of mall map In the upcoming months I can’t wait to show even more progress on the map.
Maxx, updating us with progress on the Brooklyn map.
I've been hard at work on our Brooklyn Map! Since the new year, Louie and I have switched places to liven things up, so I'll be slamming on this map for a while. I've been working on the interiors of some apartment buildings, bringing new life to some of our previously existing buildings. The goal here is to build seamless meshes for the interior which reduce lighting errors and improve performance and then beginning the first pass of placing lights and props to start to build up a feel or "texture" to the world. I've been building props to decorate the exteriors of the buildings to begin grounding them more and bringing a bit more life to some otherwise bare walls! Environment art can be tedious a lot of the time, but when you get to the stage of placing props and decorating a space, it brings back memories of a kid, playing with action figures, living out a story. A map like Brooklyn is a big task, but it can also be some of the most fun you get to have as an environment artist. For that reason, I think this map is going to be an exceptional experience.
Xenon with a quick write-up on the gore mechanics.
Just a small update in terms of zombies and AI this month from me. So over the holidays and into January, we've started a rough first pass of zombie gore, and things are shaping up nicely! We hope that in the next few months we'll be able to show you the full system functioning in a dev blog with all the fixings of gore, chunks, blood and limbs being blown off those lovable zombies.
Louie, coming in with a quick preview of in-game lighting.
I went through and made blueprints for all the lights editable from the blueprints using construction script to make it so the important variables can be edited by level designers. These critical variables are the lights intensity and temperature (the scale used in real life for the orange to the blue scale of lights) and Attenuation Radius which is how far the light effects the environment. Using this, I could make sure that every lamp could be set as stationary so that it could affect both dynamic and static objects. Casting dynamic and stationary light. These kinds of lights need not overlap 4 or more times, so the radius is essential for this.
And finally, a treat from thought, a glimpse of the soundtrack to accompany the Brooklyn Heights map.
I highly recommend you put on some headphones, turn down the lights, close your eyes, and give this track a listen.
Click this link to listen now.
This soundtrack is still a work in progress that is likely to be further changed and played with, but I thought I would share. Imagine entering Brooklyn heights, and as you get deeper into the city, you get a real sense of the sheer loss.
Thanks for joining us for this months team update and we’re looking forward to the next update!
Remember, these are work-in-progress updates so though rough around the edges, you can expect our work to be polished and ready to go when the NMRiH2 is available.