Hello,
For the past several weeks we've made good progress on a playable level based on some of the concept work shared in previous updates. We're putting this together to develop all of the basic components we'll need for the rest of the game. Some basic NPCs, power-ups, simple cinematic sequences, etc. Setting all of this up can be surprisingly time-consuming as we're integrating all of this into existing character classes that weren't necessarily set-up with these elements in mind.
Here's a quick preview of what we're working on. The screenshot is from the Editor. Most of this level is untextured and the lighting is extremely basic at this time.
By going through this process with a small, manageable level it will allow us to go a lot faster with the larger maps which are in various stages of concept work. Ideally, we'll have all of this mapped out so when we build larger levels we can drop entities in and iterate quickly on our gameplay ideas and layouts.
This level will be ready to ship soon. It should give you a taste of our plans for singleplayer. A little bit of exploration, some small enemies to kill, a power-up to retrieve, and a nice medium-sized NPC to have an extended fight with. The main thing left to do is design this particular fight. Our desire with larger enemies in Grappledrome is to have some element of problem-solving to the fight. Ideally, the player is using his/her weapon and grapple beam to find clever solutions to tough enemies. If our enemies are simply bullet sponges we're doing something wrong.
We hate making predictions on when we can ship something. Especially now when we've got day jobs that demand quite a lot of our time. Having said that, we do expect to ship this level in a matter of weeks. Early August is a definite possibility.
Talk to you then!
The Devs