developer-diary
Latest
Avatar's third dev diary is all about choices
Okay, okay – we'll admit that the transparent dry erase board thing is a bit on the "too much" side of things, but Avatar's third dev diary contains enough interesting information about the game in it otherwise that we feel okay forgiving the clip's director. The emphasis here is on the game's many choices, and, more specifically, the one major choice which mirrors the movie's plot. Will you choose the path of the human and murder a tall blue alien ... thing, or stand up for all that is righteous and good in the world? The choice is yours (you monster!). %Gallery-70590%
Darksiders dev diary contains your daily recommended dose of epicness
There's a lot to absorb in the latest developer diary for THQ's celestial adventure title, Darksiders: Angels fighting demons, demons fighting horsemen of the apocalypse, horsemen fighting angels, giant worm monsters, the Apocalypse and, best of all, a horse that nearly killed Joystiq's own Kevin Kelly. Basically, we're saying that it's going to be tough to top the video you see above at any point today, as we doubt another video will force one of us to flash back to a moment in our lives where we experienced pure mortal terror.
Lord of the Rings developer diary explores Dol Guldur
We've seen the screenshots and trailer for the fortress of Dol Guldur in the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion Siege of Mirkwood, and today's developer diary explores it in more detail, giving us an extensive look through the area. Tsieng Liu from the LotRO Dungeons Team describes Dol Guldur as "the fortress where Sauron dwelt when he was known as "The Necromancer." It's an old fortress that is now full of the foul servants of the Enemy on the edge of Mirkwood forest. It is in this region that the elves of Lothlórien are mounting an offensive in order to keep the Enemy from penetrating their forests." Dol Guldur will contain three 3-person dungeons and a 6-person dungeon, leading up to a 12-person raid in which you storm the tower of Dol Guldur and take on the "leadership behind its forces." This area will also feature some fun new mechanics and challenges that should turn your tried-and-true group methods of playing neatly on their ear. Dungeon overviews, as well as a look at the new surprises Dol Guldur has in store, can all be found in the diary entry. It's well worth the read.
The systems of battle in Champions Online
We've been getting a generous look under the hood of Champions Online courtesy of designer Brian Urbanek, with the second part of his system-focused developer diary now available. The first part covered the progression and improvement of a player's heroes, while this diary focuses on the mechanics of that ever-present diversion in almost every game -- combat. As one can imagine, with a game whose systems are based on a tabletop roleplaying game dating back more than twenty years, there are a lot of numbers and expressions to be thrown around. Urbanek explains, in detail, how the team set up values for stats and durability with some baseline assumptions. They knew what they could expect for an "average" player to do in terms of damage-per-second at high levels, and they had some idea of how long they wanted each fight to last (the time cited is twenty seconds). From there, the diary goes into the balancing and scaling factors needed to ensure that players and enemies both are dealing reasonable damage and surviving for the preferrable amount of time. If you like numbers and systems, or just a clearer picture of how Champions Online works, this diary should be perfect for you, with promises of still more to come down the pipeline.
Star Wars: The Old Republic senior writer talks about writing the Jedi Knight
Drew Karpyshyn is the senior writer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic team with plenty of experience writing characters from the dark side, but now he's stepping out of his comfort zone to take a walk on the Jedi side. The fun he's having writing the Jedi Knight class comes through clearly in Friday's developer blog entry: "Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction." Exploring the Jedi Knight class meant delving the Jedi Code and how it works in theory vs. how it works in practice. What happens when you take that code and mix in a hefty dose of "what if?" is a recipe for all kinds of possibilities, and Karpyshyn is having a great time exploring them. His experience writing the dark side gives his version of "what if" a little edge, exploring thoughts of renegade Jedi Knights who are willing to bend the rules for the greater good. It's a fun read, with a great look into Karpyshyn's thoughts on the class -- you can take a look at the full entry on the official site.
Warhammer Online developer diary on combat with hackers
Hackers, as everyone knows, were scheduled to be the mirror class to Choppas... wait, no, that's not right. We're not talking about one of the classes of Warhammer Online, we're talking about that scourge of the paying and fair-playing populace of every MMO. The most recent developer diary on the game's official site is with John Cox, development manager, discussing some of the ways and means that allows Mythic to fight against the scourge of hacking and try and keep the game on the level. Cox discusses a number of techniques, starting with the most obvious: that several people working on fighting the hacks are part of hacking communities, observing silently and sometimes even testing them internally to develop a response. He also discusses why some of the progress on fighting illegal behavior is a bit slower than the community would like, and why it's not always as possible to shut things down straightaway on the server end. With a discussion of some of the holes in detection, which includes an explanation of why the game briefly had Vista users almost universally flagged as hackers, it's an interesting look behind the scenes at Warhammer Online's efforts to fight the good fight. (That is, the one not involving Order versus Destruction.)
Lord of the Rings Online dev diary tells of creating Mirkwood
We've been enjoying the gorgeous screenshots and trailers from Turbine in the weeks leading up to the release of Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, and the latest LotRO developer diary gives a behind the scenes look at creating the regions in Mirkwood. Jesse "Vastin" Kings writes about the fun the team had getting to play with new areas, monsters, and quests, and the challenge of balancing those plans with the available resources. Working with the original Lord of the Rings story line posed another challenge sometimes when it came to filling in the game and still remaining true to Tolkien. Of course, not everything was on the showy, fun, creative side: "...it might interest you to know that the single largest share of all the time I've spent working on Mirkwood was in trying to figure out and implement ways to keep our servers from being reduced to piles of smoking slag within hours of Siege of Mirkwood going live and all of you hurling yourselves at it at once." The full entry can be read here.
Lord of the Rings Online explains skirmish rewards
"Let's be honest, people play new content for the rewards." Perhaps not the most uplifting or metaphorical way to start off a developer diary, but if nothing else you need to give Lord of the Rings Online credit for being so direct about it. But with the most recent developer diary regarding the Skirmish system coming in the Siege of Mirkwood expansion, they really deserve still more credit than that. One of the larger new features of the upcoming expansion, the Skirmish system has had a number of diaries devoted to it, but this one is focused on exactly what the opening would suggest: the meaty rewards from taking part. Some of the specifics might seem a bit arcane to people unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings Online, but the short version is that the various bosses and so forth will be devoid of any loot except for what's referred to as skirmish marks. Accumulating them as well as special tokens depending on group size and skirmish difficulty will allow purchases from a wide variety of powerful items. However, the system is balanced so that even consistently solo players can still work toward the highest tier of rewards, although the road will be quite a bit longer. There's only so much we can get across in a quick overview -- it's better to take a look at the actual diary and get ready for one of the more dynamic systems coming with Siege of Mirkwood.
Dark Void dev diary focuses on that guy in front of the jetpack
For us, the worth of protagonist Will in Dark Void isn't measured by his strengths as human being, but really just his awesome jetpacking. Airtight Games wants us to know there's more to like about the guy and aimed to make Will more in line with the typical Japanese game protagonist -- more believable and less of a "caricature." The above video diary also shows us how Nikola Tesla ended up in the game. Tesla is just one cool dude, whether he's being played by David Bowie, building super awesome defense towers for the Russians, or -- in the case of Dark Void -- spearheading an entire rebellion by inventing jetpacks and gigantic airships.
Assassin's Creed 2's Ezio is a really popular guy
We can just see Ezio now, dashing from one social circle to the next like a débutante on her coming out party. And how could we picture anything else after watching the latest developer diary for Assassin's Creed 2, where the game's main character is depicted as a card-carrying socialite. So what if one of those groups happens to be full of vicious mercenaries? They'll help him learn how to fight! And sure, another group might be made up of "courtesans" (see: ladies of the night), but they'll teach him all about sneaking! And another group is full of ... well ... you get the gist, right? The game's handful of factions will assist Ezio as he murders his way through Renaissance Europe. One final thing: even if you don't care about each group, make sure you stick around for the surprise treat nestled after the end splash screen. You'll thank us.%Gallery-49869%
Watch Ezio grow up in this Assassin's Creed 2 dev diary
Ezio Auditore da Firenze (we hear saying that five times fast unlocks an Achievement / Trophy!) isn't going to be the same character at the end of Assassin's Creed 2's 30-year narrative as he is at its outset. Sure, he'll be the same person -- but, as various members of the game's development team point out in this latest video diary, his repertoire of moves and the weapons / gear available to him will evolve the way you play as the character.Considerably more time, though, is spent pointing out how all of this will make the game less repetitive, clearly meant to reaffirm that, yes, Ubisoft Montreal is addressing one of the chief criticisms of the first game. But, wow, do they try their best to work this fact into the script. Watching the video, we half expected creative director Patrice Desilets to claim that Ezio will be able to groom his facial hair in various ways, thus adding more variety to the game. Kidding (or is it?) aside, the game is looking absolutely fab, and we can't wait to play through it in a variety of ways when it hits next month.
The art direction of Black Prophecy's gearheads
With all the buzz about space MMOs that are exploring the final frontier or participating in archaic representative democracy, it can be easy to lose sight of Black Prophecy, the upcoming game from German developer Reakktor Media. However, that doesn't make the news about it any less exciting, and it's surprising how much information can be packed into even a simple developer diary about the art direction of one of the game's factions. The Tyi faction, a race of superhuman cyborgs that now consider themselves beyond their parent race, are under examination this time, with a detailed look at how the Tyi aesthetic and philosophy are conveyed through ship designs. As one would expect from a race accustomed to replacing body parts as fashion or necessity dictates, the Tyi ships are designed with a very modular nature, far more exposed and mechanical than the smooth and sanitized looks seen from other factions. The developer diary talks about the construction of the ships and the stations, as well as showing off several visually stunning pictures that help demonstrate the hard-edged technological feel the faction will bring. If all of that piques your interest -- which it very well might do -- you might want to sign up for the upcoming beta, and get a chance to see Black Prophecy in action.
Developer diary covers Siege of Mirkwood's new skirmish instances
The newest expansion to Lord of the Rings Online, the Siege of Mirkwood, will be introducing a new type of storyline instance for players to play in -- skirmishes. Skirmishes bring a new style of gameplay to LotRO, giving players the ability to participate in small military conflicts between the Free Peoples and the forces of Sauron while also being able to participate in small bits of content and still be rewarded.The first two parts, the overview and the instanced nature of skirmishes, go over what the new Skirmish system provides players, and how skirmishes put a twist on the old concept of instancing. Did you ever want to defend the Prancing Pony in Bree? How about fight along side Elrond's sons? Skirmishes will be opening up those options to players while still offering repeatable adventures for any group size.But we shouldn't talk our faces off here! Go on over and read Brian "Zombie Columbus" Aloisio's developer diary on the whole matter. He can describe it better than we can!
Latest LotRO dev diary details legendary weapon changes
From the last "Ask the Dev Team" session with the Lord of the Rings Online developers, we knew that some changes were coming to the game's Legendary Weapon system. The latest Developer Diary entry is devoted entirely to filling in some of the details on these changes, which should come into effect when the Siege of Mirkwood expansion launches in December. First and foremost (and definitely one of the best tweaks) is that you'll be able to tell if a legendary weapon will ever turn into something good before you pour time and money into improving it.There will also be a brand new item type, a series of "legendary item advancement scrolls". They will provide an alternative method of improving or altering legendary weapons, and will be found both as loot from enemies and from the deconstruction process. In addition, crafters are getting a significant nod with the introduction of a fourth relic slot that can only be filled by player-crafted relics. It gets better: every crafting profession can make a different kind of relic, providing a range of improvement options, and ensuring that no crafter is left out of the fun. To read up on all the details of the upcoming legendary item changes (including specifics on how experience will be altered) see the full dev diary at the official site.
The art direction of Black Prophecy's humans
Some of the best art has a purposeful visual direction and that seems to be the case with Black Prophecy's Human faction. It also helps when your game has an incredibly beautiful rendering engine and a cockpit view to show every glorious detail off up close and personal.For those of us into the art design of a game, this recent developer diary on the Human art direction will most certainly interest you -- especially since it gets pretty in-depth on the reasoning behind every line and curve. The three page write-up goes into detail on the faction logo's origins, ship and station structural design. A lot of time is spent describing the real world parallels of the Humans in Black Prophecy to, well, us.
Brutal Legend video explores game world's art style
The latest Brütal Legend video has Art Director Lee Petty describing the style and artistic influences for the game's world. Most of it is interesting to those out there with an art degree, but we certainly got a giggle out of one of game's factions being inspired by 15th century art and "[Double Fine's] tremendous amount of research into the S&M scene." We wonder if those toys like "leather straps" and "ball gags" were brought into the office and purchased with the company credit card for "research" ... and whether Tim Shafer now keeps a dungeon for employee use? ... Hey, the game is M-rated, this is a perfectly appropriate question to ask. What?! Stop looking at us like that.
Latest Dead Space Extraction trailer reveals really big boss battle
The latest Dead Space Extraction trailer comes horrifyingly close to uttering the line, "You should buy this game because it's totally, like, full of scary von scariness." However, it's good at showing some more of the gameplay we can expect from the on-rails shooter when it injects into retail on September 29th.Some highlights include a look at a big tentacle boss, some of the "mini game" elements -- like building a barricade -- and a nice clear look at how stasis and strategic dismemberment will look. Oh, strategic dismemberment, it's been too long.%Gallery-49881%
Black Prophecy's unique art style blends realism with the unreal
The Black Prophecy creators at Reakktor Media have begun a series of developer diaries, showcasing the game and their individual contributions to making this sci-fi MMO a reality. The first Black Prophecy developer diary is written by Nick Ebenhoch, the game's Art Director, and gives us a peek into the game environment. Nick explains how they wanted to create an environment that has elements of realism in an unreal environment. Nick says, "This was realized by the use of strong colors that you usually don't see in a space environment." The colors used in a given setting are used to create a mood. "Sectors with ice elements are kept bluish, while 'Pan's Junkyard', a huge space cemetery, is kept a brownish color tone to let the sector appear dirty and rusty," Nick says. "Our goal was to create a distinctive atmosphere for each sector, from nearly romantic right up to dark and threatening."
Newest Blur video provides insight into game's vision
It's unfortunate that at the end of the half trailer/half developer diary you see above for Blur, the game's publisher, Activision, makes no mention of a release date. We enjoyed the time we spent with the game at E3 earlier this year, no doubt about it. However, the lofty claims various companies associated with the game have been making have us anxious to find out when we'll get to put it through its paces a bit more thoroughly. More importantly, we'll finally find out what the "Shunt" power-up does. Also, how is that not a swear?%Gallery-63796%
Second dev diary for Dante's Inferno is lustful
EA has passed on another Dante's Inferno developer diary, with this latest video containing four minutes of juicy game footage and commentary from the folks behind the title. It focuses on the Lust circle of Hell, which looks to be comprised of walls and walls of bodies, as well as freaky contortions of what once passed for human beings. If you're eating or drinking anything, we suggest you set it aside for a few minutes and collect yourself before watching this. This has a spit out your Coke factor of about eight.
