development-updates
Latest
Nerd Kingdom is hopeful about an investor for TUG
Developer Nerd Kingdom has been fairly quiet since its announcement in September that half of its team was being let go in order to keep development moving on TUG. The good news is that the needed investors might be right around the corner. An update on the game's Kickstarter page notes that the team is entering what appear to be final talks with a potential investor, ensuring that the team has enough money to finish the game. The update stresses the fact that said investor is not looking to alter the development process or compromise the team's vision for the title. in terms of actual development, the game's multiplayer mode is coming together. It's also going to be increasing in price soon to $19.99, so if you'd been holding off on buying the game but really want to pick it up for only $10, your time is running out, although given recent events, you may want to hold off a little bit until the investment is a sure thing.
Fallen Earth posts its update on development in May
If you're a Fallen Earth player eagerly awaiting the release of the Outpost (the player-built town originally meant for live implementation this month) you're going to have to wait a little longer. But you're not being forgotten, either. The latest development update states that while it's taken a while to even bring the new feature to the test server, the team is still hard at work testing all of the ways it interacts with other systems in the game, and it's still on its way. Additionally, this update reveals that another developer has joined the team. The Scapegoat is a systems developer who will be responsible for tweaking the game's skills and mutations, with a build and patch notes due to arrive on the test server very shortly. While it's still largely quiet for the post-apocalyptic game, players should be happy that there are still signs of life.
Trove offers a peek at March improvements
If you want to invest yourself in voxel-based crafting and destruction, you're not starved for options. Trove might not be the highest-profile option within that field, but the game is still in heavy development and updating regularly. An official update shares what the team has been working on in March for anyone who hasn't been kicking around in the game itself, starting with laser mining. Yes, you're not hacking away with a pick any more; you're burning things out with laser beams. March also saw the inclusion of ultimate abilities for the Knight and Gunslinger and the rollout of Personal and Adventure worlds. Players can also forge their own dungeons and wear gear free of the threat of decay. For April, the development team will be hard at work with a forging system to upgrade equipment as well as the inclusion of the Fae Trickster. Isn't it nice to have options?
Star Citizen updates backers on progress in March
Eagerly anticipating Star Citizen? Then you'll be happy to see that the latest development update from the team is now live, focusing on the many projects in development for the game. At the top of the list, of course, is the much-anticipated dogfighting module, which has dominated the attention of all departments. The update goes to great lengths to try and show off just what has been the result of the extra time and effort sunk into the module as a whole. The dogfighting HUD has been revised to ensure that a great deal of information is accessible without cluttering the display. There's also been a push to improve the visuals on the ships, making them look more realistic and detailed when in motion. And that's not getting into the other work being done in fields like personal weaponry... but you don't have to take our word for it. Take a look at the March progress update and see for yourself.
City of Titans to make use of Unreal 4
When a Kickstarted game clears its goals, you kind of expect to see more results from the team. But City of Titans has been quiet except for concept art. Why is that? Why haven't we seen more development shots? What's the Missing Worlds Media team doing? As it turns out, it's because the graphics of the game are going to get even better than what we've seen before -- the game is moving over in development to the Unreal 4 engine. The team has been under NDA regarding the engine, but development has been moving assets over from Unreal 3 to the current version. Unreal 4 will allow the team to put in animated costume parts, capes, hair, fluid, and so forth with greater ease and more flexibility. Missing Worlds Media promises that there will be more updates next week from the technology team, hopefully showing off more of what the game's new underlying graphics core is capable of. [Thanks to Byron and Celestial Lord for the tip!]
Battle and usability being improved in The Repopulation
Someone always wants to play a melee character. You could give everyone in an MMO the ability to shoot something dead from two zones over and there would be at least one player rushing into melee range to smack at it. Hence why The Repopulation has made a point of upping melee's viability by improving its ability to hit a moving target; if someone's going to do it anyway, it may as well be viable. Medical abilities have also been improved, and the game's crosshairs and aiming assistance have both received an upgrade. The other two major areas of improvement for the game's past month of development has been the addition of new content near Plymouth (including a truly massive cave network) and improvements to missions and mission templates to make the game easier to jump into. The inquiry system also allows players to collect data on the game world, and the Surveying skill allows players to figure out where harvestable resources are located. Take a look at the full patch notes for an in-depth look at how the game has changed as it moves ever closer to its beta test phase.
City of Heroes talks about the Animal Pack and endgame accessibility
Yesterday saw the announcement of the newest add-on pack for City of Heroes, but that's hardly the only news to come out for the game this week. A new developer diary has been released which details the creation of the Animal Pack -- what elements are in the pack, what elements were left out, and why some animals were picked over others. It sheds some light on both the genesis of this specific pack and the usual development process for the additions. But if you're more content-minded, you'll probably be even happier about the latest Producer's Letter by Nate Birkholz, detailing the upcoming Incarnate Trials of Issue 20 and the team's plans to address endgame accessibility. The Incarnate Trials are a step toward ensuring that any player with a level 50 character and the expansion can take part in the Incarnate system, with looser group requirements and a new queueing system to let players jump in without a pre-formed group. There's also more talk about allowing more liberal acquisition of Incarnate Shards, even if you're level-matched to a lower-level character. It's the sort of accessibility and general freedom that's always been center stage for City of Heroes, which the new letter takes pains to stress.
The development team of Final Fantasy XI shares insights with players
If you asked Final Fantasy XI players to describe the usual nature of the development team, "taciturn" might be thrown around, as would "mute" and "uncommunicative" and "sadistic." Which makes the newest dispatch from the development team uncharacteristic in many ways, because it represents a heretofore uncommon level of transparency from the team. Addressing several topics that arose from the December version update, the full sessions of questions and answers includes a number of interesting tidbits for players. One of the stated goals within the dispatch is that the team wishes to have the widest variety of players able to access the widest variety of content, an attitude that hasn't always seemed to be at the forefront of Square-Enix's priorities. There's also a promise to make Pet Food Eta easier to create and a quick discussion of the numerous hard drive problems noted for PlayStation 2 players. Final Fantasy XI players should take a look at the full set of questions, hopefully heralding an upswing in communications.
