next »

[sis_matt]

Thanks!

And rest assured, we'll definitely have some sort of post-mortem at the end of the project. Considering our studio is mostly made up of programmers, I can guarantee there will be some tech content on there.

Anything else anyone wants to hear about? We're trying to structure our posts around topics the community is asking about!

[ninja]

This game looks awsome!

[sis_matt]

This game looks awsome!

Thanks! We're really happy to have the opportunity to share so much of it as go!

[Recs]

very interesting project.

The style is different enough from other games that could be comparable and the setting is very fascinating.

can't wait to see it in a more complete state.

[sis_matt]

can't wait to see it in a more complete state.

Thanks. We're hoping to hit Alpha in September - which should show some more polished art and functionality. Stay tuned!

[tamaraj]

VIDEO: BASIC SHIP BUILDING IN WINDFORGE
Permalink: http://snowedin.ca/windforge-basic-ship-building-video/
If you like the post, please up-vote it on Reddit! http://bit.ly/LQhcmP

YOUTUBE LINK:



Today we are going to show off our first gameplay video for Windforge.  It’s a quick video showing the creation of a very basic ship, and then ramming it into a small building.

Although it’s  a short video, I was still able to cover a bunch of important points on ship building:

• Starting a ship by placing a ship scaffolding
• Creating the body of a ship
• Placing the essential ship components (propellers, engines, control panel)
• Tweaking the handling of the ship by placing propellers
• Arranging blocks for ramming (I forgot to mention that spiked blocks and armored blocks are better for ramming too)

I didn’t want the video to be to long, so I kept the ship very simple.  You will be able to build your ship using all of the blocks and objects used for buildings.  This will let you make much more elaborate ships.

Slightly more complex ship made of steel with turret

There are also some cool things that didn’t make it into this video.  Things like:

• The weight of your ship will affect the handling
• Creating and latching ships to other ships
• Controllable turrets
• Drills attached to ships
• Crew members
• Air purifiers to remove poison gas

I should also note that the game is very much still in progress.  We are basically half way to getting all of our planned features in.   This means that there are still a lot of features and polish left to do.  That said I love how things are turning out so far.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Liking the ship building feature and ramming, seems to work well

[sis_matt]

The World of Windforge
http://snowedin.ca/the-world-of-windforge/

Today we're going to talk a bit about the world of Windforge named Cordeus, and go over some of its major parts.
 

Cordeus is a planet with a massive sky surrounding a fiery core. Scattered throughout the sky rest countless floating islands. The sky is a dynamic mass of air with predominant wind currents, and multiple layers of climates and gases. The sky currents and the atmospheres are major parts of the world and will be described in more detail below.
 
THE SKY CURRENTS
There are a few regions of the world with predominant winds that break up the atmosphere.
Along the poles lie columns of moving air called the Luftart and the Luftvien.  The Luftart is a vertical region with a constant updraft.  Occasionally, this region will carry fiery rocks up from the core towards space, which are hazards to travellers wishing to cross its path.  The Luftvien is another vertical region with a constant downdraft.  Although this region rarely carries rocks down back to the core, travellers still must be careful that they don’t let its strong downward currents pull it towards the uninhabitable lower atmosphere of the world.

Finally, there are regions of constant horizontal winds. The most notable are named Leviathan’s Drift and The Tradewyndes. These regions are prized trade routes due their strong constant winds and relatively sparse arrangement of islands.
 
THE LAYERS OF THE ATMOSPHERE
The Upper Atmosphere

The upper atmosphere is a cold and dry region at the edge of space.  Although the air is thinner here, it is still breathable and some types of life still thrive.  It is relatively easy for humans to survive here, but it is not without hazards.  Meteor showers are a recurring danger in the upper atmosphere, and can cause great deals of damage to unwary travellers and engineers.  The vast majority of these meteors do not originate from space, but from the core of the world.  The core will occasionally expel fiery rocks that travel up along the Luftart towards space. These rocks rarely escape the influence of the planet’s gravity, and will fall back down to the world as meteor showers.
 
The Middle Atmosphere

The middle atmosphere is a sweet spot in terms of temperature, moisture, and nutrients, creating an abundance of life.  The islands of this region flourish with exotic jungles that provide ideal habitats for many forms of life.  This is also the most comfortable altitude for human life to survive, and thus most of the world’s cities can be found here.
 
The Lower Atmosphere

This lower layer of atmosphere is filled with gases that cannot be breathed by most life on the planet including humans.  It is said that there is a fortune of rare metals and resources in this part of the world, but there are very few people willing to brave its dangers in order to get them.  Because of its hazards, this area is still mostly unexplored, and little is known about the life that inhabits it.
 
The Core

In the center of the world lies a fiery core.  Not much is known about the core, since it is surrounded by a thick layer of poisonous gas and it its so hot that it burns up everything that gets close.  All of the islands in the world are believed to originate from the core, and are formed out of the rocks that fire out of the Luftart, although there are still a few aspects of this formation that scientist still do not understand.

[tamaraj]

We have a new Windforge update including some concept art eye candy coming later today!

In light of this, we would love to know what you are looking to hear more about for upcoming Windforge posts. Let us know either here or on the pages below!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/snowedinstudios
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/snowedinstudios

[tamaraj]

WINDFORGE CREATURES TO SCALE
Permalink: http://snowedin.ca/windforge-creatures-to-scale/
If you like the post, please up-vote it on Reddit! http://bit.ly/P4YzeA

Today I’m going to show off some more of the creatures we have planned for Windforge.  Just for fun I added character silhouettes to each picture to give a sense of scale.  Currently we have the Sky Whales and the Shaugs in the game, and we are working to get the rest in.  Check them out below!

The Hanging Mantis

The Shaug

The Basilisk

The Giant Squid

The Sky Whale

[tamaraj]

WINDFORGE VIDEO: GUNS, GRENADES AND GRAPPLING HOOKS
Permalink: http://bit.ly/NGlQlr
If you like the post, please up-vote it on Reddit! http://bit.ly/RkVB9k

This week for our Windforge Developer Blog we have some more exciting eye candy for you. This is our second gameplay video for the game (you can see the first at http://bit.ly/P1kcKq), showcasing some of the tools and weapons used to build and destroy in Windforge!

The video includes: the grappling hook, grenade, handgun, jackhammer, minigun and shotgun. Even better, these are only six of the approximately fifty weapons and tools that will be included in the final game. Enjoy!

VIEW IT HERE: http://bit.ly/NGlQlr

[sis_matt]

Observations from an Open Development Model
http://snowedin.ca/observations-open-development/

Hey guys, this week, we decided to write about some of our lessons learned so far using a open development model. After being a little annoyed with every company keeping their games ultra-secret until right before launch, we thought it was time for a change. My apologies in advance if it's a little text-heavy. Here’s how it’s going so far:

CONTENT PRODUCTION
Blog
For the last four months we have been updating a weekly developer blog. In this blog we have been posting articles on art style, game-play, tech choices and more, as well as screenshots, concept art, etc. We plan on continuing these posts up until release.

Results: (Comments, great channel to communicate/keep people engaged with the game before actual release)
 
Gameplay Videos
While these are by no means Hollywood-level trailers, we put together two videos so far (with more to come!) showing some of the cool stuff we’ve done, namely: one showing ship-building and one showing some weapons.

Results: They say a picture says a thousand words – so with a 30fps video, we’re talking about a lot of words. These have been the most valuable resource for gathering useful feedback – either directly on the YouTube pages or through the various news/blog/media outlets that have featured the videos. In fact, we are currently in the process of revamping and polishing our main character after hearing reader/viewer opinions on it.
 
CONTENT SHARING
PR
We’ve built a press kit with some logos, screenshots, etc. and regularly kept in touch with a long list of news, media, bloggers, etc. with any significant updates to the game.

Results: Every company or even group of people doing *anything* of importance needs to know how to manage PR. While the cold calling/e-mailing process can be extremely dry, the drafting/prep process is surprisingly easy and the results are always worth it. Through press releases and PR management, we’ve had our content featured on Rock Paper Shotgun and IndieGames.com, among tons of other platforms. These mentions always help drive traffic to the site and supplement comments on appropriate channels.
 
Forums/Websites
Every week, we’ve been cross-posting our dev log posts on TIGSource in order to engage the indie game developer community here. We’ve also submitted links to r/indiegaming on reddit.

Results: TIGSource has been fantastic for useful and encouraging feedback. With certain posts, reddit exposed the game to a ton of people and led to some pretty massive traffic spikes. However, posting links to reddit is best done by someone who is an active user and regularly votes on links – otherwise, you can end up looking like a bot and getting banned. Just saying…
 
Social Media
We’ve almost always had a company Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, but never set up individual pages for Windforge (for example, like a Twitter page for the main character). We’ve kept everyone up to date with lots of content, both related and unrelated to the game.

Results: So far, social media has been a great place to speak to people genuinely interested in what we’re doing, since they subscribed/followed/liked us. As such, we generally find people are more willing to discuss and have more direct conversations. However, most social media messages have a limited lifespan and require a lot of maintenance to be useful.
 
OVERALL THOUGHTS

• Open development is great for feedback – although it takes some desciphering of varying/contradicting comments.
• Sharing the triumphs and challenges of game development with the public is a humbling experience
• People familiar with a “corporate” approach to communications will be lost with this model. You have to be honest, transparent and down-to-earth. Open development is all about pulling in feedback, not pushing out updates and hoping for the best.

[sis_matt]

We're now on Steam Greenlight! Along with that comes an awesome pre-Alpha gameplay trailer we put together.

The feedback we've received has been extremely humbling and helpful. We've received about 5,000 page views and 300+ favorites over the weekend alone. If you've already contributed in some way: a sincere thanks from the whole team. It's much appreciated!

Check out the trailer here:




VOTE for Windforge on Steam Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93149001

PS. Sorry there was no usual update on Thursday the 30th - we were really busy getting everything together for Greenlight. We'll resume our weekly updates starting this Thursday the 6th.

PPS. tamaraj was working with us as a marketing student and has finished her term with Snowed In Studios. We wish her all the best of luck with finishing school! That being said, I'll be taking over the thread from now on!

[Christian Knudsen]

Looks good and good luck with the Greenlight campaign!

Quick question: Have you paid for the no-attribution license for the music in the trailer? Otherwise you need to credit the author.

[tamaraj]

Quick question: Have you paid for the no-attribution license for the music in the trailer? Otherwise you need to credit the author.

Good call - you're definitely right. I got so caught up editing the video, I hadn't checked on the CC license. Updated the video with attribution. Thanks!

[Christian Knudsen]

No prob.

[Danmark]

Hey, voted for you on Greenlight without knowing you had a devlog here. Looks fun as hell.

Is the view zoomable? In some parts of the latest trailer, it looks a bit constricted.

[ehahnda]

Hey, Thanks!

Yes, the view is technically zoomable, but currently there is no way for players to manually zoom.  Right now there are two zoom levels.  One for when you are on foot, and one for when you are controlling a ship. 

I also find the view constricted while controlling large ships, so we will have to tune that again, and maybe make it vary depending on the size of the ship.

I'm also toying around with ideas to let the player control the zoom level, either through items, or through extra controls. 

If there are any particular parts that you found particularly constricted, please let us know.

[sis_matt]

Surviving the Lower Atmosphere in Windforge
Written by ehahnda

In a previous blog post I gave an overview of Windforge’s world, named Cordeus, and some of it’s major geographical features.  This post is going to focus specifically on the lower atmosphere.

The lower atmosphere will be the most challenging environment type in the game.  It’s filled with a poisonous gas that cannot be breathed in by humans.  It will also be home to some of the most challenging creature types, such as the giant squid.  Luckily, it is also holds the most rewards, like rare and expensive metals, old derelict ships, and other secrets that I won’t give away right now.

To survive that gas layer you, will constantly need to be aware of your surroundings and your breath meter.  While your character is surrounded by gas, his or her breath meter will constantly go down, and when it reaches zero you will start taking damage.  Finding pockets of clean air will replenish your breath supply, but naturally occurring air pockets will be few and far between, and just the act of getting to an air pocket can pollute the pocket with gas.

Luckily, you will have some tools at your disposal to help you survive.  These include:

• Equippable items to lengthen the time you can breath
• Air purifiers that can be placed to clean the air around them

Using these tools you will be able to outfit your ships and outposts to be breathable, and lengthen the amount of time you can spend between your ships and outposts.

You will also have to modify the way you build your structures to be suitable for the gas layer.  We’re envisioning the following building patterns to be particularly suitable for gas layer design:

• Building airlocks using a pair of doors, or hatches
• Compartmentalizing structures so that if the outer walls are breached, gas won’t get in
• Key placement important rooms so that they remain usable even if the structure takes lots of damage
• Enclosed mining outposts with strategic placement of air purifiers

All in all, our goals for this layer are to help pace the game without using invisible walls, add new building design constraints, and invoke your sense of survival.  Check below for some more screen shots of this in action.

If you like the game, help us out by voting for it on Steam Greenlight:

[sis_matt]

Unbiased Racial Selection in Windforge
by Evan Hahn

Today, I’m going to talk about something I’ve been thinking about for a while regarding race in Windforge.  Basically, we need to decide how we are going to populate the world with people, and how we are going to select the races of these people.  Ideally, I would like to do this in a way that will not insert any designer bias that we may or may not have, and we would also like to avoid alienating the main target demographics of our game if we can.

How is race represented in Windforge?
Race is a purely aesthetic feature in Windforge.  It serves to give players more character customization options, and to provide more variety to people in the world.  We don’t have any plans to make it affect the gameplay, or play a role in the story.  This simplifies a lot of things for us, and is also a really easy way to avoid designer bias.  Currently skin color is the only feature that distinguishes race in Windforge, although other features would be fun to explore.

Approaches for Generating Race
Since race doesn’t affect the gameplay in <em>Windforge</em> we are free from a lot of balancing concerns when selecting them.   Race also doesn’t play a role in the story, but it is a concern of mine when considering the history of the world.  According to the history of Cordeus, all of the people on the planet are descendent from a relatively small number of people.  This would imply to me that the genetic diversity of the population should be fairly low, and so the variety of races should also be fairly low.

From a design perspective, we are also in a rare position since most of the world will be procedurally generated.  This means that we will need to come up with a procedural approach to selecting races for people when we place them.  I am going to discuss a few of the approaches that I considered below:

Approach 1:  Just Select One Race
I’m not actually considering doing this, but I guess it would be the easiest way to go.  In my opinion, this would be boring, biased, and other approaches are almost just as easy.

Approach 2:  Randomly Generate Races With A Uniform Distribution
This is the approach that I just assumed we would do before I started considering things more closely.  This would be really easy to do, unbiased, and will provide a lot of variety throughout the world.  However, in some ways it is also a boring approach, and it doesn’t do much to support the history of the world or the character of its various regions.

Approach 3:  Randomly Selected Using a Designer Chosen Bias
This would also be really easy to do and it would give us more authorial control.  Unfortunately, it’s control I don’t really want to have.  By choosing one race to bias I would be inserting any biases that I have, and it also removes variety  from the world each time you replay.

Approach 4:  Randomly Selected Race Using A Regional Bias
This is an approach I find interesting because it could be used to add extra flare to each region.   Also, I could randomly select the races to bias for each region, which would establish a random hierarchy of selection while also avoiding designer bias.

Approach 5:  Randomly Selected Race Using Bias Based on the Player’s Race
This approach has some pretty interesting repercussions in my opinion.  It is an easy way to support the history of Cordeus, and it also gives us more control over the experience in the game.  With this approach I could basically ensure that no matter how the player customizes their avatar, they will always be part of the majority race or part of the minority race.  Either way, it has the potential to change the way the game feels.  I’m still trying to decide if this is a good idea or not, but it’s definitely an idea worth thinking about.

Conclusion
I feel like I’m being very picky for a detail that doesn’t affect the gameplay or story, and that people might not even notice.  That said, I believe that it has the potential to change the feel of the world, so it is definitely still an important thing to consider.  It is also another way for us to play on the strengths that procedural worlds provide.

I’m still deciding what approach to take, but I think I know the direction that I’m leaning towards.  All of the approaches will be pretty easy to do, so this should purely be a design decision.  I would love to hear what other people think, and if anyone has any preferences that they would like to see.

As always, if you like the game, help us out by voting for it on Steam Greenlight!