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[NZBeastMode]

Welcome to Upheaval!

This post will hopefully be used to keep a somewhat up-to-date snapshot of the current game's progress.  Otherwise, this topic will be used to post at least weekly blogs showing our development progress as we head towards a gold phase and finally a release at the end of the year.

Beast Mode Studios is a team of 7 third-year students from Media Design Studios in Auckland, New Zealand.  Our first game is Upheaval, which is a third-person action brawler set in a fantasy environment.  Currently we have implemented a volcanic environment, and two characters (Sparky, a "techlectric" lizard and Ende, an equine runic ninja-mage ).

We're currently at an alpha state and are really excited to continue development over the coming weeks, including a bunch of playtesting, further concepting and interative development!

[NZBeastMode]

Upheaval Development Blog - Alpha Update #1

Heading into alpha build this week we had lots of planning, concepting, discussing, arguing, you name an idea related verb and we probably did it.

The general consensus for the group is that during this phase we are going to be preparing one more level and two more characters as well as a few new game mode options, so the discussion was dominated by these considerations.


Figure 1: Upheaval logo

Aside from this, we spent a lot of time planning how to plan, becoming more familiar with new tools and keeping our social media presence active and engaged.

New Character #1 Concept

Charger

This character concept is based on a robot who can cast slightly weaker than average spells, or charge them, risking attack but making the attacks stronger than average.


Figure 2: Charger mood board

Elaborating on the concept, a few different varieties of robot were drawn up, the group liked the top-right and bottom-left varieties most so these body shapes were explored further.








Figure 3: Original charger variations

Further work on the character and consideration into keeping with the comical and somewhat zany theme of the game has led to the bulky torso, lean version that is currently most up to date.


Figure 4: Current version of charger model

New Character #2 Concept

Earth’s Greatest Warrior

The next concept has been dubbed Earth’s Greatest Warrior (EGW) at this stage.  Evolving from an initial concept board of a variety of characters, EGW has a sense of charm and lightness tempering some of the darkness currently present in the game.  The awesome images in Figure 5 represent a variety of concepts for a “Gravity Eater” style creature that draws his opponents towards him, slowing them down while he attacks and an “Arms Master” who wields a variety of weapons to allow for a dangerous and varied playstyle.


Figure 5: Original concept board for second new character possibilities

In consultation with the group, the original EGW character went through a variety of stages of concept development.  Initially it was thought he was a bit too ordinary to fit into the game, particularly in relation to his floating console and his headgear.


Figure 6: Continued evolution of the EGW character

Concepting of EGW reached it’s current conclusion with a skulking, messy-haired floating hologram based console ready to be filled out into 3D and turn into the definition of Earth’s Greatest Warrior!


Figure 7: Current concept design for EGW

New Level Concept

Iceberg Frenzy

One of the key concerns and feedback points from the initial level Volcano Panic was the prevalence of an orange and red palette   Since that the group thought it would be worthwhile for the second level to be created around a rather different set of colours, particularly blues and/or greens.  Another key talking point about the first level was its flatness, so the group has spent some time considering the potential of adding verticality and height.


Figure 8: Potential ice level template with verticality

After some initial excitement around the idea of a massive floating iceberg to do battle on, the group decided to pursue this route further, with keen awareness of the potential of snow and ice to become hard to differentiate from one another as an aspect of the scenery.


Figure 9: Potential ice level ideas incorporating the central rune area.

The mechanic that the group is perhaps most excited about within the Iceberg Frenzy level is the introduction of a boss-type creature which acts as a vehicle for the destruction of the environment.  This is not a creature the players actively attack, since the focus of the game is on attacking each other, but rather simply as a mechanismand this early into the project we really want to keep that at the core of everything we do.

General Project Work

This week we have begun moving our project management needs to Hansoft also, this has been a trying time after using Microsoft Project last semester, but so far things are looking good.  The group held a tutorial session on Thursday morning bringing everyone up to speed with the tool and has since been focussed on getting all the foreseeable tasks scheduled and assigned out.

Keeping our social media profile up and around has been a priority also.  With Twitter, Facebook and now tumblr to keep a handle of, it’s all go here at Beast Mode Studios!  

If you're interested, you can keep up with Beast Mode Studios’ progress here and at:

http://www.facebook.com/NZBeastMode

http://www.twitter.com/NZBeastMode

[NZBeastMode]

Upheaval Development Blog - Alpha Update #2

We are now at the end of our second week of our second semester and have completed our small pre-planning phase of concepting, designing and scheduling and have begun on full production. Beast Mode is on!

The main highlights out of the week include:

• Charger Highpoly Completed
• Concepts for our next level
• Started build on our fourth character
• Setting up usernames for players
• And research into surface friction and decals

Charger, one of our next characters has had it's highpoly completed  
We have now begun working on it's lowpoly counterpart and getting it game ready. A bit of insight into the character. He plays as a less mobile character but packs a lot more punch. His abilities revolve around charging up and separate bar on his downtime to empower his abilities drastically.




The idea for our next level came from a few ideas we had in the past combined to make a more exciting level for a larger number of players. We wanted to create something that contrasted our previous level. Where that was in a pool of lava and was a more simple and even playing field, our next level will be set in an icy sea and be home to a kraken's lair. More on the mechanics later, but here are a few concepts so you can get an idea of what it would look like.







Our next character Earth's Greatest Warrior has been started on it's high poly process. Currently it is in it's block-out stage and will be a more complete model in our next post.



don't mind the face

For our dev side, they have been hard at work researching for our next phase in development. Our new level comes with many new mechanics as well as inputting new features to our game including custom usernames, a dodge/dash function and possibly a fourth ability for each character.  
Our new level will have plenty new features including, the kraken (as previously mentioned), icy grounds that player's slide on, and launching platforms into the air that come crashing down. More on these in our next post.

Another busy week has gone by and plenty more to come. Please feel free to leave any suggestions or feedback on our dev journey, it means a lot!  

[NZBeastMode]

Team BeastMode back at it this week again with a update.We are now at the end of our third week of our second semester and things are starting to come together like glue.

    These are the main highlights of the week.

    * Charger character also known now as C.u.R.T has been finished and rigged.

    * Level layouts have been finished and been confirmed

    * Final touches on forth character high poly model

    * Implementing new aiming reticule

    * Starting on high poly tentacle model

    * Sliding mechanic in the works!


So first of all lets introduce C.u.R.T, who joins the battle. The third character to join Upheaval. A lot of great ideas are coming for this characters textures, “stay tuned” in to see what the final render will be!


Now because of the mechanics involved in our up and coming ice level we needed to know were the “Slap n Slide” was going to occur during the game. So we had to come to a conclusion that we would have to predetermine where they would happen. Here are some of the many layouts of the level that where done this week.







As you can gather from the concepts the red circles are indicators of where the “Slap n Slide” mechanic will take place. Now there are three red circle in a row that is because that would be the necessary height of the Kraken’s tentacle. The team got together and judging on the area,size and shape of the layout chose to go forward with the level layout number three.

Other concepts were made for the center piece of the level. Now because our first level had a center piece we wanted to keep that theme for the next level too. So here are some concepts for the middle piece.



Again the team look a look at these and really liked the third concept ( top right ). But still at this time a W.I.P.


Moving on to our next upcoming superstar who joins the battle! E.G.W ( Earth’s Greatest Warrior) Now because he is not fully complete yet we can only give out a small sneak peak. So here is a peak of our fourth character.



Now the team had this brought up in previous meetings in terms of changing or adjusting the hit reticule of
the game. Possibly having it change while over an enemy or indicate whether you have hit an enemy. Here are some Screen shots of the test.



    Indicating whether you are aiming at an enemy



    Reticule changing when you have hit an enemy

Also just to add in there the Dev team managed to get username text into the world. Check That Out!



The Kraken!, the new add on to the game. Coming with the ice level the kraken will be attacking players, trying to obstruct their play. So work on the kraken’s tentacle has started. The high poly is in the works and will soon be finished, keep an eye out for it.

    WARNING: SLIPPERY SURFACE!

So our Dev team were hard at work figuring out how they would get the characters to slide when on an icy platform. During the week they came back with great news. Apparently it wasn’t as hard as one thought. Character can now slide across the icy platforms with little control, also when they slide back onto the none icy platforms the character continues back into its normal run cycle.

So that ends the progression of week three, many things to come in future. Keep an eye out for the progression made on the level, fourth character and the Kraken. Please feel free to leave feedback or suggestions on our game. We sure would appreciate it!

Also if you haven’t, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Just do it!

[NZBeastMode]

Upheaval Development Blog - Alpha Update #4
Finishing up week 4 of Alpha Production, the team has powered through a number of features and content on the Upheaval Development schedule.

Here’s a list of the main features that were worked on this week along with a quick run-down of what we did:

* EGW development
* Making C.u.R.T. battle ready
* Kraken modelling
* In-game event logging
* Character selection tooltips

Earth’s Greatest Warrior (EGW)

EGW has made a lot of progress this week. With the high-poly modelling done, the low-poly model is in the works and will be one step closer to joining the battle.



C.u.R.T

C.u.R.T, our charger is almost ready join the battle. Rigging and animation was slightly tweaked this week before plugging it all into Unreal Engine with the help of the dev team.



Game Events

We’ve recently introduced the In-game event log to Upheaval’s HUD. Now players can see whose asses they’ve kicked! Other events such as leading players will be included in later iterations.




New Tooltips

This week our awesome artists whipped up some stylish new tooltips to add to the Character Selection Screen, giving players a better idea of each character’s abilities and what they can do! #cooltips



The dev team has also been hard at work under the hood working on the games networking system, animation blending as well as game-play balancing.

All in all, another busy week has gone by and there is plenty more to come. Please feel free to leave any suggestions or feedback on our development journey, it really does mean a lot! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and Twitter! #JUSTDOIT!

[NZBeastMode]

Once again the team is just doing it in BEASTMODE.

Here’s the rundown:
 *EGW Lowpoly complete.
 *Building and animating C.u.R.T’s abilities with particle effects..
 *"Kraken’s Lair” development.
 *"The Temple of Solitude” concept and greybox.
 *Improved collision detection for attacks
 *Increased LAN support
 *Menus expanded to allow menu voting and setting selection

Earth’s Greatest Warrior (EGW)

EGW (Nicknamed Ov3rLoRd for now), has made a lot of progress this week. The lowpoly is complete at 10335 polygons, and is UV mapped, ready for rigging and animation.





C.u.R.T

CuRT has joined the battle, but still needs some work. His abilities are currently functional with animations, but his particle effects aren’t complete yet.




Basic attack particle effect.


Leap ability in game.

Kraken’s Lair

The kraken’s lair is coming underway, the water material is being worked on, and the main concept for the background and general level aesthetic is pretty much solid.


Background concept.


Slap ‘n’ Slide mechanics.


Raising platform mechanics.


Kraken tentacle model.


The Temple of Solitude

The Temple of Solitude has a solid concept and greybox, however we’re moving it to gold phase so development stops here for now.




Improved collision detection for attacks




Menus expanded to allow menu voting and setting selection

[darksharkmark]

looking good!! Can't wait to see it Greenlit on Steam :D

[NZBeastMode]

The team are working harder than ever to get upheaval feature complete by the end of the week. A lot of tasks have been ticked off and are implemented into the game. Onto the home stretch before we enter into Gold Phase of polishing and tweaking the bugs.

Rundown so far:
*Our new character Overlord has been textured with his abilities being coded and effects for them added in.
*C.u.R.T has his abilities working in-sync with his spell effects as well.
*The Krakens Lair (Map 2) is functional with the tentacles raising and lowering the platforms along with the slap and slide.
*Game modes and User Interface in the menu screens have been updated to support our new features.

Overlord Texture with his rollaball ability feature.
Going for a pixel art style for his abilities with blocky cubes.



C.u.R.Ts Spells in game
As a robot we wanted his spells to look as if they had a large impact AoE when cast.



Updated Kraken Lair
Krakens lair has new elements with the platforms raising and lowering with the tentacles procedural animation.


Game Mode and UI
New menu screen which shows the amount of players connected as well as the Game mode and map selection.