Greetings Pioneers!

Today we’re bringing you another update on what the team have been working on this past week as we push for our next release version. The glorious battle to get an updated and stable build out to you continues!

Incase you’re wondering where all the pretty stuff went from other posts, we’ve unfortunately had technical issues with our service provider (sad face). So our previous updates might be temporarily imageless for a little while.

Luckily however (happy face) we have a super secret backup place for linking our images! So we’ll be fixing previous news announcements very soon 😀

Take it away Lee.

Lee – Technical Director

Most of my time this week has been dealing with issues caused by the recent engine upgrade. I think we have fixed most of the bugs related to this now, but it was something we couldn’t avoid.

Matt – Art Director

It’s the week of the Triffids… I’ve been developing one of our new weird and wonderful Flora over the last few days, with multiple heads. Behold.

Tristan – Senior Developer

After my recent success in the grasslands of Mongolia I have decided to make POWER my next goal… Ok so what I really mean is I am working on the new power system to keep up with all those turrets people keep building because everyone knows the best offence is a good defence. Please note I often tell people the best defence is a good offence it pretty much depends on if I am working on offence or defence.

Ricky – Developer

I’ve got all the Power System UI, Build Menu, FOV Scaling, Converting to UMG, and debugging up to reasonable levels this week so they can be used and tested soon. Multi-tasking like a boss.

Gav – Concept Artist

We’ve got lots of orthographics in the works while we also develop concepts for utility structures. We’re also looking to stream some of my day-to-day work flow for any budding concept designers out there and I’ll be on hand to answer any questions you might have or give some feedback on your concept art portfolio. I’m also excited to break some interesting developments for all you savvy artists but I won’t promise anything just yet, except that I will promise not to make any promises apart from this one I’m making right now. PEACE!

Carlos – Developer

For the most part I’ve been focusing on converting our current HUD into UMG, which allows us to turn post-process effects in the world without affecting the HUD. I’ve also been working on the FOV change implementation and fixing bugs that have been caused by the engine update.

Marcin – Designer

This week, besides ironing out a few bugs with Hives and Holograms, I have been mainly working on the navigation system and physics. Those 2 systems by themselves are usually enough to give you a headache, but combined… believe me, they make for a hell of a week. In any case I have something rather flashy to show you this time. The implementation of the area of effect physics allowed me to work on an IKA feature that we had been planning for a while now, the Unstable Vortex.

Chris – Designer

Over the past week I have been helping debug the our next update release focusing AI and our new interactive foliage. I also performed tests to validity of increasing the amount of apex structures we can have across the whole game. lastly towards the end of the week I have been concentrating on getting the new swamp area up to a high standard before passing it over to the artists.

Joe – Environment Artist

Over the past week I’ve mainly been refactoring the assets for the new Swamp biome which will be compatible with our Multiplayer tree and Foliage instancing systems. I have also finished new prototype visuals for forests/jungles.

Andy – Lead QA

This week I’ve been mostly testing the new AI perception component. New engine update means new bugs which keeps me busy. We also had a birthday in the office, our wonderful level designer Chris turned 21 again so we celebrated with cake. 😉

Yves – Senior Developer

Do you enjoy hitting things with objects made of advanced materials? yes you say? Well good, because this week I’ve been improving and refactoring a new melee system for Multiplayer, squashing bugs together with a friend has never been so satisfying.

Lastly, you can keep an eye on our more immediate progress with our Public Trello Board

– Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers,

While we are currently fixing and bug testing the next release (v0.0.9) we’re going to be delving into the depths of our work habits again this week.

Foremost, due to a lot of unforeseen changes with our Unreal Engine 4.8 update it is taking us a little longer than anticipated to get v0.0.9 out to you all.

We must stress that it is very important to us that everyone supporting the game at this stage gets a stable and enjoyable updated build to play, so we’re making every effort to ensure this is done properly.

We’re hoping our update will be with you by next week, which will include a new flying neutral creature, a new type of interactive flora, and more in depth additional graphical options among many other optimisations and fixes. Thank you all for your patience.

In the mean time you can check out our most up to date development progress on our public Trello board.

Andy will start us off this week, so let the testing machine take it away!…

Andy – Lead QA

This week I have been communing with the community on steam to try and get to the bottom of the crashes some of you have been having. I’ve also been trying to get Matt drunk but failing  🙁

Gav – Concept Artist

We’ve been wrapping up loads of creatures in the pipeline this week to prepare some really exciting additional hostile and neutral alien life to populate Pharus 7. We’ve also been looking at some designs and concepts to integrate some really useful and interesting utilities to add to the playerbase’s players’ bases. (?)

Matt – Art Director

For most of this week I’ve been developing the game mesh for the Juggernaut, along with her textures, materials and additional details. Moving on swiftly I’ll be working on some additional elements for the new UI build system, and a brand new weapon for all you fellow Pioneers to use.

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been implementing a new perception component into our AI and trying to fix the last of the errors that the recent engine upgrade had broken.

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been focusing on the Juggernaut animations; movement, attacks and recovery. I have also been working on a prototype for the leg smashing with Marcin.

Carlos – Developer

This week I’ve been working on bug fixing, making sure that we fix whatever 4.8 broke! I’ve also been working with UMG and trying to convert some of our HUD into it so that we can turn on more post-processing effects and make everything nice and shiny and rainbow coloured! *crosses fingers*

Joe – Environment Artist

This past week I’ve working on new visuals and workflows for our trees, along with creating test areas to get a good feel for the aesthetic we want to achieve. I have also started on re-factoring the art for all our foliage so that it will work with the new Foliage and Multiplayer systems.

Yves – Senior Developer

Working on network replication for the Mata-Tool weapon. I’ve also been barking mad over tree destruction replication if you see what I did there… notice I didn’t use the word “week”, damn! Just did it there!

Chris – Designer

Over the past week I have been setting up a new swamp area in the current map, testing the gameplay and iterating through it. I’ve also developed a new tool to allow semi procedural flora to be placed in the world in clumps.

Ricky – Developer

I’ve continued working on the new Build Menu and system, the new more advanced Power Management system and HUD ready for some additional buildables as well as various optimisations for the game.

Marcin – Game Designer

For the most part of this week I have been helping the team with system changes, improvements, but also some bugs that came with the update of the engine. I have also been working on the interactive foliage, creature behaviour designs and a prototype of a big enemy combat mechanics. Unfortunately I don’t have anything finished to show you, but I have a hilarious gif from a very early prototype here. Enjoy!

Tristan – Senior Developer

This week I’ve been in Mongolia. I am one with nature, truly at peace with my surroundings. I am an expert marksman, horse rider and falconer. They now call me Tristman – Warrior of the Plains.

The assets, animations and environments shown here are not finalised and may be subject to change prior to their release.

Till next time Pioneers, Happy hunting!

– Team Flix

 

Greetings Pioneers!

This week we have been hard at work preparing the game for the next release, debugging and tweaking the shiny new graphics options, the Nahmar bird and the Exploding Sac Plant.

Just a few bugs to iron out before we can let you have at it, including the infamous tree-surfing issue. If it didn’t have the chance of flinging you out the map at 1000mph we might have been tempted to leave it in.

In addition to preparing the next release, we have been continuing work on exciting new features for the future… Take it away Matt to start this weeks development update:

Matt – Art Director

Sculpting and painting has been the order of this week. I’ve been developing the games very first large enemy as a benchmark for our future much larger enemies.

Designed for multiplayer and team take-downs, the Juggernaut has armor plates that must be destroyed before you get to his week spots and can take him down permanently. So far the high resolution version of the mesh is ready for baking down to our game ready model.

Chris – Designer

I’ve been prototyping creation of large open worlds with our environment artist and setup in the these maps large dense forest areas to see what is now possible using our new foliage system in Unreal 4.8. We have also begun adding a new biome into the current map ready for testing next week.

New foliage instancing system (experimental work in progress)

Tristan – Senior Developer

This week I have been continuing work on the new foliage system and getting it working over the network as well as debugging the game for our next release.

Ricky – Developer

Shiny New quick build menu system

Work in progress

Carlos – Developer

This week I’ve been working on the multiplayer lobby UI and getting it all nice and shiny, making sure it can launch us into games, and more importantly allowing us to join each other’s games!

Joe – Environment Artist

This week I’ve been creating a bunch of test levels to prototype the creation of large open worlds and creating assets to test our new foliage system. I’ve also been working on prototypes for new tree visuals to make our forests feel more dense and mysterious…

Work in progress

Yves – Senior Developer

This week, I have been working with the trees. Focusing on setting them up for destruction over the network, and it feels pretty sweet. Disclaimer – No real life trees have been harmed in the making of Eden Star.

Lauren – Animator

This week I’ve been working on refining more of the multiplayer animations as well as making a start on the movement for the Juggernaut. Encountering this large enemy will be a challenge, too large to be smashed around, Pioneers must engage it tactically. It has both melee and ranged attacks… RIP your base 😉

Animation work in progress

Of course we have a lot of work still to do, the design represents a very powerful enemy and will likely need balancing to stop it from being too punishing. We would like it to work both for single player and co-op multiplayer, allowing friends to work together to take it down.

Gav – Concept Artist

This week is largely the same as last week. I don’t know how long I will be in this forsaken cave for. How long will they make me churn out creature concepts until they are satisfied? Only time will tell… They occasionally throw bits of furled up dry meat through the hole in the door hatch they shout from, where when it opens seemingly once every few days, engulfing beams of light mark my only ray of hope.

Until next time, should I muster the will to pick the pen back up and survive another day.

Lee – Technical Director

I’ve finished off the work on the new flying fauna this week and polished up the new spawner for all the new flora and fauna. I’ve also begun work on debugging all the new bugs introduced which were introduced as a result of upgrading the engine.

Lastly, you can keep an eye on our more immediate progress with our Public Trello Board.

Happy hunting Pioneers!

– Team Flix