News
New Metal Drift Level - Wasteland
March 10th, 2011
Last year, while giddy over the idea of a Metal Drift re-release, I chose to dump a wildly unfocused block of my life into building a new level set. But quickly the months slipped by without any glimmer of a finish line. I decided that trading the last dregs of my youth for a new place to blow shit up was not a transaction I was willing to make. So I shelved it. But recently, with the renewed energy of an actual re-release, I decided to move it off the shelf, and onto the back burner. So it will now go from being a cold, congealed hunk of putrid sludge to a slowly simmering pot of delicious goodness.
I’m posting some shots of it’s current state, so you can inhale some of the aromatic ingredients before they are whipped into an iron chef style, decadent masterpiece.
Because I know you’re curious; our upcoming iPad/PC/Mac game ‘Slime City’ will be occupying the white hot front burner. Look for terrifying glimpses into that mysterious new offering very soon!
Currently Metal Drift boasts a glorious set of 5 (FIVE!) action-packed levels (or ‘Drift Decks’ for the cool kids). These ‘Metro Drift Decks’ are all set at night in an open air stadium that exists within a massive metropolis. So yes, the ‘Metro’ tag refers to the deck’s city setting, not to how stylish and well groomed they are.
This incredible city surrounding the ‘Metro Decks’ is controlled by the powerful, and benevolent ‘Athalon’ corporation/team. Now don’t feel stupid if you’ve played the game all year and didn’t know this, because there is absolutely no in-game indication of a city and zero mention of the deep, politically significant back story that I just revealed.
The new Deck(s) will exist in a desolate area of this future Earth lovingly referred to as ‘The Waste’. As you might guess, this area is controlled by the sinister ‘Triax’ corporation/team. (These are the guys in red you will learn, or have learned, to hate with every fiber of your being.)
The ‘Waste Decks’ will be set in daytime, surrounded by southwestern, red-rock, vistas. See below some of the initial geometry tests. These are relatively finished, I just need to slap some paint on them, and throw down the wall-to-wall carpeting.
Game-play wise, I’m excited to play around with shorter, more frequent boost areas, more overhangs, and especially jumps! Below you can see some of the tech detailing. Brian and I have both wanted to add a lot more vertical detail. I plan on also adding flags and wind turbines.
These shots are the first pass at a deck called ‘Javelin’. Which has a long boost tunnel up the middle, and a series of obstacles up the sides. So once the ball is picked up, it’s slow going to reach a goal, but if there’s a turn over on one side or the other, the ball carrier can shoot down the middle towards the enemy camp. It should create a frenzy of accelerated boost fights right before each goal.
As I said, this project is on the back burner so progress will be slow. As I do find time to work on it, I’ll make an effort to post changes.
As always, check out the current release of Metal Drift at Desura (below).
-W
Categories: Development Comments: 4
Metal Drift Re-Release!
February 15th, 2011
So Brian has been hard at work on a stand-alone install version of Metal Drift. This version can run independently of Steam and will be additionally releasing on Direct 2 Drive and Gamers Gate on the 17th! All three communities will be able to play together with the new version. We’re looking forward to seeing the new surge of activity on the servers.
With the new build he added some back end goodies…uh…here they are:
1. New account system -allows players to play each other on any PC platform.
2. New Master Server - faster, more reliable with more accurate player counts.
3. New East Coast and European dedicated servers. (These will be going up any day now!)
4. New Tank Skins! Now you’ll get a brand new skin when you hit level 20 and another at level 40! There is also a new skin for our devoted community members (the VIP skin). So if you see a black tank driving around, it’s either one of us, or our awesome community leaders…they are to be feared! Lastly we made a one-off skin for our all time champion player, and extremely dedicated community member ‘Drakon’. We re-enabled the Steam achievement involving killing him a number of times in one match…this is how we treat the people we love. Now you’ll have no doubt who you’re supposed to kill relentlessly.
New skins:
And a quick video showing off the skins:
Brian took care of some pesky bugs as well:
1. The player counts on the servers are accurate now. There was an issue with the Steam servers, but now that we’re running independently, the number of people you see on the server list is actually correct.
2. Weapon bonus damage was corrected.
3. The Drakon achievement on Steam is fixed and re-activated.
4. The ball doesn’t collide with the boost tunnels, goals and repair pads any more. So passing and throwing the ball ahead of you on a boost run should be much smoother.
5. The boost colors on the team fake pack are correct. So it should be easier to fool the other team into believing you’re one of them.
Some miscellaneous additions:
1. Added some subtle cockpit glass. Feels like you’ve got a windshield now.
2. We reduced the number of human players you need in a game for stats to be recorded from 6 to 4.
The update will go live on Direct 2 Drive and Gamer’s Gate on the 17th.
I hope you’ll all join us for some super ’splody action packed carnage!! Brian and I are jumping in at 6pm PST nightly.
-Weston
Categories: Development Comments: 0
Animation Test
October 30th, 2010
We’ve been plugging away on Slime City. Brian just got unit placement going and the slime propagating. Once we get a few more game play elements in we’ll be taking our loose level progression and turning it into more fleshed out designs.
While I’m waiting for the game play elements to get locked down, I’ve been playing around with pixel animation. I wanted to post my first attempt. We want to have people run when the slime attacks, I figured dogs would catch on and get moving too.
Slime
More coming soon!
-W
Categories: Development, General Comments: 2