News
Metal Drift Comic and Desura
February 24th, 2011
First off, we just released on Desura! Desura is the publishing arm of ModDB/IndieDB. They cater to Indies and were fantastic to work with. The publishing process took about an hour! If you haven’t picked up Metal Drift yet, you can grab it right here with this convenient button they supplied us:
This last week I’ve been working on a comic (our first) to cover one of the defining features of Metal Drift; its “‘Sploadiness”. Brian and I have had a ton of conversations over the last few years, discussing the improvements we could make to Metal Drift. We never actually had the one in the comic, but it approximates the mood. One of us will be super excited about an idea, and we have to try to convince the other that it’s awesome, and worth doing. Usually we use English to describe our ideas.
I’ve wanted to try drawing a comic for years. I used to redraw Calvin and Hobbes constantly when I was a youngster. I would love to do a couple of comics from the perspective of the pilots in the tanks in Metal Drift as well. Hopefully I’ll have time for that soon.
While I was working on the comic, I recorded it, sped it up, and put it in a video. Check that out below:
If you liked this video, I hope you’ll subscribe to our channel (below). We’ll be posting new stuff there constantly, I promise!
-W
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