So its that time of year again when its customary, heck almost mandatory to share gifts; and since we can not quite give you a new version of Sintel the game (more on that later) for Christmas, we thought we’d give you the next best thing. The next best thing of course being a free game where you launch snowballs at snow men for points! And yes i know that makes no sense but 2 late nights and some alcoholic Christmas cake was never likely to result in anything else.
As for Sintel the Game although we don’t have a new release for you yet, rest assured we are still hard at work making improvements and creating new content.
In the next release you can expect new levels, enemies and character to boot
It has been a long wait, but the first version of the Alpha is finally available to download! Download – Alpha 01
Keep in mind this is an incomplete version of the game. Most of the game is still unfinished. It contains 3 mini levels. The game’s source is also included, released under the CCBY license. All code in the game will be released as GPL.
Only Windows executable files are included – but there is an issue loading the docks level through the exe. To play it, it is best to open sintel_win.blend in Blender (latest version) and run the game there. Runtimes for Linux & OSX can be built from the source. As development on the game contiunes, the Alpha will be updated here on the blog periodically. All updates (including Beta and Final) will be made available for free.
You WILL need a decent computer with GLSL to run the game at a smooth frame rate. Running the game on a smaller resolution may help increase frame rate. Lastly, make sure you READ THE MANUAL FIRST.
UPDATE: If somebody wants to build some Linux or Mac OSX (or any OS really) runtimes, I will gladly host them on the server and add it to the downloads page for people to grab.
Hey guys! For those of you still with us, this post will be a large, in-depth update on whats gone on since the last post (which was waaaaaaay to long ago). I will also talk about what is coming up soon!
NEW RIG – ANIMATION
We have a nice new rig with fancy IK. This makes it a lot easier to animate. There is one small issue when giving a character a new rig: we also had to re-do all of the animations. Luckily with our post about helping to animate, we were able to get a few good animations working on the new rig, but there are a lot of animations left to do. IF YOU ARE AN ANIMATOR WHO IS WILLING TO HELP WITH EVEN ONE ANIMATION, EMAIL ME jon@sintelgame.org
MECHANICS
Now, this was a crazy idea. I re-did all the programming attached to Sintel. Looking back however I think it was necessary. The old code was clunky slow and lacked a few features that I think the game needed. It didn’t even use Blender’s state system. If you know what that is, then you should know that it would be weird not to use it.
New code is nice, fancy (I will be using those terms a lot in this post) and has some new features such as floor tracking that make the game play MUCH smoother. Using Blender states, I was able to construct the same code system without tons of logic bricks. It looks a lot less confusing now. I’ve also been working on the targeting system (part of it is pictured above) which was terrible before but actually works pretty well now.
NEW MENU – GAME STRUCTURE
Another crazy idea. I re-did the entire main menu and the entire game structure. This wasn’t as much work as it seems. The old menu was (very) poorly programmed (by me). BUT FEAR NOT. I’m actually quite proud of this menu. It’s very efficient with code and assets. It also handles keyboard inputs (and theoretically joystick inputs) a lot better than before. The options screen is slimmed down to be less confusing. All those options you see in the menu currently work. You can even change the game’s resolution in real time!
Overall, the menu is easier to navigate and has some transitions and animations that make it look rather nice. I also added the ability to gather a list of .blend files that are located in the levels folder. This way any levels you guys make will show up in the menu where you can play them. I really want user created levels to be a part of the game so adding this feature was crucial. ALSO! You can watch the film Sintel directly from the extras menu.
SNAILS!
I finally got those little critters in the game. They are hostile little buggers that will randomly move around and avoid obstacles. Upon sight of human, they swarm to attack. They don’t move too fast so it is easy to outrun them – but it can get nasty if they surround you!
WHAT IS NEXT?!
My plan is to release an Alpha version of the game for everyone to download for free and start playing around so we can get some feedback on some of the features of the game. Right now, I am predicting that this will be ready in a month. Keep in mind this is subject to change, but also realize I am trying my best to get this out to the public. I want you guys to play this game as soon as possible, but I don’t want to release a game that I’m not proud of.
Happy Holidays! It’s been a nice relaxing week but now it is time for an update. I recently returned home from school for a few weeks. At college I had little time to work on my personal projects (sintel the game) so I admit, not a whole lot got done in the past few months. I worked on enemy AI a little bit, started re-designing the dialog system, and a bunch of other small things. Since I’ve gotten back, I started re-programming the player mechanics. I know this sounds silly seeing as we already have a working, controllable player, but there was room for improvement in the design and in the code. We also gave Sintel a nice new IK rig which needed to be implemented. As of right now, I’ve improved the movement system, making it easier to walk up and down hills, giving it a more realistic and less glitchy feel. It already feels a lot smoother than before. The code is optimized this time around too. Now i’m working on making the player camera better. I’ve also updated the Gallery!
David has been working on a smaller, but more aggressive troll character. Perhaps David will post about what he has been working on in a future post. I know he has plans to make another modeling time lapse video so be on the lookout for that.
I’d like to personally thank everyone who helped us out with animation. We got many people who were more than happy to send us a few animations. They all look wonderful and I’m excited to make use of them.
We still want to release a demo as soon as we can. We are slowly making our way towards a release. I think I speak for all of us when I say we don’t want to release a demo unless it is fun. The pre-demo was short and bland because we rushed it out without spending enough time on making it fun. The demo will include some different gameplay elements, a good taste of combat, and a boss battle that is actually challenging.
I can’t say when the demo will be ready, but the moment we pinpoint a date, I will let you guys know.
Finally, I would like to make a shout out to Team Aurora. Over the past few months a couple friends and I got together and talked about our futures. We all felt that the professional game industry right now does not reward or encourage innovation and good unique design in games. We want to work in a field where we can make games that we find fun and innovative, rather than games that will make the most money. So we formed Team Aurora. We recently announced the first game currently in production – Grey. If you want to find out more, read about it here.
Since I am committed to finishing Sintel The Game, I will not be directly involved with the development of Grey. I am still a member of Team Aurora, but my time is going to be focused on Sintel The Game.
