SITREP - Week 016

Kim (ZPSHicks)
Game Director

"I'll make this short, so I can get back to playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, ... its research people! :) .. Just kidding, I have it preloaded at home on Steam and can't wait to jack in later tonight!

Cotta has started detailing a lot of very cool modules, railings, props etc. which I'll model during the next couple of weeks. I've already started modeling and staging our first real cave section, which we'll invite you all to test in the near future!

Game/Art Direction-wise we've made a few very interesting modifications to the way ITO's underground military facility and artificial cave systems are structured and designed; primarily based on a design meeting ScribbleHEAD and I had earlier this week .. Picture of the Week next week will properly reveal some of these ideas and all I need to do now is convince ScribbleHEAD to create a cool DevBlog with all our ideas!

Adam Jensen signing off ".

Mikael (heks)
Lead Programmer

"OFFLINE - Vacation"

von Cotta
Concept Artist

"So, we are forging ahead on the modular designs for the training area. It is very detailed work, and I am continually amazed at how many creative decisions you actually need to make, in order to come up with some cool designs for very common  items such as stairs, doorways and railings. But when you think about how much effort goes into designing a new BMW, it starts to make a little more sense. Just think of the years it takes for designers and engineers to come up with a form that follows the function in the most aesthetically AND the most efficient way. Quite a puzzle. At least we don't have to worry too much about the functionality. It is a game after all. We can do whatever we want basically. But the ambition is to come up with something that looks and feel realistic. Like it would actually work in the real world. So there is definitely a lot of work to be done yet.

I hope we will be able to show you something cool in the near future. Oh, and I have actually started using Google Sketchup now for visualisation. It is a nifty piece of software, but it still take quite some time to get used to. If you happen to know some nice trick for it, don't hesitate to let me know.".

Anders (cptKickASS)
Game Artist

"Animation, animation, tweeking scripts, and trying to grasp all the prior code made on runningman. Things are starting to work but there is some way to go still, and my main focus is to be well prepared before Heks gets back. Im still on part time here at ZPS, but from next week I will go fulltime. Im looking forward to dedicate my self 100% to the project again".

Jess (NecroSonic)
Level Designer

"Since last week I have been working on a bigger prototype map. As it seems that the team is making some progress towards a first in-house playable, I want to have as many different map concepts ready for testing as possible.

This map is rather symmetrical with smaller rooms clustered around a spline of bigger two-storey rooms in the centre, so my next prototype will probably be a highly asymmetrical map. Those are sometimes a bit harder to balance and often there is a risk that a very asymmetrical map will make little sense in terms of realism and how humans tend to construct buildings. On the up side they are easier to learn to navigate compared to a symmetrical map and often more interesting to explore.".

Nicolai (Reese)
CEO & Composer

"Making good progress on a couple of scores, an action paced and a slower paced menu/intro/narrator like theme. I haven't quite figured out where to fit it, but it surely brought a big smile upon Kim's face though :) When I get some more mileage on the scores I'll make sure to let you guys in.

For the time being, leave me alone. I'm finally composing ;)"