Exodus Destiny has been working hard translating Orlando’s SketchUp map design into his engine’s format, we have decided to use Tiled and its tile attributes system, as the format for the engine.

Art

I have been in conversations with a lot of fine artists from TigSource, trying to define a target budget for the monsters set. The idea is to launch a crowdfunding campaign for this, as it seems to be the only way to source this much needed work. More info soon.

Level Design

Orlando has advanced greatly on his design for the first level of Deceit. He presents us his design as a 3D model.

Engine

Exodus Destiny has added more features to the engine, including switches that open doors as well as keys needed to unlock other doors, he’s also added a sample sprite from one of the artists I have been talking with, just to give us an idea of how it would look inside the game. You can check the current version here

In other less relevant news: Yet another small website movement! http://blog.slashie.net is now the URL for this blog.

The project development has slowed down quite a bit since we still don’t have a pixel artist, however there are things of relevance to note.

Art

We are still looking for an artist for the project, if you’d like to contribute and gain great fame and virtue, here’s a list of stuff 🙂

Engine

Exodus Destiny has completely remade the engine using WebGL instead of the hand made raycasting software rendering he was using on the first version of the engine (which was pretty impressive from the technical POV), in his mind he’s achieved what he wanted to do with it in, learning a lot in the process of making it and pushing it to its limits; however the game still ran a bit slow on low-end machines, and that was his main motivation to do the new one.

Along with improved performance, this will allow several new things like:

• Easily support different height terrain, as can be seen in the current demo
• We could eventually incorporate some 3D models (UW did it with the rocks :P)
• Rendering stuff is simplified, leveraging ED’s development power to work on more things directly related to the game

Of course, we are keeping with the initial idea of following the original Ultima Underworld style, so we won’t be using all the power put at our disposal with WebGL. The only drawback is that now you’ll need a browser that supports WebGL.

You can find the current version here, it’s Open Source so if you want to take a look and collaborate, it’s here

The former, simpler version of the engine is probably going to be used in the future for a simpler 3D dungeon hack’n slash game.

Music and Sound

This version also includes the first track sent to us by Cantarelli Cantarelli, it’s a melancholic track that we are going to be using probably in the menu screen. We were also contacted by Stephen Johnson, a sound design / voice-over specialist, whose skills may come in handy for the weapon and environmental SFXs, as well as a possible Intro ala UW.

Level Design

We have been chatting along with Orlando, defining the posibilites given by the engine for puzzle design.

Pixel Art

We still haven’t been able to find artists for the team, however I’ve broken down a list of the art we need for the monsters (that’s the main asset we are missing, we can handle textures and UI art for the most part.) The full list is here.

We are looking forward for community contributions! if you can do the art for one of the enemies you are welcome to contribute, let’s build this all together 🙂 The continued existence of the project is in your hands

For each enemy we need the following 4 frames animations:

• Front, walking towards the player
• Attacking the player
• Taking damage
• Dying

Engine

Exodus Destiny continues advancing on the engine, working on the first version of the Enemy Factory, doing fixes on the texture rendering for walls and continuing polishing the Angled walls.

Level Design

Orlando has sent us new drafts for the design of the first level of Deceit, he’s onward to finish phase 2, after which we’ll proceed to boil it down to the tech design including the textures needed.

Music/SFX

So far, Tony Vai and Cantarelli Cantarelli have joined the team and are willing to start composing awesome music and SFXs for the project. More news about this soon

We have been debating on what direction to take the project towards, since we haven’t been able to find an interested pixel artist (interested to make it just for the love of it and not for money), this is a sample of how it looks using the original 16×16 graphics from U4, which is definitively a complete change from the original idea. I personally like it, but we haven’t decided on it yet… we are considering at least increasing their resolution to 32×32. You can play online here. (Remember it looks better on firefox)

Should also note that Exodus Destiny has so far added support for pixel fonts as well as the js minification pipeline. The new UI is WIP, using sprites from Denzi.

Exodus Destiny continues working on the engine while Orlando’s been working on the design for the first level.

Newest additions to the engine include interacting with objects using the mouse, as well as varying height walls and objects. He also continues on his quest for perfect behaving angled walls. Check it out

WE NEED A PIXEL ARTIST! This is critical for the project to continue onward! Are you a hardcore Ultima fan with awesome pixel skillz? you are welcome into the project! We need:

• 64×64 Textures for the levels: Walls, floors and other level adornments
• 64×64 Animated sprites for the enemies
• User Interface frame (320×200)

Exodus Destiny continues working on the engine, current version allows the following (and more):

• Looking up and down (Using 1 and 3)
• Water tiles
• Walking animations

I also continue working on the design, coordinating some stuff related to the level design with Orlando, the wiki keeps growing.

Also exchanged some ideas with Mike Mann regarding Pixel Art, he might surprise us soon with some UI and tiles work.