Follow the white rabbit...

I'm afraid I fall into the same boat for the most part Biggs.  I have been playing WoW steadily ever  since I had obtained a job for it.  However, that's behind me, and I've been trying to be more creative lately.

That being said, I have been keeping myself busy learning a great deal many things.  I've delved into XNA and XSI quite a bit.  In fact the only thing I haven't really touched, ironically enough, is a map editor.  Although I did open it yesterday to fool around with it.  I still know a great deal about C# and C++, even though modern renditions of C# look more like java than anything else (not to say that that's a bad thing).

I did upload a video to youtube of a model/animation cycle I created less than a month ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0xGCgc9MrI

But, I'm wanting to do something creative, have been for a while now.  The only question is, do I still have what it takes to create things in source or any other format.

Makes sense...

With the HL2 code we had done, we had made it possible to make a working version of the game with objectives/points/teams and the like...  I believe the only thing lacking was a GUI for character selection, plus the programming of the characters themselves.

Although, I'm unsure of which would be the best way to go.

At this point whatever you can do we'll take. Textures, models, sounds...whatever.

If I had to pick I would say models then textures first. Talk to Ayiga that's more of his side of things.

This is Dranore for those unclear. Oh you crazy kids. I'm keeping the website online indefinitely if possible. So long as people show up periodically.

To reiterate. We had most of the basic code from Ex reimplemented in HL2 as I recall. It no doubt needs doctoring at this point to make it kosher with current versions of the SDK.

I've been doing a lot of programming in JS/AS3. So I'm much more code friendly now. haha... Anyways. I still have all of the assets for Ex2. I believe Ayiga does as well.

The real challenge is maintaining the level of visual quality. It's a real time consuming job to produce assets at the current standard of taste.

I'm trying to finish school at the moment. Doing my thesis project... which is super time consuming. I also work for a game company here in NYC doing game design, programming, and other odds and ends.

Last edited by grey (2009-02-14 18:00:52)

Awesome.

There are no "Matrix fans" left, and we are the initial fan base from EX. We'll follow you to the ends of the earth. Probably. I mean I don't think any of us ever wanted to play Ex because the player models look like Neo and Trinity; we wanted to play because the whole capture-based gameplay mechanic was brilliant.

Sure, you could assemble another team, you've already got the programmer which is infamously the part of the job which kills most mods instantly. As for "worth our time"... hell, it's the best option available to you if you want to prove your creativity for a spot in the game industry, right? You've already made a name for the franchise with the beloved Existence Mod; if you want to impress people with a successful Source launch, you've better chances with Existence 2 than going away and starting a new project. As for the fan base... well, that's always the question, isn't it? Who knows. Make it unique, market it well and hopefully people will want to play it. Marketing is crucial; make a lot of trailers and pray that one goes viral, Portal-style.

Definitely a valid concern, but if you can get Valve to put Ex² on Steam as a free downloadable (which a lot of mods are doing now) then no doubt you'll have a support base. It's likely that Valve remember Existence and it's popularity; I'm sure they'll have no hesitation about supporting it's official sequel.

You know, the Source engine is so crazy accessible, you could make an Ex2 plugin for CS:S or Garry's Mod, mostly to demonstrate the excellence of the gameplay mode, before producing the real thing. Kind of like a teaser. So many people play CS:S, just look at the success of Zombie Mod.

I'd love to help but my only dev experience is in mapping, and I'm just so unreliable that I wouldn't want to burden you with any half-assed offers of assistance, knowing I'd most likely just let you down. What I can do is what most of us will do, and that's to stand alongside the project 100% like we always used to, because Existence is awesome and we love being a part of it.

Hopefully on-topic: anybody know what rit's up to these days? I can't find a contact for him. I googled his IRL name and it looks like he's made it into the industry.... sorta.

Funsies!

Primal Light with a Calico:

Lots of progress has been made over the past month.  Only Biggs and I are currently working on it, but it doesn't seem to of slowed our progress one bit.  We've made great strides toward what we want, and have had a lot of great discussion concerning how the game should play.

We've both decided to take it light on the media and press coverage until we have a lot of solid things to show.

Hope this ties you over for now.

More to come later

Greetings Kids.

I'm going to announce that I'm giving that whole "Ustream" thing a try.

I'm going to start streaming my activities when I'm working on the mod.  Mapping/Modelling, or whatever.  If you'd like, you can watch.  However, it may be a little boring

Anyway here's the url just in case you want to check it out:

Ayiga's Modding

Has funsies in the mean time

Added it to my bookmarks! Later dudes!

Holy pewp it's still alive! *prod prod*

Glad to hear you're trying for the gaming industry Biggs, from what I remember way back when, you got the goods. Just mash yer foot in a door or two. Personally I used a specialised education to get in, and found a group of likeminded people with whom I started my own company.. and after two years that's still alive

We released Swords & Soldiers some time ago on the Wii, and are hard at work on our next title. We won some awards two weeks ago, which was pretty awesome.

What else can I say.. I turned 30 this year (holy crap time really does fly!), and I'm very glad to see this community is still alive. Existence was in my portfolio when I applied to the School of the Arts Utrecht (Forum Regs too!), and it'll always have a fond place in my heart ^_^

[edit]
Hehe, My Horse and Me. I did major texture work for that while I was an intern at W!Games

Everything except the horse and player model is textured by me, and some random environmental thingies are also modelled by me. Like the obstacles, plants and lamps.

This one is also all me (except the horsey and rider again). Also modelled the lamps in there.

Man, I made some jumps since then. After refusing a job there, I started up Ronimo Games and do my own thing now.

Picture of our graduation project, look how happy they all were, without any stress of running a business. The long haired dude is me btw.

If anyone is interested, I've been forced on Facebook recently, and can be found under my real life alias: Ralph Rademakers.. Huzzah!

Last edited by ritual (2009-11-25 14:06:57)