FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.01.05
Welcome to the latest news update! This week, we'll cover a few different topics, including space environments, our work flow process, and feature creep.
Last week we got all nebula backgrounds done, and they came out very well. The in-game visual experience is now amazing. Each star system has it's own backdrop, giving each one an individual flair. Take a look at our latest screenshots for a few examples. These are from multiple environments, and you'll be seeing more as we continue pushing out media. So, basically, you can consider those shots an appetizer.
Regarding our work flow process, there's a multi-disciplined group that meets (usually twice a week) to review where we currently are and to make plans for where they are going. Any of you aspiring modders out there, be prepared; design is all about meetings, it seems. In this case, the meetings are well worth the time, though. Everyone is all on the same page, and we find that running our creative process this way is both more effective and more efficient.
We are also working hard together to avoid "feature creep." Feature creep, for the readers out there who are unfamiliar with the term, is a software development term that basically means that a project keeps getting delayed because features keep getting added to the product. Now, given that definition, it may sound like avoiding feature creep would be a relatively easy task. The problem is, feature creep can be both subtle and seductive - especially when you're working on your own project. There's an intense desire to keep adding elements to your product. Some of these elements are small, but they add up - that's the subtly. Also, many of the features we want to add are really great ideas, so it's hard to let those great ideas go. Honestly, sometimes you don't let an idea go because it is just too cool - that's the seduction.
At any rate, it's always better to go for depth rather than breadth, meaning you should pick your core gameplay features and polish, polish, polish until you die of exhaustion. It ends up being much more fun for the game player, and that's the audience we need to please.
-Tolwyn
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.13.04
For this week's update, the Wing Commander Saga team would like to share three pictures of our final rendition of the Kilrathi Dukara-class troop transport. While it is lightly armed and vulnerable to fighter attack, each ship can carry a legion of Kilrathi Marines and their equipment. It is also atmospheric capable, deploying assault shuttles and other dropships from a small landing bay. HQ has deemed trooper transports a high priority target; each one destroyed is one thousand less Kilrathi Marines for our own Marines to face in combat.
-Tolwyn
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.01.04
This week, we would like to highlight the work of our team member limdaepl. He has been responsible for the design of our Kilrathi missiles. In Wing Commander Saga, missiles are a major threat. A single missile hit is enough to bring a light fighter to its knees. We wanted our Kilrathi missiles to reflect the aggresive and psychologically intimidating design philosophy displayed in the Wing Commander 3 games. The following pictures illustrate how we have tried to capture that feel in the way we portray Kilrathi missiles.
-Tolwyn
FROM: Captain KeldorKatarn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.27.03
Hello folks,
We have come a long way since last year, and we are enhanced the project more and more. Currently we are working on our space backgrounds, skyboxes and cutscenes. We are making good progress but we are always looking for more diversity and new ideas and we could use the additional help if you are:
- 2D artists capable of creating stunningly beautiful space backgrounds, nebulas and that sort of thing.
- CGI artists capable of helping us with our cutscenes and experience in creating 3d movie sequences at high quality.
Candidates have to be able to work well with other people and eager to achieve a high quality standard with their work.
Here is your chance to show some of your work to the rest of the world once Wing Commander Saga will be released. We expect to receive a similar degree of attention by our audience as our prologue demo had already achieved.
So take your chance to become a team-member of the Wing Commander Saga Team. We are looking forward to hear from you soon.
Contact us with some examples of your work.
-KeldorKatarn
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.21.03
For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Sha'Kar-class transport. With its cheap and modular design, the Sha’kar-class transport can be configured to carry anything important to the Kilrathi war machine, including armaments, fuel, general supplies and personnel. Slow, under-armed, under-armored and susceptible to attack by even the lightest Terran fighter, these cannon fodder transports rely on fighters or other capships for protection.
-Tolwyn
FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.18.03
The Wing Commander Universe is vast, and the story of Saga will take you through many systems you became familiar with through the Wing Commander games. For this week's poll, we would like to learn about which systems you would be most interested in visiting.
-Sphynx
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.02.03
Before I go to much into this week's update, I want to talk about the team working on this project. These guys are the most dedicated and talented guys I've ever worked with. They're putting in ridiculous hours right now as we make the final push towards our Alpha. I feel like the effort is really paying off, too. In my opinion, the game is really starting to look and play great. Many times as I'm playing through our current build preparing feedback, looking for issues, or generally doing any of the other hundred things I do in the game while not actually "playing" it, I find myself slipping into "gamer" mode, simply enjoying the experience. This team is busting everything they've got, and I can see that it's really making a difference. I feel that the final product will be great.
And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for far too long. It’s time to introduce our Kilrathi capital ships. Scooby Doo from the team explains the process:
"Like everything in game development, designing capital ships is always more difficult than it sounds. As a team, we had a long discussion regarding the overall look we wanted to create for our ships. We went through every available concept art from finished Wing Commander games and also from the art associated with the unreleased Wing Commander games. We found the artwork by Feng Zhu were particularly helpful.
We tried to really understand the meaning and philosophy behind Kilrathi ship design. In the end, we walked away with a good idea of the approach we were going to take.
We started with the basics. We took a simple yellowish base metal texture, and we started evolving it from there.One of the first additions we made was dirt patches. To be honest, these were actually designed to help facilitate another effect we were experimenting with. We ended up cutting that particular effect, but we used dirt effect here because it just felt right to us.
Next we began playing with armor plating. We actually have a good foundation in there now. We wrote a simple Photoshop script that creates armor plates in a matter of seconds (thus saving us a lot of time).
Normal maps came into the picture a little after that. This is one of my personal favorites. Basically, normal maps are used to greatly enhance the appearance of our low poly models without using more polygons. This technique allows us to create highly detailed, impressive models with very small impact on performance, allowing Saga to look and play great on a wide variety of machines."
As our first demonstration of the results of our work in this area, we would like to introduce our version of the Kamrani.
The Kilrathi’s obsession with hit-and-run strikes and wolfpack tactics is manifested in their most recent corvette model. Its combination of offensive anti-ship missiles and high speed enables these corvettes to attack Confederation convoys before they have adequate time to muster a counterattack. Even though the Kamrani is lightly armored, this corvette is well protected against fighters with it's multiple turret configuration.
Take a look at this Kilrathi killing machine below.
In our future updates we plan to release some information on the story, talk a little bit about our characters, and introduce the player's nemeses! Stay tuned!
-Tolwyn
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.20.02
We mentioned in a previous update that all the missions for Episodes 1-6 are gameplay complete. I've personally played through each mission, and I am very excited with the results. In refining the missions, our team has taken a new approach to the mission design. We are conceptualizing the missions in smaller sections (e.g. individual nav points) while planning out the overall mission experience. We have focused on testing and reworking each smaller segment until it's fun. We, as designers, want to ensure that the entire experience is going to be great, and we think our new strategy is really paying off.
We are also knee deep in the production of space environments. We have a lot of pots on the stove right now, so to speak. We are playing with reintroducing some of the features we trimmed out of the Prologue, along with several new ideas that are already proving pretty promising. We may say more about those in future updates. I will say the entire team is really psyched right now about the way things are coming together. We think that the energy and synergy we are finding right now will really show in the final product. To give you just a small taste, take a peek at the following screen shots.
-Tolwyn
FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.05.02
Wing Commander Saga was featured in an article in PC Gameplay, a Belgian gaming magazine. We would like to thank Spoon for sharing this article with us and for providing an English translation. The following is a loose translation of the article.
"WC3 was a milestone, not just for the space sim-genre but also in the way games were being presented. More then 10 years before mass effect, it allowed gamers to enjoy a interactive cinematic sci-fi story with real characters. After the excellent WC4 and very enjoyable Prophecy, the franchise came to a halt. EA released the 360 live arcade game WC arena and there were some rumours about a new next-gen WC being in production but for now it doesn't seem like there will be a new can of cat food to be opened any time soon. Fortunately there is the team behind WC Saga, a standalone Freespace2-mod which will tell a story parallel to that of WC3. The campaign will contain 35 missions, a dozend characters and a involving plot. There will also be a multiplayer part. "
(The text on the screen states, "Just like in WC3, you'll be able to land in hangers of capital ships.")
-Sphynx
FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.30.01
Exciting times are ahead for Saga. The mission programming is barreling towards the finish line and preproduction for CGI cutscenes is gearing up. Making CGI cutscenes is a time consuming endeavour. Each of our environments has to be painstakingly crafted, explosion and lighting effects take precise adjustments, and each frame must be scrutinized. All of our CGI scenes are in early stages, so they don't represent the quality of the final product yet, but feel free to take a look at a few screenshots of Vega Prime from one of our CGI cutscenes.
-Tolwyn
