(In Progress)
TRANSCRIPT BY ERRIS [IN PROGRESS]
EMPIRE REPORT
– Mars Unstable? Could martian terraforming be coming undone?
– Black Mountain tea – millions of cups drunk a day, but could it be making you sick?
– the five most annoying things about visiting Stanton 3
1:00
AROUND THE ‘VERSE
– 1.1.1 will be available this week hopefully. Hit the PTU Tuesday, hopefully will be out today or tomorrow.
– Big update, GLadiator is flyable, Gladiator and SH and possibly Cutlass will have second ship functionality
– CR is in London, directing SQ42 performance capture shoots.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE ‘VERSE
2:25
Santa Monica
Darian Vorlick and Lisa Ohanian
– Interesting tidbit being desiged by Randy Vasquez – a sandbox gym map, where he can test how AI interacts. An open playground, it’s a test environment. Players will never see it, but it’s really helpful for the devs.
– Ship update: Working on the concept for the Genesis Starliner. Art outsourcers working on it, it’s a cool, big, cruise ship.
– Players need to be able to ride around on it, and there will be escort missions where you have to protect the ship, things like that.
– Working on 1.1.1 – first patch allowing multiplayer crew ships. Second player can jump into turrets for SH, Cutlass, or Gladiator. Almost ready, trying to hammer out a few more bugs, but it should be ready this week.
4:25
Illfonic
Travis Day and David Lengeliers
– Finished prototyping SATAball – a futuristic sport using the Astro Arena level.
– They’ll be working on getting SATAball hooked up in code.
– With Astro Arena, the more realistic animations for 0g are coming into play. More realistic look animations – whole body moves as you look around in 0g (really good video of this in action)
– 0g previs is finishing up. Previs shows what all the movements should look like, and the animators have iterated on that. Looks very good now.
– Reworking all the VFX for all weapons, grenades, gadgets, etc… Trying to match up all the effects between ships and handhelds, so they’re all using the same technology. If lasers on ships are using certain effects, pistols using the same type of tech will have the same effects. Looking really good, ties in the companies and weapons and tech.
6:55
Austin
Jake Ross and Nathan Blazon
– Tony started work on the Pioneer occupation this week. Exploration, charting uncharted territories, etc…
– working on new animations for ‘grabby hands’, which is being developed in LA. Players can go and pick things up with some amount of fidelity.
– Shopping in the Social Module: Spending time figuring out how the experience shopping differs from shop to shop. Gun store is probably more hands on, see the actual weapons, where some ship shops are probably more holograms.
– For Cubby Blast, they want a shooting range in the back, so you can test-fire weapons in the back. That’ll be in in some form in the Social module when it releases.
9:30
CIG UK
Luke Presley and Danny Reynolds
– Working on Tutorial for AC. Wanted to make something that’ll cater to new players, but still have some excitement for older players. Lots of narrative
– Player is enrolled in a military excercise, which is run by a veteran instructor.
– Take off and landing, basic flight, interacting with ship systems, engaging in dogfighting.
– First time they’ve released anything complex and story driven, lots they’ve learnt will be carried over into SQ42.
– New Asteroid hangar with full interior and exterior. As soon as the Tutorial is done, they’ll be trying to put a new asteroid hangar into Free Flight, that can be flown into and out of.
– They’re looking forward to releasing the tutorial, and can’t wait to hear peoples thoughts.
11:35
Watching peoples’ 30 second AC clips
JENNY VARNER – AUSTIN ARTIST ROUND TABLE
– Patrick Thomas, Vanessa Landeros, Josh Coons, Lee Amarakoon.
Austin is predominantly the PU office, do you want to discuss anything you’re working on?
Levels are looking incredible. We’re reaching a point in video games where the quality is reaching what you see in cinematics. Everything’s becoming so detailed. Also, the whitebox stage is very exciting. Some stunning sets are being created by Behaviour.
Also exciting about the levels is populating them with hundreds of animations. Getting an actor to randomly act out a barfing scene is fun apparently. Makes the PU feel more alive, the animations they’re getting to do.
Hoping for different attitudes that come with the AI for dancers in the game too. Shy dancer, drugged out dancer, they’re hoping to add crazy personalities to the game to make it feel more alive.
Josh Coons is more on the Ships team.
Lee Amarakoon – particles and effects, trying to keep it from blowing up peoples video cards is fun. Holograms are fun, screens are fun. Advertisements for the PU are fun as well. When he tries to make screens, he tries to fit in little easter eggs. Space effects and nebulas and asteroids are fun.
Thanks to the fans who made it out to SXSW. The fans are super cool, getting to feel the effect of your work is great.
Another 30 second AC flight video
Disco Lando is now Community Manager with a focus on editing
Ben has no joke. Sandi is now upside-down.