Blog - damagefilter

0 comments by damagefilter on Nov 13th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Hello Folks!
Just another Blog. Finally.
So to bring you up to date with the latest stuff going on in the pi| team, read on.

1st of all:
I was chatting with neahc not too long ago and he had the idea of wallpapers for Prison Island.
No problem, I can do some.
But there would be no fun about it so I ask you, all my readers(and the mod community in a few hours) to do wallpapers for Prison Island.
I have prepared a set of vector graphics and some screenshots for you.
You can download them here: Click
Send your works to mr.honda[at]hotmail.de

2nd:
Due to heavy and allmighty, never ending restructuringactivities inside the team,
we have a lot of new content (as you can see on our moddb page)
but actual production has movedforward slower then I have expected so the ideal
release time for around christmas can not be met.

3rd:
I will tell the following in an upcoming update too but forthose who read my blog,
you'll know earlier.
Because of the size of our project, we decided to release the game in
"Episodes". Quite a common method these days.
So with the first public release (don't ask me when it will be, yet) you will not
get the full game but only the first chapter.
Maybe it will be too short for your likings but I hope you all understand
that it would take even longer to release the whole game at once and I'm sure,
you all want to finally play it and see, for example, our awesome palms ;)

4th:
If you can help us out with coding, skinning, modeling or mapping,
feel free to contact me.
Not that we urgently need people right now but it would be a lot easier and faster to reach our goals if we have more people working on the project.

That was it, I hope to see some wallpapers of yours soon ;)

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 27th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

I was busy this week.
I did a lot of stuff but nothing much on the mod.
Most of the time I spend shooting photos and then
post processing them and put them on my DA account.
Ofc I gotta pose a bit now and then I'll go on telling you, what will be next.

So the main reason for the photo session was Lucille.
This is Lucille:

Meet Lucille pt.2 by ~damagefilter on deviantART

And the place we made the photos was so nice, I decided to make some more from
the surrounding buildings.
They look like this:

My house, or your house? by ~damagefilter on deviantART

Yeah alright, enough of that.
Lets get to the real thing ;)

What's coming next to pi| is a general meeting.
We will discuss the details about the maps we need to make and
the corresponding materials (models and textures).
The HUD is quite finished now.
The alignment of the elements works and we still lack a good
class to process bitmap fonts.
That is a minor problem and I decided we should go ahead and make the more important things now.
For example the energy system code and the implementing of the plasma gun,
aswell as the Suits. That could take another while I guess
but it will be mandatory for testing the maps for flaws.
So it will be done as quick as possible.
Other than that, the grenades got new animations now,
the knife has a new UV map, still needs to be skinned
and the soundtrack is coming along very good so far.
It came to my attention that Omena is good with the guitar so
the soundtrack will include his guitar playing, alongside my e-piano synthies and stuff.

That's it for now folks.
Thanks for reading :)
damagefilter
PlayBlack Studios<!-- Prison Island on Steam

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 17th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

I mean, I can google it, so don't tell me but seriously.
I got that "new" gfx card here.
And it's cool. It's not a monster but it can handle source engine games
very well and so I'm happy.
But it has 2 dvi, 1 s-video and 1 hdmi outputs.
Where has the good old vga connection gone to?
I mean, I got a monitor so old, it could be from my grandfathers grandfather.
It has no freakin dvi input.
Anyway.
I had found an adapter for it, which was cool.
But I only borrowed it.
The man I got it from told me, he would need it back next week.
Now he wants it back now.
it is okay, because it is his adapter (from apple btw ^^)
but unfortunately I can't access my files now and I have to sit here
on another PC which is awfully slow and without my mod data.

So in short terms, no update for today :(

On the bright side:
We have more time to polish then so you can have some better material to look at.
Just wanted to have that said, so you don't wonder.

greetings!

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 14th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Hello folks!
It's Friday today and time for a little update on the progress.

What we have done this week:

Hammerit

was working hard to fix the mess of HUD code valve
has given us.
Well, certainly it would be no problem to use the existing functions but unfortunately,
we planned something that required much more coding work.
Besides that, he was trying to get the energy system code from the old code base
to the new one, and that failed epically.
Some unresolved dependencies.

Blackwater

lip synced the g-man to a song he found in one of my sets.
To refresh his faceposer skills.
Other than that, he started working on a character model, which is looking
okay. It's not quite perfect, hence he never made a character model before,
but better that, than nothing.
Besides these 2 things, he animated the new (old) Plasmarifle and the five-seven.

Modifier

made one concept after another for the prison inner.
He also was thinking of the outside part and how it could look to remove the "Combine" style.

Simey

loaded his HDD with some dxf files I exported from hammer
to create some custom fit props for the prison inner.
They will be done by tonight (if everything goes according to plan.)

I (the damagefilter :P)

was keeping track of the things going on this week
and next to that I was working together with Modifier
to refine some of the concepts.
I also made some new outdoor concepts for the prison.

Play Black

has worked hard to bring you the next media update tomorrow or
Sunday evening, depending on when the last polish on concept art will be finished.
But definitely not later than Sunday ;)

That is it for now, folks ;)
-damagefilter
   -PlayBlack Studios Chieftain

-Prison Island SteamBase

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 8th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

So, folks, that was even more awesome in an even shorter timespan.
We (almost) hit the 1k visits mark and we're very happy about that.

The team likes to thank you all for your interest in our project.

And now, for your information:
We just established an official Prison Island Fan/Community Steamgroup.
We do realise that we're not having that much (if at all) fans out there since the project itself isn't really that known to the public yet.
But I will, from the next blog on, also post blogs there and publish our news there too.
You might also find blogs from the other members on the steamgroup profile too so joining can't hurt at all.

Check it out here: Prison Island on Steam

Thanks for reading,
-damagefilter

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 5th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Folks, that was awesome.
We broke our site visits per day record by 173 visits (that was 883 visits yesterday).
Thanks for the interest you show in our way too big project.
I must apologise for the limited amount of actual media we delivered
but I'll explain why it is that way.
So the first thing what went wrong was the initial meeting last Sunday.
Due to my lateness, as I explained already.
Then, last Monday, I got the information that the team which was supposed to create
prison indoor concepts didn't find time to create anything all the week long.
Well, I won't blame them, we all have a real life which is, certainly, more important than the mod we're making.

In the end we came to the conclusion of making one more concept week,
and by Friday, we'll deliver you with the second part of the update.
(If everything goes well...) 

In the meantime,
Simey and Mr.Sphincter were working, to put together a new look for the prison exterior.
My one really looks like a combine citadel made of concrete, which was not intended to be that way.
You'll see them in a polished version in the Friday-Update.
I doesn't look that elegant but it certainly looks dangerous and that is what it is supposed to be.

So, after this week of conception, we will start making the maps for the first release
(which will, maybe be in november or december but I can't promise you that one)
and then we start to really need a character modeler.
At best someone who has creativity and can work without particular concept drawings...
But I guess, that will be almost too much to ask...

So, thanks for reading,
-damagefilter

0 comments by damagefilter on Aug 2nd, 2009 digg this super bookmark

I was 10 minutes late for the last meeting.
I am allowed to be late because I am the boss.
(I'm joking)
And today I was a full hour too late and no-one was online anymore,
besides a few people. I can understand them who went.
So, due to my disability of beeing in-time the meeting which was scheduled for today failed.
So no update today, I'm sorry.
But nevertheless, I have one more screenshot of the prison outside to show you.
It is still WiP and is by no means the actual finished product.
Although it maybe could be.
It's only a little appetiser because, if everything goes according to plan,
the media release will be posted tomorrow night (10 PM CEST that is) and approved by moddb about 1 to 10 hours later.
So, here you go:

I think I managed to reproduce the rainy, foggy morning ambiance quite good.
Only the rain is missing. ;)
As for the models, kudos go to Simey who made them.
I just placed them.

That is it.
Thanks for reading folks!
-damagefilter

0 comments by damagefilter on Jul 31st, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Hello Folks!
We had a mappers meeting last sunday,
I wanted to blog about it but somehow I didn't came to do so.
It is a bit late now but I guess it's like "better later than never".
So, what we made was a basic plan on how we do mapping related things in the
next time. We still lack a (working) concept artist so we decided to make
a concepting week first so we have something to rely on
when the actual work starts (probably next week then).
We will present the whole concept art in a "media release"
since the HUD is taking so long and I want the other media release
(what will feature that special)
to have screenshots from the HUD.
Hammerit is kinda busy at the moment but he'll manage his work, I'm sure.
(Actually the HUD is working already but there are resizing issues with the different screen ratios)

And now, for your personal entertainment, and exclusively for the readers of my blog
(or people randomly finding it)
2 pics from my concept.
It is the outside part of the prison and it looks a bit like Far Cry.
I know that and actually I have to tweak the lighting a lot so
it looks more like a foggy dawn instead of a bright sunny day.

I may add that we have about 99% custom content here.
2 textures are from the ep2 content but you can only see one of them ;)

So, that's it for today.
Thanks for reading!

0 comments by damagefilter on Jul 24th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

...Lord, what can I tell?
Nothing special.
But I just got a mail from the one who made this:

And this:

And I think he's back in our team.
I kew very well that he's got some kind of a strange job
which consumes a lot of time.
Somehow I lost track of that anyway.
So he got some prop cars ready, we can add.
More stuff to come, I bet.

The HUD is still making some trouble
but we're going to fix that.
Once this is done the promised media release will happen.

So, stay tuned folks :)

0 comments by damagefilter on Jul 11th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

It is very late over here now ... well okay.
It is 0.30 and the night has just started.
I'm sitting here with hammerit, Blackwater and Simey,
figuring the new HUD and preparing renders for the next update.
And I got to tell you, I'm very excited about that.
We're making good progress again, after a long time of doing nothing
and thinking about how we should go on.
Mr.Omena will have the concepts for the prison done by tomorrow.
Not quite accord to plan. But better than never.

Right now I'm receiving the new binaries and a map I go and test stuff on.
Hammerit has put a lot of work into the HUD code.

Expect an update soon, like in 2 hours or so.

That's all for now, just wanted to have written about it, even no-one is reading it :P

Damn it!
For some strange reason the resources and the HUD are quite a bit ... malfunctioning.