Berimbau Mod for Half-Life 2 Project Berimbau Vagrant Feature news

So I realize this update is a solid two weeks late, so twice as much content will be uploaded, although it is necessary to explain some restructuring to our news posts that will be enacted starting on today's post. While we will be maintaining the standard weekly update, any sort of story/background content will be posted separately in order to separate the two logistically. This lets us focus on giving actual up to date news in these posts while reserving our weekly content posts their own area. This also helps should we develop the story even further than what we originally post in any one news article.

Of course notification of a new "feature" being added will be posted in our weekly news, but these news posts will primarily focus on development news with the engine as well as team progress. The brunt of the past week's work has been completely on Flux, for which I'm grateful completely. His progress so far has been in the actual coding aspect. While we have a functional model in game, as well as the sword swipes shown in the videos recently updated, there were quite a few kinks to work out:

However a problem arose in that damage was not being inflicted on the opponent, since the idea of having visible sword trace objects in game wasn't even thought of by the original code. Flux has figured out how to get the collision system to work correctly, which is a huge step in getting us closer to the Alpha release. On top of that he's provided some new concept artwork in regards to the Vagrants faction as well as a new Hokuten concept. In addition is the original Vagrant concept sketch, however it is being withheld from the official Berimbau page until its further refined. Take a look at those below.

So progress continues. Look for the new Vagrant article to be posted shortly in the features area. We also will be issuing the call for Alpha testers soon, especially due to the fact that having one teammate in China and the other in the States makes ping ridiculously high. So... if you want to get in on this, please email us at TeamBerimbau at Gmail dot com. Please look at our listings below for the available positions, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Positions Still Open:
The following positions are available. While we do look for people with particular skills, a mix of many skills is even more valued than one niche. We definitely want people who are multi-talented.

• Conceptual Environment Designer. Responsible for sketching out the world of Berimbau, provide concept drawings for the rest of the team.
  • The environments of Berimbau are rich with history and culture. You'll be designing temples, samurai training grounds, European churches and alleys, and more.
• Environment Modeler. "Mapper". Responsible for designing environment design sketches into something tangible in-game. Must have some experience building game maps, preferably with Hammer.
  • You'll have the opportunity of modeling the world if Berimbau, its locales, props and details. Ancient statues, cobbled roads, fountains are part of this game.
• Texture Artist. Responsible for designing the look and feel for surfaces of all types in the game. Must be able to sketch out rough ideas and communicate these effectively with our lead charcter artists.
  • The texture artist will work on both character models and prop models (with UV maps completed) and will work on environment textures for maps.
• Programmer. Must have experience in C++ and the Source SDK engine, knows how to author entities and edit network prediction code. Responsible for editing game rules, modifying combat, animation behavior, and author particle effects.
  • You'll have the chance to play an integral role in deciding the combat mechanics of the game, how sword attacks are handled, special attacks, combos, etc.
• Sound Designer. Responsible for creating sounds of sword swings, blade hits, and other combat sounds. Also responsible for authoring ambient sound effects.

The people we look for should also bring some fresh ideas to the table. We definitely don't want to be slave drivers, telling you to make our mod for us. If you have an interesting idea to contribute to Berimbau, you'll be free to present it to the team where we make decisions as a group. The people have their ideas implemented the most often are the ones who are also able to do that themselves, so if you are both skilled and have many new ideas, here's your chance to try them out.

When you apply be ready to show work, portfolio, or examples of what you can do. A CV would also be required.