The Mirage Project 2008 - Retrospective news

Hey guys – it’s been over a month since we last updated, and this is mainly because we have been super busy developing show reels and portfolios.

Almost a year ago, as part of a large scale project for a TAFESA Game Art course, a group of 8 students and I came together to attempt our first mod.

Our goal was a three level story based “prologue” that, although entirely open ended, introduced our concept and wrapped up a small story arc. We had many goals, including original combat mechanics, strange stories including guns versus swordplay, and a long term goal to present our final campaign at AvCon. Along the way, there were many mistakes made, road blocks hit, communication issues and many, many lessons learnt.

Now it is term 4 of our second and final year. The course is drawing to a close, and the team is looking toward the future. Over three quarters of the team has left in order to focus on their careers, or have grown tired of the project and decided to quit, things seem to be wrapping up for the year. I look over to the other four teams who started the project with us, some who dropped out early on, and some – like the horror mod Mentality – releasing their first highly successful alpha demos now.

Looking back over everything we have done, everything we hope to achieve, and everything we promised to you guys – it’s clear we failed. I won’t sugar-coat this, we didn’t achieve half of what we set out to do, and although we made some good assets, we just didn’t make the distance.

Now I could blame many factors on our failure, including myself as team leader – but I won’t, this isn’t what this article should be about. This is about looking towards the future.

The remaining team now has a choice, do we pack it in and move on – or do we stick with it and give Mirage the time and effort it deserves?

For the small group of dedicated artists and programmers who remain, the answer is clear – and we will not be stopping. For us, Mirage has developed into something we care for too much to let die, and we will continue to develop it into something better than it is now.

I won’t end this by more promises of what is to come, because honestly – I don’t know. The next few months are going to be very rocky, and until I get settled in wherever I will be working (if I actually get this stupid show reel looking decent) I can’t say when, where or how more Mirage stuff will come.

All I can say is – we are not dead, and we won’t be until Mirage is what we want it to be.

Thanks for your patience,
Nick Mower
Team Leader