You are an operative of VAKinc, a secret military research company who, upon the Combine invasion of Earth, went into hiding. VAKinc has been sending Agents like you out to combat the Combine secretly, and lend a helping hand to the resistance. However on your latest mission, you screwed up royally, and the Combine captured you and all of the VAKinc tech you had on your person at the time. The game starts two and a half days after you escape the Combine. Your VAKinc Dispatcher, Julia, has established contact with you and is guiding you back home. Your mission: avoid the Combine forces crawling the area, regain or destroy the tech you've lost, and get back home. VAKinc: Testing Grounds is the first in a series of Episodic "VAKinc" releases developed by the VAKinc Team.

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It's been a whole month since development began on VAKinc: Testing Grounds, so I wanted to let people know what's going on with the mod. Before I get to that though, I'd like to introduce Pelf, our team's newest member. Pelf is an extremely talented mapper that contacted me and expressed his desire to join the team. Let's take a work at some of his work:



He's done a really good job with the beautification here. If you are so inclined, you can go back into the mod's image archives and look at my own hideous original versions. Also, while we are admiring these two images, I think it's a good time to go over those two areas, the Dreamscape and the Prison.

The Dreamscape area only shows up in the beginning of the mod, 2/3rds through, and once again at the end. During these times the player is put in a bizzare world that is a mix of Combine-esque architecture and strange, natural elements. During these Dreamscape sequences, an ethreal being speaks to the player. While Dreamscapes rarely have any gameplay function (with the except on the second one), they instead act to advanced the plot and give the player visually interesting areas to explore.

The Prison is the first level of the game. Many people expressed to me that they disliked the idea of having the mod start a couple of days after breaking out, so I decided to add in the Prison as the first level. I really wanted to Prison to be an impressive area, and get the player really excited for the rest of the mod. Infact, when the Prison is finished, it will be released as a demo. So far, I am really proud of it.

I would like to take a moment to address two of the main questions I get asked. The first is "What new content does VAKinc: Testing Ground bring? It just looks like a mappack for HL2." The second part of that question makes me facepalm. Yes, it does look a lot like Half-Life 2, that's because it is in the same universe as Half-Life 2. So let's talk about what is new. We have two new weapons that I can garuntee will make it in to the final release. The first one is the Alyx Gun, which you should all be familiar with. The Alyx Gun was practically finished in HL2's code, so I just decided to finish it up completely. As of right now, the Alyx Gun works perfectly fine, we just need to finish the model. The second weapon is player-deployed Manhacks. The player will be able to toss Manhacks which will seek out and chop-up any enemies. Other weapons are still in concept form, I expect Testing Grounds to ship with four new weapons and one or two gadgets.

The second most asked question is "What is the storyline in VAKinc: Testing Grounds?" Well first off, Testing Grounds will not include any characters that we are familiar with. No Gordon, Alyx, Barney, Kliener, Breen, etc. Testing Grounds takes place around the Great Lakes area of North America, around the same time as Episode 2. While the European rebellion is in full swing, and the Combine capital has been decimated, the Combine still remains relatively strong in the rest of the world. However they are highly shaken, and shipping almost everything they can to Eastern Europe. To make matters worse for them, more rebellions are popping up everywhere else. So far, that's about all I want to reveal about the plot, but more will come later.

Lastly, I want to remind everyone that we are still looking for people to join the VAKinc team. Anyone who is willing to help will be greatly appreciated.

HIGH PRIORITY POSITIONS
Programmer (Must know C++)
Texture Artist
Female Voice Actor (as Julia)
Modeller

LOW PRIORITY POSITIONS
Male Voice Actor
Graphic Artist
Web Designer

The Alyx Vance Gun

The Alyx Vance Gun

News

I'm Hamster and I'm making Alyx's Gun a usable gun and I'll make it a Gmod SWEP(Scripted WEaPon) first then make it using Vavle's coding.

You're Being Watched

You're Being Watched

News 3 comments

First News about the new Mod, VAKinc: Testing Grounds.

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CuervoSp
CuervoSp

Now 3 years.

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zonbie
zonbie

say, is there any news? it's been three months :)

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Pelf
Pelf

You really need to work on your level design. If you can get that to look good then the mod will be really good too.

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Kasumi Krystal
Kasumi Krystal

Look at the difference btw hl1 and hl2 , just because hes a newie to hammer does not mean that it is the "HELL" i know why he cant make such maps as BM:S now , he does not have a inspiration and me too, im looking at the first map of my mod for like 10 hours and thinking what to add next , what to make beter ,what to delete , and add to it the pressing of reallife like job , school and a way of other things , just keep dont diing , im sure you will make out of it a good word.

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GermanHiTman
GermanHiTman

were is the DOWNLOAD

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.illogical
.illogical

As dec previously said, the idea is sound. Also, I agree about the use of the flashlight, its ok for parts, but not everywhere as it has many restrictions.

Also, for me personally after reading the story, it could be fantastic, with new weapons and various new technologic equipment and all. But i think that where the story starts should be 2 and half days before you say, so when you escape the combine. I think escaping the combine and finding a way to re-establish contact with Julia would make for a good part of the game rather than jumpin in after you have already escaped.

Just my thoughts, either way, keep it up, this has potential

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DecDoyle
DecDoyle

You seem to have a nice idea going, but the mapping needs real work. Having levels fully rely on a flash light makes for terrible game play.

If you can pull it together with the mapping and your team im sure you can create a really nice mod.

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