Two weeks ago, John and I came back from our scholarship-sponsored trip to Game Connection in Lyon. Several of the companies we met in France are located here in the Bay Area and they were eager to have a more in-depth meeting. Among those were AMD, NVIDIA, and Havok.
AMD
ATI / AMD headquarters. Photography was prohibited, but I found this on Wikipedia.
Our first meeting was with AMD (owners of ATI). They were very generous with their seed hardware, giving us seven free ATI graphics cards to help us test compatibility and take advantage of new graphics features. Additionally, we made a few engineering contacts there who can help us with any graphics problems in Overgrowth as they come up. When the game is done, they will run a gamut of tests on supported graphics card configurations, and report any problems that they find.
Modest pile o' ATI cards in protective wrapping. An awesome Christmas present!
NVIDIA
Jeff and John at NVIDIA headquarters
We had an awesome meeting with NVIDIA. Unfortunately, we have an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) so I can't give you any juicy details yet. However, like ATI, several NVIDIA graphics cards are en-route and we have some new contacts there to answer questions and help resolve compatibility issues!
Havok
Aubrey and Jeff: hanging with Havok.
Finally, we caught up with the Havok guys. We signed an NDA with them too, so we can't talk about that yet, either. We'll let you know more as soon as we can!
It is an awesome feeling sitting across from these super-professional guys -- who often have their walls covered with AAA titles or industry awards -- and being taken seriously. Kudos to these companies for giving us the benefit of the doubt even though we are scrappy-looking indie developers. We've still got a long way to go, but it's really motivating to have this level of support.(permalink)
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That's awesome!
You guys are moving up in the world, haha.
Definitely leveled up and got some awesome loot.
Lucky
haha cool only just started tracking this and im glad i did awesome work keep it up and were could i get a copy of your last game?
last game was 'lugaru' and i believe it has been released as freeware
speaking of lugaru, is there a special cheat to get past the level with the 3 wolves?
Yeah there's a cheat for that, its called practice or lower the difficulty.
Great news team!!
Glad to hear some more investors are rolling in with support on the hardware side as well. I hope these NDAs won't change the vision you guys have for the game but I'm sure its all for the better. Happy holidays to everyone and good luck with everything team.
We are going to keep with the original plan, but having the extra hardware is really useful. :) Like a second Christmas! Just to clarify, the only "investors" we have are preorderers. ;)
you must have a lot of "investors" then :P
thats pretty awesome
NV will try to bring you guys to the dark side, but keep it together we have completely faith on all of you.
But no harm if they give some VGAs ;)
"It is an awesome feeling sitting across from these super-professional guys -- who often have their walls covered with AAA titles or industry awards -- and being taken seriously."
This is exactly what I needed after listening to a 4guys1up podcast where they're predictions for the industry in the next two years no less frankly scared the living crap out of me.
I'm so glad you guys are getting the support and interest in this project, which it most definatly diserves mind you. and I hope what ever it is you can't tell us is something big, that will help you to the next level in realising your aspirations for this game.
You are making me jealous!
If you did receive a 5970 for free that is crazy lol :D
Indeed, you make us jealous :P would be so interesting to meet them and see where they work...
You guys are awesome! Especially John, although he is in dire need of a shave.
John is not allowed to shave until David finishes the fighting system. It is taking longer than expected, hence the epic beard.
I want some free GFX cards too
I'll be happy to check how overgrowth runs on them :)
Why dont you guys reply at facebook news? O_o
Hmmm? I reply everywhere!
Congratulations - At least AMD didn't ask you to sign an NDA as well, or that would have been a rather entertaining news post. :P
Nice to see that companies are starting to engage more with Indie teams than they would have a few years ago.
°_° wow, that's awesome
What made you decide to go with Havok, over nVidia's PhysX, or Bullet?
We haven't decided anything yet :) We currently use ODE but are thinking of upgrading.
Its actually pretty interesting to see all this "foot in the door ness" you guys have going on