Varion is a mod set in the future with hi-tech weapons. The mod is aimed at creating a fresh new appeal to the HL2 engine.

Report RSS Varion: Going Indie

So Varion didn't really get a good release but we didn't expect much with bugs popping up because of source engine. This is some good news about Varion though.

Posted by on

Summary:
So after the release of Varion 1.0 we didn't really get excited like we should of but where sick of source engine with all it's limitations when trying to make stuff work. Some people would disagree but it's a terrible engine for modding for as you need to write atleast 800 lines of code just to fix a damn bug in the code.

Going Indie ??:

So we have been looking into other projects and thinking about creating our own engine. We decided that we wanted to go to XNA and then relised that we should do Varion using xna as my mate has a really advanced fps engine. So now we are going to be recreating on Xbox 360 along with a open source release on the pc in the next few years. This time a lot of things are being done differently along with expanding our team and totally redesigning the hole mod.

So this time we are going to be making a single player and a multiplyer. The multiplyer will be the main source off income though as we don't need servers as XNA is peer-to-peer so we can make some really exciting stuff and not worrying about servers. We have a very talented coder on the team who knows a lot about the engine and making games.

The project will be sold though so we can at least earn some money maybe buy some servers for varion mod depending on the popularity. So basicly we won't be updating Varion anymore as source engine is just a waste of time we think as it's to many bugs in the engine and making mods so we are going to be making our own engine (built from mates engine) and this way we can make stuff how we want it and really get some unquie ideas in the game which we have planned in a big document.

Information:
Want to learn more about Varion, Concepts or Ideas ??. Or even want to apply then please visit:
Race-away.weebly.com

Thanks for reading, Kamikazi Uk.

Post comment Comments
Armageddon104
Armageddon104 - - 3,128 comments

Congrats! :D I hope you get a better modeler though... :/

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

We have same modeller along with some better models which we are going to be creating plus we have 4 other modellers wanting to join.

Thanks for comments :D.

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chris_sloany
chris_sloany - - 2,830 comments

sweet! indie games r awesome! hope everything goes well. and if there were enough ppl playing this mod would be really awesome as is. but years until indie realease :(
but hey as long as you can produce quality work, then its allll goooood! ;)

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THElastNINJA
THElastNINJA - - 920 comments

Oh,good for you guys :) Congratz :)
Alot of mod teams deserve money.I wish i could pay for some of the mods myself.I haven't tried your mod yet, but i wish you guys good luck :=)

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

Thanks for great comments :D.

We really are going to do everything a lot different. We plan to probley get the mod finished in 1 year max 2 years as i'm going to uni in about 1 - 2 years so need to try get it done by then hopefully. We arn't rushing anything though and getting it all polished and nice.

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THElastNINJA
THElastNINJA - - 920 comments

Yeah :) Don't rush it.Polishing sounds great :) I'll keep an eye up for you guys and spread the word, so you might get some new fans :=)
Good luck with the project.

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Surfa
Surfa - - 31 comments

"terrible engine for modding for as you need to write atleast 800 lines of code just to fix a damn bug in the code"

What the hell this is completely wrong in every way, source is a great engine for modding. First of it runs straight out the box (with some slight setting up, which is expected from such a massive engine)you also get access to all the code you need to create pretty much any type of mod you can think of.

If you struggled with source you are going to have a hell of a time coding an engine from scratch. But whatever I wish you luck anyway although I disagree with your reasoning to move away from the source engine.

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

Well many people say source is great etc but it's not we didn't enjoy coding in it at all with so many things having to take awhile to look through all the files just to find 1 line of code and just so many things going wrong and having to code a lot just to make custom modes etc. We arn
t making a engine from scratch it's XNA and a built engine which mates almost done with so we are mainly just coding the game specifics not all the engine.

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Surfa
Surfa - - 31 comments

Please stop stating your opinion like it is fact. Source is one of the best and most open engines for modding. Secondly I think you take for granted all the code that source already gives you. The engine you are moving to will feel bare compared to source. I hope your friend is a great coder because to get to the standard of source he will have had to code from scratch a networking system, an entity factory, a weapon system and a gui system. Also by moving to XNA you pretty much have made all your level designers obsolete unless your friend has managed to code a vbsp rendering system into XNA as well or has made use of a similar system like the quake 3 format and radiant. If not you will have to make all the maps from scratch in-side a modeling program.

This isn't a personal attack by any means I just don't believe you understand what you are getting yourselves into. As before I wish you good luck. Also I hope your coder knows c# as well a c++ as XNA uses c# as its programming language.

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PhyOS
PhyOS - - 233 comments

"Well many people say source is great etc but it's not" It IS. That you say it is not, doesn't mean it's not. The problem are your programmers, not Source.
Oh, and good, have I got to be happy because you will do the game for XBOX 360 when I haven't got that console? No. Anyway, I hope you have the best of luck.

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

Btw. The engine already has a bsp export so we can use our original maps using radiant. The engine is almost as good as quake 3. The engine has networking, shaders, lighting and many other things. The engine is very advanced and is being used on 6 projects already.

The source engine sucks we all hated using it. It's our opinion know need to be bothered you may like it we don't was a pain in the ***.

Also the coders all know both c++ and c# so we have done everything already with planning everything down to the tiny little things. We arn't going to be finishing it soon but we have a good framework up already we arn't starting totally from scrach.

Thanks for your comments though :P.

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

You should read before you comment "PhyOS" xD. We are releasing on both xbox 360 and pc.

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PhyOS
PhyOS - - 233 comments

True, sorry (Yes, I did read the whole article, but I didn't see it). I really liked Varion, I translated and converted to a news of release in a spanish fan-webpage all your updates (an this article is what I'm going to). I hope this step you've decided to do is not to "go far" (I mean from the original players), but to "go better".

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

Hi,

Thanks for your comments phy0s. We learnt so much from this mod and know what failed and what succeeded. We are working super hard with more talanted members along with more planning, concept and hard work this time around.

Thanks, Kamikazi.

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bassi
bassi - - 125 comments

Ok i have been reading everything, and how can you expect to release to Xbox 360, PC in your own built from scratch engine when your first attempt at modding in the most versatile and easy to mod engine around was completely terrible? How do you expect to make any sales based on your work so far? My opinion will only change when i see some of your newer work on your indie game. Good luck i hope it all works out, this will be interesting to track at the least.

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Kamikazi[Uk] Author
Kamikazi[Uk] - - 1,412 comments

Hi,

Thanks for your comment Bassi. Varion was a really successful release for us we really achieved what we planned it out in the start. We have been through a huge learning process and really want to branch out and our mate has a fps engine using xna so we are using that. He will be our lead programmer along with me also programming. We have lernt alot and this time we can use peer-to-peer networking and use custom rigs. We already got quite abit content done for the game along with two really big documents. We are planning some really intresting features which make us more unquie.

You won't be disapointed we are keeping the game kinda secret media wise untill we got alot to show.

Thanks, Kamikazi.

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Nilghai Creator
Nilghai - - 885 comments

work is going so fast!
Team Race Away is on fire ;)

we will show media soon :)

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