THE INDIE DREAM
"The Indie Dream" was an incredible experience for the entire team. It allowed us to connect with KickStarter as well as our entire audience and give an extremely intimate glimpse as to who we are, what we do - and what we want to change. It also allowed us to show you tons of never-before-seen artwork, footage and information. It's 5 and a half minutes - and it's completely worth it!
CARRIER REVEAL TRAILER
We spent quite a few weeks redesigning The Carriers (human race) armor. We completely scrapped the old designs and went back to the drawing board with quite a few concept artists. We re-defined the style and aesthetics and came up with something that blew us all away.
We were heavily influenced by the small panel and modular designs of Isaac in Dead Space as well as the more near-body style featured in Mass Effect. But the overall touch was heavily influenced by many different iterations of the Iron Man armor. It all came together in one beautiful new character featuring the best of all worlds.
ALTAIR REVEAL TRAILER
When we went back to the humans - we also took it upon ourselves to redefine the ever-mysterious Alien race in the game - The Altair. This is one of the coolest races ever invented and we drafted a trailer together to match that level of awesome-sauce. We stuck closer to the original designs (more-so than we did with the Carriers) and just perfected the elements that were missing. You will be learning more about the Altair in the coming months - but not too much more - so try and catch as much as you can:
"BE THE VOICE" (Win an NVIDIA GTX 480!)
We recently announced an incredible new competition. We love our community - and we love interacting with them. What we love even more is finding new inventive and creative ways of including you guys into the game development as well as hooking you up with awesome rewards.
Thanks largely to my girlfriend for the incredible idea - we are now letting you (competition goes until April 1st, 2011) have the opportunity to not only become one (of 10) official "Game Announcers" for ORION - but also hooking you up with free copies of ORION: Prelude, access to the Multiplayer Beta, signed artwork, digital soundtracks, T-shirts - and one lucky winner will receive a brand new NVIDIA GTX 480 video card!
GEODE & REACTOR RE-MAKE LEVELS REVEALED
On top of revealing characters - we also revealed two remakes of fan-favorite maps from our previous experimental title - 'Geode' and 'Reactor'. Fans will instantly recognize key areas of these environments - and also the insanely beautiful new visuals that accompany them. Click below to check out more of them:
"DINOSAURS IN 3D"
Speaking of incredible announcements - we are extremely thrilled about one of the more recent ones. While we haven't released many details about it yet, we are going to be releasing an incredible 5-minute long 3D video - with dinosaurs.
This will be running in real time with the technology behind ORION: Prelude. We will be showcasing not only incredible graphics, environments and dinosaurs - but doing it with the power of 3D. Thanks to NVIDIA, this video will make the most out of the 3D Vision Technology. This will be released this summer before the PC Multiplayer Beta (Orionprelude.com)
CARRIER & ALTAIR WEAPONS REVEALED
Not only did we reveal the characters and new environments - but also the new weapons for each race. Like the armor counterparts - we spent just as much time and attention towards redesigning all of the weapons for both the Carriers and the Altair.
This included defining each weapons personality as well as the overall style for each of the race's weaponry, items, grenades and vehicles. Check all released designs below:
ORION: SOURCE ON DESURA
We were extremely pleased to announce that our previous experimental prototype was also accepted and released on Desura - the indie way of downloading and playing games. This allows a much easier way of obtaining the game, playing the game and staying connected. We encourage all current ORION: Source players to upgrade to this method as it allows for automatic updates and patches.
KICKSTARTER - GAMEPLAY REVEAL (TRAILER)
When we kicked off the KickStarter promotion - we kicked it off with a bang. We showcased tons of gameplay footage from one of the early builds here at Spiral. We demonstrated the ideas and functions that we wanted to bring together in a virtual gaming environment.
This game build was created only in 6 weeks - and it showcased the vehicles, the jetpacks, the dinosaurs. We have been hard at work since then and cannot wait to show you what we have been cooking. For now, enjoy this:
INTERVIEWS & PREVIEWS & PRESS
Over the course of this event we did tons of press. We participated in a handful of interviews, contributed towards plenty of previews - and supplied game sites all over the web with tons of exclusive media. We encourage you read them as they contain massive amounts of relevant information:
ROCK, PAPER, SHOTGUN:
Rockpapershotgun.com
OXCGN:
Oxcgn.com
MULTIPLAYER.IT:
Multiplayer.it
THUMB CULTURE:
Thumb-culture.com
GETTING READY FOR GDC
So enough of the already posted content. We want to show you something new. While we are not allowed to show you TOO much (yet) - we wanted to give you a glimpse at some of the Alien weaponry that is floating around in the game right now. We have a lot to show for GDC - and many people to show it too. We have tons of meetings lined up thanks to all of your support. We cannot wait to get back and share everything else under the hood. Until then, enjoy this:
KICKSTARTER - AND REWARDS
We cannot thank you all enough for the support and contributions you have made. We have not only exceeded our pledged amount - but with your help we were able to reach out to and attract new fans and meet new friends.
As for gifts, which I am sure all of you are curious about. We will be gearing up and creating these gift packages in March. The funds from KickStarter will help finance these gift packages - so we must wait until we have said finances before we can start creating some of it.
The funds will hit the company bank accounts in early March and we will be getting into contact with every single one of you as well as posting updates on our main site. By the end of March and early April we will have hoped to ship out all available (not the games or betas) gifts and rewards. If you have ANY questions about this, please email:
kickstarter@spiralgamestudios.com
nice
Awesome
awesome
Loving it
can't support you if you dont use paypal
Probably my only complaint towards KickStarter - however it is not there fault.
Right now, Amazon Business is the only e-pay site that allows KickStarter to do "pledges" - where you pledge an amount and it doesn't take it out of your account until the very end.
However, once KickStarter is over our normal donation system will be back online - and it uses PayPal.
great news, except for 3D Vision... I tried other games that are using it, and I wasn't impressed at all. So, unless you are making it supa-dupa-mega-cool, it's just a plus, without anything special... And maybe even time consuming for nothing (I don't really know how you impliment it, etc).
Already preordered the Gold Edition =)
The technology is great. There are quite a few awesome technology demonstrations that I have that really push that technology. The problem is, that it all depends on the developer. There are a few games that really utilize it nicely, others are sloppy integrations and are more of a headache than a joy.
It's relatively easy, and NVIDIA will be assisting us the entire way.
While it's for a limited crowd (not a huge population having access to 3D tech yet) - it is definitely worth it when it's done right.
Let me know if you want some of the 3D tech demos I have - email me at dprassel@spiralgamestudios.com
it's ok, thanks for the invite tho :)
I would prefer to see the final product at once =)
I'm somewhat unfamiliar with Kickstarter.. It seems the project funding ends in six hours? I don't have any cash right now.. But give me a month or two and I would absolutely donate in excess of a thousand dollars. Hope I can still snag some of those nice perks by then too. :P
Nevertheless, I'd try to make such a donation anyway. I've forever been a proponent of free DLC and simply playing to the players, it and it sounds like exactly what you guys are doing. I wish to do it myself at a later date, but I have no qualms about putting my money where my mouth is in the here and now.
Hey Mataro,
It is true - the Kick Starter promotion ends in roughly 5 hours. It was a huge 30 day event. While the KickStarter rewards were specific to the Kick Starter promotion - our normal donation system will be going back online (uses PayPal) once Kick Starter ends.
We will offer other incentives in the future and are always happy to talk one on one and work directly with you to gauge some package and reward ideas.
If you would like to talk, feel free to email personally at:
dprassel@spiralgamestudios.com
Haha, glad to hear to it. I truly want to help out, but I only just noticed the event today.. With currently no more than $2.35 to my name, and none of that on credit.. There is little I can do. I hate to sound like I'd only give money if it gave me some sort of edge. And in fact, if the unique weapons are just generally better than everything else available to other players, I wouldn't want them. It's just nice to get some extra content as a thank you. (Preordered Brink via Steam for instance, got a little bit of extra character customization.. Or Minecraft during alpha, with all future versions free. Both great ways to say thank you to players. Obviously, I wouldn't donate a thousand dollars to Splash Damage. They don't need it. But I know what it's like working independantly, and I know every bit helps.)
I'll definitely swing by when I've got the cash to give. If things turn out on my end, that should be in a month or two. Here's hoping things go well for both of us. :)
No doubt they will!
We look forward to talking - and we appreciate your support :)
When the dinosaur rams you with its head i think you should make it launch you off into the air spinning if in a vehicle and push you back a great distance if not. Just taking damage and having some sort of effect play on your hud gives it a static feel which wouldn't be so great :(
We agree with you - what was displayed was a pre-alpha. All that "neat" stuff comes once the foundation is done being laid out :)