Welcome along to the Absolute Territory Developer Diary for the month of December 2019. The last month has continued to bring more challenges as I work towards a release date. The road may be long but I can see whats on the horizon for that all important 1.0 release.
You can jump straight into the video dev diary or continue reading below the highlights of December's development.
Menu Music / Dynamic Music
Menu's are no longer a quiet and solem affair. A main title music is heard as you navigate around the menus or just enjoy the view as it pans around the great expanse.
Get into the game and you will hear the dynamic music system in action. No opponents around? Hear a gentle melody to sooth and calm your nerves as you traverse the cold deep reaches. Prepare yourselves when you hear that change, as an intense track kicks in when opponents appear. You will know when enemies are around by the played music, if you didn't notice them appear on your radar first.
Post Processing Effects
A further improvement to visual effects, post processing effects are now used. This includes Bloom (more shiny things and glare), Depth of Field (bringing the objects in and out of focus based on distance), Motion Blur (the faster an object passes by the blurrier it looks), and Chromatic Aberration (lens distortion around the edges of the screen).
You can turn these options on/off within the video options menu as you prefer.
Warp In and Warp Out Effects
Within the level editor you can spawn and de-spawn hostile and friendly fighters, though they would just pop in and out of existence. For immersion, a warp-in and warp-out effect has been added. They now look like they are actually entering and exiting the area fitting to a futuristic setting.
A larger playing field
The play area (nav points) have gotten a whole lot larger. Previously they were limited to a diameter of 10000m for the placement of items. Now you have an almost infinite area to be placing down items, within a scrollable area. Given the top speed of the fastest ship is not much more than 200m/s you should consider carefully just how big a playing field you will create.
Placement item editing options expanded
More options are available to edit for placed items (the same that are available when spawning in items using Conditional Actions). You now have more control over the items you place from Centimetre accurate positioning (including height adjustment) to user defined rotation and specific options relevant to that item only.
Closed Beta preparation
Towards achieving a 1.0 release I will be running a Closed Beta period. I expect this to happen before the end of Q1 2020 (by the end of April). The main goal of the Closed Beta will be to identify any issues that break gameplay and to gather suggestions for improvements.
If you are interested in joining the closed beta, stay tuned. When I have the plans in place I will post on here to gather willing participants who wish to help identify areas for polish and suggest features that will improve the level editor experience and gameplay.
Wishlist
Stay notified, If you'd rather wait to hear when Absolute Territory gets released, wishlist on Steam. If you are always looking for a bargain bin price, then wishlist to get notified for the eventual sale.
Closed Beta signup is now open. Fill in this form and you will receive more information closer to the event taking place.
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