Welcome to the Exodus Bi-Weekly Update #3 where we talk about new updates and what is going on with the team and their work. This week we have had a lot of work going on behind the scenes which will be evident in our update. Before we begin I have some bad news. In our last update we promised a custom pine tree pack to be released. Unfortunately we hit a snag while doing some optimization and we’ll have to delay the release of the pine tree pack until our next update. So it’ll be a bit longer but to show you our progress here is a work in progress screenshot of the trees.
Now that we have that out of the way I bet you all want to see some new media. Our first piece is some concept art created by Ursca. The goat is used for necessities such as food and clothing. The goat is probably one of the most commonly seen animals in Exodus. Next we have some religious artifacts drawn by Zamolxis. Since our villagers are a religious group of people they have created these artifacts of worship along common trails to be used for reflection and offering. Now, for the first time, we have some of our first in-game shots besides the trees. Naturally the village will need tools to farm so we have created several props for farming such as shovels and forks. We have also included some hay piles which will also help dress the scene in the village.
Lastly we have our 2nd developer journal this time written by Orange Duck discussing Episode 1.
Developer Journal #2-Episode One
Chapter 1 will be firmly structured around your characters presence within a migrating caravan. You will begin as a normal hunter and gradually through the episode you will be granted more responsibility and decision making power in the group. You will be faced with many different challenges and to ensure the caravan survives you need to make sure that you make a good decision. Failure to do so will weaken the caravan, putting your own life, and the life of others, in danger. The creatures and enemies you face in this chapter will be hard to kill and they are only half of the story - starvation, warmth and disease will all have to be countered. Having your caravan hunters nearby will allow you to kill creatures more easily so building up relationships with the other members of the caravan will be essential. Micromanaging the caravan will be important throughout the episode as all resources are scarce. You don’t want your best fighters dying or turning against you.
The idea behind Exodus' gameplay is freedom and choice. There are duties that need to be done and choices that need to be made at key situations. The player has the option to do any of the roles in the caravan, this can range from navigation at night by the stars to the everyday hunting and gathering that needs to be done.
We don't want to force the player to do parts of the game which he dislikes, if you hate gathering food other members of the caravan will fulfill the other roles by themselves. Saying this, there is no point hunting when you already have enough food stockpiled and the caravan is falling apart because you cannot find enough scrap wood to fix the broken parts. Leaving the worst or menial jobs to all the other people will break down relationships but letting a member perform a role many times may help them improve or master it. Equally the player won't have the option to simply laze around and do nothing all day. Other characters will pick up on this and you might find yourself on your own in an attack or even outlawed from the party.
As the migration continues the player must be wary. In the harsh world of the Exodus people will look out for themselves, corruption of the leaders of the caravan, or backstabbing from friends for that extra food are certainly possible. The ability to judge characters well will be essential.
Overall we want the experience of Chapter 1 (the snow plains) to be tense, cinematic and social. A move away from the “one man against the world” of Crysis.
-Orange Duck
In conclusion, expect to see the pine tree pack in our next update and be sure and visit our website to talk with the other developers and share your input with the rest of the Exodus fans! If you are interested in joining our team we are in need of a Flowgraph Programmer and an animator. Visit our contact page on our website to apply.
Hope you enjoyed the update and until next time...
- VertigoSFX
Damn, those pine trees look great! Just add rain and you'll make the perfect North American West Coast outdoors mod :P
Definately waiting on this. Man I feel so bad for console gamers. They don't even understand what mods are! They are robbed of the real gaming experience. Customization! :D There so damn stupid.
although i am a console gamer, it doesnt mean that were stupid! i mean sure there are modifications to the PC games but think about the games consoles have that PC doesnt? seriously just because i play on consoles doesnt mean we get ripped off, we have exclusive titles too!
I plused one, but rly this is neither the time nor the place. Don't thread hi-jack.
Improving all the time guys... brilliant tree pack, give a very realistic atmosphere to the whole map with the light fog.
looks like something that could be very good, keep up the diary's, its a good incite into the workings.
Looks great and the idea is very promising.
Tracking :)
That is some stunning work.
And as Henley said, keep up the diaries becase they are good incite into the workings.
great stuff, it's nice to see a great engine being used for something other than a shootemup.
Thanks for the comments everyone. We'll definitely be keeping up the developer journal because if there is one thing I had personally learned from following mods over the years before I joined Exodus, I always wished I knew more about the progress of the mod and how things worked "behind the scenes."
Vertigo...you've only learnt one thing over the years? ;) Whatever it is you learnt, you've learnt the right thing :)
The trees look great, and so does the concept art. But the textures on the tools gotta be WIPs, right?
they do look like WIP's but good enough to be playable without being annoyed by them. Although that's coming from someone who enjoys any game no matter how bad the graphics :)
Ever played Trespasser, shite graphics, great fun gameplay, ever played Mount and Blade, great gameplay, behind times in graphics, but still incredibly good.
Everything is still considered a work in progress and Otreum, that is funny you mentioned that because a lot of our team used to play and mod for Mount and Blade quite a bit and they are still active with the M&B community.
Ah great, it's such an addictive game, I think mainly for the fact that I havent seen melee combat in that era done properly yet.
But yeh, if you guys are heading where I think you're heading with your mod, this is going to be fantastic, i'm always for new things, and this mod is one of those new things.
I'm looking forward to the tree pack.
I could finally realize my Poland map.