Occasional Status Update #1 news

It's been a while since I've posted any status updates on ModDb, if you want more consistent updates join the Discord.

Anyway, let's begin!

First off, I've been preparing assets for Chapter 2 and planning out the entirety of the mod. I now have a general idea of how the mod will play out. There will be 15 Chapters, including the Credits. That's a lot for a mod, but it's meant to be on the same scale as Opposing Force and Blue Shift, more Blue Shift, and while that seems a little ambitious, that will be easier with help. So first off, a reminder that we need more team members. We currently need:

Lead Programmer

I've learned some programming for TVE, and completed certain things I'll describe shortly, but we need someone more experienced.

Level Designer

For the Black Mesa areas in the majority of the mod, the quality would be greatly improved by an experienced level designer

Mappers

We need mappers to help, once again, with the Black Mesa areas.

Sound Designer

We need a sound designer to help areas feel more living.

Assistant Texture Artist

For now, I do the majority of the textures, but progress would be sped up if I had help.

With all that said, let's get to the fun parts.

Second off, let me describe what I've accomplished on the programming side of things.

I've reimplemented the Bullsquid, which is actually Valve's code.

I've coded and implemented the Vortigaunt Shock weapon.

I've begun to code the Hivehand weapon, the Alien Controller NPC, and the Alien Grunt NPC. The Grunt will use repurposed code from the HL2 Combine Soldier.

I've mostly learned to recognize what it is code from Valve's stuff does and repurpose it for my own stuff. It isn't ideal, but I'm learning.

Now, for the main event, here's what I've accomplished in terms of assets:

As you'll see, I've revamped the textures and materials for all the creatures.

The main creature, the Veritable Vortal Visionary, the Vortigaunt.

The Bullsquid has been given various skins to reflect it's look throughout different eras of its look in Half-Life's development. The first is HL1, the second is the HL1 alpha, the third the HL2 Beta, the fourth the Amphibious Bullsquid from somewhere in HL2's development.

The Headcrab. Aside from general improvement, I changed it to be more yellow, idea courtesy of Daburubareru.

The Alien Grunt, the brute force manpower behind the Nihilanth's army.

Based more off Black Mesa's Alien Grunt than HL1's, made to look more related to a Vortigaunt.

The Alien Controller, the brains of the operation. Or, the crystal pyramid inside a head of the operation, anyway.

Finally, a preview of the revamp of the canyon itself, you'll see it when Chapter 2 releases, probably sometime in June or July.

Thanks for reading.

I know it's been a while since Chapter 1, but it is just me working on it right now. I'd really appreciate it, if you have the skills to help, please reach out. The wait probably won't always be this long, even without extra help. There are certain things you have to do at the beginning of development you don't have to at the middle or the end.

Signing off for now, Konxovar, lead developer of Through Vortal Eyes.