Spiral Game Studios - Opens Doors to Public
CHICAGO, IL — Aug. 11, 2010 — Spiral Game Studios Inc, a brand new independent gaming developer announces the opening of its doors to the community. Founded on over a decade of research & design and product development, Spiral Game Studios currently has 5 unique game series that will span a variety of game titles. We will be entering the industry with our flagship gaming series, ‘ORION’.
“Spiral Game Studios is a brand new independent gaming endeavor. With our studios first series, we intend to bring the joy, excitement and competitive nature back to the action / FPS genre. With years of research and design, we’ve developed core values that we will abide by: intuitive gameplay, tight controls, frustration-free designs and competitive skill-based challenge. While these were common in the classics that we grew up on [early Counter-Strike Betas, Quake 2 CTF, Starsiege: Tribes, Unreal Tournament (1999)], they seem more far and thin these days. We are going to bring it back with our flagship series, ‘ORION’.”
-DAVID PRASSEL, CEO / Founder of Spiral Game Studios and Creator / Lead Game Designer on ORION.
ORION is a fast-paced, first person shooter with a heavy emphasis on team-based, multiplayer play. The game is set on three distinct worlds, two of which have been revealed: Earth and Orion. Each world has its own unique art styles associated with them allowing us to really explore and get creative. Earth is in a post-apocalyptic stage after centuries of warfare. Orion is a beautiful, lush, infant Earth which also happens to house living dinosaurs.
“When attempting to create what is to be a “successful” game, you cannot only take into account the features, design and mechanics, but you must also take in account for human psyche – what the person is thinking when playing the game, what we want them to think when playing the game. This pertains to all aspects of the game -ranging from how the player moves in the game, how they navigate through menus as well as how every aspect compliments another.”
-DAVID PRASSEL, CEO / Founder of Spiral Game Studios and Creator / Lead Game Designer on ORION.
ORION is an extremely rich, complex and cinematic game series. We've developed over 12,000 years of back story pertaining to the ORION universe. There are many stories, events, characters, mysteries and secrets that will be unfolding over the course of ORION and this is just the beginning. We've spent years refining, redesigning and nailing everything until it all fit seamlessly with one another.
"Spiral Game Studios is making more then a splash... its a waterfall. Seeing what this team has created, and in such short time, is really something to behold. I'm seeing barriers and limitations being broken, and I'm seeing real innovation. Spiral's a team of gamers, doing what they love in full bloom: making games."
-MARCUS ZUHR, Lead Audio Engineer of Spiral Game Studios.
Spiral Studios is here to serve our fans. We like to keep them in the loop, with news and updates tailor made to pique their curiosity and arouse their interest. We love talking to our fans and we understand that they are the engine that keeps us developing with such energy.
“We’re a team that has played games, loved games, and understand games. We study the fundamentals of design, and we attempt to better understand abstract concepts like “fun.” We know that any group of passionate gamers can attempt to make a game, but if they don’t understand the basics of what makes a game easy to control and fun to play, they are doomed to fail or at best, fade to mediocrity.”
-KYLE HADLEY, Lead Level Designer of Spiral Game Studios.
SPIRAL GAME STUDIOS - ANNOUNCES 'ORION: PRELUDE'
Today officially marks the announcement of our next endeavor; ORION: Prelude. We are proud to reveal this new title to all of you. We’ve been busy establishing the foundation on it since the beginning of the year. While it is still only in a pre-alpha state, we are currently gearing up for an early 2011 release tentatively targeted and scheduled for the Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network and STEAM gaming platforms.
ORION: Prelude is a fast-paced Sci-Fi First-Person-Shooter. It features a retro-vibe, addictive gameplay and an insane amount of features and content. ORION: Prelude pays homage to other classics that we grew up on that entertained us as gamers as well as inspired us as developers. You will see inspiration from classics such as the Unreal Tournament series, Quake 2 CTF, Starsiege: Tribes, early Counter-Strike betas and plenty of our own unique takes and twists in the design and mechanics. With only a first glance at ORION: Prelude, you will know that this is a game being made by gamers.
ORION: Prelude will have a TON of content and a large feature set. We’ve stepped up on the technology front and ORION: Prelude will now be powered by the Unreal 3 technology. We’ve evolved and fine tuned all aspects of gameplay using the Source Beta as a sandbox and foundation. We’ve not only fleshed out the features list, but the game itself.
So far we are announcing the following content that will be shipping with ORION: Prelude:
FEATURE SET:
-MULTIPLAYER ONLY
-TWO INTERACTIVE GAME MODES
ORION: Prelude will feature the first appearance of the much anticipated game mode, ‘VITAL’. We are also bringing back ‘LOCKDOWN CTF’.
-30 WEAPONS, ITEMS AND GRENADES
ORION: Prelude is shipping with a vast armory, ranging with both alien weaponry and human fire arms.
-7 MULTIPLAYER LEVELS
ORION: Prelude will be shipping with 7 multiplayer environments. These will be much more beautiful, larger, and interactive.
-VEHICULAR COMBAT
Making its first official public appearance in Orion will be vehicle combat. There will be 6 vehicles featured in Prelude, 3 per team.
-DINOSAUR INTERACTION
Another much anticipated feature will also be making its debut – the lovely dinosaur element. Prelude will feature the T-Rex and will be based on a variety of scripted sequences mixed with artificial intelligence. There will be plenty of ways to interact with them, them to each other, them to structures and plenty more. We will be further covering this element of the game later in development.
In case you are not familiar with Orion – feel free to check out the Official Trailer for ORION: Source Multiplayer Beta. This product was a free downloadable game built as a modification for Valve Software’s Source engine. Fans of the product were able to witness the beginnings and foundation of where we were taking the series. The video can be found on our companies official YouTube channel at:
Youtube.com
OFFICIAL ORION: PRELUDE MEDIA
VIEW HD VERSION: Orion-project.net
VIEW HD VERSION: Orion-project.net
VIEW HD VERSION: Orion-project.net
VIEW HD VERSION: Orion-project.net
VIEW HD VERSION: Orion-project.net
SPIRAL GAME STUDIOS @ PAX SEATTLE 2010
PRESENTING THE OFFICIAL TEASER TRAILER FOR 'ORION: PRELUDE'
Spiral Game Studios will be at PAX Seattle 2010 this year. We are going to be premiering the first official teaser trailer for ORION: Prelude. The trailer will be available for download on the company website on Saturday, September 4th, 2010.
CONNECT WITH SPIRAL GAME STUDIOS
We have launched across a variety of networks and will be filling in the rest in the next couple of weeks. We are proud to present our new home over at [ Spiralgamestudios.com ]. Book mark that site as we will be regularly updating.
The website also houses a network of portals, including:
We look forward to releasing more details as the weeks approach. We are looking forward to PAX and are hoping we get to run into a few of you. Hopefully this awesome desktop wallpaper can hold you guys off until then - available in all shapes and sizes:
HIGH DEFINITION:
1280x720
1920x1080
2560x1440
WIDESCREEN:
1280x800
1440x900
1680x1050
1920x1200
2560x1600
FULLSCREEN:
1024x768
1280x960
1400x1050
1600x1200
Until next time,
Love,
The SGS Developers.
I shat brix.
Same
That's so awesome, looking forward to that game a lot! :D
(buried)
halo with dinosaurs
nope
stop voting his comment positive guys
yeah of course people supporting it are being downvoted
morons
Woot i'm a moron ^_^, ahh feels good to know my true self.
(buried)
yeah pretty much
Didn't see that coming! xD Nah, I did and I think it's a wonderful choice. And now that all this is out there, I'd like to share with you lead me to believe that there would be an Unreal version. And none of you believed me...
Forums.epicgames.com
- This page had all the information until it was wiped, including that giant picture with the dinos, yet no one believed me.
Game-artist.net
- Another page that had it all.
- There was even a Youtube video at some point, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
Justinsuperty.com
- And this is pretty good evidence considering everything else has been deleted.
And I had all this info for about a month now, and that was before Praz deleted it all. I'm assuming that was because others had also found out. And he quietly took them out. :P
The most expected reveal but still fking awesome, screens look beautiful as well.
Eh, this post smells like you're trying to be up there with the big boys while you're nothing more than a mod team that decided to go a step further, making the same mistakes as them in the process...
It's not that I'm ******, because I don't play Orion anymore and am not planning to (because of the dinosaurs, to be honest), but this is more fun when somebody comes in and ***** allover everything.
Good luck and I hope you have fun and make lots of money, though.
I knew it, told you as well! Either way, I'm always very proud to see modders entering the indie arena, and you guys are definitely going to do well, it seems you have a great plan, and a great team. I look forward to supporting your guys game, and I wish you the best of luck!
I support this, and my ps3 does as well.
I knew it...
Will you still be updating the MOD?
My god. You guys a ******* ace.
Looks gorgeous.
Bravo; Very well done. :)
Eh... I preferred source over Unreal 3. Whatever, good luck with that I guess, I just probably won't be playing it now that it's switched over to that engine.
Looks great! I wish you the best of luck.
Graphics look amazing. But to be honest I don't see myself purchasing it.
IMO (and I know many will disagree with me, but thats the beauty of an opinion after all) it looks like to much of a Halo clone with jetpacks and dinosaurs.
I mean what really sets this game apart? I know you guys want to get back to the classic feel of the FPS genre, but honestly many have tried and have failed. You can boast about the number of weapons and the fact that it includes vehicles (which no classic fps really had) and dinosaurs but it all really comes down to the game play which if its anything like the multiplayer beta will grow old fast.(Especially if you only keep 2 game modes and 7 maps)
It would also be nice to know if you intend to back this game up with developer support after the first year of release or will you move on to the next in your series.
You actually raise a very valid concern and I don't think people would be wrong to agree with you (to an extent).
You're right about being concerned if we will cease development on our next title as we did with the Source Multiplayer Beta - but you must also take into account that at the same time, we were in the middle of launching a company as well as a more polished product to launch with. Due to various contracts that we are tied to and have out, we were left with no choice but to cease development and focus entirely on the new product (we were doing parallel development on both for 6 months - I was heading both BECAUSE I wanted the Source Multiplayer Beta to continue).
However, in terms of what sets it apart - the experience as a whole. This is really a game being made by gamers, and we are very humbled to see the community reaction to ORION: Prelude agree with it. They are excited about all of the features - the jetpacks, the mechs, the dinosaurs, the fighter jets, the classes - it's insanity. It's a gamers wet dream and we are very happy that we were able to tap into it.
[CONT'D]
However, regarding the actual Source Multplayer Beta, which in its current state was very in-complete (no alien weapons, lacking GUI, no particle effects, and tons of other reasons), there also was a lot of good things as well. Players were able to get a glimpse of the foundation of the game, the mechanics, the early versions of the weapon system and addictive player vs player combat. While not everyone will like every game, a lot of players would even have fun in simple 1v1 matches - and in my personal opinion, you only have a good FPS when it still remains fun in 1v1 matches, and all of the games I listed in the press release share this (as well as some more recent ones such as Gears of War, most Halo's, etc).
I disagree about it getting old. The Source Multiplayer Beta had 12 weapons, and 2 classes really (not fleshed out). ORION: Prelude will feature larger, more detailed, more interactive game modes on much more interactive game modes. On top of this you have the combination of 3 teams (with all the models, particle effects, abilities, etc), with 6 unique player classes and load outs mixed with the insanity of vehicle combat, mechs and then dinosaurs roaming around. There will be much more meat on the bones of ORION: Prelude that will help the pacing of the actual gameplay.
And one last note - about the game support. We are going to be significantly backing our games. We have all intentions of releasing huge updates with free DLC (game made by gamers), tool kits and SDK's, and a variety of other ways to extend the life of each game.
Hope that helped clear a few things up ;)
Thanks for the speedy response and yes it sure did help clear up a few things :)
Hurray for free DLC! However, there remains one question: will I be able to play as the T-Rex?
No - players cannot play as dinosaurs. They are based on a mix of both artificial intelligence and scripted sequences. They will be AWESOME!
about the 1v1, that is so true. My friend is a huge PC gamer, back to the good 'ol LAN days. And he considers the great games where you can just have a LAN part with around 4 people and still have good fun with the game. While Orion crashed for me and I never got to play it, it looks pretty fun. I personally hate source (being a source mapper myself) and honestly see some GREAT source mods yet I sit there thinking "if only this mod moved to the UDK/Unreal 3 engine..."
best of luck to you all. I really don't think I can justify purchasing this (unless it's like blacklight [$15] then maybe) but I'm skimpy when it comes to games and paying for them, but after a few gameplay videos I may be wrong, either way, best of luck to you all and I hope any companies that set up contracts and whatnot still let you keep creativity. What I see happen so many times is great developers (sierra to name one) be bought out and then scrapped, leaving their creative titles to never continue or see sequels...
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL
I felt bad not having the specs to play this but xbox live arcade?! Definite buy
[update] just saw it will be and XBLA game, while I don't have an xbox I know that those are the smaller and cheaper games, when I get my job and this game comes out, I just might buy it :]
It will definitely be priced accordingly - don't worry.
You must remember, we originated in the modding / indie world - a free world. We're not going to be *** raping any of you on prices - in fact we just publicly stated that all DLC for ORION: Prelude will be FREE!
Holy mother.
I was expecting this, but at the same time I wasn't expecting this.
Mind blown.
Apart.
To mars.
Good thing it's on Live, my computer would die if I tried to play Prelude on it. Looking good, can't wait!
sooooooooo......now its gonna cost money? XD
AWESOME!!! :D I absolutely cannot wait for the full experience! :) Go Praz and Spiral Game Studios team! :D I will get this on pc and xbla! Dinosaurs rule! :)
Paying money is ok, as long as u guys produce a good quality money-worth game. But, many people do not like to "pay" for something that's quite similar with something else-and something that just does not look like money-worthy. At least one thing for sure, the quality of the present state of this game is incomprehensive to be paid. But despite of all these , I am glad that someone got a job, which you can enjoy to work on.