What have we been up to?
January and February were a big 2 months for us. We mentioned in December that 2016 was a big year for us, and we’re happy to announce that we are all full-time on Prey for the Gods! We’ve been discussing and planning to do this since November and working around the clock as we prepare to take the plunge and go full-time with No Matter Studios and Prey for the Gods.
Why full-time?
Before our reveal trailer, we worked 10 pm-2 am every night. It was tough but manageable. However, after our trailer was released, we quickly were dealing with a lot more than we could handle part-time. We realized we needed to be putting in much more development time. Our efforts have been preparing our vertical slice build, which we are still tracking well with. With the little amount of time that Tim and Chien have been working full-time, we’ve seen a huge upswing in our rate of development. With Brian just recently going full time we’ll definitely see an uptick in his productivity too.
How are you going full-time? Are you funded?
Chien, Tim, and Brian are currently self-funding the development of Prey for the Gods.
Don’t you live in SF? How can you afford that?!
Random photo of Seattle, WA. Thank you, Google Image Search.
That’s the other big news. We moved! No Matter Studios is now a part of the Greater Seattle game dev community. Since we won’t be taking a salary and working from our savings for now we made the decision to move as the cost of living is much more reasonable. Not to mention, there is a solid group of game developers, both indie and AAA that we can work within this area.
All three of us had great jobs with great employers, and we’re grateful that they were so supportive of all of this. Thank you, Impulse Gear, and thank you, FunPlus!
No Matter Studios...er basement.
Brian is concepting it up. Tim is laying it out. Chien is making it work.
Previously, we had implemented the dynamic weather system. We also have adjusted the lighting system, which is now much easier to work with. This allows us to create sunsets, blizzards, and night looks. All of which visually explain to the player the state of their environment.
Another focus has been the refinement of our feedback on the player. As we continue to push for little to no UI we’ve realized that we need to be explicit with how the player shows their state in the game. Stamina, hunger, cold, and health are getting polished to better tell the player how they are doing.
We’ve also been making some refinements to our climbing and character controller. It’s under the hood, and the good news is that it’s feeling even tighter than before.
Art-wise we’ve been working on some new enemies, both big and small. We’ll show them when they are ready, but they are pretty sweet even in their WIP state. The best part is they are no longer red balls!
Vertical Slice Update (In Progress)
- Day/night cycle - Polish
- Campfire system - Review
- Resource system - First Pass
- Expanded exhaustion system - Polish
- Improved bow/arrow controls - Polish
- Enemy/player interaction and stealth - First Pass
- Climbing system - Further Polish
- Additional weapon design - First Pass
- Enemy Art - Polish
- Enemy Animation - Review
Started = Code/Art/Design has begun
Rough = You can see or test the results in the game
First Pass = Feature is checked in-game and available but has bugs
Review = Feature is completed and ready for team review to decide what the next steps are. (ie, further polish)
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Want more content?!
We had a great Q&A session with OnlySP and another article from Golden Cartridge. Brian also sat down for a lengthy discussion with some old friends at the Character Art Podcast. He explains how he got into the industry and Prey for the Gods.
Character Art Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AREQ7Uie1Cs
Only SP Interview
http://www.onlysp.com/prey-for-the-gods-interview/
Golden Cartridge Preview
http://thegoldencartridge.com/indie-preview-prey-for-the-gods/