500k+ combined views from our YouTube, IGN, and international review videos worldwide. We never thought we’d receive this level of exposure and interest in our little labor of love; it’s great! It’s also stressful as we never expected the level of scrutiny. However, we’re up for the challenge. With what little sleep we’ve had, we felt it necessary to get our newsletter out and talk with our new fans.
Why a newsletter?
For us, it’s an excellent way to showcase updates of our efforts to both our fans and interested press. We want to make the newsletter the perfect spot for someone that can’t spend every waking moment on Twitter and Facebook but wants all the info they can binge on in one easy to find spot.
So what will I get?
By signing up for our newsletter, you’ll receive:
– Exclusive development updates that are direct from the developers
– Exclusive desktop backgrounds, one per newsletter
– We’ll share links to interviews, and articles
– Early bird specials and deals before the public is aware!
Introductions!
You may have heard through the grapevine that No Matter Studios are 3 developers. Brian Parnell, Hung-Chien Liao, and Tim Wiese. While you may know our names, we figured it’d be helpful to give you more info about ourselves. So without further adieu.
Tim Wiese
I’m a hardcore PC gamer, but I also need my console fix. I’m a sucker for Steam sales, and I have probably close to 50 games that I haven’t even played yet.
My favorite game of all time would have to be Half-Life; it impacted me so much when I first played it. I loved that the story/cinematic moments didn’t pull you out of first-person view, and instead, you got to experience them from Gordon’s eyes.
I have been working in the games industry since 2009, starting off as an Environment Artist and over time I transitioned into Technical Artist/Tools Engineer, to what I do now which is mostly Engineering. My work in the games industry has taken me to both coasts of the U.S.A. In order I’ve worked at; High Voltage Software (Illinois), Tencent Boston/Stomp Games (Massachusetts), Music Mastermind (Los Angeles), and FunPlus (San Francisco).
Hung-Chien Liao
“I make the magic happen.” That’s all Chien wanted to say, mainly because the guy is too busy atm.
Brian Parnell
So that leaves me, Brian Parnell, you can check out my bio and interview at 80.lvl which is linked below. Briefly, I’ve been doing character art and direction for the past 11 years in games. On Praey for the Gods, I’m currently handling the high-level design, story, and character designs. As the game grows, I imagine this role will change as it’s a labor of love for all of us. One that we’re all contributing ideas to, which is really how great games are made.
What are we working on now?
Tim has been highly focusing on the next phase of development, which is our vertical slice. The reveal trailer we sent out was what I’d call our pitch build. Effectively, the core mechanics and mood. It was a build to prove to ourselves that we were capable of building this game, and the trailer was our pitch to you. Luckily, it looks like people liked it, so we’re now building our vertical slice. This will have many new features, notably our survival system, and Chien is focused on bolstering our AI. Currently, the boss relies on triggers and not a true line-of-site system. Updating the AI will allow for a more robust means to create emergent gameplay for the player for both friend or foe. In Prey for the Gods, loyalty is earned, not given away for free.
Vertical Slice
The second-to-second gameplay will be engineered and fleshed out in this pass. Consisting of:
– day/night cycle
– campfire system
– resource system
– expanded exhaustion system
– improved bow/arrow controls
– enemy/player interaction and stealth
There are some other features I’m leaving off for this list as we need more time to test before announcing. We’re still early in development so these systems may change but we feel like this is a solid set to move forward with.
We’ve received a TON of questions and we’ve created a FAQ which can be found here:
http://praeyforthegods.com/faq/
Want more?!
How about your Desktop Background, Interviews, and fan review/responses!
Exclusive Desktop Background
Right Click and ‘Save As’ to Download
Interviews
80 Level
http://80.lv/articles/prey-for-the-gods-the-game-of-battling-bosses/
We love your fan responses and reactions! Below is a couple we liked.Some are done in Russian, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. So if anyone is up for translating them, I’ll gladly send over the links I’ve found.
Hardcore Gamer
YouTube Fan responses
Bobdunga 92
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmIUVYR6u8
Friend And Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6QmA_jOlqY
Got questions/inquiries?
Feel free to send them to press@nomatterstudios.com.
We’ll do our best to answer them.
Thanks again for your support,
Brian, Tim and Chien
-No Matter Studios