By John on December 28th, 2009

We've uploaded another Overgrowth song to the soundtrack playlist on our YouTube channel. The songs are composed by the talented Mikko Tarmia and often feature Anton Riehl on the flute.

It is my pleasure to present Combat Track 3. Be sure to listen to it in HD.

The rhythm is quite ferocious and would definitely inspire me to run into battle against creatures higher on the food chain. The melody is soaked in desperation, indicating that perhaps time is running out. However, there are also trace playful elements which suggest that with a little luck, there might be a way to come out in one piece.

You can find the growing Overgrowth soundtrack playlist here.

(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Overgrowth-Soundtrack-Combat-3)

By John on December 28th, 2009

We've uploaded another Overgrowth song to the soundtrack playlist on our YouTube channel. The songs are composed by the talented Mikko Tarmia and often feature Anton Riehl on the flute.

It is my pleasure to present Combat Track 3. Be sure to listen to it in HD.

The rhythm is quite ferocious and would definitely inspire me to run into battle against creatures higher on the food chain. The melody is soaked in desperation, indicating that perhaps time is running out. However, there are also trace playful elements which suggest that with a little luck, there might be a way to come out in one piece.

You can find the growing Overgrowth soundtrack playlist here.

(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Overgrowth-Soundtrack-Combat-3)

Today only Killing Floor is on sale on Steam for 75% off - that's only $4.99 in the US (other territories will be 75% of the normal price as well). So if you don't have Killing Floor, or have friends that want to get Killing Floor, or want to buy Killing Floor for someone as a gift, now is the time to act!!! Head on over to the Steam store page now:

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/1250/">Killing Floor Steam Store Page</a>

Today only Killing Floor is on sale on Steam for 75% off - that's only $4.99 in the US (other territories will be 75% of the normal price as well). So if you don't have Killing Floor, or have friends that want to get Killing Floor, or want to buy Killing Floor for someone as a gift, now is the time to act!!! Head on over to the Steam store page now:

Killing Floor Steam Store Page

Week 3 of our Shattered Horizon competition has started. For details of this week's challenges and prizes and to see your progress towards qualifying go here: http://stats.shatteredhorizon.com/stats/competition/magnitudeResults.action

By John on December 27th, 2009

A while ago, David upgraded the old ragdoll system and linked it up to the rabbit guard mesh. So now when you push Alt-R (or Option-R on Mac) you can make ninja rabbits fall from the sky. By putting your mouse over a rabbit and holding right click, you can apply force and toss him around. I decided it was about time we featured our new and improved ragdolls in an informal video.

Be sure to watch it in HD.

In addition to the sweet dynamic shadows, you probably noticed that the ragdolls have been designed with realistic constraints. David was able to create those in-engine thanks to some advanced features in the rigging editor. In a future video I'll show how constraints can be applied to custom skeletons.

( Original page and pictures are available at: http://blog.wolfire.com/ )

By John on December 27th, 2009

A while ago, David upgraded the old ragdoll system and linked it up to the rabbit guard mesh. So now when you push Alt-R (or Option-R on Mac) you can make ninja rabbits fall from the sky. By putting your mouse over a rabbit and holding right click, you can apply force and toss him around. I decided it was about time we featured our new and improved ragdolls in an informal video.

Be sure to watch it in HD.

In addition to the sweet dynamic shadows, you probably noticed that the ragdolls have been designed with realistic constraints. David was able to create those in-engine thanks to some advanced features in the rigging editor. In a future video I'll show how constraints can be applied to custom skeletons.

( Original page and pictures are available at: http://blog.wolfire.com/ )

December 25th, 2009 by Jeff

Happy holidays from the Wolfire Team!
Happy holidays!
View the original

( Original page and pictures are available at: http://blog.wolfire.com/ )

December 25th, 2009 by Jeff

Happy holidays from the Wolfire Team!
Happy holidays!
View the original

( Original page and pictures are available at: http://blog.wolfire.com/ )

December 26th, 2009 by Jeff

Two weeks ago, John and I came back from our scholarship-sponsored trip to Game Connection in Lyon. Several of the companies we met in France are located here in the Bay Area and they were eager to have a more in-depth meeting. Among those were AMD, NVIDIA, and Havok.
AMD (A.M.D Advanced Micro Devices)
ATI / AMD HQ
ATI / AMD headquarters. Photography was prohibited, but I found this on Wikipedia.

Our first meeting was with AMD (owners of ATI). They were very generous with their seed hardware, giving us seven free ATI graphics cards to help us test compatibility and take advantage of new graphics features. Additionally, we made a few engineering contacts there who can help us with any graphics problems in Overgrowth as they come up. When the game is done, they will run a gamut of tests on supported graphics card configurations, and report any problems that they find.
ATI cards
Modest pile o' ATI cards in protective wrapping. An awesome Christmas present!
NVIDIA
NVIDIA HQ
Jeff and John at NVIDIA headquarters

We had an awesome meeting with NVIDIA. Unfortunately, we have an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) so I can't give you any juicy details yet. However, like ATI, several NVIDIA graphics cards are en-route and we have some new contacts there to answer questions and help resolve compatibility issues!
Havok
Havok HQ
Aubrey and Jeff: hanging with Havok.

Finally, we caught up with the Havok guys. We signed an NDA with them too, so we can't talk about that yet, either. We'll let you know more as soon as we can!

It is an awesome feeling sitting across from these super-professional guys -- who often have their walls covered with AAA titles or industry awards -- and being taken seriously. Kudos to these companies for giving us the benefit of the doubt even though we are scrappy-looking indie developers. We've still got a long way to go, but it's really motivating to have this level of support.

( Original page and pictures are available at: http://blog.wolfire.com/ )