Monthly Archives: December 2013

Pre-Alpha Demo Available Now!

eden star pre-alpha combat tech demo out now

The Pre-alpha Combat Tech Demo has been released!

This means everyone that has pre-ordered Eden Star will be be finding a download key in their inbox soon, and you’ll be able to play before Christmas!

“So, what will I be getting?”

Good question!

The Combat Tech Demo was designed to be a fully playable, enjoyable snapshot of the core game mechanics of Eden Star. You’ve got awesome physics-based combat, being able to throw around enemies like toys, blast them out of the air, throw one straight into another, and take them down by throwing crates at them.

You’ll be fighting the robotic Ika Drones. These training drones are programmed to attack you, your Eden Kit, and any gun turrets you build. Watch out for their ramming attacks, and when they land, their automatic weapons can do a lot of damage!

The Ika Drones will attack in waves, giving you a little time in between in which you can gather minerals, repair your base and your Eden Kit, construct defences and prepare for the next!

 

 

You’ve got a basic version of our Construction system, enabling you to materialise structures with ease, using resources manufactured from the minerals you’ve gathered throughout the destructible world.

 

 

Our Cornerstone mechanic allows you to place blocks at any angle, so you can build complex structures at any orientation!

You can also build powerful gun turrets to defend your Eden Kit. These robotic sentry turrets will track and destroy any Ika Drones within their range, so long as there are resources in your Eden Kit to power them!

 

 

You have a slow-mo ability, enabling you to perform amazing feats of John Woo-style slow-motion carnage!

You have a range of freerunning abilities; able to mantle up destructible environment without limitations, using wall-running to cross large gaps, fighting as you power-slide your way to victory!

 

 

Eden Star is not your typical first-person-shooter, so we have included a tutorial to show you what you can do, and how, using both keyboard and mouse, and controller. Control mapping can be viewed at any time in the menu.

 

A warning before you play, however: The Combat Tech Demo is Pre-alpha, and as such, may still have some bugs. We have tested and refined as much as time allows, and we’re confident that the game runs smoothly on most systems, and is still really fun to play.

An important note:

 The Combat Tech Demo represents the last iteration of Eden Star we are able to do in Unreal 3! All development from here on out is going to be made in Unreal 4. Because of this, we will not be releasing patches for The Combat Tech Demo, so we can focus solely on making an excellent full game.

Recommended minimum specs for running the demo are listed as follows.

  • i5 processor
  • 4 gigabytes of RAM
  • Nvidia Geforce 560 graphics card  (or the ATI equivalent)

Full Installation instructions, known issues, and a guide on playing the demo can be found in the Readme file linked below:

README.txt

 

We hope you’ll have a good time with The Combat Tech Demo and that it will give you an impression of just what we’re capable of in UE4, and what Eden Star can become, with your help.

Have a great Christmas, Pioneers!

Eden Star Update #3

Hello all!

There’s only 2 days left to vote on Indie DB’s game of the year awards! Please help us towards the top!

indiedb 2013 indie of the year

Indie of the Year Awards

A quick reminder to everyone, and news to those of you who may be new to Eden Star: the Alpha is now available for pre-order via our site!

The Pre-alpha demo is complete, we’re just finalising a few details before we finally unleash it on the world but we are looking to get this out as soon as possible, we should have a release date for you this week… There’s also been some great progress on the next phase of development with a lot of excitement around the new prototypes that are taking shape. So here’s what the team have been up to:

 

Development team:

  • More experimentation and research into the UE4 UI infrastructure
  • Prototyping AI pathing with bots
  • Experimenting with growing objects…
  • Working on engine programming for destructible replication and spawning across network

 

Designers

  • The construction system and UI are going through another phase of design
  • Fleshing out the Eden Star Gamepedia page
  • Designing more enemy interactions and goal-driven gameplay
  • More work on procedural placement of objects and features in the world

 

Artists

  • Environmental artwork and some very nice concepts which we may show soon
  • Creating the first block-out versions of functional base infrastructure
  • Creating a whole new map…
  • Storyboarding for pre-production

 

Animators

  • Rigging the 3rd alien enemy type, and prototyping an awesome 4th enemy in-engine. All I can say on it right now is… wow

Eden Star Update #2

Hello all!

 

Once again, please vote for Eden Star on Indie DB’s game of the year awards!

indiedb 2013 indie of the year

Indie of the Year Awards

A quick reminder to everyone, and news to those of you who may be new to Eden Star: the Alpha is now available for pre-order via our site!

 

We are now pretty much done with the Pre-alpha demo and going full-steam ahead on the UE4 Alpha! Here’s what we’ve been upto last week:

 

Development team:

 

  • Experimenting with calling C++ functions from Blueprints
  • Implementing mantling prototype and working on persistent destruction
  • Working on making everything in the world robust and persistent across systems in multiplayer

 

Designers

  • Finished last remaining tweak in the Tech Demo (mostly UI related)
  • Testing the viability of procedurally generated content

 

Artists

  • Working on a modular generator device
  • Implementing the first-stages of new construction system
  • Working on some fancy e-book stuff
  • Improving the in-world layout of our vegetation to fit better with gameplay
  • Designing and prototyping various UI elements

 

Animators

  • Making prototype animations for the SplinterMite enemy
  • Working on something ultra-top-secret that’s very exciting and we want to tell you, but can’t… Sorry.