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Weekly development blog number one

Posted by Germain on 13 Feb 2012 / 35 Comments



Feb
13
2012
 35
Good evening!

So this week we’ve been kicking it up on the high gear. Being the first week that I had a few days off to work on he game (I’m progressively quitting my job, I’ll be virtually unemployed after next week) we decided to go ahead and tackle the really nasty stuff : systems. Here’s a bullet list of stuff we accomplished.

  • Welcomed a new member in our team: Benoit. He’s François’s brother and happens to be a phenomenal programmer. He’s helping us with core systems, optimization and managing the insane amount of data that comes with large voxel worlds. Refer to this dev blog post to know why we need a superstar programmer.
  • Overhauled the pathfinding system to allow for much faster queries on faraway objects. This is an essential first step for including enemies in the game since characters will be asking the pathfinding system to track moving objects, ie. Bricktrons running for their lives.
  • Implemented flexible containers. This includes chests, barrels, stockpiles and anything you can imagine. These containers will be able to broadcast their content to nearby Bricktrons so they can fetch the items necessary to build your castle.
  • Overhauled the asset importing pipeline from 3dsMax, our 3d modeling software, to Unity3d. Unity is being ridiculously stubborn about importing models properly, and until now, we just avoided the issue. Refer to this link for the issue I’m talking about. It looks good now, and I can start modeling away without fear of breaking Unity.

So for the majority of you who didn’t understand any of this mumbo-jumbo technical shit, it means that we basically worked really hard on stupidly complicated stuff. Nothing to show visually, really.

Meanwhile, here’s a new feature that we’d like to include every week in our dev blog:

Soundtrack of the week

This is one of the multiple awesome playlists we’ve been listening to while working. Every week, we’re going to post our favorite playlist. Hopefully, you’ll discover new artists! In this case: Bonobo’s Black Sands, this is just a classic, I had to start with that. By the way, sorry Grooveshark seems to have misplaced the titles for this one.


So that’s all for this week!

The Sauropod team













Wait…
Did I really say we had nothing to show?

I lied.


Here’s a little piece of concept art for all you speculators who concluded that Bricktrons probably taste like pineapple:

This size is perfect for desktop wallpapers. Feel free to use it!

Cheers!





35 Comments for Weekly development blog number one


Wade
3 months ago


Hey Guys,

Grooveshark doesn’t seem to be working for me! Do I need to install something or is it just down today?

Cheers,

Wade

    Wade
    3 months ago


    Nevermind it works now!

    Great post, glad you have a new member on the team.

Gat
3 months ago


Loving my new wallpaper~
But I gotta say i’m baffled at the last step of the bricktrons evolution, why is their skin yellow?

Alec
3 months ago


I actually like the brown bricktrons more than the yellow ones, they seem more like the kind of people that would just build all day and be part of their odd floating earth.

    rafasr
    3 months ago


    LOL, i see what you did there… ~ThatsRacistGif~

    Not Jim
    3 months ago


    You should pudge up on the bricktron’s cheeks. no where else.

      Not Jim
      3 months ago


      Okay 4 questions/ suggestions. 1. Make baby bricktron’s. Like get them from houses.
      2. What are the monsters going to be? 3. Can you make like ballistaes or catapults or ram’s to defend/ attack other castles. 4. How hard is it to make a game like this on unity?

Henk
3 months ago


This Is so awesome! Have you guys considered a donation possibility? You should! ’cause I know that me and some friends would love to support the game in the beginning stages!

Much support from some fans in Sweden!

Xylord
3 months ago


It is always nice to receive news from our favorite developers! Give a warm welcome to Benoit, I’m sure he’ll be incredibly helpful!

Et pendant que j’y suis, superbe musique. Il y a cependant un point que je ne comprend pas, pourquoi est-ce que les ananas prennent l’apparence de roches dans l’univers de Castle Story?

Ok ok, I’ll stop showing off my french :P

André
3 months ago


Will we get to train rocks to get bricktons? It would be awesome!

    Alpro
    3 months ago


    I second that. Also, nice wallpaper and welcome to Benoit.
    You guys are right to get rid of all the complex stuff first, so you can then focus on the fun stuff & content. Keep up the good work! :)

Retired_Zombie
3 months ago


Love hearing about what you guys are up to! So far, aside from the wrongful death of Mobe, this project seems awesome!

Long Live Mobe!

Ron
3 months ago


Guys, you can do no wrong!! Even this album I have been a fan of for a long time.

Cannot wait for this game. You are the best.

Ron

Ragnar
3 months ago


LOVE the wallpaper :)

TazzAtNL
3 months ago


Good initiative the blog.

Hope quitting you’re job works out! But seeing the early footage makes me sure this is a good decision.
Can’t wait to see a alfa/beta!

In0q
3 months ago


I find the Sanctum OST to also be a great collection of ambience. (the game, not the movie)
http://coffeestainstudios.bandcamp.com/album/sanctum-fps-td-ost#

    Germain
    3 months ago


    Thank you, sounds really good!

    We’re listening to it right now.

Karakai
3 months ago


The music is awesome !
Keep it up, your game is going to be wonderfull !

May Contain Spoilers » Castle Story Developer Blog 1
3 months ago


[...] Story devs, Sauropod Studio, have posted their first weekly development blog, where they list some of the work they’ve done this [...]

Jeremy Justice
3 months ago


I second what Andre said! Turning rocks into Bricktrons would be awesome.

Ryan
3 months ago


Music rocks! Thanks for sharing. : )

    Ryan
    3 months ago


    D’oh! Forgot that submitting the form would stop the muzack. Back at it, then! : P

Simon Duck
3 months ago


Looking great guys. Very excited at seeing another video of the developments!

Wallpaper saved =)

Regards,
Simon Duck

JOSEPH
3 months ago


That style of music is really cool. Have you guys decided what style of music you want to use in your game? I think it would be cool to build castles to bonobo.

Rochcoach
3 months ago


I love how the game is going. Keep it up!

Tim
3 months ago


This music is so awesome. Thanks for introducing me to it. This is probably the first Album I’ve bought in 4 years.

Dark
3 months ago


You make me sick!

How can you wish for that poor Bricktron, Mobe to be falling forever?!

Scorpio185
3 months ago


Can you make wallpaper 1600×900 please? xD

Троль
3 months ago


Привет, очень жду игрушку и могу сказать, что мы будет играть камешками?

Хаха, никто не знает, что я написал и это меня радует)))

    qq
    3 months ago


    Hey all,I can say that we will be playing with stones? Haha, no one knows what I wrote and it makes me happy)))

    Is it clear&?

Anon
3 months ago


1) That playlist is awesome, I love you.

2) Adding the playlist was a great idea, sets the devlog apart from others in a unique way and adds personality as well as just making me like you for introducing me to awesome music. Fuck yeah.

stev10
3 months ago


Ya, I have to say, I’m not really in the pc/mac gaming community at all… but this game looks so fun! I just wanted to say that its not just people who are really in the know that are psyched for this game and I’m gonna guess your gonna make a bunch of money, so I wouldn’t worry about that job you quit.
And also by being so involved in sharing the process, you make me want to buy the game even more, just because you guys are so personable.

Panchoys
3 months ago


Warm greetings from cold Russia! I don’t like games with simple ganre(like shooters), i think indie games and strategic games are best!
In my country people now like build-and-survive games like minecraft, and your game is really expectational! We think you are good guys))

Some ideas to your game:
1) Not one type of enemies. What’s about wall-climbing spider-like enemies? Or
2) Animals. 2 kinds. Horse-like for fast riding troopers. Camel-like for carrying more than 1 block.
3) It is not idea, this is wish. I think сave and upland forts are good, therefore i hope you create a good tunnel-mining system.

Panchoys, your Russian friend)

JP
3 months ago


Just working my own little game and this is perfect background coding music – thanks!

Aidan
3 months ago


Awesome, bit late of a reply, but who cares! Still, frigging awesome.