This event that takes place during GDC in San Francisco is the place for developers and publishers to do business!
For gamers this might not be so interesting, but if you know that the game “Contrast” was last years winner and that they made their publishing deal there… think of what it could mean for Woolfe 🙂
Our game was just greenlit by Steam, after only 5 days! We want to thank each and every one of you who upvoted our project and provided us with feedback. We could not have done this without you guys. We’ll work our asses off to get Woolfe up and running as soon and as good as we possibly can.
Tonight’s a Full Moon… Woolfe is howling for Steam Greenlight!
We’ve been asked quite a few times if Woolfe will be available on Steam. We’ve always answered, we hope so… Now YOU decide!
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Specially for the occasion we made a new teaser video, showing more previously unreleased footage than ever before. There’s still a lot of rough spots in there. Remember, the game is by no means finished yet! All the footage has been rendered in game so if you look hard you will find imperfections…
Greenlight?
Since mid 2012, every developer that wants its game on Steam has to pass a public voting system. Users/gamers actually get the power to choose which games will be available on the platform. For us as developers, this is quite a scary thing… After working long and passionately on a game and when you’re finally getting closer to something you feel is worth sharing, it’s time the moment of truth… A last stand before the grand jury.
You can not believe the anticipation we are feeling, our hands are sweaty and our knees are trembling. Will the comments and reactions uplift us and inspire us to surpass our own expectations? Or will we be clubbed to death, disillusioned and forced to wake up from the dream of independence we’ve been living in the past year.
How can you help?
There is only one way… go to our Steam Greenlight page, click YES, then open Facebook/Twitter/… and spam all your friends to do the same! 🙂
Every fairy tale begins with a fascinating story… You wouldn’t want us to spoil the game by telling you how our story twists, turns and ends.
But you might like to know a little more on how it all begins.
“Many years ago, Joseph, a young and ambitious engineer, fell in love with a girl. They got married and moved in with Joseph’s mother, in her small cabin in the woods. One day, Joseph’s wife went for a walk in the forest and never came back – leaving both Joseph and his mother heartbroken.
After the mysterious disappearance, Joseph seeks comfort in his work. His mother seeks for answers in the forest. Years later, she finds a scared little girl in the woods. The resemblance between the red-caped toddler and her dead-pronounced daughter-in-law is striking. She takes the girl back to her place and gives her a meal and a bath. While helping the toddler out of her dirty ripped clothes, she finds a locket carrying the picture of Joseph’s wife, which confirms her initial instinct: this must be her granddaughter. Red Riding Hood is given her name and a loving home, where she grows up rather carefree until fate strikes once again.
When the girl is 14 years old, Joseph gets killed in an accident at the factory – or so, his family is told. Once grown up, Red Riding Hood heads towards the city, to avenge her beloved father’s death and hunt down the one she holds responsible: B.B. Woolfe, CEO of Woolfe industries.”
Bram, our Concept Artist has been having a ball with this one 🙂
This monday a BIG site did a small article about our beloved game. Rock Paper Shotgun seems to be impressed by our graphics: “It looks rather stunning, no?” Although they also have some questions on how the gameplay will be (we can’t blame them, we have not shown much…), we are already very prove they found us. THANK YOU RPS!!!
There have been quite a lot of posts about the graphics of Woolfe. So much maybe that you might forget there is more needed to make a game. This post is dedicated to the more technical development. We’re not going into too much detail yet…
Level design
This is the bases of what you will actually play… and it al starts with a drawing. Steven, our technical 3d artist is in charge of this. First we create an easy to adjust level made of blocks, we put in puzzles and opstacles and after a lot of pushing and shoving we get something we can test.
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In the above video you can see how the block level compares to the filled in level. Although it’s an amasing transformation, you can clearly see that the gameplay is almost exactly the same.
Character control
Walk, Run, Jump, Slide, Climb, Fight!
It all seems very logical, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to get all these actions working in a natural way. Apart from the animations, Jelle and Bas – the programmers of Woolfe – are creating and constantly improving all the small details that makes up the character controller. Things that seem so trivial, like foot placement on uneven terrain and climbing up / hanging on ledges, end up taking much more time than you might think.
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A big part of the Woolfe gameplay involves fighting. We want to create a fast-paced, hack’n slash type fighting experience. What we have now is only the beginning of our fighting developments. It still needs a lot more love over the next few months. Anyway, here is a small video showing some testing of various navigation systems we’re putting in place and a very short preview of our initial fight system. Remember this video is showing work in progress… not what the final gameplay will be.
Enemy control
Apart from controlling your own character we also need enemy characters of course. Creating artificial intelligence is fun and involves all kinds of mechanics to simulate real word intelligence. Can an enemy hear you? How good are his ears? What is his field of view? How far can he see? Will he get tired of following you? What will he do when he can’t find you any more? Lot’s of questions that all need answering… Have a look at what we have so far…
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Game engine
As you might have figured out by now, we’re using UDK (Unreal Development Kit) to make Woolfe. UDK is a version of UE3 (Unreal Editor3) with limited source access. Although this free to use 3D game-engine with proven track record, has great power, there are some very specific challenges. Mostly because we can not access all components in the engine and have to make work-a-rounds to get non-standard things working the way we want them to.
OMG…
As you might have figured out by now, we’re using UDK (Unreal Development Kit) to make Woolfe. UDK is a version of UE3 (Unreal Editor3) with limited source access. Although this free to use 3D game-engine with proven track record, has great power, there are some very specific challenges. Mostly because we can not access all components in the engine and have to make work-a-rounds to get non-standard things working the way we want them to.