28.10.2012 Fallout 1.5: Resurrection: Enough talking, it's time for action!
I wasn't sure how to begin this, so I took a look at old updates for
inspiration... and what a sight it was! Overly optimistic expectations,
hopeful outlooks, gradual sobering up and finally a shock from the
realization that we are approaching the 10th anniversary of the start of
this project. Yeah…
Instead of coming up with some new optimistic statement, let me just give you the facts.
After
last year's first round of beta testing we fixed the discovered bugs,
as well as finished all of the programming that was left to do. Right
now we are in the middle of the second round of beta testing, which
started approximately two weeks ago. This is currently done by three
testers, one internal, Saruman, two external, Seto and Flowerpo, who
will then also help out with the translation. (External testers had no
access to the behind-the-scenes details about the game.) All discovered
bugs and difficulty adjustments are bravely handled by Daemon, Mario and
Ratman, who together with Saruman represent the 10 year old core of the
team, which if you exclude graphics and music made at least 90% of the
game. I don't mean this in a bad way, I just want to point out just how
difficult it is to finish a project based on volunteer work. It's easy
to start and find active people, but to persevere until the end is...
something else. Our team has hit the rock bottom a couple of times, so
I'm very glad that I can still be writing this update, and I also feel a
lot of respect for those who were able to create some sort of a game or
a whole game world.
Now what? Our target is clear - to test, balance out, and release. The sooner the better. Due to the unpredictable nature of bugs I cannot, with any degree of certainty, say that the D Day will come on X/Y/201Z - it will depend on just how thorough current (and future) testers will be. Their role is more difficult now - JaW did a lot of good work last year :-)
Pretty much the last thing I want to mention here is an important
matter that concerns all those skilled with some kind of 3D graphics
software (or known someone who is). We currently lack skillful graphics
artists. Even though the artists that worked on the project before did a
lot of work, we still have several endscreens to finish. So ironically
what before was unthinkable can now happen - a delay in the release
caused by missing artwork, which I think would be a shame. After all
these years we definitely don't want to release a game that ends with a
bunch of black screens, just because we couldn't find anyone capable and
willing to make some sort of relevant and good looking image. And so I
ask: PLEASE HELP! We can't do it without you.
If you’re not into 3D
graphics, we'd also appreciate someone for 2D graphics - to play around
with the graphics of certain items, and perhaps game signs, which we're
trying to unify between the Czech and the English versions. But in this
case our cry for help isn't desperate as much as it's aesthetic - I
admit that this kind of thing is beyond my abilities, but I believe that
Resurrection deserves an improvement of certain in-game graphics.
If you're interested in helping out, just email us!
That's it for now. In the next few days we'd like to get the new Forum running. You can also expect to find another update with our beta testers’ first impressions in the next few days. And then afterwards... we'll see.
Ratman