Nine Dots is now 6 years old! On February 2, 2011, Nine Dots was officially incorporated. We sure don’t see the time flying, we’re too busy making games. It’s crazy to think we’ve spent more than a third of our existence as a company working on Outward.
Indies Séries by Ubisoft On January 26, we pitched the game to Ubisoft and the National Bank of Canada for a contest. There were 2 prizes of 50,000$ to win for the province of Québec, and 33 applicants.
While we were not selected for either of the grand prizes, we were selected by the National Bank as a Top Pick, and we were also among the 5 finalists for the grand prize. It was flattering to be competing with such a line-up of game developers and we are honored for the recognition they gave us.
Development update We’ve been working on a lot of different things in the past few weeks. We wanted to have traps ready soon as we feel that they’ll play an important role in the game, given our focus on preparation and setting up your environment to gain an edge in combat.
We’ve also spent a lot of energy lately on making sure the game runs well on console. There are many challenges considering the hardware limitations, but we’ve been making progress. The mix between console and splitscreen is making us do some compromises, but we feel that having more gameplay options to be more important than graphics.
We’ve also started creating dungeons in bulk. As we advance, we’re nearing completion on 3D assets for armor sets and creatures, and the bulk of the job left for our artists are environments and props. Soon, we’ll have enough dungeons to populate two of our outdoor regions.
While we’re at it, last month we started posting pictures of new armors, here’s a new one:
End of Year Introspection At the end of the year, we did a long team meeting to discuss about the game’s design and development, both in terms of where we are at and where we’d like to be heading. We mostly discussed about the quality and the coherence of the game we want to make, and whether or not we were going in the right direction.
As such, we made the decision to cut or simplify some systems and features to make sure we have enough resource left to polish what ends up in the game. So for instance, we decided that there won’t be mules in Outward at launch, while it remains something we could add in a later update, either in a free update or as part of a paid DLC or expansion. We decided to make cooking, alchemy, crafting and enchanting more similar, instead of all having unique mechanics. We decided to have a lesser amount of skills, and make each of them matter more.
Rest assured however that the vision remains unchanged. This is a matter of contracting the scope of the game to ensure every element is up to our quality standards. We’d rather deliver something that feels finished and complete, but to which we can add more stuff in the future, than to deliver a game in which some parts feel unfinished or botched.
Ubisoft Indie Series contest This week, Ubisoft announced the 9 finalists for a contest called the Indie Series, which offers marketing, mentoring and a 50,000 dollars cash prize to the winner. We are honored to be named finalists in this contest, and on January 26th we’ll be pitching the game in front of a jury. The winner will be decided on the same day, so please cross your fingers for us!
Release window for Outward We’ve always been very careful about the release date of the game, not announcing anything official and being pretty vague on the matter. But when pressed, I usually answered that it would either be in summer of 2017 or early 2018. Following up on our assessment of the situation at the end of the year, we now think it is much more likely that we release in 2018. Last month I said that it is not impossible to do Early Access. Should we do it, we’d probably start in summer this year. Take this info with a grain of salt however, as we are still too far to truly commit to a date.
That’s it for the January news. If you have any question, you can always ask them on our facebook group or our discord server.
Hey everyone, in case you missed the update of December, here, it is, it also includes a video of the last stream we did.
Stream Yesterday we did a stream to show where we're at in the development of Outward. You can see various improvements we've done over the course of the past weeks, including a major overhaul of the user interface and some noticeable improvements in the look of the Chersonese (the first outdoor region).You can watch the video right here:
Development status Currently, we have most of the environment done for three outdoor regions, three cities and a handful of dungeons. We've been focusing our efforts on the first region and town however. Once we have a region that feels complete not only in terms of environment, but from a gameplay and balance perspective as well, we'll be better equipped to do the next ones more efficiently. However, it means that until we've done that, there won't be an explosion of new content to show in updates. We're not making that many new skills or enemy types at the moment, for instance.
Another thing worthy of mention is that the composer for Outward has been doing amazing work on the soundtrack. Mark my word, this will be the kind of soundtrack you want to buy.
Funding We're starting to run low on funds. The CMF provided us enough cash to finish the game, but not to polish it and make sure it meets the expectations of dedicated RPG fans. So instead of just sticking to the plan, we decided it would probably be best to extend the game development, even if it means that we'll have to find a publisher. Other options would be crowdfunding or Early Access, but for now we're trying to find an entity who can not only fund the game, but help us promote as well. It's no secret that we aren't exactly marketing moguls. We have a history of difficulties getting the word out about our games.
We’ve been mostly silent in the past year as we were mostly focusing on making Outward and we knew how far away the release would be. Without claiming that we’re near release (we’re not), we’re farther ahead now and we definitely have more to say and more to show about the project at this point. So from now on, you can expect a more steady flow of communication from us, starting with a monthly newsletter.
Join our Discord! We’ve also created a Discord Server for people who want to talk about the game, and ask me some questions directly on the ask_the_devs channel in an informal way. Here’s the link to the server, feel free to join in and introduce yourself! Link: https://discord.gg/nypMSyZ
Early Access / Beta One question that I’ve been getting a lot lately is if there would be an Early Access program or a beta that they could join to test Outward. For now, we’re planning to do only a traditional launch, but that may change before release. However, we probably will do a closed beta and members of the newsletter will be the first to know and to be considered to join in. We’re still quite a few months away from being able to do this however.
Upcoming Twitch stream in December We worked hard during last summer to make a compelling demo for PAX. However, it would be a waste to limit who can see the demo to only PAX attendees. We want to show you what we presented on the show floor as the subject of a live stream on Twitch. The stream will be on the 8th of December, at 20:00, eastern times (GMT-5).
Nothing official. We'd like to release it around Q3 2017, but if we can get additional funds, or if we feel the game needs more polish, it is possible to be pushed back to 2018.
No plan either for an alpha, but if you happen to be near Seattle and have/can get a pass for PAX West, we are going to have a demo up for people to try it at the booth #7303.
Hi all! We now have a new trailer, more info on the Outward’s page on our website, a new official wiki, and last but not least, a new build of the game to be playable in coop split-screen at PAX West 2016. So if you’re in Seattle during the event, come and say hi at Booth #7303.
Still alive and working We are sorry that we kind of turn silent for a little while now. We are quite busy at the moment but we should have something to tell/show you in a near future.
What about NPCs that are purely there to fill in the gaps? As an example, you have a doorway that generates an NPC every X minutes and that NPC follows one of three paths to get to a doorway that removes them from the world once they go through it. This could be drunks stumbling home from a tavern, merchants entering the area and making their way to a guild, even guards patrolling. Apart from the guards, there would be minimal AI needed for those path followers (at least compared to full NPCs) while they'd give the impression of a more lived in city.
Would that help with resource management, perhaps to the point you could have something like six of those for every four regular NPCs? Or would it barely impact?
The biggest issue we had was that animated characters were way to heavy to put many of them. But we made another version of characters that uses the old anim system of Unity (which is lighter than Mechanim and also more limited, which isn't a problem if used for NPCs). This way we were able to put a lot more NPCs. There is still some testing/benchmark to do to see exactly how many we can fit, but it is definitely more than we could before.
1.3.1b Fixes - Textfields should be displayed correctly.
1.3.1 Fixes - Dynamic stats buffs/malus will apply correctly on match 2+ (Thank you Mad and Eiko) - Tapping 'C' in the chat won't switch to cockpit view
Changes - Added a 144 FPS lock option - Updated the input system (Rewired 1.0.0.79)
Ok, I found what's the problem. It has nothing to do with the resurgence switch other than the fact that it changes dynamically the stats. Actually, every parts that affect the stats during playtime won't work. It also has nothing to do with the number of bots either.
In short, as soon as you are playing a second match, your stats won't be affected by dynamic bonus/malus. It has nothing to do with being your first match on a server. As soon as you entered a match, stats won't update dynamically until you restart the game.
Hey guys! hope you had great Holidays! We sure have!
Even if we have been a bit quiet in the last few weeks, we haven't stopped working! (except for maybe a week and a half between Christmas and the New year )
Here is a preview video of the first village as well as the first open area.
We showed the village and the Chersonese a few weeks ago during a stream, right after the first official development sprint (which is 3 weeks of development). The video above was after the second sprint, which was focused on fleshing out the open area. You can see a difference with the development stream highlight here. http://www.twitch.tv/ninedotsstudio/v/30406149?t=13m29
Fun fact: Chersonese come from the Ancient Greek which meant peninsula.
Finally, after all this time, we have finally added support to MAC and Linux.
If you have followed the development and/or participated during various Test Fire, you already know the changes that were made, in case not, or just to refresh your memory, here are the major changes.
- Mac and Linux support! - Switched to Unity 5.1 (we were using 4.2) - Improved video performance - Improved network performance - Better Gamepad/Joystick support - No more crash because of the audio plugin (we are now using Unity's audio system)
Here is the full changelist.
1.3.0 New Features - When selecting the used controller on first login, it will be saved. It can be changed in the tutorial menu screen or the options menu - Mac & Linux (cross-platform play as well!) - A message is displayed when credits are awarded in the tutorial - Added a “Go to Station X” voice commands - You get Score Points for capturing stations - You now receive Score Points by changing the balance of points for your team - You now receive Score Points for being in the capture area of a neutral station - This means that if Team1 and Team2 has the same amount of players capturing a station, players only receive points for being in the area. If There is more players from one team in the area, only the team with the greatest amount of players in the area will get points for changing the balance of the area. - Added a Follow me command (Bots will answer to this command too). - The map name is now displayed on top of the screen in the match loading screen. - Capture Station are now visible on the minimap and change according to their state. - All players that participated in the Test Fire will now have the WIP color palette!
Changes - We got rid of the FMOD audio plugin and we are now using Unity’s default audio manager. This should fix stability issues for people who had FMOD errors in their output_log.txt. - We also changed the Steam wrapper plugin. This should remove the bug to where steam_ap.lib or .dll was “missing” even though it was there. - When launching the tutorial, it won’t ask which controller is currently used (since it is now saved) - Removed “kicked from a match”, “denied share requests”, “leave count”, “total play time” and “reset account” stats from the Crew Quarters since they were not tracked. - Updated the Input System (from Rewired 1.0.0.11 to 1.0.0.51) - When Applying preferences, a floating message is displayed instead of a message box. - While closing the Assisted Control Mapping or the Key Mapping menus, instead of asking to discard the changes, it will ask the player if he/she wants to apply the changes. - Oculus DK1 Support has been removed. Oculus support has been postponed until the technology is better supported in Unity. - When Purge is in cooldown, instead of the icon getting bigger, it’s progressively fill like the ability cooldown. - HUD now uses uGUI instead of NGUI. - Tutorial 5.2 : When reaching a part, the gunship will rotate toward that part. - News panel can now have clickable buttons to open a web browser page. - Added a bot named DerpBot in honnor to Derpylz, who made the German Localization. - Adjusted intensity of various weapon sfx (mainly machine gun) - Since the ‘Players Online’ display wasn’t updated while in a Lobby, it has been removed from the chat panel and moved to the Server Browser list - Increased the volume of the sound upon receiving a chat message - Chat in the end match screen is now set to send messages to everyone, even if only ‘Enter/Return’ is pressed (which normally sends a message to team) - Replaced the Delete ship icon for a Trash instead of a Cross
Fixed Bugs - Ship details panel now hide correctly when the ship detail panels is closed. - In the Voice Command Panel (in-game), it was displayed ‘D’ to defend, but it should have been written ‘G’ to defend.. - One of the loading screen tips states that the keybinding for viewing the damage/combo window is F2, when it is F1. - Longest Sortie Without Dying is now tracked correctly. - When applying controls in the Wizard, changes are saved. There is no need to click on apply in the option menu too. - Tutorial Step 3.2, destroying the dummy with both wing weapons should always trigger the complete state. - There is no more camera glitch when exiting the docks. - Mini now shoot the projectile the same side as the charge up FX. - Mini now have a charge up sound. - End match chat won’t be stuck hidden anymore - All the maps were using the Lava map Skybox. They now use their specific skybox - This fixes the ‘sun in front of the planet’ bug in the ice quarry map - Carrier Integrity points should now update properly - Dysfunction sound will now stop playing when there is not more active dysfunction. - On wasting an ability, maneuver or boost because of a dysfunction, a sound will play. - Ship Map Indicators won’t go out of the frame of the mini map anymore
Balance - Crystalin Human shield: All Green Restore Shield reduced by 4 points for each mark. - Protection (Combo resist) now only reduce weapon mod application by half its value. For example: A Protection of 30 will reduce Weapon mod application by 15% instead of 30%. - Supply abilities now linger for 2 seconds to make it easier to reach allies. Supply can apply on the same ally more than once per trigger.
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We are sorry that we kind of turn silent for a little while now. We are quite busy at the moment but we should have something to tell/show you in a near future.
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