Infinity: Battlescape (with seamless planetary transitions) *FUNDED 300k+*

[JonnyƦedhed]

Some more screen shots from the current development prototype.   Mood enhancing for your viewing pleasure.  And lower down some portrait mode images which could be mobile/tablet backgrounds.

 

 

All kindly Shared by - Arkenbrien - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

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From Arkenbrien,

 

"Here ya go! Have some moody sunsets, plus possibly some other stuff, all in portrait. I saved it jpeg, to be more mobile friendly. "

 

 

Shared by - Arkenbrien - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

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[JonnyƦedhed]

An exploration video from the current development prototype.   

 

 

kindly Shared by - ZEN - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suna4rI6Tko

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

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[JonnyƦedhed]

A really nice screen shot.

 

 

kindly Shared by - Lomsor - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

[JonnyƦedhed]

A new Kickstarter weekly update is out if you'd like to read it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309114309/infinity-battlescape/posts/1518254

 

 

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Some new screen shots from the current development build. (

 

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

Some Cinder landscapes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

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[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #8

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

This week the discussion has primarily centered around bases. To recap our current plan is to have 3 different types of bases - small space stations, large space stations, and land bases. Small space stations and land bases will only be able to spawn interceptors, bombers, and corvettes whereas large space stations can also spawn capital ships. This makes large space stations particularly important strategically. Since we are only in the concept art stage at the moment we've been debating how to build and connect the 3D pieces of geometry that will come together to form a base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our idea is to build a set of reusable and interchangeable modules that allow us to put together bases that look unique but are in fact just a re-organization of the same set of assets. This will allow us to introduce more variety in gameplay while reducing the production burden on the art team. Another issue we have to work out is how will ships spawn and dock with the various bases. We need to have two different types of hangars - those for small to medium ships and those for capital ships. We're currently thinking of using modern ports as a model for capital ships. Essentially there will be long "piers" that capital ships will pull up next to and attach via pseudo-rigid tubes and cables. Small to medium sized ships will land/spawn within hangar bays which contain an elevator system similar to modern aircraft carriers.

 

Our idea is to build a set of reusable and interchangeable modules that allow us to put together bases that look unique but are in fact just a re-organization of the same set of assets. This will allow us to introduce more variety in gameplay while reducing the production burden on the art team. Another issue we have to work out is how will ships spawn and dock with the various bases. We need to have two different types of hangars - those for small to medium ships and those for capital ships. We're currently thinking of using modern ports as a model for capital ships. Essentially there will be long "piers" that capital ships will pull up next to and attach via pseudo-rigid tubes and cables. Small to medium sized ships will land/spawn within hangar bays which contain an elevator system similar to modern aircraft carriers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Land bases will contain landing pads with an elevator system similar to the one described above for space stations. We also want bases to have additional destructible buildings/modules, such as air traffic control towers and power plants, that affect the efficiency of the base. For example if a landing pad or hangar is destroyed it will no longer be able to spawn ships until it gets repaired. If a power plant is destroyed the rate of repair will be reduced. Bases will automatically (slowly) repair themselves unless destroyed beyond a certain threshold.

 

In other news the corvette has been fully integrated into the prototype and we're hoping to release a new patch within a few days! It still needs a lot of work and currently is no match for a bomber in combat. We're integrating it to get a feel for its size, controls, and the utility of its cockpit. There's a number of changes we already want to make to it but we want to give all of you with Developer Access a chance to begin playing around with it before we start radically altering it. The mockup of the interceptor is still under construction and we still need to build our capital ship flight system before we can integrate any of the capital ship mockups. This will be our focus over the next couple of weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #10

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

This week we were hoping to release a patch with the new interceptor for our Developer Access backers however it got held up by unfinished work on a new input mapper that has taken longer than expected. For those of you who have access to the prototype you probably have noticed that you've only been able to play with a mouse and keyboard. The new input mapper will allow you to use game controllers and simple joysticks (we haven't tested it yet with HOTAS so your mileage may vary). This work should be wrapped up shortly and we expect to release the new patch soon.

 

The focus of the week has been a combination of iterating on our ship designs and discussing missile mechanics. In a modern fighter jet missiles are actually quite large relative to the size of the plane. For example a Dassault Rafale can carry up to 14 missiles which is quite a lot compared to most other aircraft. While we don't want to be fully constrained by realism we do want our weapons to be balanced around concepts that are at least somewhat plausible. Availability of missiles will be limited and we're currently debating whether or not an interceptor should have internal or external launchers. In the case of bombers and larger spacecraft they will be internal but interceptors pose a unique challenge due to a much smaller, heavily angled hull.

 

 

 

 

(A visualization of a blue external launcher and a violet missile.)

 

 

 

 

External launchers can potentially take one of two forms. The first is as a magazine fed rectangular box that attaches to the hull on a hardpoint as shown above. The second, which you commonly see today, is one or more missiles attached to the hull individually or as a member of a pod composed of tubes containing 1 missile each:

 

 

 

 

(A visualization of externally mounted missiles.)

 

 

 

 

 

This is something we're likely going to play around with over the next few months as it has a significant impact on how the design of the interceptor will be finalized. As mentioned above bombers will use magazine fed internal launchers as visualized below:

 

 

 

 

(A visualization of a bomber with magazine fed internal launchers.)

 

 

 

 

A significant amount of rework is going into the corvette. Based on feedback and our own experiences playing around with the current mock-up we're redoing large portions of both the hull and the cockpit which you can see below:

 

 

 

 

((WIP) Revision 2 of the corvette.)

 

 

 

 

We don't have a specific timeline for when we're going to integrate the mock-up for the next version of the corvette but it'll likely be within a few weeks. After the next patch with the interceptor we want to focus on improving our net code a bit before we move onto weapons. We've also started on the 3D mesh work for the next version of the bomber so that should be ready within a few weeks as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #11

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Last week's update mentioned that the patch with the interceptor was right around the corner. At the time we sincerely thought that was the case but supporting game pads and joysticks ended up being a deeper rabbit hole than we had initially anticipated and it took all week to get the new code stable. Fortunately it's now finished and we've begun doing the integration work for the new interceptor mockup which is quite exciting. Due to its maneuverability we expect there won't be nearly as many people accidentally liquefying themselves by flying into mountains at speeds of 2 km/s like there was when we introduced the corvette.

 

 

 

 

(An interceptor with a prototype of external missile pods.)

 

 

 

 

Speaking of the corvette our second iteration is coming along nicely. We've reduced its length from 115m to ~82m which will make it a bit easier to fly. We're also redesigning its cockpit to increase visibility. As the largest non-capital ship in the game the corvette will perform a role similar to a modern tank. With heavy armor and heavy weaponry including independently targeting turrets it will make its presence known in a battlescape.

 

 

 

 

(The corvette is the only non-capital ship with turrets.)

 

 

 

 

This week we've also put some significant work into updating the game launcher and web backend as we get ready to begin internal testing of our new installation/patching system. Our goal is to have it ready in time for the patch after next. At the moment updates to the game are coming once every few weeks. We'd like to significantly increase the frequency of our updates and this new patching system will be essential for reducing the size of your downloads as well as the amount of money we're paying for bandwidth. It's also part of the foundation for what we hope will one day become a Software Development Kit (SDK) for modders.

 

 

 

 

(The completed prototype of the NPC hauler.)

 

 

 

 

Last but not least we have a new render, shown above, of the completed prototype of our NPC hauler. To refresh everyone's memory haulers will be spawned at factories every couple of minutes to deliver raw materials to the nearest base/space station. If the hauler successfully makes it then those raw materials are turned into credits evenly distributed among the members of that team for purchasing better ships and weapons. Therefore each team will have supply lines that can be disrupted by enemy forces either temporarily by destroying individual haulers or more permanently by destroying factories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

A few new screen shots from the current development build. 

 

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

Like the first light of dawn over the Alps (top right screen shot)

 

 

Link to larger images: 

https://inovaestudios.blob.core.windows.net/forumsavatars/original/2X/5/5fa151f85604ef8fa70e696ecda7ce7d33c36579.jpg

https://inovaestudios.blob.core.windows.net/forumsavatars/original/2X/2/2e06a26baf7211ffc37436b92828143faba21044.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #12

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

We're happy to announce that today we released patch v0.1.4.0 to all of our Developer Access backers. It contains numerous improvements and tweaks to the game. Most notably it has our new input mapper with support for gamepads and joysticks, a more realistic atmospheric flight model, the second iteration of the corvette, and most importantly the new interceptor! We've been getting some questions from Alpha backers about when the game will be available to play. The Alpha release is currently scheduled for October 29th, 2016.

 

 

 

(Mockup of the interceptor cockpit)

 

 

 

 

Over the next few weeks our engineering focus is going to shift from integrating ships and gameplay tweaks to taking care of some low level plumbing before we dive into weapons. Specifically we need to make some improvements to our core networking layer such as removing the last remnants of our trusted client code, which prevents hacking, and improving latency compensation. On top of that we still need to get our pledge upgrade system built for those of you who are looking to get in on the action sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

(Revision 2 of the corvette cockpit)

 

 

 

 

The art team's primary focus will be on space stations, land bases, and factories. These are large, complicated assets that will take a lot of time to complete. They will also continue work on revising the bomber, interceptor, and corvette as needed based on playtesting feedback. Looking back, full development began on February 1st and in the 3 months since then we're pretty happy with our progress. There's a lot that still needs to be done for the Alpha but we've worked through the initial ramp-up and reached a good cadence.

 

 

 

(Revision 3 of the bomber)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

A few new screen shots from the current development build.  The improvements continue.

 

kindly Shared by - Spacejay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

 

Some frames from last Friday nights "Interceptor Dogfighting Test"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

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[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #13

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Hey everyone time for another update. This last week has been a continuation of the work started the previous week. On the engineering side we're primarily working on low level net code and infrastructure. As far as gameplay is concerned one of the most important areas of improvement we need to make is to our latency interpolation and client-side prediction (which hides latency). This ensures that, as long as you aren't trying to cheat, if you see your bullets hitting an enemy ship on your screen the server will also see your bullets hitting the enemy ship. Needless to say when this doesn't work well it can be quite frustrating. There's also some minor bug fixes that will be rolled out in the next patch.

 

 

 

 

(Completed concept art of a factory)

 

 

 

 

On the art side we're wrapping up the last few remaining pieces of concept art as well as continuing to iterate on the 3d mockups of the bomber, corvette, and interceptor. As mentioned last week we've also started work on the space station, land base, and factory. These are large assets and will take a lot of time before they reach a completed state so we'll be slowly rolling them out piece by piece as development progresses.

 

 

 

 

(Additional improvements to iteration 3 of the bomber)

 

 

 

 

That's it for this week. A major goal for us is to get to the point where we can release one or more new patches to the game every week. Once we get there we'll have a lot of these boring (but important) infrastructure systems out of the way and we'll be able to focus more on gameplay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #14

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

This week we deviated slightly from our aforementioned focus on networking to revisit our physics engine. The two are actually closely intertwined as networking physics is one of the most difficult parts of, well, networking. For the last forever we've been using a physics library that is quite old and no longer actively maintained. For a couple of years now we've been meaning to replace it and just didn't have the time to properly evaluate other options.

 

After looking at Bullet and PhysX along with a number of lesser known physics engines we've decided that Bullet will probably serve our needs the best. Over the last week we've laid the groundwork for this change but we won't actually do the Bullet integration until sometime after we finish the current round of improvements to networking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Concept art for sections of space station)

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the art side we have a bunch of screen shots that may not make a whole lot of sense but are actually quite important. We don't have the resources to build a lot of variation into our larger structures such as space stations, land bases, and factories. Instead we're trying to design a modular system whereby pre-made sections of architecture can be arbitrarily combined to create the perception of multiple unique structures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Concept art showing how pieces of architecture can fit together)

 

 

 

 

 

 

These screen shots show how we're planning on achieving that goal. We've also started building the 3d mockups for factories based on the finalized concept art released last week. More screen shots to come as these concepts get realized in (rough) 3d!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

 

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #15

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

This week's update comes with new screen shots of 3d mockups for various space station pieces.

 

 

Various space station pieces (WIP)

 

 

 

 

The art team continues to iterate on space station, land base, and factory meshes. There's a lot of trial and error involved in seeing how various pieces fit together both aesthetically and functionally. So far we're pretty pleased with our ability to reuse and recombine large pieces of architecture in ways that creates what appears to be completely unique structures.

 

 

A space station composed of large reusable parts

 

 

 

 

Work continues on improving our physics engine. It has become a bit more complicated than we had anticipated due to lack of 64-bit precision in some physics libraries and poor GPU support in others. We've concluded that we'll probably have to write our own physics engine at some point in the future after Infinity: Battlescape ships to retail due to the unique requirements of our technology.

 

 

A smaller, uniquely different space station made from reusable parts

 

 

 

 

We're also beginning to wrap up work on our new installation system and the next version of our I-Novae launcher. At first glance not a whole lot will be different between the current installer and the next one. Our launcher UI is going to get a serious upgrade and it will be able to auto-update so that you don't have to manually download new versions of the game from our website. Under the hood everything is completely different as we lay the foundation for our future optimized patching system and mod distribution.

 

 

Concept art for a base interior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #17

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Time for another weekly update! The team has been primarily working on the same stuff that has been occupying its time for the last 2 weeks. On the art side work continues on the new space stations and land bases. As mentioned before these are big, complicated assets and are going to take some time to get integrated into the prototype.

 

 

Some new corvette cockpit concept art

 

 

 

 

We're also working diligently to get the next patch released which will include upgraded physics and a new multi-threaded game loop. This is all pretty complicated code so there's been an uptick in bugs that we're working on getting stable before we ship the next version.

 

That's pretty much it for last week which also included a holiday here in the U.S. Once we get this patch out there will be more to discuss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #18

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Time for another weekly update! This week we're happy to say we're done with physics. We've primarily been working on bug fixes and preparing our next patch. Previously we had mentioned that our next patch wouldn't contain any new content. Due to the amount of time that's passed between now and our previous patch we felt that would be a bit underwhelming so we decided to push it back a little bit so we can include the new factory and space station placeholders. We also wrote all of the backend code for uploading, verifying, and distributing patches through our new installation system. The last step before that's ready is to finish integration with our launcher - which is getting a major overhaul both in its UI and its internals.

 

 

A section of a land base

 

 

 

 

On the art side the majority of the geometry placeholders are complete. There's still some work to be done on the land base and once we start iterating on weapons we'll likely have some additional mockups to create, both for weapon geometry as well as particle effects, but at the moment we think we're in a pretty good spot with regard to the look and feel of our ships and structures. From this point onward we're going to begin focusing on getting assets retail ready starting with cockpits and assets with a form that isn't affected much by gameplay such as the hauler.

 

 

The ground view of a land base

 

 

 

 

Once the patch is released our focus will shift back toward improving the networking layer, particularly our hit detection and latency compensation, which got delayed by the improvements to our physics subsystem. Sometime in July, after the networking improvements are finished, we will pivot back toward iterating heavily on gameplay starting with weapons. Mockups for our HUD and the game UI/menu system will also be produced. We will be focusing all of our energy on getting the major gameplay systems implemented in time for our Alpha release at the end of October.

 

 

A small hangar bay in a land base

 

 

 

 

As far as graphics are concerned we need to make some improvements to our decal and particle system rendering. On our forums we've discussed D3D12 and Vulkan quite a bit however it currently looks like it's unlikely we'll get to any significant graphics or optimization work until sometime in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #19

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Another week another update. Unfortunately this last week I (Keith) ended up falling quite ill for nearly the entire week which has delayed our patch and the work on completing the new launcher. I rarely get sick but when I do it usually takes me out pretty good. Fortunately I'm about 90% recovered now and I expect within another day or 2 I'll be completely back to normal so we can finish up this patch.

 

 

Concept for a land based defensive cannon

 

 

 

 

Speaking of shippable assets we mentioned last week that we had started work on finalizing the cockpits. Currently the focus is on the interceptor and the corvette, with that effort being split between Dan and Jan, while Kristian is still finishing up some work on the land base mockups. We're trying to strike a balance in our art style between 70's/80's sci-fi industrial and the advanced technology a civilization would have far into the future. Pilots will have an advanced augmented reality (AR) HUD built into their helmets capable of displaying mission critical information however cockpits will retain many retro switches, buttons, gauges, and levers for redundancy in case of system failure.

 

 

Filling in the details of the interceptor cockpit

 

 

 

 

Speaking of shippable assets we mentioned last week that we had started work on finalizing the cockpits. Currently the focus is on the interceptor and the corvette, with that effort being split between Dan and Jan, while Kristian is still finishing up some work on the land base mockups. We're trying to strike a balance in our art style between 70's/80's sci-fi industrial and the advanced technology a civilization would have far into the future. Pilots will have an advanced augmented reality (AR) HUD built into their helmets capable of displaying mission critical information however cockpits will retain many retro switches, buttons, gauges, and levers for redundancy in case of system failure.

 

 

The work in progress corvette cockpit

 

 

 

 

Once we complete the geometry pass and are able to start work on textures/materials these images will really start to come alive. We're going to continue the well-used, rusted look of our Star Fold Confederacy ships as was shown with the Hellion in our Kickstarter video. We want our ships to have character!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

 

Weekly Update #20

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Hey all it's weekly update time. This last week we pushed hard to get the new patch out however at the 11th hour we ran into a handful of blockers that delayed it. Specifically we realized that our build system was a bit of a mess. The new patching system just handles distribution, installation, and of course patching. What it doesn't handle is the generation of deployment packages.

 

 

 

LINK - Panoramic image of the new fighter cockpit

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up to this point we've been using the same build system that we were using for the Kickstarter. Back then we didn't need to produce new builds very often and since we were short on time the build system was constructed as "good enough under duress". Since then it has devolved into an arcane system of scripts and manually copying around files that really only Flavien fully understood and it took him hours to produce a new build - which is a big part of why, up till now, we haven't released patches very often.

 

 

 

LINK - Panoramic image of the new corvette cockpit

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the weekend constructing a proper, fully automated build system which is nearly complete. Due to this coming weekend being a holiday in the U.S. there's a good chance that we'll push the patch back to next week even if it's ready by the end of this week so that we have all hands on deck in case something goes wrong. We're going to be upgrading a lot of infrastructure for the next patch.

 

 

 

LINK - Panoramic image of the new bomber cockpit

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the art side work continues on finishing up the land base mockups and the cockpits for the smaller ships. The geometry work on the cockpits is coming along nicely and we're looking forward to getting to the texturing phase soon. This is particularly exciting because we're getting tired of everything being bland, boring gray geometry. You can checkout the panoramic views of the new cockpits by clicking the images above or following the links below:

 

 

 

• Fighter
   
• Bomber
   
• Corvette
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 
 

[JonnyƦedhed]

4 hours ago, Mad Ani said:

This game is in development since about 9 years hasn't it? It was a very long time and I stopped following it. Once every 6 months or so I go check the website. Any release date planned at all? This is why I stopped following it, as it was just a couple of guys working on it for a long time. The 1st to start with the seamless transition between space and planets.

 

Yes the development was slow up to the kickstarter which was fully funded late last year.  We have around just under 2 years now until release.   They are continuing funding via indiegogo, but sometime soon plan to move this fund raising to there own website.  And kickstarter pledges will at that point be able to have a top up to a higher tier if one so desires.  More funds = more of the kickstarter stretch goals.   But we all hope to see a good number added over the next couple of years anyway if funding continues at a steady pace.

 

The team is growing slowly now post kickstarter, but is still small.  So they plan to stay within the scope of the kickstarter and deliver a solid game.  And from that point built on it hopefully post release.   If things go well then just under two years from now we should see a release.

 

But if one pledges to a certain level then the development builds are available to test now.  Then Alpha tier level later this year and Beta tier mid next year or thereabouts. *its all stated on the pledge tiers on  indiegogo.

[JonnyƦedhed]

Some new screen shots from the current development build.    The improvements continue at a steady pace. 

 

 

kindly Shared by - SpaceJay - on the I-Novae forums (link)

 

 

Cinder at Night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #21

 

source link

 

Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Last week's update was delayed by the holiday here in the U.S. but better late than never! For starters we're working on wrapping up the patch we've been talking about for the last few weeks. All of the bug fixes and new content we wanted to get into it have been completed and now it's just a matter of rolling out the new patching system and the website updates. We ran into a few hiccups caused by some Microsoft updates to our development tools but we've been implementing a workaround that should be sorted out soon.

 

 

Completed land base placeholders

 

 

 

 

On the art side things continue to move along at a good pace. Our land base placeholders have been completed and we've begun texturing our cockpits. Bland, gray geometry is finally starting to look like something you would want to fly.

 

 

OMG there's colors!

 

 

 

 

For those of you who are interested in the nitty gritty details of how we're texturing our ships you can read a post by one of our artists detailing the process. Now that it's July our focus, after releasing the patch, will be on finally finishing up the improvements to our networking layer and releasing the new pledge upgrade system. August until the end of October we'll be crunching on gameplay and hopefully dramatically increasing the frequency of our patches.

 

 

Experimenting with materials for ship plating

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #22

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Due to the holiday last weekend this was a short week so it's already time for another weekly update! Unfortunately a shorter week means less stuff to talk about. On the engineering side you can summarize our entire effort as working on getting the forever patch released. I mentioned last week that a recent update to Microsoft's development tools broke our build. At the time of the last weekly update it looked like it would be resolved in about a day but unfortunately the snowball effect that is so common in software development caused the effort required to resolve the problem to "snowball" into taking up the entire rest of the week.

 

 

Capital ship turret placeholders.

 

 

 

 

The good news is that we actually found a number of unrelated bugs in the game/engine that we were able to fix (hence the aforementioned snowball) and final testing on the new build will begin tomorrow. If all goes well we'll get back to finishing up the last bit of the new launcher and then releasing this dang patch.

 

 

Interceptor cockpit UV progress. Green = complete.

 

 

 

 

On the art side work continues on texturing and materials. Jan has made good progress on the interceptor cockpit, Dan is finishing up the geometry decal pass for the bomber cockpit, and Kristian is working on the exterior for the hauler. Hopefully we'll have some prettier images to show off soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #23

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Hey all time for another update. This week we finally moved past issues caused by an update from Microsoft to our dev tools that broke our build a few weeks ago and began final testing for our next patch. Unfortunately we found a couple of show stoppers in the deployment code which have now been fixed. Deployment, installation, and uninstallation using the new patching system are working well however we have a bit more testing left to do for upgrades before we're ready to release the next patch.

 

 

An updated size comparison for large stuff

 

 

 

 

A number of smaller issues within the game and engine code have also been fixed. On the art side work continues on finalizing geometry as well as textures and materials. This is going to take a while and the next couple of weeks are budgeted for completing the first 2 ships - the interceptor and the (NPC) hauler. These first ships will go a bit slower than the ships that come after because we're currently experimenting with the look and feel as well as some new techniques that will be reused for the rest of our assets.

 

 

An updated size comparison for medium stuff

 

 

 

 

As we look toward the Alpha the art team needs to complete texturing for all of our small ships which include the interceptor, bomber, and corvette. In a couple of weeks they also need to begin the UI mockups for the HUD and in-game menu system as well as skinning the launcher. On the engineering side once we ship this next patch we'll get back to the networking upgrades and the pledge upgrade system followed by incremental patching. Major gameplay iteration will likely resume sometime in August.

 

 

An updated size comparison for small stuff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #24

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

It's time for another weekly update. This last week has been a pretty hectic one as we pushed hard to get the forever patch ready for release. Today we started the first phase of rolling out the new patch by updating our web infrastructure. On the surface you probably haven't noticed anything different because the update primarily applies to stuff going on behind the scenes. Over the next few days we'll begin slowly rolling out the patch to Developer Access backers who happen to be in Discord and if everything goes smoothly that will be followed by the general release of the new patch to all Developer Access backers.

 

 

Updated WIP shot of the interceptor cockpit

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from that Flavien has started work on the new networking code and our artists continue work on getting our first set of production ready assets completed. Jan is getting close to finishing up the interceptor cockpit, Dan is doing the final geometry pass on space station architecture, and Kristian has finished up his civilian/industrial material experimentation and will be starting on getting the hauler production ready.

 

 

Another WIP shot of the interceptor cockpit

 

 

 

 

 

As we have mentioned before the plan is that by the end of August we'll begin iterating heavily on gameplay again. The first order of business will be mocking up all of our weapons followed by additional game mechanics such as radar, resource management, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

[JonnyƦedhed]

Weekly Update #25

 

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Posted by I-NovaeKeith CEO & Cofounder

 

Hey everybody a lot has been going on over the last week. We finally released the (previously) forever patch on Tuesday to our Developer Access backers. There's been a couple of hiccups, which we expected there would be due to the size and complexity of the patch, however it overall seems to have gone well. For those of you who are interested you can read more about what's new in the patch here.

 

 

A WIP shot of the interceptor cockpit

 

 

 

 

This week we'll be fixing the bugs that have popped up since we released the patch while shifting our focus to our August TODO list. As mentioned before this primarily consists of low level networking improvements that will include better hit detection, adding the ability to upgrade your pledge, and incremental patching. On the art side we've nearly finished our material library for industrial spacecraft and buildings. The interceptor cockpit is really coming together though it'll likely require a little bit of additional polish after we make some graphics improvements next year.

 

 

The WIP interceptor cockpit from port side

 

 

 

 

Overall the team is looking forward to getting back to iterating on core gameplay in early September after we wrap up these last couple tasks that will form the foundation of everything that comes next. Once incremental patching is completed we also hope to ramp up the frequency of our patches. That's about it until next week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledge now via the website (indiegogo)

 

The I-Novae Engine - Pure Digital Art

 

 

Infinity: Battlescape forums: https://forums.inovaestudios.com