Development Blog
| July 26 |
While I was on a short holiday, our new concept art intern surprised us with some sketch's and paintings for the upcoming multiplayer episode of ENCOUNTER...
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| July 5 |
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Feels good to finally add another post to the develoment blog... After a few months of deadlines and developments, we are proud to present another episode in the ENCOUNTER series! We've made some great enhancements in decor, environment, gameplay, storyline and visual effects. PLAY: 
With this new prologue episode we are growing closer and closer to the first MULTI-USER EPISODE you've all been waiting for... so Stay tuned! JOIN US / HELP US / INTERACT: Want to be part of the next episode? Send us your comments, suggestions or random idea's and we'll see if we can encorporate them! Stay tuned of all updates, newest releases, discussions and talk to other people playing the game. Easy, just LIKE and check out our FaceBook Fan Page... |
| April 30 |
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After being on holiday and the volcano erupting, leaving more than half of our team stranded in the USA for an extra 8 days we bring you another update. This day, we bring you the prologue tutorial mission, allowing you to train your first person shooter skills in single player, along with the first multiplayer combat mission for your enjoyment. We laboured extra this week as today is the last day we will be working on this project for some time. Don't worry though, we'll certainly return, and don't be afraid to give us your comments and bug reports. PLAY: 
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| April 2 |
Hey people! This week we made some incredible progress towards an actual level we were going to give you guys, but we fell just short before the extra long weekend.
 We also did some good work on the cooperative multiplayer experience as the hard work of our programmers is finally starting to pay off. Took you long enough, guys! Next week we will be able to give you a tutorial mission where your First Person Combat skills will be put to the test and evaluated, right before dropping you down towards your first field experience. Included will be an awesome ingame teaser cinematic, but I'm not really going to tell you too much about it, that would spoil the fun ;). How about your weekly dose of visuals then? TEASER:   This looks like some sort of space station, perhaps your base of operations? there is also a flyby version of this under the media section. I'm afraid that's the only thing we'll be able to show you for this week. It will really be a long weekend while waiting for your next big Encounter fix, but you'll survive. Be sure to check back in the middle of next week though! You'll be really happily suprised... From GriN and UNDERDog, we wish you a Happy Easter! And do go easy on the chocolate ;) |
| March 26 |
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New website! As you can see we've made a new design to better immerse you into the game concept we have in mind for you. We honestly hope you'll like it. For us at GriN this week has been less succesful than last week as the development moves into deeper and darker waters. But hey, every week can't be as good as the previous one right? For this game, we want to give you the best cooperative multiplayer experience we can, and for that our network code specialist has been wracking his brain to bring you smooth first person action. So far, he didn't quite succeed. However, the test involving establishment of a reliable peer to peer network were a succes. Our other programmer has been wrestling with the AI all week to make it more understandable, the code more readable and the AI itself easier to use has had some similar headaches as well. Yes, he "didn't quite succeed yet" as well ;). Our art department on the other hand has cranked several new goodies to show you, soon to be put in game. Two of those you can see below.  These are the revised guns for the player. A LOT nicer, don't you think? You visitors should feel quite lucky. Our character modeller threw a render of the new grunt enemy over to me, just in time for upload! He certainly looks very sinister!  And last but certainly not least: over in our Media section we have two new previews: One view of the planet you'll do battle on, and a click-based multiplayer tech lobby, which will give you a preview of the social environment we're planning. |
| March 19 |
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Another week, another version. This time a version we can show to the outside world. One image below is of the player and enemy gun. Well, not everything new our development team has made this week is included in our new tech-demo. Some really awesome things like a new weapon and a new enemy design couldn't yet be shown to you readers and fans, but I'm fairly sure Wim will give you some preview on facebook to drool over sometime next week. The outside environment is coming along just fine, and we have worked on what could be called the player's first means of transportation (heh, in a way). Now... lets talk images.  This one is the player's current arsenal. It includes a rapid fire assault rifle, a single shot hand cannon and a deadly combat knife for you up close and personal types. One item that hasn't yet made it in game is the grenade. We should poke our programmers to add the functionality... Check back next week for more insider info and previews directly from our development team! Oh yes, talking about previews, on the bottom of the page are some links to our facebook pages and company website. There you can find lots of other games and demo's along with some previews of things to come from GriN and Underdog. |
| March 12 |
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We're nearly there! After a lot of cursing and messing around our programmers finally have completed their first prototype Shooter enemy AI. Bots now tirelessly find their way around the level using waypoints, in combat bots will circle strafe around the player, and when they're in danger they'll run away to find cover before fighting their last good fight. Matthieu nearly finished our first bad guy (and trust me when I say it looks bad-ass!), Yves is still working on the outsides and Wim remade the preview level into a bigger and better version. |
| March 10 |
| Since the start of this project we at Grin have done a lot of work to make the best Web-Based shooter we can. The enemy AI has been progressing as quickly as we can, and while there is still quite some work to be done, our programming interns have nearly completed their first version of a patrolling, evading and cover seeking bot AI. The modellers have given you their preview of our (not so) noble warriors, and Wim has designed and made the first preview level: an eerie metal facility, which seems to be somewhere in space or underground. Which secrets and dangers does this place harbour, what function does it have in the story, and how will you happen to find yourself there in the first place? |