Page 24 – GROUND BRANCH

Progress update

Characters, Gameplay, Programming, Weapons

Its time for an update on our progress!

Things are going very well with many new features added and stability getting better with each new build. We just introduced the first pass at 3d positional/proximity VOIP that allows players to talk globally so everyone can hear if within appropriate distance as well as a radio channel that allows teams to communicate when out of hearing range. There have been lots of UI additions and fixes including the ability to change a full array of graphics settings to help fine tune performance. Networking and multiplayer has been getting a lot of work and is pretty stable at this point. Multiplayer matches now feature a full game loop (minus an after action review screen… that is coming) so players are enjoying playing Ground Branch with others and are starting to really see the potential of the game!

So when is the Early Access? Well we still have not set a firm date because we must get it right. There is only one chance for a first impression! We don’t feel it is to far off though, so we have decided to distribute Steam keys to those that have and will purchase the Pre-Order of Ground Branch. This will happen within the next 2-3 weeks and you will get an email with instructions. As mentioned, the game is not ready for Early Access and therefore still missing some key components, but we feel there is enough there to include more people in the process. Once we send these keys out then any Pre-Order purchases from that point on will automatically get a key upon purchase… no more waiting.

Those that purchased the Operator Edition have been enjoying playing Ground Branch for months now and have provided valuable feedback and bug reports. Here are a couple videos and some screenshots from a recent playtest…. thanks to Pepperbelly, WaderTheGamer, Jeza, jankovic and those playing.

Still VERY much pre-alpha but enjoy!

New Year and New Things

Characters, Gameplay, Level Design, Sound, Uncategorized, Weapons

Hey everyone, welcome to a new year! Lots going on with us here, especially with Ground Branch. We’ll get to that but first I would like to draw your attention to something we have partnered on with FragOut Studios named Sniper Tactical.

As some of you may know we partnered with FragOut Studios to help with the Weapons and Animation work for Ground Branch. Through that relationship we decided to lend them a hand in bringing some smaller less hard-core titles to market. The first of those titles is Sniper Tactical, a lemmings type puzzle game with sniper shooting mechanics mixed in. The gameplay revolves around bringing hostages to safe-zones which in turn is done by shooting enemies in correct order. Your job is to clear the path for your allies on the ground by taking out targets, bearing your own safety in mind. As enemies display various behavior types, it is up to you to learn how they will react and find a solution to each level. Hostages will move after you fire a shot so delivering accurate hits on the bad guys is not optional. Act quickly or slowly – depending on the situation.

Sniper Tactical is available as a Steam Early Access title on January 8th, 2016. While the experience isn’t the same as Ground Branch, the price is right for an enjoyable experience that is easy to pick up and play, but still takes skill and patience to master. Give it a try and let the developers know what you think.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/374170/

http://fragoutstudio.com/

http://www.indiedb.com/games/sniper-tactical

Now for some Ground Branch news…… Things have been moving along quite well recently. We have closed out sales of the Operator Edition and are getting some great testing, feedback and collaboration from those who decided to make the purchase. Multiplayer connectivity is finally getting to the point where matches can be played and even in its very rough state people are enjoying the experience. Tremendous work has gone into the UI and the work needed to make our unique customization systems work as needed in both a single player and multiplayer environment.

Gameplay is still very rough and there are lots of bugs and graphics glitches, but here are a couple videos of some Operator Edition owners giving the latest build a go. Please remember you are watching a VERY early development build with LOTS of known issues and unfinished stuff. 😉

This one is played on a small developer test map that is used for various systems development/testing so the graphics are pretty basic. Its not a pretty map, but the video actually does a good job of showing off some of the fun gunplay you can have in small spaces. The players in the video seemed to have fun at least!

And last but certainly not least we have had some nice work going on AI recently. Zoombapup made a news post in the forums this week that I think warrants a news post. http://www.blackfootstudios.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8310

The latest video shows the current progress on the Ground Branch AI, specifically the basics for movement, cover and engagement. Lots to do still, but its good to finally get things to a point where they are actually working in the Ground Branch main branch. Hopefully we will be able to get a first pass of our Terrorist Hunt style mode out to the Operator Edition users soon.

So hopefully everyone has a great 2016 and we hope to see you playing Ground Branch soon!

Small update

Programming

We would like to try posting regular updates in between the more major news items, giving you all a feel of where we’re at. So here is a small update!

Phil (zoombapup) is currently busy with the cover system for AI as some of you might have read in the dedicated AI discussion forums. It’s on the edge of being usable at the moment. Next step is implementing a cover spot reservation system, to make sure several NPCs don’t try to take cover in the same spot and start arguing about who was first. This cover system is an important milestone as it’s needed to further develop the squad code.

So when the basics of the cover system are implemented Phil will focus on squad behaviors and give them some love soon. Right now the squads have no concept of actually being in cover. An NPC for instance doesn’t know if the guy he is firing at is in the open or not. Hopefully we will see some interesting squad behavior in the next months. Phil hopes to get additional squad code written and have the first pass terrorist hunt ready for the New Year, but we’ll have to see how it goes. The day job is demanding so Phil’s slammed for the coming weeks with Uni related work and development is mostly done during the weekends.

Kris has been hammering away at multiplayer issues in order to create a smoother MP experience. Improving the Steam integration, providing a better server browser and better loadout & appearance replication. So yeah, lots to do on the multiplayer side of things!

The new UI developed by Costa (Scopey) is being implemented step-by-step and is coming along nicely. Besides the technical challenges, real life catches up as well, so Kris might go back to his system of waking up at 2-4am to work on Ground Branch before the day starts *shudders*. Plans for next weeks are to get some good night’s sleep, fixing that annoying bug causing client side items to detach from dying players and debugging everything else like crazy. And shoot at John some more.

That’s it for today. We’ll try to give you a new update soonish, thanks for reading!

– Zoog

UI update and Ending Operator Edition sales

Uncategorized

Things are moving along slowly but surely. We have been working hard to resolve some networking bugs that have been a thorn in our side for a while, and are very close to having everything resolved in that area. That should allow for much smoother online play and hopefully more public showings of actual gameplay.

We have a new contributor to the project that has been working on some UI concepts (He actually did the main GB logo as well 🙂 ). His name is Costa and goes by ‘Scopey’ (Used to be SAF_Night Scope) on the forum and has been doing a wonderful job coming up with the direction of the Ground Branch UI. The next release of the Operator Edition will include the start of moving to this new design.

Here are a few concept images showing the new direction

Since we are getting a lot closer to an Early Access release we have decided to stop selling the Ground Branch Operator Edition on November 15th. We have 45 Steam keys left in our initial run so lets get them all sold in the next week or so!

The reason we are cutting off sales is to make sure those that purchase the Operator Edition get their money worth. We want them to have time before the Early Access release to provide valuable feedback and to feel as though they have been an important part of the early development.

So lets get these last few Operator Editions sold!

we will just leave this right here…..

Level Design

I was working on lighting for the Tanker Ship map and decided to do a screen grab. This is straight from the editor, pasted into PS and saved out. 🙂

Enjoy!

Progress update

New Year and New Things

Small update

UI update and Ending Operator Edition sales

we will just leave this right here…..

Developed with

Distributed on

Powered By

Published by

Join the
Ground Branch

Join the Ground Branch

Developed with

Distributed on

Powered By

Published by

Join the Ground Branch

Join the Ground Branch

Join our

Receive our updates

Connect

Join the
Ground Branch