Issue 2: Visualization

Welcome to Issue 2 of the Failure newsletter. Firstly I would like to say thanks for signing up to the newsletter. These newsletters are sent out on a bi-weekly basis and we hope that you enjoy the closer look at Failure over the coming weeks and months as much as we enjoy sharing it. For those of you that signed up after the release of the first issue you can read back on past issues by going here.

1. Video DevBlog - What is Failure?

A discussion on what Failure is and how it fits within the RTS genre of games along with a closer look at how we're trying to make the experience feel different while still making it feel familiar enough for you to pick up and play.

2. Variety of Shape - Designing the Look of Failure

We take a closer look at how Natalie our 3D artist is working on creating variety using the simple hex shape and we have the first early Concept from Mike showing off the first sector of the NeuroNet that you'll have access to, The Public Sector.

3. Streaming thoughts - What happened during our first Twitch Stream

A run down of what was covered in our first twitch stream and a quick look at how multiplayer matchmaking is currently implemented and what we have planned for down the road.

4. Competition Time

Help us build our community and win yourself a cool Failure T-Shirt.

Before we get on with this weeks content  we would like to say thank you for all those that have pledged their social support on Thunderclap in order to get the word out about this new newsletter. We really appreciate the help. For those of you that haven't but want to lend a hand, please click the below image to be taken to our campaign. We've got just two days left and really need to get to 100 supporters. Your help would be invaluable!

Video DevBlog - What is Failure?

Justin our Creative Director talks us through the basics of the game and how it's played along with what makes the game different to traditional RTS games. He discusses the how indirect control of units is core to the experience and how the careful manipulation of the levels through the use of the different scripts can and will lead to victory.

Variety of Shape - Designing the Look of Failure

Designing the look of Failure was always going to be a challenge. In our minds we wanted to create a virtual space that felt unique but that also tied in with the cyber punk stylization in some ways so as to not completely alienate our players.

We decided on a low poly look using geometric shapes, a playable space made up of Hexes and no textures, instead using vertex colours, and making use of the staple of this particular genre; glow, and lots of it! Here's what the game currently looks like for the first area that we're working on:

However, we can only go so far pushing this stylization; there's not much that can be done to add interest to a basic hexagonal shape without placing other 3D models on them, or so we thought.

This is where Natalie and Mike stepped in. If you can remember from the last newsletter, Mike came up with an interesting way in which the Hex shaped tiles could be reconfigured to create our Construct types within the game.

Natalie took this concept and started working on some ideas for the most basic cell type in the game and ways in which we can make them change shape, rise and reconfigure. These are really early ideas and the below screenshots are taken from within her 3D program with no textures or Vertex colours or anything else applied, just the pure model, but I thought it would be nice for you to be able to see the basic process in which she took Mikes's concept for Constructs and extended it to the basic cell. Click on the images to enlarge them:

Mike Started working with us properly at the beginning of last week and we tasked him to begin creating concepts for the first area of the NeuroNet, Public Sector. The NeuroNet is made up of several sectors all with their own purpose within the overall Network and all with their own visual style and elements that make them feel unique.

The Public Sector is made up of 4 different districts with levels being played out within each of these areas before you can move deeper into the NeuroNet. Mike decided to try and stay quite close to our current visual style with this first piece with the aim of gently transitioning look from what we have now into something with a lot more of his artistic touch and vision.

This next piece is a slightly different idea that Mike had for the central control tower in the public sector. It took the original concept in the other direction with more of a Halo type stylization which wasn't quite what we were looking for. Although its a great piece of art its not going to end up being used in the game.

This final piece is still work in progress but we can now see, based on the feedback we gave Mike, how he's extending the first concept and taking on board the stylization that we think can work really nicely in the game. Natalie's 3D work on the basic cell has also helped influence this design. We cant wait to see it finished.

With each new concept that mike creates and 3D model that Natalie makes we are getting closer to the visual style we want for Failure. Its an ongoing process and will require many more attempts to really nail down the visualization of the digital space that we are trying to create. We need to make sure that it not only looks really cool but also evokes the emotions that we want you to feel while exploring the NeuroNet. Its really exciting to see our ideas take shape like this and we cant wait to share more concepts as they are created moving forward.

Streaming Thoughts - What happened during our first Twitch Stream

On Wednesday last week we began our first live DevStream, something that we're going to be doing on a regular basis over the coming weeks and months.

Leigh our level and core mechanics designer, Milcho our Ui and gameplay programmer and myself had a few games of Failure while discussing some the core mechanics. As any good live stream should go we quickly discovered that we had a game breaking bug that caused the game to freeze on completion of a level (which Sven subsequently fixed after the Stream). We learnt that we should really test our Pre-Alpha versions before streaming and that we should really put a plan in place before we start!

Anyway, the experience was a good laugh and the only thing that was missing was more input from you, the viewers. We would love to know what you thought. Below you can find both parts of the Live Stream.

Still to come this month we have:

Wednesday 16th September: Steam Library Showdown

We'll be going through and playing some of our favourite games in our library and talking a bit about the design, art and audio from our perspective.

Wednesday 23rd September: QA with the devs

Ask us anything about Failure

Wednesday 30th September: Concepting the world of Failure

Mike will be do a live art session where he'll be talking you through his process of creating the world of the NeuroNet.

We look forward to you joining us during our streams and if you have any other ideas for future streams be sure to get in touch.

Head over to http://www.twitch.tv/dreamharvestgames and follow us to make sure you don't miss a show.

Competition Time

How does winning an exclusive NeuroNet TShirt sound to you? What if I was to say that two of you are in for a chance to win one of these: