The all new rebooted Abducted is live! For now, enjoy this EA game as part beta, part tech demo, part demonstration of where the game is headed. This uses the latest Unreal 4 technology and today is Windows only, but a Mac version will be added real soon probably this week.
There's too much to describe in this post what's changed. It's a lot. In some ways its the old game expanded, in other ways its all new and different. The key thing is post your thoughts, either here or in the forums. There are going to be regular updates to the game and all feedback is welcome.
One final note, the old build is removed for now. I'll make it free DLC at some point soon (sooner than later if there's demand). Have fun guys! I'm loving what we can do in Unreal and I hope you all can see the potential for where this can go now. Thanks!
Richard
Unreal Beta out by this weekend 6/25/2017
The Unreal Beta of Abducted will be released sometime in the next few days. There are significant changes in the latest version, it is in many ways a reboot of the project. I'll document these changes in the coming days. Ultimately it will be more expanded than what was being worked on before, built in a better game engine with far better graphics and gameplay.
The visual style of the game is being updated quite a bit too, as Unreal 4 allows quite a bit more. It's maybe no coincidence that I was both a Battlefield and Desert Combat developer (large open landscapes) and a Borderlands developer (highly-stylized open-world psuedo-rpg) that Abducted is taking on some elements of all that. I've been professionally developing in Unreal for at least a decade, going back to the game Frontlines (anyone remember that? ːsteammockingː) and my level of comfort with this engine and toolset is very high. So I'm attempting to use all of my experience and background to deliver a great game you won't forget.
But first things first, the new look. While these aren't completely final, they're very far along. There's a lot to show here and more to come. Thank you for reading this and enjoy!
Falling intro (WIP)
Here's some work in progress on the intro to Falling, which will be included in the upcoming Unreal Beta. You're seeing this as it gets developed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-YJL7411EY
Beast Gameplay
Fresh video of the Beast! These are snippets of gameplay tests, working on his AI and other capabilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HZgflekP38
Abducted Original Soundtrack available everywhere
The Abducted OST is available just about everywhere now (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play, you name it) and contains 49 tracks of horror and ambience among other styles. If you want to help this project then buy some tracks... or just stream them on your favorite service. Every bit helps!
Another alien world to explore, this one is a frozen landscape with ancient structures and ruins.
Exploring an alien world
The Unreal engine is going to allow Abducted to open up and explore bigger spaces. More alien landscapes to come!
Update to Unreal 4.16 and release plan
Unreal 4.16 released yesterday and Abducted is up and running on that code. We're taking advantage of the latest rendering features including fully volumetric lighting, here's a quick sample of where that's headed.
The Unreal version of Abducted will release to Steam next month in June. When that happens the current beta build running on the old engine will be retired as free DLC. You'll still be able to try it out and play it if you want. At some point in the future it may go away completely once the Unreal version is fully featured enough, or just be available as bonus content.
The new blaster ability in the upcoming Unreal 4 version of the game, how its different and improved, plus me talking. Cuz words. ːsteamfacepalmː
Flashback
This was recently discovered by one of the team members of the original Abducted project. A physically printed design document from the version of the game that never shipped, circa 2003.
In all truth there wasn't much of a game back then, far less than there is now. There was a concept, a first draft design, a relatively incomplete game engine and some test levels. Nvidia promoted the game on the back of their high end 5900 box and various other marketing efforts and materials. A version of the game was shown at their booth at E3 that year.
That's a brief history of the development of this game. For my part so many other games have shipped between then and now, including Desert Combat, Battlefield, Borderlands, my (other indie title) Crow, and so much else. My hope is that revisiting Abducted now with all the experience I've built up will contribute to making a far better game than if the original had shipped back then. We will see.
