OFF GRID is 76% funded and officially loved by Kickstarter! <3
The campaign was given a 'PROJECT WE LOVE' badge earlier in the week! We had hopes and dreams of getting that nice little bit of extra love from Kickstarter before we started, and now we’ve got it. It feels good. Thanks Kickstarter!
BIG NEWS IS COMING
We have some tremendously fun news coming next week! Stay tuned - the news is going to break on Tuesday, October 30th. You don’t want to miss it!
Once the news is LIVE - please do us the favor of sharing it to the masses. Tweet, blog, write an article, do a little video, share, retweet, or write us a poem.
Would you like a clue? OF COURSE you'd like a clue! Here you are:
To celebrate the release of the aforementioned news, Rich will be doing a dev stream on Tuesday to chat about it all with you! Tune in via twitch.tv/semaeopus at 5pm UK time.
Now, let's get to smashing the 80% milestone as soon as possible, folks! Share and chat about it as much as you can! Perfect conversation for all those Halloween parties this weekend... the mass surveillance state that surrounds us all is downright frightening, after all.
THANK YOU!
The Off Grid Team
HALFWAY, 73% FUNDED & NEW DEMO BUILD
We’re at the halfway point!
Halfway through the Kickstarter campaign and 73% funded is a great place to be - thank you!
You backers have given us a seriously wild ride: OFF GRID was 35% funded in 5 hours, 40% funded in 7 hours, AND THEN we hit the 50% mark within 21 hours!
It has been super exciting to have the support of all of you behind us. To be 50% funded within 24 hours? Astounding!
We still need £5,330 to meet our goal - and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
If you have yet to back OFF GRID on Kickstarter - now would be the *perfect* time. Help us reach 100% funded! Every single £, every single $, is hugely appreciated - please, please, please share far and wide throughout your own networks.
We’d also like to hear from you: what would you like to hear more about in these updates? Character backgrounds? More on hacking gameplay? You tell us! Let us know in the comments below or in the discord - join it here, if you haven't already.
There are 15 days left in the campaign, and a lot can happen in 15 days. We are excited!
THANK YOU!
The Off Grid Team
Hero character concept art: The evolution of Joe
OFF GRID is 73% funded! Thank you everyone!
If you’ve read anything about OFF GRID or played the demo, you will have picked up that our hero, Joe, is a technophobe dad who relies heavily on his hackivist daughter, Jen, for everything: to get his phone to work, keep the smart fridge firmware up to date, and make sure the IoT toaster doesn’t get any funny ideas.
Our last update showed some of the early art tests we did, and explained that we landed on following a low poly art style pretty quickly. Environments in this style are somewhat straightforward - you can make some really interesting scenes quite quickly. Even ‘programmer art’ doesn't look bad in a low poly environment, which is one of the reasons we went for it! But when it comes to characters, it takes something a bit more special.
We started by mocking up a very basic low poly character so that we could get straight into prototyping movement and mechanics. We didn't really have a story or background for him at that point, we just knew that we wanted the character to be a bit of a luddite and incredibly dull - the very opposite of the superhuman, infallible secret agents of most games.
Our initial model was made as a placeholder and he was seriously vanilla:
We quickly pushed it on by defining the ‘shapes’ of character that could be used to portray different attitudes. As you can see in the bottom half of the sketch below, we felt that rectangular characters, and especially ones with a lean to them, a bit like a parallelogram, provided a nice dynamic. Over time, this lean also seem to fit the notion that our lead character is ‘forced into situations’ unwillingly.
There is some interesting theory around shapes and personality floating about on the internet, but essentially, the shape of a character will often convey their attitude.
Pixar are a great exponent of this, and a good example is Carl from UP. He’s a grounded and steadfast character who is immovable and difficult - until he is changed by another character with the ability to always bounce back and right themselves, even if a little naive:
...and so we starting experimenting along these lines. Sazacat, our character artist, started speed painting some thoughts on how we might make some extremely normal-looking folks in game.
Reaching the concept below really defined how we wanted the characters faces to convey emotion in OFF GRID.
We then progressed to the more twisted / awkward style that all OFF GRID character bodies (especially the knees and hands) carry:
That style was largely brought about with the drawing above, which very quickly translated into a model for our player character, Joe:
You can see the kink in the knees, and the slightly crooked fingers, as well as the uncomfortable stance (even in A-pose!).
We also defined our style with the use of specific hard and soft edges all over the character, but most prominently around the jaw and forehead.
These couple of major points have set the style for the rest of the characters in the game.
We hope this provides a little insight into the process. Don't forget, if you like this sort of thing, you can get your very own copy of the 'Making Of Off Grid' book by backing at the NAMESPACE level or above!
We look forward to showing you more soon!
THANK YOU!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. Please continue to share the campaign as far and wide as you can. Every single $ or £ backing is so important to us!
AWARD WINNERS!
We won an award!
In case you didn’t see us shouting about it all over social media:Off Grid won the Indiecator Award at Sweden Game Conference!
It came with the giant cheque of our dreams (literally - a HUGE check!) and a very pretty bouquet of flowers! Rich was in Sweden speaking and demoing the game, and was the lucky one to receive the award on behalf of the team. We might have to stage reinactments next week so that all of us can feel the glory of being handed a giant cheque!
All of us still have huge grins on our faces today. Thanks Sweden Game Conference - you've totally made our week!
Concept art, anyone?
We want to give you a little look at the beginning of Off Grid's visual style and whet your appetite for the 'Making Of' book!
Off Grid was destined to be low poly from the start. It’s an aesthetic style that we like and that is achievable for an indie team.
We also knew from the get-go that we wanted to create a world where data was visualised and tangible. Not immediately visible with the naked eye, but with the help of augmented-reality glasses.
This is was our first pass at what a 'data view' layer might look like:
We knew we were getting somewhere when we hit on this idea of using stealth mechanics to 'hide' your data.
Next up was working out what the overarching objectives were for the meta game. We wanted to create a dark, dull, dystopian near future, that could be liberated with a new free internet (free as in open, not as in cost). This led to thinking through what the liberating of zones or areas of the world with 'mesh network nodes’ might look like.
It's fun to look back and see how far the game has come, what has carried on, continued through, or has been left behind.
If you like this sort of thing, there will be copious amounts of concept art, sketches, notes, photos, and loads of other behind-the-scenes exclusive content in the official 'The Making Of Off Grid' book!
Secure your own copy by backing at the NAMESPACE reward level or above! If you've already backed, remember you can easily up your pledge, too!
Funding update:
WE ARE 70% FUNDED!
Yesss! What a relief it is to say that! We've been steadily climbing the £14k mountain this week, and it's possible we have hit refresh more times than we care to admit over the past few days.
We have had the best time sharing Off Grid with the world through this campaign so far. Nineteen days remain! A LOT can happen in 19 days.
If you have yet to back, please do! If you’re thinking about backing, please do! If you keep meaning to tell your friends to back, please do!
THANK YOU, BACKERS!
The Off Grid Team
p.s. If you're near London, go check out Inside Intel! It's a very cool contemporary art exhibition with the theme of surveillance running through it, put on by the Centre for Investigative Journalism. It's FREE, and open all of today: https://tcij.org/inside-intel
Almost 70% Funded in 7 days!
Hey everyone!
We’ve been kickstarting for a week and we’re ALMOST 70% funded! Nearly 70% in seven days is absolutely astounding. Thank you all SO much!
It’s been excellent to hear from backers and hugely exciting to get feedback from those of you that have played the demo. We’ve gotten our first Let’s Plays, and overall, we are feeling pretty good about week one!
Now for week two! There’s a few fun things going on this week - Rich is Sweden for the Sweden Games Conference. The conference theme is ‘Games and Politics: Reflections on power, play & changing perspectives'... and we fit the bill! Rich was invited to speak AND Off Grid was selected to be on the show floor as part of Indiecator - a showcase dedicated to indie games!
If you’re in London - Off Grid is also on show as part of Inside Intel - an exhibition of contemporary artworks, design objects and digital assets brought together to investigate the confusion sewn by an increasingly partisan media, sinister new technologies and the culture of official secrecy and widespread surveillance. The exhibition forms part of the 2018 Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Logan Symposium: Conspiracy. If the theme of our game is what’s piqued your interest - go check it out as it looks seriously cool! Plus it’s free!
We want to keep momentum for the campaign going - and we need you to help. Please continue to share, share, share. Remember, it’s an all-or-nothing campaign, so we must hit our target in order to recieve the funding and fulfil the rewards. Keep on sharing, shouting, and spreading the word for us!
Thanks again for an incredible first week, backers!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. Have you joined our Discord? Check it out: http://discordapp.com/invite/NDEVwBJ
What makes Off Grid Unique?
Hello everyone!
What a week this has been: a huuuuuge thanks to you all! We’re nearly 60% funded - and THAT is a great way to go into the weekend.
In case you missed it, Rich did a little stream yesterday from the back of an LA cab - it is full of big gushy thank yous to everyone! The video isn’t top quality, but the heartfelt thanks definitely are. (check it out on twitch.tv/semaeopus)
He’s out there as he’s a speaker at IndieCade today! He’s talking about modding, digital activism, and why as a game developer, you probably have less to say about a subject than your audience does.
So without further ado: let’s talk about what makes Off Grid so unique!
Off Grid is first and foremost a fun yet challenging hacking game that opens a dialogue about the real world issues of data privacy, information security, and the mass surveillance state that surrounds us all. It has a compelling narrative and a sweet father-daughter relationship at its core.
It’s played with a controller, and we promise, no previous hacking knowledge is required. ;)
But if you wish to take it further, there’s so much more to it!
Replay & Community Input
We want Off Grid to continue on as a piece of work that the community can shape along with us in order to make it everything it can be. It is an open stealth game with multiple solutions to levels and a complex AI, creating missions that are fun to play through many times over.
PLUS, the game is extensively moddable and the speed and ease with which players and modders can turn around a level means that interesting content and stories should be produced at a speed and scale that will outstrip anything we could dream of as an indie development team!
This is something we want to expand on here...
The 'South Park' of Hacking Games
Off Grid has dark humour at its centre, and the state of this crazy googling, Orwellian hot mess of a world we live in is ripe for modders to exploit humorous interpretations. Off Grid is much like South Park in that important themes are wrapped up in tongue-in-cheek humour. Like South Park’s speedy turnaround of episodes to approach topical issues, Off Grid’s modding tools make it possible to produce a new level in a matter of days in order to ape news and current events.
The incredible importance and relevance of the issues around hacking and data privacy in everyday life mean that there is a mine of inspiration available for topical mods to be created and for streamers to play and comment on.
In this video we took a real life vulnerability and made it as a mod in the game to prove the tools could used to tell stories of real life hacks. In this instance, we took Scott Helme's talk from Steelcon16 about the vulnerabilities of the Nissan Leaf, and made a hackable car that carried the same weakness: a publicly displayed VIN was used to access the app that controls the car's aircon, battery, locks, and could get the car's location data.
The possibilities are endless! We look forward to the game being released and seeing the first official mods come back.
If this sounds up your street and you have yet you back Off Grid, please consider doing so now! We’d love to have you as a backer.
To all of you that have backed and/or shared this campaign so far: we can’t say thank you enough - it’s been an absolutely incredible few days!
THANK YOU!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. Don’t forget: please share this, retweet us, post the link wherever you hang out online, and tell your friends! THANK YOU!
OFF GRID IS 50% FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN 24 HOURS!
WOW. You backers have given us a seriously wild ride: 35% funded in 5 hours, 40% funded in 7 hours, AND THEN we hit the 50% mark within 21 hours!
It feels seriously good to be 50% funded within the first 24 hours of the campaign! Your enthusiasm and support has blown us away. THANK YOU!
For this first update, we wanted to give you a little background on the inspiration for Off Grid. As you might be aware, it’s been in the works for quite some time!
The game was initially inspired when Rich heard Eben Moglen speak about net neutrality and data privacy at the INET conference in 2011. It struck a cord, and the seed for Off Grid was planted.
Soon after, Rich teamed up with Pontus, and together they built the first prototype of Off Grid. The goal was to get people thinking about data. The root notion was to try and physicalize it - to make data into something manipulable, something that people would be able to go and play with and see as a thing you can walk around.
But the concept was still a little out there: this was early 2013, before Snowden and NSA revelations.
Fast forward to June 2013, and the first ever public unveiling of Off Grid (in a livestreamed interview at Etoo London) just happened to fall nearly 64 years to the day after the publishing of George Orwell's book, 1984, and the same week that Edward Snowden made his first leak.
And all of a sudden, it clicked.
Prior to the first revelations, it was a struggle to explain to anyone why what we were doing with Off Grid was important or would be interesting. Then, almost overnight, Snowden gave everyone the vocabulary to talk about it. People understood.
Now, years on, the revelations have just kept rolling, and everyone is much more aware of the issues surrounding data privacy and mass surveillance.
It is the perfect time for a game like Off Grid: people are tuned into the effects of data mining and the impact that bad laws around digital rights have on real life. Help us get Off Grid funded, and THEN help us shape the game so we can all try to picture a less dystopian digital tomorrow.
Let’s keep the momentum going - tell your friends!!
P.S. If you want to chat to us a bit more informally, we regularly hang out in our studio discord - we’d love to see you in there! Join us: https://discordapp.com/invite/NDEVwBJ
OFF GRID KICKSTARTER IS LIVE!
....and we're LIVE ON KICKSTARTER!
NOW is your chance to back Off Grid and
-PLAY A FREE DEMO of Off Grid
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (SUPER EARLY BIRD - it's a steal!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program!
-Snag some official OFF GRID merch
...and much more!
Back Off Grid TODAY! http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
Get in there quick! Some reward tiers are limited... you don't want to miss out!
Help us spread the word! Share our posts, tell friends when you've backed, and let us know that you have by using #offgridthegame on social media!
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. If you haven't already, please join the mailing list for news and updates: http://newsletter.offgridthegame.com/?p=subscribe&id=1
DEMO AVAILABLE TODAY!
Today is the day! The Off Grid Kickstarter campaign goes LIVE!
From 4pm BST onwards TODAY, you will have the opportunity to PLAY A FREE DEMO of Off Grid!
Play the demo
Access the demo via our kickstarter page: http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
Become a backer
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (SUPER EARLY BIRD - it's a steal!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program!
-Snag some official OFF GRID merch
...and much more!
Set your alarms!
The campaign launches at 4pm BST. That's:
4pm London / 5pm Berlin / 11am New York / 8am LA
Back Off Grid!
http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
Get in there quick to get the best deal on the game! Some reward tiers are limited... you don't want to miss out!
Help us spread the word!
Share our posts, tell friends when you've backed, and let us know that you have by using #offgridthegame on social media!
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. If you haven't already, please join the mailing list for news and updates: http://newsletter.offgridthegame.com/?p=subscribe&id=1
KICKSTARTING TOMORROW!
That's right, in just over 24 hours, Off Grid will be live on Kickstarter!
Launching on Tuesday, October 9th, you will have the opportunity to:
-PLAY A FREE DEMO of Off Grid
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (SUPER EARLY BIRD!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program!
...and much more!
The campaign goes live at 4pm BST. That's:
4pm London / 5pm Berlin / 11am New York / 8am LA
Get in there quick to get the best deal on the game! Some reward teirs are limited... you don't want to miss out!
Help us spread the word! Share our posts, tell friends when you've backed, and let us know that you have by using #offgridthegame on social media!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The Off Grid Team
P.S. If you haven't already, please join the mailing list for news and updates: http://newsletter.offgridthegame.com/?p=subscribe&id=1
