Prospekt
Please don’t think that i’ve been avoiding you… A great many matters require my attention in these… Troubled times…
Time... Cpl Shephard...
Prospekt - August Update!
I have a Prospekt update in the works that I will be rolling out soon, I would like to try and put some new things in that i've picked up from my newly gained skills so I will be in touch with you all when I have something for you all to play.
Hope you are all good, thanks for supporting Prospekt!
Speak to you soon with another update!
Rich
Prospekt Year 1 Update!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYp3cFcleI
This vlog is a look into where I work and make Prospekt and what's coming out in this update so be sure to check it out if you want to take a look into what equipment I‘m using etc to make the game.
So to begin with I guess ill say today is the Prospekt 1 Year anniversary. Exactly one year ago I got an email saying Project-X has now been Greenlit. What a crazy year it has been. Being given permission to design for video gaming's most prestigious brand has been incredible. Massive highs and massive lows. Endless work periods, sleepless nights.
Conferences in Colonge and London, online meetings with people in Seattle.
A new business was born. Many contracts signed, thousands of dollars and pounds exchanged. Met some great people. Over 1 million people have visited the store page, at one point peaking at 10,000 people a minute. Articles in every major and minor video game press outlet both online and in print magazine oh and don't forget BBC news, that was crazy. Then both the hatred and love from thousands of people.
If you would have said this would be my future three years ago when I started this project. I would have called you crazy. But here I am, and I'm super grateful to Valve for letting me do this. I Look forward to continuing to work with them in the future to make more great games. To anyone who has an idea they truly believe in i'd say shoot and just go for it. Worst case scenario you end up back in a job similar to one you just left.
Also I have decided due to the huge demand to play the closed beta to just make it an open beta because of the high demand it's just easier to keep it open. Anyway, with all that being said, I’ve been working flat out non stop on Prospekt for the last three weeks so here goes… This is what is in this update today.
( Its quite extensive. )
Changes Include :
Fixed node graph issue that was causing players to have node graph on there screen rebuilding despite node graph not being needed to rebuild
New graphical improvements throughout the game by changing the final render to remove the grey tone some of you may have noticed, now when you play the game you will notice the colours are all much more defined, sharp and provide a vastly greater experience.
New hunter battle vastly improved from the original Combine Power Co level which includes a dynamic arena with some destructible environments.
Added more random supply crates that people were asking for through level three.
Added extensive decals to levels one through three. ( I know some of you may have noticed the lack of decals in the release version of Prospekt, this was due to a complex bug that I couldn't fix in time for release unfortunately. This bug would come into effect when you would use a real time light. Regardless of where the light was shining in the map it would light up every decal to full brightness and look absolutely terrible, so I had to make the call, real time lighting, or decals. I chose the lighting. However this has now been either fixed or worked around in many areas allowing me to use both.
Improved some areas for more detail in level one
Greatly improved lighting issue in Cold Water Intake
New signs throughout level two and three to improve immersion and help guide the player
Entirely new designed from scratch second stage of level three.
New particle effects for the alternative fire on the AR2 weapon. ( I am aware the particle effect is not attached to the weapon and im working on it but couldnt get it done in time for this update )
New particle effects for the shotgun, now when you fire a round the shotgun will release a small trail of smoke.
Greatly graphically improved Combine Energy Ball Generator with new particle effects, higher resolution, and sprites.
Introduced new models to level three which include dynamic computers that have randomised sprite based flashy computer lights.
Introduced some new small combine models that I have been working on.
A new Ultra High Definition texture ( UHD ) that I would like you all to test and see how your FPS has been effected. This can be found on the power station floor
Added several new textures over all that I have been working on.
Increased detail of older textures in Half-Life 2
Introduced real time dynamic lighting in level three that I would also like to see how this affects people's FPS. I have Included a nice easy switch in the main menu to turn on the FPS counter. I have over done the lighting on purpose to see what peoples FPS drop will be like. It’s almost a small stress test to see how far I can push the engine on your pc’s and when I put this version out for good ill have a reasonable idea of how much dynamic lighting I can include. So if you are getting low FPS in the particular area it’s on purpose. However it is awesome to play, every hanging light can be shot out that provides a totally different combat event on each play through.
I would be really greatful if you are experiencing low ~ mid FPS to tell me your system spec in the forums so I can get a good idea of peoples hardware capabilities.
Removed the super annoying explosion that completely owned people if they got unlucky in the portal room of Nova Prospekt.
New Font that I have designed for Prospekt based on Opposing Force.
And of course most importantly of all, fixed the rather insignificant double doors that people were having a total meltdown over. ( I would also like to add, I did actually purposely design it that way, the thought being how can you open two doors at the same time when you are holding a gun in one hand but need to twist two door handles without putting the gun down? But I do agree it looks better in the game. )
Please do remember this is a beta for the time being so you may have some bugs, if you do please let me know and ill get on it.
To take part in the beta just go into your games properties, it will be called “Prospekt Phase 2”
Hope you enjoy it, now its time for a beer.
Rich
Prospekt - The Forward Plan
After addressing the main issues that were repeatedly coming up in patch one, I thought I would give it some time to see how things level out. So far so good, we have jumped quite a bit from 47% approval overall to between 69% ~ 70% in the last 30 days, coupled with me talking to people one on one about what they didn't like in particular. I feel that has given me a firm direction on what needs to be done to the game.
So what's new and what's happening in the land of Prospekt? Well the plan is over the course of… well... time... Work on every level in Prospekt giving them an extension to increase overall gameplay time and improving current content. There are also some things in the background that i'm going to keep a little secret until i’m in a position to reveal to you all.
There will be a closed beta coming out on either Monday or Tuesday if anyone would like to be a part of this you can go onto community discussion and let me know your interest there. On top of that there will be an update coming out soon after I have had some feedback on changes from players.
To give you a taste of the improvements that are in the works there is a good example below...
So now it’s time for me to continue working on the game and generating new and improved content for you all to play so once again ill say thank you all very much for your support and I will be back in touch with you all in the course of well... Time...
Prospekt first official update!
What's in this update?
1. Reduced difficulty
2. Overhaul of the flashback effect to make the game play better whilst in a flash back event.
3. Drastically reduced the effects on the final level making it much better to play.
4. Added red shotgun soldier to differentiate between the two enemy types.
5. Reduced the overall file size slightly.
6. Increased the overall detail of level 2
7. Added extra cover to level 2
8. Added monitor to level 2 so player can see when they shutdown the shield wall.
9. Increased overall brightness slightly in level 2.
10. Reduced Antlion swarm on level 2.
Due to some level reworks some of you may experience some corruption of your saved files. Apologies for this. I am looking into an advanced way to distribute game files without it effecting the end user so that should help in the future. For the time being if you do have an issue.
You can either:
A. Restart the chapter you are on to solve your problem or
B. Open console and type sv_unlockchapters (then the number for your chapter here) if you have lost progress.
If you do have any more issues ill be on hand all of this evening until around 1am UK time to speak to you all and give help on the forums.
Also the node graph rebuilding issue is being hunted down, I am aware of this and not just myself but other developers are working on a fix so hopefully soon that will be a thing of the past.
Thank you all for your support. This has been a life changing time for me and I'm learning so many new things about game design and development at such a rapid pace its quite overwhelming. I have listened to a lot of your feedback and it is clear you wanted more. So I going to do my best to deliver more. Prospekt will continue to get updated in the future with many new exciting things that are in the works.
Thank you all for your support so far.
Rich
Prospekt first update is live!
1. A complete like for like copy of the enemy health and difficulty of Half-Life 2 Episode 2.
2. New shotgun soldier skin ( Red ) to differentiate between the enemy types.
3. New significantly reduced overlay for flashbacks.
4. Massively reduced both shaking and HDR exposure on the final level.
5. 200mb reduction in file size of the game.
If everyone is happy over the upcoming days with this I will implement it permanently. I'll be in London till the 9th not back until the 10th. Let me know what you all think.
Once again thank you all for your support. I am listening to everyones feedback. More to come soon!
Enjoy and have fun!
Rich
Prospekt Update 1.1! --- New Direction ---
Im currently getting ready to roll out the first game update early next week which will fix some issues that everyone was highlighting such as the game being too hard, flashbacks being too bright, lack of cover etc. So that should all be out mid/late next week if all goes to plan.
However there are big plans in the works behind the scenes here to make Prospekt a bigger and much more enjoyable game. This will take some time. But we think what were going to add will make a lot of people enjoy Prospekt much more.
So yeah, I am listening to all of your feedback and will be designing accordingly.
Thank you all once again for your support on Prospekt.
See you soon.
Rich
P.S, this is not an April Fools
A message from Rich
I've compiled a list of things that I've been consistently reading that I'm going to change in future updates. I will also be adding more content to the game as many of you are not happy with the length of the game and/or corridor style game play. I guess for me I designed the game purposely this way because of its setting. However it would seem this has not resonated well with a lot of players.
I kept Prospekt quite a closed and secretive project mainly for two reasons. One, because it was originally a tech demo as a job application, and two, because I did not want to disappoint people by saying I'm working on this game that might not get finished or if something happened and the project got cancelled people would be upset/letdown. In hindsight, it would probably have been better to open this up to a much larger focus group during its development. This is all a huge learning curve for me as you can probably imagine.
I have read everyone's comments from both sides and I've taken on board a tonne of things that you've all been saying. I am going to continue to update and support Prospekt with more content. I have a huge list of things that people want to be extended, mixed up, improved and changed in some way. That being said. The list is already pretty huge so I'm going to get started on all of this soon.
I am also going to look into the new weapons and enemies thing that has come up a quite a lot but I'm not going to promise anything as I've already been told this is very hard, time consuming and spans multiple fields of technical expertise to implement correctly. That being said. If you are reading this and you A. Have done this before and want to help out or B know someone that would like to. Please do get in touch on the Prospekt Facebook page.
So yeah, im going to sign off for now and go find some inspiration to improve Prospekt with new concepts and ideas that you'll all like to play. Thank you to everyone that's been supportive thus far. It's really helped.
I will continue to listen to the community and work on Prospekt for as long as I can until hopefully the majority of you all feel that it is a great game.
See you soon with an update.
Rich
--- https://www.facebook.com/Prospekt-700949186700664/ ----
Prospekt is LIVE to download and play!
Prospekt is available to download and play on Steam!
Richard was unavailable this morning, however he wanted to share this message with you:
"Hello everyone, firstly sorry I can't be with you all at the launch as you know I'm at a funeral. Can't really put into words how nervous/excited/worried/hyped I am. This really is a life changing moment for me and this whole experience start to finish has been a huge eye opener and a roller coaster learning curve. I guess all I can really say is that I thank you all once again for your support, as you know my goal is that Prospekt's sales allow me to go straight into starting a game studio - so to everyone who's got a copy thank you very much. I hope you all enjoy the game and enjoy a some more Half-Life to fill the gap for now. Once again thank you very much to everyone. I am now a game developer :) "