Our composer Barry Topping has been busy recently, so we've compiled some of his recent work into this post :)
First up, here is a snippet of combat music from the game:
SENTRY uses a dynamic music system, which adjusts according to the events in-game. In order to reach this point however, Barry will create a fixed piece of music that he'll then create variations of, chop it into pieces and make stings to ensure a smooth transition between pieces.
If you'd like to hear him talk about this in more detail, there was a recent music-based event on Steam called "Save & Sound" that SENTRY participated in. During the event Barry and Design Lead Sean Noonan chatted with one another about their ambitions for the music, as well as how we approached the composition in the Announcement Trailer.
If you're interested in music and sound design in games, Save & Sound is an annual event you should definitely look out for in future.
Finally, the games section of music-themed Magnetic Magazine interviewed Barry, covering other aspects of being a composer in games, which you can read about here:
A while back we took a look at the development of our capsule art. This first article (which you can read here) looked at the latter concept stages, when we were honing in on what would be our final capsule art that you see on the game's Steam page:
In that post we mentioned our early images for this process, and how some were very cool but ultimately gave the wrong impression of the game, which is why we moved away from them. Well strap yourself in, because we're going to take a look at them now :)
Before we dive in, a quick recap on what we wanted people to feel when they look at our capsule art (in no particular order):
This game looks cool
It looks professional
It looks like a game where you shoot
It gives the impression of being sci-fi
This stood out when I saw it on a random Steam page
I want to learn more!
(We also had a technical requirement; that they worked in both portrait and landscape formats)
This should help frame why the following images didn't make the final grade!
In the early stages of concepting, you take the brief and create a lot of fast and loose variations - this is the art-based equivalent of chucking a bunch of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks! Several interesting ideas can come from this process, and you cherry-pick the elements you like to develop further.
These images felt a little too close to other games for us to progress:
On the left, the guns forming angel-like wings was akin to the first Gears of War cover, while on the right it had a very Doom-like vibe (this one was a real personal fave, and very hard to dismiss!)
Next up are playing around with some variations on enemies, players and deployables:
Both have an interesting composition, but neither worked immediately well in landscape format. The left image clearly showed the protagonists and antagonists, while on the right shows more of a chaotic snap of gameplay; the player, a co-op buddy and deployables defending a broken doorway against encroaching enemies. This was cool, but hard to parse.
The images below focus on some of the prominent mechanics in gameplay:
The left image has a SENTRY looking back at a damaged core (what the player is defending in some levels). The right image shows the venting gameplay mechanic. Both didn't feel right for the sort of game we were making though, feeling more suited to the survival horror genre.
These images revolve around another aspect of the game: the pods a SENTRY uses to enter levels:
Again, both of these were cool images in their own right, but didn't convey the other elements of the game that we wanted. You can see some inspiration from the Olly Moss film posters creep into the images :)
We also used this clean and simple design for the next two concepts:
Again, these were cool but didn't clearly communicate all of the aspects we needed to.
These final two show the player character front and centre, while also showing some enemies:
At various points we wanted to include enemies to help reinforce the sci-fi and combat elements of the game - and while we moved away from these specific designs, you can see aspects of them in our final capsule art - for example, the up-close view of the SENTRY visor, a strong-posed character with stark, simple colours.
If you want to see how we progressed from these types of images into the next stage of development, you can read all about it here.
Let us know what you think of these early concepts! And if you've read this far, you must surely be interested in the game enough for me to shamelessly plug Wishlisting it ;)
An exciting day for the SENTRY Defence Program - the Announcement Trailer is out:
In it, we see the player spawning in a level to help defend it from an enemy attack. As the battle progresses we see how player death is handled (something we talked about here) - but death doesn't mean defeat in SENTRY as long as there are crew in stasis to revive and throw into the fight. The new SENTRY gains the upper hand in a pyrrhic victory - of course beyond the events in this trailer the fight would continue in-game when the next SENTRY arrives in their spawn pod to deal with the fallout from their predecessors actions!
You may also have noticed when you navigate to the SENTRY store page that another video plays before the trailer. This is our Announcement Teaser:
It shows a few clips of gameplay and is a handy way of showing people what the game is like very quickly before settling into the full trailer.
We'll do a proper breakdown of the trailer in a future post that talks about some of the cool elements the team enjoyed making, as well as how difficult it was to capture - it's nearly 90 seconds to the first cut, and the vast majority of takes was me doing a perfect run... and then doing something silly in the last few seconds, invalidating the whole take...
Anyway, let us know what you think - and remember; the SENTRY Defence Program needs you, so sign-up today!
New screenshot showing the defence of a Power Core!
Here's a new screenshot we've just added:
(You can see a larger version by navigating to the store page screenshot carousel and clicking on the image)
In this one, the player is running toward their co-op companion who is defending a power core from a wave of oncoming enemies.
The co-op player has set up a good defensive position behind a barricade with turrets providing supporting fire. Hopefully the arrival of the player will help turn the tide...
Our announcement trailer is going to be unveiled in the next 24 hours, so make sure you're reporting for duty to watch it - the SENTRY Defence Program needs you!
In a recent post (which you can find here) we broke down the development of our new logo. In it we mentioned we'd also be updating the Steam capsule images too, and as you may have noticed, we have!
With this sort of thing, you need art that covers landscape and portrait versions. Here's the landscape:
...and here's the portrait:
There's a few goals we wanted to achieve with these images. We wanted people to see them and think (in no particular order):
This game looks cool
It also looks professional
It must be a game where you shoot
The character + gun gives the impression of it being sci-fi
This stood out when I saw it on a random Steam page
I want to learn more!
We're hopeful the above images achieve those objectives :)
In a future post we'll show some of the early concepts (there's some very cool ones that weren't quite suitable or gave the wrong thematic impression) but in the meantime, here's some images of how the above capsule art came together.
One of the early concepts that we gravitated toward was this image of a SENTRY with a battle in the foreground. Note we hadn't hit on the colour scheme yet, but the rest is pretty close:
While this worked in portrait mode, the next step was to test it in landscape:
During this process we hit upon the orange colour scheme, which we liked more than the grey we'd tried previously. It both matched the colour on the SENTRY breastplate armour and we felt made it stand out more.
While we really liked the portrait one with the orange colour scheme, the landscape versions weren't working for us, so we started to experiment with something different, a single SENTRY in an interesting pose. Here's a few examples where we were trying different poses, colour schemes and logo positions:
As you can see from the final version, we chose the shooting pose with the orange colour scheme and the horizontal black stripe to show the logo.
As I mentioned above, in the future we'll show some of the other concepts we discarded along the way, as although they ultimately weren't suitable, they're too cool to remain unseen :)
Until then, keep an eye out for our imminent Announcement Trailer - hit the Wishlist/Follow button for the news to appear in your Steam feed:
Take a look at the latest screenshot we've posted:
(You can see a larger version by navigating to the store page screenshot carousel and clicking on the image)
This shows one of the more destructive actions you can take in the game, which is to shoot out a window and vent the area around it into space. That may result in your own death, but as we've described here, sometimes sacrificing a crew member is a legitimate decision to make if you're at risk of losing a subsystem.
Needless to say, this is a game mechanic that we have a lot of fun with and we can't wait to show you a snippet of it in action when our announcement trailer launches soon. If you'd like to be one of the first to see it, make sure to Wishlist or Follow the game so the news appears in your Steam feed.
In a couple of weeks time we'll be unveiling our announcement trailer, which is a very important event during a game's development process! As part of this, we've been revisiting our original store assets like our logo and key art (more on that soon). This post unveils our new logo:
A logo is an important part of identifying a game. It should primarily be clear and legible, also being suited to the themes and tones of the game it represents.
Much like making games itself, logo creation is an iterative process. We created our original logo very early in development. It was acceptable at the time, but was always something we planned on revisiting - and as the game took shape, the way we wanted to refine the logo also started to become clearer in our minds.
For comparison, here's the original logo: At first glance, there are some similar elements we retained, like the upside down triangle that appears on the armoured breastplate of each SENTRY. We felt that this worked well to both frame the logo and have something meaningful from the game represented.
Aside from the colour usage, the main difference is the font. We shifted to something that felt more in keeping with the sci-fi theme of the game and felt more professional. There are lots of other minor details that contribute to the overall finish.
Because a logo can be used in various places, it's important it works in each context. We therefore ensure it looks good in solid black, solid white and 'flat' formats. You can see the flat version below:
We didn't make the new logo on our first attempt. We explored many different fonts, colours and iconography to hone in on our chosen design. Here are a few examples:
Of course, this was starting from a position where we knew what we wanted to achieve. If you rewind back to our original logo development, that process was much more explorative. Just for fun, here's a look back at some of the - very early, remember - original concepts:
It feels very odd to be looking at such old work from the beginning of the game... Still, you have to start somewhere!
We hope you've enjoyed seeing how we came about creating our new logo. Next week we'll take a look at the new key art, and we'll update the store page with everything. Remember to keep an eye out for our announcement trailer, hit the wishlist or follow button for any of our news to appear in your feeds on Steam :)
Thanks,
Gary
PS - we went through a similar process on our previous game (which involved a heftier logo redesign). If this subject interests you, there is an article that breaks down that process here.
Season's Greetings!
Everyone at Fireblade Software just wanted to say that however you celebrate this time of year, we all hope that it is filled with fun, laughter and presents :)
Here's to 2022, when you'll be hearing a lot more from us!
The SENTRY Defence Program
Hi!
In our last screenshot post we revealed the player character for the first time, promising that we'd return with more details - so here we are, fulfilling that promise!
Myriad alien threats besiege humanity and it is up to you to defend fleeing ships from capture. The crew and passengers of these civilian vessels are kept in stasis for their own safety while an autopilot attempts to evade attackers.
When aliens manage to board your ship, the SENTRY Defence Program (often abbreviated to 'SDP') is the best form of repelling the invaders.
This wakes crew from their stasis and deploys them to areas that are under attack.
Here's a close-up of a SENTRY:
Crew that are activated under the SDP wear the standard-issue base layer with protective armour on top.
In order to deploy a SENTRY around the ship, special transport tubes are used and you can see an example of these in our previous post.
A SENTRY is a single person (or two in co-op!) and is therefore unlikely to survive every encounter. But as long as there are remaining crew in stasis, there is always another SENTRY that can be activated.
That is why the SENTRY Defence Program needs YOU! So sign up today!
(You can see a larger version by navigating to the store page screenshot carousel and clicking on the image)
In it we have the first reveal of our player character, the eponymous SENTRY. We'll provide more details on those who serve in the SDP (SENTRY Defence Program) in an upcoming post.
You'll also notice the pods in the background. These are where players enter levels - and should a SENTRY perish in battle, where the next crew member will be activated and deployed.
Keep an eye out for future transmissions, the SDP needs everyone to do their part!
