So, we have come to an end to the Alienware Arena Closed Beta. We had a plethora of players, and we gathered useful data, as well as lots of comments on things to improve and work upon.
We are now going to tweak a bunch of things in game and we will come back to you soon. The general objective of the beta was successful: gather metrics, information about play-styles and gather player feedback. Moreover, we received a lot of praise for the game, (and criticism -of the good kind-) in order to make Trident’s Wake a better game for you, our players.
The Present and Future of Trident's Wake
Greetings ECHOs! After a mild period of radio Silence, we are now able to express all of the things that happened to Trident’s Wake.
Originally an indie project with an extremely limited budget in tow, now with a signed deal with Graffiti Games, based in Vancouver Canada. This deal meant that we could add more beef to the game, improving graphics, animations, enemy AI, add a procedural map generation, and a plethora of other updates. This took the game to a whole new level, and thanks to our Friends in Graffiti, a lot more exposure to the game is now being given.
The Game is now running a Closed beta with the amazing people from Alienware Arena, and also the small but budding Trident’s Wake Fan Community. In the upcoming weeks we will see articles explaining more about the game, and more news of the upcoming future.
If you’d like to help us out on this path, feel free to add us to your wish list.
Thank you for your time and love.
The Bacus Studios team.
Devlog Update #1
Greetings ECHOs!
Moving forward, in addition to our regular announcements, we will be posting development updates through here as well, so we can keep you informed on game’s progress.
As some of you may know, yours truly went to the GDC and Game Connection on March of this year, in the hopes that we could gain the support of a publisher to help us finish the game and reach out to a broader audience. We had overwhelmingly positive feedback during the event, and we received many requests for a follow-up with the demo, accompanying documentation and company information. We sent out the e-mail by mid-April, and we are currently waiting for some of them to respond. We have been declined by a few of the publishers that we knew were a long shot (due to their target audience and/or genres they usually publish), but we have not yet lost heart. Rest assured, however, that even if we are not able to make a deal with a publisher, we have contingency plans prepared, so the game will release.
Our main programmer’s rig(s).
Now, onto the promised development update, we’ll start with the engineering department. As many of you may know from the store page, our game supports solo play, local co-op (shared screen), and online multi-player. Our production cycle for most of our features follow that same order, so that we can iterate on those features in a safe and tested environment before adding the more complex layers of multi-player interaction. During the “rush” for the GDC/GCA, we had to forego the online multi-player component of the recently added features because of our time constraints (and because our demonstration during the event was based around local co-op). So now Gonzalo Ortego, our main programmer, has been adding online multi-player functionality to those features. In parallel, lead designer Franco Caltabiano (a.k.a. “Zombie”) has been coding additional game elements (more on that on the next update).
Multi-player is looking good!
Both Franco Glellel (a.k.a. “Pela”), and Federico Pedroza (a.k.a. “Feche”) from our 3D department have been working on the production of assets and levels for a new setting which offers you a change of pace in term of gameplay and aesthetic. Since the game takes place within a spaceship, the natural setting variety is severely limited. That said, we have made it a priority to produce as many different settings as we possibly could while maintaining realistic coherence, and so far we’ve created the following:
Industrial Zone: Heavy machinery and conveyor belts populate most of this setting. Pipes, generators, storage rooms and stockpiles are some examples of distinct assets throughout the levels. The industrial zone usually carries low light and favors blue and black colors, which the enemies take advantage of by blending in.
An example of the Industrial Zone’s environment.
High-tech: This setting encompasses laboratories, clinics and hydroponics rooms. Whites and greens permeate this section, and most of the assets a player can expect to see are cutting-edge computers, incubators, and precise automated machinery. While this setting is usually brightly illuminated, it’s also populated with many assets, giving enemies plenty of opportunities to lay in ambush.
Living Quarters: A stark contrast to the Industrial Zone, this setting offers warm and welcoming colors, favoring brown and orange. You can expect to find high-end living commodities here, including a shopping mall, bedrooms and dining halls. It’s relaxing appearance and open spaces may betray you, however, since it also allows for the larger enemies to guard these modules.
Living quarters.
Passing onto the UI and UX department, Nicolás Dimov has been rolling out a large array of changes recently. Many of the UI and GUI elements have been tweaked or reworked to improve the overall user experience while navigating through the game’s menus as well as during gameplay. We will continue to make improvements over time, in order to provide you with the best possible experience while you take back the Trident from the alien threat.
Regarding the level design itself, the workflow is as follows: “Feche” creates the level layout for the current module, populates it with the “static” assets (term we’ve applied to assets that don’t trigger any game events) and implements the module’s lighting and environment effects. Then, Nicolás sets up the level with all the events and enemies that fit the narrative of that specific module, always keeping maintaining the goal of creating a fun and engaging gameplay experience. Lastly, “Zombie” plays through the levels and tweaks the numbers of enemies and potential resource gains, as well as possible placement and other feedback, making sure the module’s gameplay experience coherent with the rest of the systems.
Last but not least, in the Illustration and concept department, Alejandro “barney616” Romero is cooking up something which will help us tell you the story behind the game (and a glimpse to our handcrafted universe, “Chronicles of the Solar Empires”). Being a small indie studio, completely self-funded, we’ve had to make many hard decisions regarding what feature we could realistically implement on time. Thankfully, Alejandro came up with the idea of creating a set of digital comics through which we will be able to tell you about the story and its setting. We expect to have the first comic in the upcoming days, so stay tuned to our discord channel for when we release it!
A small snippet of the comic.
I hope you understand that game development is a difficult process with multiple layers of complexity, and we feel that updating you with this devlog will help us to provide an open and friendly communication with you, so that you know where we’re at on the game’s progress.
Thank you very much for reading!
Ignacio “Nacho” Baldini Pescarmona (A.K.A. Bacus)
GDC and GCA Aftermath.
Greetings ECHOs!
Our CEO finally came back from GDC and Game Connection. There he had plenty of meetings and things are looking good. Right now, we are doing a bunch of follow ups with various companies (we cannot disclose which those companies are, but if we sign with one we will surely be telling you about it).
We believe we will be getting a new update in a couple of weeks at most (this of course may vary, since this is our first time signing a deal). If you would like to give us a helping hand tell your friends to add Trident’s Wake to their wishlist.
If you would like to know more about Trident’s Wake, and to be in contact with the devs, join our Discord Channel. Discord Channel.
Regards, and have a good day!
Heading towards GDC
Greeting, fellow ECHOs!
We wanted to share some good news with this growing community: we’ll be assisting this year’s Game Developers Conference and Game Connection at San Francisco next week!
Here at Bacus Studios, we have a grand vision for our small indie studio and our first commercial title, Trident’s Wake. We’ve been working tirelessly towards this goal, and now we’re just a few steps for achieving this. In its current state, all of the game’s base mechanics have been implemented and tested we’re currently in the process of polishing the build we’ll be showcasing during the events.
What we’re missing now is content. We have created tools and processes that allow us to streamline the content creation for our game, and now we need to start producing that content. Our base goal for this game is to have at least 20 hours worth of original content for a standard player, and around 25 for a “completionist”. We’d also like to localize the game into at least 6 languages, support other operating systems, and port the game for consoles (our couch co-op feature is a great plus there). From the very beginning, we have produced every asset with those considerations in mind, but we can currently only focus our budget on one system, and that’s Windows.
We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to showcase our game, in different stages of development, at several local and national events. The feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive.
Our mission during the events at San Francisco is to share this experience with a much broader and tougher audience, as well as demonstrating what we’re capable of to several publishers, in order to secure the funds to be able to deliver the game we have envisioned.
If, however, we are not able to do so, do not be disheartened. We will still release the game, only that it will be as an Early Access title. We know a lot of gamers are already burnt out on Early Access titles, and as gamers ourselves we’ve had those experiences as well. However, there are some very good positives of Early Access, especially since we’d be releasing a stable, playable version of the game, in which your feedback will be priceless.
As for now, if any of you are going to be present at the events, we invite you to come try out our game during the Dutch Courage party, sign up on
Eventbrite.
We’ll update you as soon as we have any news on this regard.
