Hello again. It has been two busy weeks. Today we release several big features: Wardens and severe player’s code refactoring.
About the player: we continued our refactoring of the game and networking code, iterating on the core aspects. This time we focused on the player behaviour and connectivity. We solved most lag and stuttering walk issues and we have been super-busy testing it extensively. We are now confident enough to release it and will continue to improve on this foundation as the game progresses.
Wardens
this is our big, burly feature. Wardens act as raid mini-bosses to be fought with a party of friends. Wink wink, use Discord, wink wink. Every Titan in the game will have a set of Wardens to be defeated beforehand. They will drop a unique resource, have a specific theme that respect the Titan they’re… watching on and in turn act as a warmup for the big challenge itself.
Speaking of challenge, while it’s too early to have a release date for our first Titan we’re working on it and expect to use the Wardens to collect players data, video and criticism on the combat system. Once again, your feedback is essential for having a full-fledged, satisfying boss battle.
Good hunting and godspeed.
NEW FEATURES
New movement system, all code has been refactored.
Added functions for server and client responsibilities.
New Combat system, all code has been refactored.
Implemented unbuildable zones.
Wardens implemented to act as a structure for future releases.
Fire Wardens miniboss. Be ready for a long fight.
Armours now block damage and are essential in raids. First iteration on them.
Bows are now prime Titan and Warden-fighting weapons, be sure to pack hundred of arrows.
On death Wardens will drop Fire Shards, a key ingredient to craft high-tier Armour.
You can now jump for real.
UPDATED FEATURES
Movement now have new parameters and should be more responsive.
Nomad’s Shelter is now usable as new spawnpoint.
Stamina system reworked.
New arrow trail.
Roasted Meat now can be eaten to restore a portion of your Life.
Player’s animations are now synchronous to all players.
Changed player’s animations: New Idle, New Walk , Run , Jump, Death.
You can now run much, much faster… but for a briefer time.
All tools and weapons have been rebalanced entirely.
Several changes to the map, let the bug-hunt recommence!
BUGFIXES
Exterminated yet another revenant item database downgrade.
Exterminated yet another bloody revenant resource database downgrade.
Exterminated the Unidentified Flying Fruits bug. We’re more akin to the Commander than to Mulder.
Fixed unwanted arrow collisions.
Fixed a bug that consumed arrows.
Fix damage bug on the first hit against animals.
TITANS 0.3 - Performance improvements
Hello again. In the last three weeks we worked hard to improve the game on the technical aspect. As a result, our map had to be reworked. While our models were already built to be modular, clean and efficient there’s always room for improvement. We tackled some of that in the weekly updates but we felt our map needed a serious overhault to further address performance. As a result, we changed most assets in the game scene in order to severely improve performance. This is still work in progress and we plan to improve it in light of... Well, lighting. That part is always tricky and is silently improving hotfix after hotfix. You know how light is: if it works you do not see it, if it it’s broken everything feel unreasonably ugly.
Last but not least, we hear a lot of sentiment about the art direction - some favourable, some not - and while we understand some of the most vocal arguments our duty is to provide the best experience for all users. This require a lot of work and several iterations. So keep with us, speak with us, join us on bloody Discord.
We need this in order to move on Titans and their Wardens. Ops, that was a spoiler!
Since this was a bloody wall of text, I leave you with a treat: as you explore the new map, you might find yourself in front of a certain ominous canyon. Beware of its denizens and get ready to fight them in the near future.
Remember to update your game before jumping in as the old versions are not compatible with the new map and plugins.
Good hunting and godspeed.
NEW FEATURES
New mountains, now they are mesh-based instead of terrain-based.
New terrain. We worked on it in order to greatly reduce the GPU load.
Drastic changes to a lot of Unity Engine stuff that you’ll never notice.
UPDATED FEATURES
Fixed a bug relative to resource farming that made impossible to ever gain more than one at once.
Tools now possess a gather multiplier. Higher tech tools should gather more resources.
All combat is now more accurate and damage output is more reliable.
Changed the level design and resource placement. Caves and canyons are now a reality.
TITANS 0.2.1 - A new Balance
Hello again and welcome to this week’s update. Today we focus on crafting costs and times. Join us on Discord to discuss balance changes and further improve the game pacing.
After the release of our first major update the studio shifted to cover the next big feature. Sneaky hint from pre-production:
Good hunting and godspeed.
UPDATED FEATURES
Decreased all crafting values by 20%
Decreased milestone buildings cost by 70%. You weaklings.
Decreased smithing costs by 20%
Arrows and Hammers no longer require Pebble Tools, easing the crafting process.
In the past month we worked on the game pacing and stability with the help of the community. In this release you will experience firsthand those changes.
More importantly, we’re expanding the game core. Two long waited systems, something that never saw the light in “Voodoo” and where part of the original kickstarter campaign, where forges and smithing. We are releasing them in this patch: Tribesmen can now smelt copper and task their Tribe to improve basic resources in exchange for food.
Each worker has his own favourite food, so fledge out your production to answer their demands. As you tribe expands they’ll ask for different kind of food. To answer that you’ll need to unlock farming and fishing: our coasts and lakes are now populated with fish shoals. You can exploit them by placing Fish Traps or do the dirty work yourself by using Fishing Spears. At the same time you can dedicate small areas to Farming Patches to produce vegetable flour.
Please update your game before jumping in the server again to avoid unwanted conflict with the server.
Good hunting and godspeed.
NEW FEATURES
New animals: Gazelles and Fishes
New weapons: Shortbow and Hunting Bow
Resource production: Flour at the Farm Patch and Fish at the Putcher Platform
Fishing at Fish Shoals
Harvesting at Fruit Shrubs
Smelting Copper at the Coppersmith
Cooking at the Campfire
Improving basic resources in exchange for food
UPDATED FEATURES
Updated the map with several new points of interest and lakes
Updated the starting point with rocks and shrubs. Nice ones, that doesn’t look too expensive
All new water. Now 140% wetter
You can now build fences in coherent walls by snapping them together
Welcome to our third weekly hotfix. This time we're keeping it brief. While the next major update is near, we had to hunt down the infamous Stone Fairy. Apparently it plagued our game collecting all logs, stones and whatnot, hiding them in its secret nest.
The good news, we burned it down. The bad news, the server had to be hard wiped again.
Please update your game before jumping in the server again.
The stone fairies are insidious as well as infectious.
Good hunting and godspeed.
UPDATED FEATURES
Small changes to the map layout in light of the next update.
Improved the water effects.
BUGFIXES
Exterminated a bug that prevented any resource to respawn under special conditions.
Improved yet another bunch of shifting rocks and floating trees. Seriously, it never ends.
Welcome to our second weekly hotfix. From now on we hope to deliver an update every wednesday, so that everyone has the time to try the game without sacrificing the superbowl.
In this patch we focus on player’s quality of life. It’s still a long road to go but we fixed some design choices coff, Pebble Tool, coff and fixed several map and UI problems. Keep in touch for next week as we plan our next major update.
Sneaky picture of what's in store for the end of january:
Good hunting and godspeed!
NEW FEATURES
Steam Names implemented ingame. You can now find out that your untimely death was Giuda’s fault. What a surprise.
UPDATED FEATURES
The infamous Pebble Tool is now readily available at Basic Craft.
BUGFIXES
Exterminated yet another resources duplication bug. You can’t have nice things.
Logs and wood sources should no longer perform Ninja Tricks on player’s approach.
Fixed some rogue LODs on rocks.
We managed to hunt down and discipline the mouse pointer.
Fixed a bug that allowed a player that died while crafting to craft everything, everywhere.
Fixed a bug that allowed some players invulnerability while crafting.
You no longer restore tools and weapons by dropping them casually on the ground.
The crossair should spawn properly with the player and not lay around until summoned.
Fixed meat drop from gazelles. Again. They are almost vegan-friendly now.
TITANS 0.1.1 - First Hotfix Edition
Hello everyone, before getting down to business, please join us on Discord to discuss fixes, suggest changes and contribute to the future of our game. In the following months we’ll strive to provide fixes, updates and minor changes weekly and major feature updates monthly.
So, here, say welcome to the first patch of many! As you will notice, on this patch you can find tags about what’s new, what’s changed and what has been fixed. As a direct result of today’s changes, the server has been hard wiped.
Bonus teaser for what’s next:
Good hunting and godspeed!
NEW FEATURES
The Servers can now be hard or soft wiped on necessity.
Basic in-game menu added.
UPDATED FEATURES
Minor map layout and borders changes. Disabled exploration of the Abominable Depths.
Jesus Syndrome also disabled. You can now bathe in our lovely sea.
Some odd rocks LoD should now apply properly.
Gazelle hit points tweaked. You no longer need nuclear weapons to kill one.
Gazelle items drop changed, Meat drop on kill greatly increased.
Significantly increased damage on all weapons.
BUGFIXES
Infinite resource bug on drop should not occur again.
Items should now appear normally when dropped from inventory.
Textures should not flicker on mountain ranges anymore.
Structures can no longer be built on thin air. RIP groundstone highways.
Patch 0.1 - NEW UPDATE
FIRST UPDATE FROM THE NEW DEV TEAM
Hello Tribesmen,
Drowne’s here, the new Game Director of Voodoo. As you might remember from my last update, the game changed developers and Indiegala had entrusted my team to continue Brain in the Box’s legacy.
The update you long waited for is here. Thanks for the patience and the incredible trust we have received from you all! The game has now an open server in Europe and the new version is available.
We strived to maintain the original feel and core of the game while addressing some hard pressed issues. As such, the game is now called TITANS: Dawn of Tribes and the art direction had changed significantly to match what we had in mind. The new name reflects better, in our opinion, where this game is going. The Titans will be the core of the game as much as the sense of community (“Tribes”, from the name).
We loved the naiveness of the original concept and kept some of its distinctive elements while addressing data streaming and lighting quality. This required a total overhaul of the Izimu, scrapping the old map and models - something that will be addressed over and over again in the next months as we collect gameplay data - and a full code rewrite. At the same time we developed a more definite background and story to support the emerging gameplay we envisioned. More on that with future updates, but fear not: the player and his choices are still central to our experience.
It’s your world, your village, your people.
If you are looking for a new wallpaper, check this one out:
Good hunting and godspeed.
Changelog:
Changed the game name. Now it’s TITANS: Dawn of Tribes.
Changed the team. Now it’s 34BigThings, the guys behind Redout, and the fresh blood of Event Horizon Studios.
New art direction, old design and flavour.
Changed the map. This is a new iteration but it’s far from final. As we said many times so far, we want to keep iterating on this one until we are satisfied with it and then move to expanding it as much as possible.
New character, tattoos and skins. We presented some concept art about it in the last update, now you can play with it and let us know what you think!
Changed the resources. Removed a lot of animals, except the gazelle because it moved us to pity.
We temporary removed the Izimu (now called Titan) from a game named TITANS because we love them and wish to provide the best combat experience. It will be back in the next major update (crossing fingers for February).
Changed all the Buildings, Armours, Weapons, Tech and props.
Extended the gameplay, refactored the game crafting system.
Refactored all the code. Down to every single bloody comma.
Refactored all networking. Burned down the servers and sowed new ones in their ashes.
Of future and updates
Hello Tribesmen,
We know this message was long due, and we are sorry for the delay.
If you followed Voodoo, you know the old dev team has been removed from the project by its publisher and that we, a joint venture between 34BigThings and Event Horizon Studios, have taken over. We hope you all can understand the implications, practical and bureaucratic, of a complete project takeover to justify the lack of communication so far.
This means you’ll get a team of experienced professionals and, quite simply, more people to work on and play Voodoo. We have been working on multiplayer games quite a lot and we understand the complex implications of network lag, data compression and trajectory forecasting we need to build the next great iteration of Voodoo.
In this very moment, we are rewriting the entire game from scratch. We believe in a future where Voodoo is built on solid and extendible foundations. Foundations we can work upon and build something truly colossal.
This takes time. But, hopefully, we’ll have your patience and attention.
We are trying to ship our first update with the new infrastructure before Christmas. We are not here to guarantee it, but we are literally working night and day to deliver it. Here is what we are working on at the moment, and what we were already able to achieve.
NEW SERVERS
This is mostly under the hood, but very important: we are migrating the server infrastructure on something that can scale in an easier way. It’s not “one click away”, but it will be possible once we need it. We don’t have a date yet, but updates will follow.
NETWORK CODE
As we said, we started from an empty project. We trashed everything that wasn’t modular enough. We began with a cube that moves correctly, contacting the server as little as possible and exchanging the minimum amount of data. From there, we are building the new game foundation, which will scale to many concurrent players, way more than has ever been possible in Voodoo before.
THE BAD NEWS
We chose to temporary disable some features that need extensive rework. A brief list includes:
The Izimu, from now on to be renamed “Colossi”.
Climbing will be reworked and expanded as soon as possible after the first update.
All buildings and resources that required Colossi souls.
A few resources, scrapped from the tech list.
This doesn’t mean that all these features are scrapped forever. We are perfectly aware some of these features are critical to the Voodoo experience and we are not here to remove them. But rewriting them from scratch is a lot of work and integrating into the new netcode before Christmas is, well, impossible.
NEW PLAYABLE CHARACTER
Our first update will include a whole new character with dedicated animations. This will replace the old “simian” character and have a more distinct and heroic feel.
NEW ART DIRECTION
Our team did an extensive rework on all the game art. Again, we’ll be building them with your feedback as time goes. For now, you can expect…
Three new armours (head, chest, thighs). More in the future.
Improved resources and resources nodes models. Expect them to be easier to spot, gather and farm.
NEW WORLD MAP
We are building a whole new map. We chose to take it slow and steady on this one, building it with your feedback. Initial features will be…
A 1 by 1 kilometers carefully handcrafted map. This is our starting point from which we’ll expand until we reach the old 6 by 6 dimension.
One Starting Biome, Tropical Savanna. The map will feature a long coastline with a large, deep valley.
New terrain, rocks, trees, bushes and grass with new textures.
Several carefully placed “points of interest” to improve exploration.
NEW TECH TREE
We took the old craft tree and improved on that. Updates include…
An “Age” mechanic, tightly connected on resources needed.
Several new benches, each dedicated to its own unique function.
New art style for all benches and houses.
Improved village expansion. Each bench comes with its own house.
34BigThings Collaborates with IndieGala to Complete a Colossal Project.
Hi everyone.
Please let me introduce myself, i am Riccardo, Indiegala director,
also game director of Die Young and former producer of Blockstorm We've got big, big news for all our fans who have supported us on our indie game project, Voodoo.
Colossal news.
First of all, our collaboration with Brain in the Box (the dev team originally working on Voodoo) has come to an end.
However, our exciting venture into the fantasy no man's land of primal Africa is on the verge of taking a giant leap forward.
If you've been a tribesman in Voodoo, you know it's been a bumpy ride so far. However we'd now like to reassure you that you can count on scheduled and systematic updates each month. We're going to build the Voodoo we promised you and the roadmap is clear ahead of us.
The first order of the day is completely re-writing the netcode. Voodoo players will know that load balancing has been the biggest issue plaguing the game and it has disrupted many a savagely, brutally fun, multiplayer bout.
With 34BigThings at the helm of the project, we’re committed to fixing most of the software issues in the next months.
From there we’ll start moving down a sensible pipeline to stretch game features and add more exciting colossi.
I also take the opportunity to anticipate that the servers will be held down for a few days to allow the new team to better understand the architecture and clean up a bit around. Please have few more weeks of patience, we are totally rebuilding the game, but this time the software will not disappoint you.
More detailed announcements will follow in the coming days.
Voodoo was one of our most ambitious projects this year and lots of you followed us through a hard-won Kickstarter victory and into a daunting Early Access on Steam. We’re asking for some #GamersUnite love again here to follow us into one of the final phases of bringing you the project you’ve been rooting for.
