Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Underestimations, End of Summer Catch-Up, and 100 Island Lake

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while and we'd like to let you guys in on everything that has been going on in development.

Underestimations


First things first: it has been a slow but steady realization for us that we will not be completing this game by our original goal of October this year. Over the past 3 months, we have worked almost every day, and still there is much to do! In those months we continued to learn and produce more technologies for the game, as well as better ways of getting the atmosphere and mechanics that we feel are crucial to the land of XING - especially when it comes to the Oculus Rift!

Instead of finishing quickly and giving you guys a game that is less than we want, we have opted to continue our development into the winter - striving to hit all (or most) of our creative goals for the game. Quality is what we are striving for, and we hope that everyone will understand that the wait will be necessary for a better and more polished product.

Long story short, the release for XING: The Land Beyond is now looking closer to early-mid 2014.

This was us back in April:





End of Summer Catch-Up


Our Daily Routine

Now that summer has ended, we have all gone back to our homes and are working remotely each day. A typical day means waking up around 9am and turning on Video Chat with the other two members by 10am. The rest of the day is spent working on XING, with breaks for lunch and dinner. We generally work until around 9pm, but many nights go on till around 12am. Then it begins all over again. That may sound like a lot, but we are all still excited to be working on this awesome project - with each day bringing new challenges and solutions.

Also, we take one day off each week :)
We make good use of our small amount of time off:

Look what we found!


By the Ocean


Ice skating


Yar! We Be Pirates!




Puzzles and Mechanics

Let's just say you guys will be in for a treat! We have tons of exciting new gameplay we have added to enhance the PC and Oculus experience! Everything from new types of puzzles to how the player can interact with objects to the detail of the material applied to each mesh.

Videos will be coming out later, showing some of these things off.


Kickstarter Rewards : The Miniatures!

We decided to order a few 3-D prints of our latest models to see how they would turn out. At first we were unsure of how some of them would come out, knowing many of them have fine details.

When they arrived, we were really ecstatic with the results:

Unpainted:




  Displayed in a cabinet:


 Painted:


If you missed out on getting one of these guys any would like to still help raise funds to support the project, we are extending the Add-On for miniatures until the game's release date.

After you play XING: The Land Beyond, choose your favorite character statue from the game. Let us know what it is (within the first 3 months of the game release) and you will get a paint-able miniature version of that character to have and to hold. That's right, you get a real physical miniature of any character you want. 

These are $65 + Shipping.
If you decided to donate through paypal, please leave a note that says that you would like one of the miniatures. Thank you!

Shipping:
+ $10 for US/Mexico/Canada
+ $15 international

Donate Here



Rainforest Screenshots




Some detail:


Sunset above the canopy:


100 Island Lake

Sneak Preview of the Work in Progress:


Check out the new reflections!



As always, feel free to comment or send us a message if you have any thought, questions or concerns!

Cheers!












3 comments:

  1. hello to you three!
    I look forward to your game! and I can not wait to see more!
    You're too hard to find new systems that I not even imagine in the UDK. but when I see you can do it, so I'm looking! thank you for your help :)
    In terms of quality, you're the level of a "pro" studio. Can not blame you, take time to carry out your work! more photos! more photos!

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  2. Awesome update, guys! I think I'm not the only one when I say that we'd rather have you guys working on the game than have constant updates left and right. Keep it up!

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  3. I was already expecting a release date delay and extension requirement before the Kickstarter actually ended. Mainly because ALL Kickstarter games have delays (which is why they have almost always picked a Jan 2014 release date). Secondly, a game with this much quality and meticulous attention to detail is going to require additional time regardless and thirdly, the XING team received their Oculus developer kit late as most developers did including myself. Since this is what I consider to be an Oculus launch title, personally I think it's only fair to expect a release date around the time the final consumer Oculus Rift comes out which is slated for sometime late 2014. Other independent developers targeting around Oculus Rift integration such as The Gallery: Six Elements, Rift Rush, Lacuna Passage and others have all adopted this time frame as well. The Oculus Rift is amazing and for those who haven't tried it, trust me XING in combination with the consumer OculusVR HD headset is going to be incredible. I'm really excited for the XING project and it's future developments. It takes time to make a game which provides this kind of realism and original design, so carry on and no rush.

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