ID:55178
 
Keywords: efencea
Look, pretty!


(Concept art for an alien hero.)


Prepare yourself!
Our progress with Efencea continues. I'm still on the slow side of things what with college and being in a programming slump. Not so much a programming slump but a DM slump. I recently began piddling with javascript, which is amazing! Not that you want to hear about me getting side-tracked.

Efencea news!
We have a new addition to the team. He is also a new member of the BYOND community--not a BYOND Member, mind you. He goes by Guyst_X and will be filling the much needed 'Audio Guy' position for our development team. He'll be handling all of our audio needs (SFX and music). He's produced quite a bit of audio for us already, having just started a few days ago. I knew you would want to hear some of it so I prepared a two file sample, both of which are voice work:

Robot Voice
Alien Attack Phase
(Note: Robot Voice, 'smexy.ogg', is just a test file. It doesn't allude to anything.)


With this addition to the team we hope to expand on the minimal audio in Efencea, as well as be able to claim all of Efencea as original. As it stands now, the number of audio files in Efencea is going to grow by 318.5% from 27 files to 86. We're not done coming up with new SFX to add either. It pains me to see the sonic music go but it's for the best!

The addition of a third member has led to some new discussion as to what our team should be called. Currently, 'Brainstorm', has started to stick. I'm not sure if that's what we'll go by yet, though.

We've started using Google Docs to collaborate. I'd like to say I'm quite impressed with how they work. Very neat and once again Google has made something useful. Our collaborations consist of developing the history/storyline, a to-do list, and ideas, each being their own file.

I'd like to mention that the storyline has been divided into eight parts. I've been considering a further division into nine parts, though. Either way, this gives us plenty of room to work with. Efencea, as you know it, runs its course in part four of the history we're developing. (You can take what you want from that) I can't even estimate how far along we are here. The possibilities for expansion are quite numerous. Sadly, we haven't developed Efencea's campaigns nearly enough.

With the expansion of Efencea, we're considering quite a few changes and have already committed to a few. A couple of which are quite notable. For example, we're doing away with Build Points (BP) in favor of a full fledged cost system. This may leave you asking what the currency will be. It isn't gold.

The unequal cost system will allow us to have a larger variety of towers with disproportionate power for each. I'm hoping to make rapid towers the weakest in spite of Tayoko's bias towards them. Towers may also be receiving another change. Currently, when leveling up a tower, you choose a stat to increase and that's all you get. This may be expanded to all of the tower's parameters increasing, with you selecting a particular stat to add an additional boost to.

With the introduction of campaign mode, we're going to introduce the infamous technology tree associated with strategy games. Details as to how it'll all work are still being discussed. Just know that it's quite likely that in the next update for Efencea you will likely see a technology tree. The tech tree will likely act both to unlock units and towers.

Another avenue we've been looking into is expanding on the map variation. Topography as we call it includes ideas such as ice, poison/radiation, fog, and low/high ground. Most of these have effects as you would expect. Ice causes slippage, poison/radiation would case damage over time, fog would restrict your sight, low/high ground would have a couple effects. A downward sloping path would make units move faster, which means an upward slope would cause them to move slower. High ground could also serve to increase the range of towers.

We're tossing around ideas for a few more units. They will be supplementary units, though, units that help out the others or have special effects.

I'd love to continue to ruin all of Efencea's surprises but you'll have to wait.

Is the Alien Attack Phase recorded with his plain voice?
ANiChowy wrote:
Is the Alien Attack Phase recorded with his plain voice?

not sure, he is VERY talented with voice overs/impersonations and effects as well as music, but it sounds like he added a small echo to his voice to give it an alien feel.
the concept art is great, i can't wait to see it realized in the game. also can't wait for some original sounds either, that is very hard to come by in a BYOND game!
Doh, I didn't even know there was Sonic music. I would have brought it up before featuring the game. However, my exposure has been limited as I've never been a fan of the franchise.
ACWraith wrote:
Doh, I didn't even know there was Sonic music. I would have brought it up before featuring the game. However, my exposure has been limited as I've never been a fan of the franchise.

We didn't know either until later on. we where under the impression it was public domain music, like yourself, we're not big megaman fans either. haha
Anyone else remember how about a month and ahalf ago they said 2-3 weeks? XD just joking guys. You really are doing some good things.
ZhugeXLiang wrote:
Anyone else remember how about a month and ahalf ago they said 2-3 weeks? XD just joking guys. You really are doing some good things.

We follow game company trends. haha
Tayoko wrote:
ZhugeXLiang wrote:
Anyone else remember how about a month and ahalf ago they said 2-3 weeks? XD just joking guys. You really are doing some good things.

We follow game company trends. haha

Lol, So When will my preorder hit the mail?
Maybe I wrote too much, there are no comments about any of the later material.

WHO dares nay Efencea? :(
I wish I could support your team in some way other than just saying "good luck", but until then, good luck!

Whatever you decide to do with Efencea, don't turn it into a "when it's done" sort of game.
Aixelsyd wrote:
Whatever you decide to do with Efencea, don't turn it into a "when it's done" sort of game.

Can't say that I know what you mean by that. We'll just have to see what Efencea is.. when it's done. :P

Kidding aside, we're trying to determine a good time for a release. It wouldn't contain all the new features mentioned above. I've been pretty swamped today just updating the audio/icons in the game.

Right now, we have a few more goals in mind before we consider it a nice time to release. I'd like to finish implementing the new audio/graphics. Tayoko still has some lvl 2 towers, bosses, and so on to make--he estimates 2 weeks or so. Guyst_X diminished a huge list of audio files we needed down to a medium list in short order, so the audio isn't so much of a concern. I'd like to think that I can set up Skirmish mode and finish implementing everything within the two week goal Tayoko gave himself. If all goes well, we'll have a playable update out in a few weeks--no campaigns.
Vermolius wrote:
Aixelsyd wrote:
Whatever you decide to do with Efencea, don't turn it into a "when it's done" sort of game.

Can't say that I know what you mean by that. We'll just have to see what Efencea is.. when it's done. :P

Kidding aside, we're trying to determine a good time for a release. It wouldn't contain all the new features mentioned above. I've been pretty swamped today just updating the audio/icons in the game.

Right now, we have a few more goals in mind before we consider it a nice time to release. I'd like to finish implementing the new audio/graphics. Tayoko still has some lvl 2 towers, bosses, and so on to make--he estimates 2 weeks or so. Guyst_X diminished a huge list of audio files we needed down to a medium list in short order, so the audio isn't so much of a concern. I'd like to think that I can set up Skirmish mode and finish implementing everything within the two week goal Tayoko gave himself. If all goes well, we'll have a playable update out in a few weeks--no campaigns.


Yeah, not sure about getting the bosses in in the two week period, but I should be able to get all the level 2 towers finished by then. Also reworking some animations to make everything a little more lively.
The concept art of that Zerg hero is very nice.
I've been trying to keep the ideas in the game as clean as possible when it comes to 'copying' other sources BUT that's kinda what happens when your artist plays starcraft while designing units. I turned down having a sexy female alien queen for fear of people saying "OMG Karrigan" or "steal from Gears of War why doncha". The simple fact of the matter is, there are far more horrible examples of blatant copying in games around BYOND. I'm referring to people that make a L4D BYOND game or the entire anime guild. Anyway, I'll quit before I outright rant.

At least we're trying to have a storyline. I'll assure you, there are no creep colonies or spawning pools. Our aliens are a parasite/symbiote, so, they're slightly like Halo's flood. Our aliens infect an organism, slowly degenerate it, and then reform into new things and are mainly gelatinous.

Thanks for the compliment, though.
Lol, I hope what I said was not taken into an offensive manner. I've just been calling you're aliens, because there aliens, Zerg's! Haha =P. Didn't really think of you copying them or anything to be honest lol
DYS wrote:
Lol, I hope what I said was not taken into an offensive manner. I've just been calling you're aliens, because there aliens, Zerg's! Haha =P. Didn't really think of you copying them or anything to be honest lol

Oh, It was. Thanks for clarifying.
ANiChowy wrote:
Is the Alien Attack Phase recorded with his plain voice?

It is his voice. I'm certain it's modified though.

DYS wrote:
Lol, I hope what I said was not taken into an offensive manner. [...]

Yeah, you had both Tayoko and I a bit there. His email just a moment ago had a subject of "SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS"
Vermolius wrote:
Yeah, you had both Tayoko and I a bit there. His email just a moment ago had a subject of "SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS"

Haha, didn't realize people were accusing your aliens to be the actual Starcraft replica.
DYS wrote:
Vermolius wrote:
Yeah, you had both Tayoko and I a bit there. His email just a moment ago had a subject of "SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS"

Haha, didn't realize people were accusing your aliens to be the actual Starcraft replica.

They aren't we thought you did. ^_^
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