Oh Foundation my Foundation
Yesterday saw the completion of the last few bugs on the list for Re-Spawn and except for a few very minor issues, I am happy to announce that v1.0.0.7 is now a foundation release. It is off this foundation release that we will now start to develop Re-Spawn more and start adding the features and content that have been lacking from the previous releases.
What does the game currently have? The foundation releases was always focussed on getting a solid base to build off and so I resisted the urge (that cropped up more often than you think) to add fancy shiny features in lieu of game play or functionality.
As of the v1.0.0.7 we have the following base features in place:
Web Based GUI System
Game Update System
Player Registration, Activation, and Authentication System
Stats Tracking and Leaderboard System (Game Flow)
Server Tracking and Licensing System (Game Changer)
Bots using Navmesh and Coverpoints
Player and Weapon Skins
Wide Assortment of Weapons
Now this may not seem like a lot for the time it has taken me to develop, but I have had to rewrite the entire backend system and replace it with the new Game Flow and Game Changer system. This ultimately introduced new bugs and challenges that had to be addressed, which have now been resolved.
So where to from here? Well now that I have the foundation the next step is to start adding all the bells and whistles and making the game more polished. We will also start adding all the game modes that we have planned, some of these game modes are the old favourites like Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch, but we also have a few new ones or changes on existing ones that we are keen to add.
The Player Profile system will now also be implemented and with this comes the inevitable Player Achievements and Player Customisation system.
With the Player Profile system we will start adding in the Clone Bank, which is the amount of clones you have available to you as well as the Game Winnings and Game Betting Systems. These systems will allow you to top up your Clone Bank or buy Visual Upgrades for your Clones and their Weapons.
The list goes on and on ... but to summarise, these are the features that we will be implementing ... of course there are a lot more of implied features but I will save that for another blog.
Weapons - Re-Spawn has a wide array of weapons that will allow you to dominate your opponents. Each weapon has been designed and balanced for different scenarios so you will have to use them tactically to gain the advantage.
eSports - The primary focus of Re-Spawn is to provide an eSports centric environment where players and spectators can place bets and earn in-game credits in order to purchase visual upgrades and extra clones.
Clones - Clones are the player's lifeblood and if you don't have enough clones you won't be able to compete in events. Gain clones by betting on or winning matches to earn credits, spend these credits on new clones. If you run out of clones, your match ends.
Autonomous Clones - Re-Spawn has been built to primarily be a multi-player shooter. However servers can be configured to allow players to fight autonomous bots. This has been designed to help players through a gradual learning curve that will ease players into the faster paced game play.
Competitive Play - Re-Spawn has been designed as an arena FPS, with head-to-head multi-player deathmatches being the primary focus of the game. For team matches, bots are used to fill the roles of the player's team mates. Even on dedicated multi-player servers, bots are sometimes used to pad out teams that are short on players.
Game Modes - Re-Spawn supports many game modes and we are planning new game modes through updates and continuous development of the title. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Domination, Assault, White Rabbit, Duel and many more ...
Handicap System - Re-Spawn features a unique handicap system that will allow players to compete against higher ranked players without being completely dominated. The handicap system revolves around the number of clones a player is allowed in a match.
Clans - In Re-Spawn clans have a very big role in the game, a portion of your match winnings in individual matches goes towards your clan and all winnings from clan matches goes to the clan. Clans can challenge other clans to ranked matches and can even run ranked tournaments. You don't have to join a clan however, you can remain a free agent and still take part in clan matches and team matches, once again the choice is yours.
So how long? How long is a piece of string? I really don't have an answer to this question, some features might seem to complicated to implement and take less time to put in place while others might be the other way around ... ultimately it will take as long as it has to.
What I will say is that I am committed to doing a 2 week release cycle or a 4 week release cycle if there are no major updates available to be done in those 2 weeks. This should allow us to get new features in place and tested as quickly as possible and keep the current (somewhat small) player base interested and playing Re-Spawn.
How can I get involved? Although I have never made a call for assistance before, I have always been willing to take on new team members as and when they felt inspired to get involved. The offer is an open-ended one and I am open to negotiations, feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you wish to get involved.
Or join our growing community by registering on the forums (WIP) and joining in on the discussions. Stay in touch and up to date by following us on Twitter.
Visit us on Facebook and Google+ or even get involved on the wiki. Finally you can help us get to the top 100 games on IndieDB.
Enough blabbering, I just want to play! Re-Spawn is currently still under development and is now currently in Alpha, so please download the game to get involved with testing. The game is Free, free as in beer. If you want to contribute to the development of the game then please make a donation using this donation link. Ultimately the game is Free-to-Play and only Pay-to-look-Cool, it will never be Pay-to-Win.
Your Honour, I rest my case. Re-Spawn is far from finished and I still have a far ways to go, but with this milestone I am just that one step closer to ultimately releasing the game.
The marketing I have done is merely the groundwork and is not active marketing at all, all I have been doing is keeping the small player base informed and ensuring that the systems work before I release them to my marketing guru ... this will be done when we get closer to the Beta stage and not before.
And that is it, this is the start of the next chapter of Re-Spawn and the blogs that follow will be more focussed on new features and showcasing them where I am able to. I will also start doing more tutorial based videos that will be tied in to the wiki, this will become the online manual.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to all comments, questions, and suggestions.
