Updated Roadmap

It has been awhile since I posted an update regarding our release schedule. I want to thank everyone for their patience. Here is what we have planned.

Beta Phase 1 (Early Beta)

  • Time Frame: Early April
  • Duration: 4-6 weeks
  • Availability: Only $50+ Kickstarter Backers
  • Features: Windows/Mac/Linux support, Multiplayer, Leveling, Skills, Combat, Crafting, Generated Worlds, Character Customization, Day/Night Cycle

Beta Phase 2

  • Time Frame: Mid May
  • Duration: 4-6 weeks
  • Availability: $25 Kickstarter Backers. Publicly available for $25. (contains game, digital soundtrack, and digital artbook.)
  • Additions: NPCs, Researching, Grafting and additional Biomes, Monsters, Equipment, Items, Skills, etc.

Beta Phase 3

  • Time Frame: Late June
  • Duration: 4-8 weeks
  • Availability: $10+ Kickstarter Backers. Publicly available for $10. (game only)
  • Additions: Official Mod Support, Bosses and more content.

Release

  • Time Frame: August
  • Availability: Can be purchased by anyone for $15.
  • Additions: Quests, Mounts, Second Playable Race and more.

Some things to note

  • Any of this is subject to change but I have waited to post it until I was reasonably certain on the time frames.
  • Updates between releases will be posted on a weekly basis
  • Beta Phase 3 marks the official mod support. At this point I will do my best to provide all details regarding mod changes, provide mod API documentation and additional features such as in-game mod management. Before this it is still very possible to mod Crea.

EDIT: I have updated the original estimates to better reflect our current status.

NPCs in Crea

 

lineup1In Crea, there will be several NPCs with whom to interact. This week Kelley started working on some of the NPC art. Above we have the Researcher, Nun, Grafter, Merchant and Cartographer. Here is a brief description of each NPC. Much more information will be posted about each one individually in the future. (Note: NPCs will be introduced in Beta.)

  • The Researcher helps with crafting. Supply him with materials and he will return the favor by providing you with new item recipes.
  • The Nun heals HP and grants buffs.
  • The Grafter enhances your equipment through the use of catalysts and essences.
  • The Merchant sells items.
  • The Cartographer provides you with a map and upgrades for it.

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Art contest winner!

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Peachbo’s mysterious painting of a person in the rain is the winner of our Crea art contest! Congrats Peachbo! Your painting will be included in Crea and enjoyed by players all over the world.

Here is a statement from the artist:*

My work explores the relationship between Bauhausian sensibilities and urban spaces. What starts out as triumph soon becomes corrupted into a manifesto of temptation, leaving only a sense of nihilism and the unlikelihood of a new undefined. As spatial forms become undefined through studious and academic practice, the viewer is left with a new agenda of the darkness of our condition.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest! There were so many awesome entries, and we hope you had fun making them. Because of Crea’s mod-friendly nature, it will be super easy to add your own paintings into the game as a mod.

*Peachbo did not actually say this.

Crea Art Contest! (now closed)

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In Crea, you will be able to craft paintings for your home! The paintings will be randomly created, so you never know which one you’ll get. Collect the whole set!

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We are holding a contest to see what kinds of masterpieces our fans can come up with. Design your own Crea-style painting, and the winning piece will be included in the game! Draw a landscape, a portrait, an abstract, anything. Just have fun. You can download the templates below to get started.

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Picture frame templates

How to enter:

  • Create a pixel art painting using the frames above or your own frame. Feel free to resize, recolor or otherwise change the frames. Maximum size is 108×72 pixels.
  • Save your image as a PNG or high-res JPG.
  • To enter, post your image in the forums in this “art contest” thread.
  • The artwork must be in pixel art form. (i.e., not a scanned pencil drawing)
  • No copyrighted content. (No Batman, Super Meat Boy, etc.)
  • Contest ends 1/30 at midnight PST. The winner will be contacted through the forums and announced on this blog.
  • Up to 4 entries per person.

Contest is now closed!

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Art in Crea

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“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. William Morris

In Crea, you will be able to adorn your house with these exquisite oil paintings. The fun part is that when you craft a painting, you never know which one you’re going to get. The large painting of Norman will be a rare HQ version, or something like that.

Think how much fun this could be to mod. You can easily create your own paintings and share them with your friends. Well, I think it would be fun anyway. Soon I am going to share the picture frame templates on this blog so you can start working on your paintings.

Open Development

Little kids look up to firefighters, police officers, and astronauts and make one their role model. Similarly, I am a little indie kid and I look up to Wolfire as my role model. They are working on Overgrowth and started the bundle movement with Humble Indie Bundle (HIB).

Even though both of those are amazing, that is not why I look up to them. I have been following Wolfire for a few years now, well before HIB, and something that always stood out to me is just how open they are with their development process. They have weekly alpha video updates providing an overview of the progress made that week. Along with that they less frequently do art asset overviews. Occasionally they will make a blog posts about game tech. They even have livestreams for some of the members - David and Aubrey. Lots of great stuff and very inspirational to me.

When I started Crea I decided I wanted to apply this inspiration. When I come across a new opportunity to share I welcome it with open arms. When I decided to start a pivotal tracker to do project planning on; I made it public. I now do coding livestreams on nearly a daily basis. I like to think I am very open with my development. The other day I was reminded of my inspiration’s source after watching a reasonably old video with two guys from Wolfire doing a talk on Open Development.

I’m aspired not only to continue my growth as an indie in the same direction as Wolfire, but also to help improve, expand, and explore open development.

Boar Animation Livestream Highlight


Watch live video from siegegames on TwitchTV

While Jasson livestreams his coding almost every day, Kelley occasionally does animation livestreams. Yesterday she drew and animated a yet-unnamed pig monster thing. Here’s a sample of what went on if you missed the livestream.

charge

To keep track of future livestreams, be sure to like our Facebook page, or subscribe to our Twitchtv channel.

The background music is the Dustforce OST by Lifeformed.

Character Animation Overhaul

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Kelley here. Nothing in Crea has given me so much grief as the character animations. The challenge has been balancing attractiveness with moddability.

Initially, Jasson and I took a very unusual approach to character animation in order to make it as accessible to modders as possible.

Rather than just drawing the frames whole, we cut the character into lots of tiny, tiny pieces and reassembled him using the program Spriter. Then I would create the animations by moving the tiny parts. Because those parts would be re-used in multiple animations, there would be less repetitive drawing for me, and for modders.

character_before

These are all the parts that made up one character.

The problem with this method is that it drove me crazy. It is kind of like doing a claymation movie with an action figure. It was stiff and awkward. Not pretty at all. Little pieces would look jagged and out of place, or they would disappear, and fixing them was such a chore.

character_before3

See those weird shoulders? Stuff like that. There was always something wrong.

As I’ve worked on Crea, my pixel art skills have slowly improved, and the character animations were starting to look worse and worse by comparison. Our players are going to (hopefully) spend hours improving their characters, and they deserve better.

character_before2

During a recent “business lunch” with Jasson, I finally said that I had honestly, truly gone as far as I could with this method. So, after much debate, we came up with a new character animation scheme that is a blend between traditional animation and our “action figure” method. It sacrifices a bit of easy moddability in exchange for more attractive graphics and a happier Kelley.

character_after

Now only the arms are detached from the body. The torso, legs and head are all in one piece, allowing for a more organic animation method. We’re still using the program Spriter, but relying on it less than before. I will have to draw more frames for the character and for all pieces of equipment, and modders will as well. But in general it’s a much simpler system.

character_before4

This is the new character. He’s still in testing mode, which is why he’s naked. Look how happy he is, frolicking through the grass in his birthday suit.

Just today heard somewhere that part of being a good artist is knowing when to say “this is crap” and start over. This has been an annoying learning experience, but Crea will be better because of it.

So that’s what I’m up to right now. Once the animations are all polished up I’ll put together a video for the blog.