Hey there, fireBreak fans! Parker here, bringing back our development updates. Sorry for the radio silence in recent weeks, but I have two pieces of good news.
First is a bit more personal, but I have officially graduated from UAT with a Bachelor's Degree in Game Design! This means that I'll have more time to dedicate to the project. This might slightly change the release schedule for these development logs as I start my career (likely from Friday to Saturday), but I'll be able to redouble my efforts into the development of fireBreak.
The second item concerns how we're reworking our social media platform. We're going to be stepping up our social media presence, both here and around the web. This means more twitter posts, and we're going to be kicking off Patreon updates soon!
Our Patreon, as it stands now, is going to be the place to go for additional development updates: things like concept art, more works in progress, alpha/beta access, and written material further exploring the universe of fireBreak. These will be paid content, extra goodies for those who choose to support our development financially.
This doesn't mean that we're going to be stopping development updates here-- in fact, we're going to be reworking things on this end too. Instead of doing lore corner updates every week, we're going to be bringing back Developer Spotlights every other week, on top of the usual design, art, and programming updates. Thanks for sticking with us!
Now for the development updates!
Art
This week, Ian joined Bryce to do a bit of work in the art department. Bryce is working on weapon models, while Ian got some work done on concept art for weapons.
Pulse Rifle!
Programming
Ian and Dave tag-teamed this week to work on AI. We also onboarded a new intern, named Keffny! He'll be with us for the next fifteen weeks, helping us out with programming.
Ian looks on.
Design
Design's been a bit slow these last few weeks, but I've been making steady process on the world bible and item documentation. We've also been working out the new social media plan, and brainstorming reward tiers for Patreon.
As a quick aside, I won't be around for the next two weeks to take a trip with family, so further updates will be delayed a bit. Stay tuned!
Developer Focus: Ian F.
This is going to be our bi-weekly update on our development team, and what they've been up to recently. This week we're showcasing our production manager, Ian!
Parker: What has your role been on fireBreak so far?
Ian: “My role on the team is Project Manager. On the surface, that sounds like ‘I make sure absolutely everything is in check’. That statement is somewhat true. When it comes to adding, changing, or removing ideas, I act as the ‘gatekeeper’ for what does and doesn’t go into the project.
Strangely enough, this is actually a pretty sweet gig. Not only do I get to work from start to finish on almost every aspect of our production pipeline, but as a manager, I have to talk to everybody, all the time, to make sure that they’re on the same page as I am.
This hilariously backfires so often.”
Parker: What has been your favorite part of the development process so far?
Ian: “Personally, actually working on the game. It’s great when I can create some assets, send them off to our lead artist, brainstorm lore with our wonderful… interviewer… and prototype mechanics for our designers to further develop. That usually means they figure out how to properly make it work.
One downside to being a project manager is the actual management process. Writing up emails, speaking with third-party agents and overall managing staff (and not in the “you do this, you do this, and I’ll do this” requirements of a successful company), although important, can be a distraction from work at best, and an emotional drag at worst.
I might come to love it, looking back later. But for now, in the moment, it sucks.”
Parker: What are you working on right now?
Ian: “I’m talking to a computer! Aside from that, I’m working on getting some concept art, not only for our lead artist, but to also get some artwork created to go along with our blog updates here on the website. That’s my main goal, at least. Aside from that, I just have an ear open for any questions or concerns anyone has on features or assets.”
Parker: What has been your favorite “development story”?
Ian: “I’m just gonna put this out here, because I know a lot of the other guys are going to bring up this one time I talked about our team “getting hard at work in February”. To keep everyone interested, I will let them fill in the details. As for me, there was an interesting student artist that we had, named Tuesday.
That guy would make models so quickly, I swear I could give him a well thought-out and detailed idea of what I wanted him to create, I would go to the bathroom, come back, and it was already done. Mind you, this can sometimes be small lists of various models that I need him to make, and he would still finish them way before I expected most people to finish these models.
The only downside was that Tuesday definitely put quantity over quality. Sometimes there were minor nitpicks regarding floating vertices or as-of-yet unoptimized poly counts, which to correct, sometimes took him just as much time as making the model in the first place. That aside, it still blew my mind that he could work so quickly with the time that I gave him.”