Mist of Stagnation

[DonPunch]

New Years bring new, well new news!

Our team is geared up and are all excited to bring you 8 weeks of updates as we prepare to enter the Intel Challenge. Over the next 8 weeks you will get to know almost every aspect of our game intimately. From art and music, to level design and game mechanics. We will also have plenty of new media for you to enjoy as well.

A couple of us will also be writing articles on how certain aspects of the game have been created and implemented and the difficulties we have had to overcome in the process of development.
We have also decided to make this a commercial endeavor in order to be able to get the best possible artists the indie world has to offer.

Since the last update we have moved a couple of our team members around, lost a couple, and added some new, very motivated and very talented members.

Michael La Manna - Composer - link
Marek "Gomo" Wisthal - 3D Modeler - link
James "Jausel" Anselm - Software Engineer - link
Patrick Walsh - Weapon Modeler - link

You may also notice we have cleaned up our media to only display content we are currently using, and expect to see a lot more over the next 8 weeks.

So don't forget to grease the gears and keep your goggles clean, it's gonna be a fun ride! If we get enough followers by week 8, we will have a very exciting gift for you! - http://www.indiedb.com/games/mist-of-stagnation

[nub]

Oh yeah I remember seeing some of the weapon models for this game over at Facepunch. You guys have a pretty cool art style in my opinion. I'll await eagerly for some more media.

[DonPunch]

The Commander Update - The primary RTS element in the game and leader of the team gets examined in this weeks update.

com•mand•er/kəˈmandər/ Noun:
1.A person in authority, esp. over a body of troops or a military operation: "the commander of a paratroop regiment".
2.A naval officer of high rank, in particular (in the US Navy or Coast Guard) an officer ranking above lieutenant commander and below captain.
3.The most feared monstrosity of metal and man to ever step foot on the battlefield.

Today we look at 'The Commander', the primary RTS element in the game. The Commander is in charge of each teams resources and how they are used. They will decide the very outcome of the game with the help of their team. Team work is vital to a successful Commander, as he cannot stand alone in battle for very long. A good Commander will inspire his team to work together by giving them objectives to reach, and by listening to their needs as upgrades become available. This ideal is the very foundation of Mist of Stagnation.

Conception:

The Commander was an idea that got changed around many times in the early concept stages, and even 1 last time well into development of the game. We played off of some of the 'player/commander' game play models other's have already used, and spun off of it what we liked/disliked about them. Most notably was NS and Empires a Half-Life 2 mod. The result was a mixture of a commander who has RTS capabilities & an in-the-field presence, while still maintaining the steampunk environment. We started off with plans that the Commander would just be a unique player model that would be almost like a field promotion, but would still stand out to the other team.



This was changed as we thought of games like TF2 and how important the silhouette of a player is in a fast paced FPS like this. With the inspiration of our very talented concept artist, we came up with 2 unique mech's that would serve as the vessel for the Commanders.




As you can see, each mech has features that represent each faction. This idea also gave us a better opportunity to give the player a true RTS environment and HuD. We will be going into more detail about the factions in a later article, but you can read up about them in a previous update.

Realization:

Coding began on this idea immediately, and the results instantly inspired the team. While in early development we used a stock vehicle to represent the Commander model the player would be in later.

(note: test level - models and layout do not represent final design)

After a quick mock up HuD, we knew how vital the Commander's HuD would be, so design started on it. For early development, we decided to use the same HuD for each Commander, but this will be changed as we move further down the road. This is the final result we decided on for the Commander's HuD



The player playing as the Commander will has a 1st person view from inside of the mech, with arms visible as they move levers and hit switches relevant to the players actions. The Commander will not be a fighting vessel as its primary function, but does have some powerful defensive actions. As you can see, each commander will have an arm designated to a very powerful melee attack. In addition to this very high powered / low rate of fire attack, the Commander will also have the option to use its other "Hand" to punch and/or swipe away enemies that are close to it. We look forward to seeing some truly epic Commander fights in the future.

As the player enters the RTS mode and primary function, they will be presented with a holographic screen or 'Aural-Ocular Generator' (AOG) which will give the player an overview of the battlefield, upgrade options, and resource monitor. The AOG will take up most of the screen, so when in the RTS mode, the Commander will be vulnerable.

WIP Iron Mason Commander Mech


WIP Northland Pirate Commander Mech

The Future of the Commander:

While the immediate future calls for a streamlined process of development without the addition of any new features, we do have our bucket list for it. We have thrown around ideas about buildings and how that would change the landscape of the game (no pun intended). We have plans to give each commander its own unique HuD and interior model. Anyone who is familiar with the UE3 engine knows it supports destruction on its vehicles; well as you can see, our mechs are a perfect match for that system. Visible damaged parts that can be blasted off and repaired back on. Which leads right into a repair system for them as well. The most important feature is still out there... we need you to tell us what you like and want to see as you all start playing Mist of Stagnation.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back next week. If we get enough followers by week 8, we will have a very exciting gift for you!

[DonPunch]

Player and Faction Update - This week we explore the player models and the factions they belong to.

Creating a unique player in a steampunk environment was not the easiest thing to do, and still be original. It's almost expected to see an over abundance of gears and clockwork when you hear "Steampunk", but how practical is that?

So with that in mind, we went in a direction that fused classical Steampunk, with a more dirty and realism based Diesel Punk (more of a MadMax style of grunge).

Our vision vs. our needs:

In the early stages of character development, we had a few ideas of what we were looking for, but the art direction for character was really just an art reference sheet at this point. Our primary character concept artist Cormac 'Mac' Langen did an amazing job taking notes and critiques on what we gave him in direction and what he did with it.
His 1st step was to narrow down exactly what is was we were looking for:



After we decided on a design to go after, he then presented us with a color scheme to pick from:



From there things were starting to come together and the art direction for the 1st faction was well underway.

Iron Masons:



The same idea was used on the Northland Pirates after we established they were more of rag-tag misfit outsider type group.




Let us make man in our own image:
With all this great concept art, it was time to turn it into reality.
We had a very talented player modeler, but as the Indie world works; he just stopped communicating one day and was never heard from again. This was a huge setback for us, as we already had 2 player models modeled.

Enter Errol Stange.

Errol was a great addition to our team, as he had a natural feel for steampunk, and had plenty of experience with player modeling. I will let his work speak for itself...

1st he created a base male sculpt for us to use:

and then blocked in the main details


This was the point when our detail concepts cam into full use:

Giving us our final render of the 1st Iron Mason model:


Our other characters will not be parts of future updates (in the 8 weeks of updates), but will be displayed in our image gallery as they become ready.

Factions: So who are these guys?

I know 2 groups of people don't really need a reason to kill each other in an endless battle, but hey, we got one.

After the great wars of the early 20th century had laid waste to the world, all structured governments and militaries fell apart as chaos and anarchy ruled. Two main groups were formed as the struggle for control of the few remaining resources on the planet were scavenged.

The Iron Masons

The Iron Masons, one of the oldest of the surviving factions, is also one of the strongest. This stems from their militaristic nature, and heavy industrial background. They believe that the way to bring humanity back from the brink of extinction is by returning the world to what it once was. They are willing to stop at nothing to achieve their goals, and have the manpower and technologies to do it. Originating from a closed society known as the Freemasons, the Iron Masons have very clear cut ideals about leadership and patriotism. Traitors are very rare, and if it occurs, the perpetrators are punished to a degree that would give most nightmares.

The Northland Pirates

A relatively recent addition to the power on earth, the Northern Pirates are a group of scavengers and survivalists, looking to make their way in the wastelands of earth. Lacking advanced technologies, they make up for it with ingenuity and knowledge of their surroundings. Living in harmony with their environment has taken its toll on their social structure. As a collective whole they act more like a pack of wolves then human beings. Prone to internal conflict, they are feared on the front lines of battle

The Iron Masons are typically more technology based and are found in the remnants of the old world, rebuilding it in their image, while the Northland Pirates are outcasts and with their nomadic nature, they are usually found on a coast or mountain range in very makeshift villages.

Once again we thank you for checking out news, and keep spreading the word. We thank you for all the encouragement we have been getting from the public. We even are working a deal with Abney Park right now to provide them with something for their upcoming music video.
...and as always

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back next week. If we get enough followers by week 8, we will have a very exciting gift for you!

[Ich 666]

Amazing character work there!

[DonPunch]

Guns, guns, and more guns. This week we look at the weapons we are working with to make this steampunk experience even better.

Over the past few weeks you have seen the players and commander system, now let's get to the fun stuff. Everyone love a little fire power, or in this case steam power in their hands, Today we put it all out in front of you to look at. For those of you who have already been following us, some of this you will already know about, but we also have some never released media today too!

One of the first members of the team Kris 'RagTag' Thaler, has single handedly created the unique weapon experience you see before you today. We gave him a basic overview of the types of weapons we were wanting, and some very basic design ideas, what we got in return blew our mind!

Here are the various concepts he created for us:










These are all 3d model concepts which allowed the great perspective views you see here:







This was very helpful when it came time to start modeling these out, because there is always a gap between concept and design phases. After months of modeling, everything was going great, and then we hit a wall again. Our modeler was unable to continue because of school, and I fully support him on his choice to focus on that instead of this. He is still with the team, but in a different capacity now, but in the meantime, we had some models to make with less time than ever to get them done!

Enter Patrick Walsh.

Patrick joined our team about a little over a month ago as a hired gun to knock out these models and get them over to our animators as fast as possible. What a great decision that was!

Warning!!! Cover keyboard to protect from drool.










Our weapons system also uses a series of upgrades that the commander of the team decides on and researches. Some of these upgrades can include new ammo types, higher capacities, better accuracy, scopes, and more. Deciding which of these your team needs will be a fun part of the game, and making the right choices will determine the victor.

When our coders started to implement these weapons into the game, they found that there are a lot of tweaks to be made for a good, balanced game to happen. There were many rounds where an over powered, infinite range shotgun was used for single-shot KO's from across the map.

Once again we thank you for checking out news, and keep spreading the word. We thank you for all the encouragement we have been getting from the public. We even are working a deal with Abney Park right now to provide them with something for their upcoming music video.

...and as always

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back next week. If we get enough followers by week 8, we will have a very exciting gift for you!

[MaK]

You guys have some fantastic concept art.

[Armageddon]

Not to mention gun models, though the rifle/shotgun thing is a wee bit lacking in the detail department.

[trcc]

Very interesting! Keep it up!

[DonPunch]

This week we take a close look at the music of Mist of Stagnation with an interview from our lead sound designer.

As any fan of music, or games (let's face it, anyone who has working ears loves music) knows how important the sound in a game is. It plays a pivotal role in immersing you into the environment you are a part of. The most beautiful environment is nothing without the ambience of the living world pulling you in deeper.

The music is one of the most important features of any game. It can inspire you or induce fear, it can tell you everything about an area without one word being spoken, and it can create emotions that can only be felt by the touch of music.

As you can see, we are passionate about the music in our game, and with that, I give you Michael LaManna:

Hi my name is Michael La Manna and I’m the lead audio designer for Osiris Studios upcoming title, Mist of Stagnation.
My job is to create all the sound effects that you hear during game play as well as the soundtrack with fellow composer Misha Snowball.

I just wanted to take a moment to explain a little bit about the process in which I create music and sound effects.
The first thing I like to do before actually making music is look at the concept art, get a feel for the game environment and its characters.
Everyone knows if you’re creating music for a fantasy style ‘rpg’ game you’re not going to use a 303 or 808, but on the other hand if you’re
making a track for a science fiction game that could work out. I always like to lay my drums down 1st, even if I decide later not to have
percussion, it seems laying down drums just gives a foundation for my tracks. I’m a PC guy so my software of choice ‘DAW’ has always been
Cakewalk, now called Sonar X1, they were 1st on the street for computer midi and I’ve stuck with them through the years. One thing that
I’ve learned is you could never layer too much, even the smallest sound panned to the right or left can make a difference in a track.



For Mist of Stagnation we had to create a few different genres of music, my fellow composer Misha lives in the UK so we used Skype quite a
bit transferring files back and forth. This process was actually very easy; she would come up with a rhythm and I would lay down the percussion
or vise versa. Sound effects on the other hand were all done by myself with either my huge effect library or me tweaking a sound in my
garage using my 4 way mic setup for Foley. All the sound effects were then re-worked in sound forge the defacto software for audio designers.



That’s pretty much it I hope you guys enjoy the game when it comes out, a lot of people dedicated countless hours to developing it.

Thanks

Michael La Manna is also owner of Floppy Entertainment look for their 1st mobile release “lil’ Sherman” in April 2012 for Android and IOS.

http://www.floppyent.com
http://www.addrecordings.net

Here are some of our current tracks we have completed. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

http://www.moddb.com/games/mist-of-stag ... heme-music

http://www.moddb.com/games/mist-of-stag ... ding-music

http://www.moddb.com/games/mist-of-stag ... -ballerina




As an extra thanks for all the support, and back by popular demand, here is the final renders of the Grenade Launcher:







...and as always

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back next week. If we get enough followers by week 8, we will have a very exciting gift for you!

[cheesemoo0]

All your media looks very awesome. The biggest crit I have doesn't involve your actual content. Your next week preview images look pretty awful honestly and it might make some people think your game has same level of quality as those images. I am not trying to be a dick or anything. Why not just do something a lot more simple?

[DonPunch]

Newest creation to the arsenal

[DonPunch]

So we last left you with an update 5 of 8... So what happened?

Unfortunately we lost a lot of progress due to a (now removed) team member not being honest about his progress on his share of the workload. That really backed things up, but not to worry we are now stronger because of it.

We have recently added on a few new members to the team that are dedicated to the cause and are pumping out quality work.

Here are some of the newest renders since the last update:

The Sharp Shooter





The Assault Rifle



The Pistol



and the Boilermaker







We are very excited about the latest works we have, and are even more excited about our concept artist signing a new contract with us to extend his stay and pump out another full set of weapons, starting with melee weapons for each team. Here is a taste of what we have so far.



We are almost done with our 1st level too, and we look forward to showing it off! (its about damn time too, am I right?)

Look for that update in the very near future.

I am also proud to announce that we are finalizing the hiring of 2 new amazing environmental concept artists that will help keep our team on track and fully inspired.

Look for a huge update in early June, we are going to blow your socks off. Animations, in game weapons and players shots, level design shots, game play shots & more.

Tell your friends and remember to follow us, that is what drives us to finish quicker!

http://www.moddb.com/games/mist-of-stagnation

[Armageddon]

Very nice models as always. My only suggestion would be the handle on 'The Sharp Shooter' is too much of a straight curve. I'm sure it's too far to be changed now though.

[DonPunch]

Northland Pirates melee set