D-Day 2007

June 6th 2007, Frantic Games unleashed a blitzkreig of over a hundred renders upon the public, you can see them all Here. 

As if that wasn’t enough they also released a new audio sample that’s close to ten minutes long, you can download it Here or Here.

Taking the Jeep for a Spin

At the beginning of this year we posted some renders of the Willys Jeep modeled by Fuad Abdi; Fuad recently posted a turntable of the model to his portfolio.  As we stated previously, we don’t know for sure that the Jeep will be used in 1944, but Fuad does create models for Frantic Games.

Composing For War

I happened upon the portfolio for Frantic Games Sound Designer Luke Hatton earlier this week.  Luke worked on the Matto_4 Far Cry project which was released earlier this year, and he also works on the Crysis Mod Obsidian Edge II. Obsidian Edge II is of course one of only two Crysis Mod teams to be given access to the Crysis Pre-SDK.

A Little Black ‘Dress’

Frantic Games posted some new WIPs in a whole bunch of Game Artist forums recently, these are Diffuse and Normal maps for their German Tanker being developed by Thomas Guillion.

Lifting The World Upward & Onward

In response to a question about Beta testing, Lead Developer Ronan Hayes shared some information on Frantic Games’ current hiring plans.

What I can tell you:
.
1. We will be hiring a fulltime lead programmer to ensure that the game is constantly developed.
.
2. We have a new lead animator who is going to help, along with the other animators to develop all of our content.
.
3. We are outsourcing most of our texturing work.
.
This all helps move us forward, and we have addressed our major development issues.

Whipping the Weapons Into Shape

To gather feedback from other artists, Frantic Games posted some Thompson and BAR WIPS over in the CGTalk forums last week. You can see more Here.

Cook Lightly Before Use…

Canadian Modeler/texture Artist Mike McLeod launched his online portfolio in February. Among his featured work for 1944 are the grenades shown below, you can view his full portfolio Here.

Foliage for Cover and Tactical Use

It was over a year ago the Frantic Games announced that they’d acquired a license for Speedtree, but it was only recently that I stumbled across the official press release from Speedtree. The press release includes a few quotes from Frantic’s Lead Developer Ronan Hayes, you can see the full pdf Here.

Community Interviews #9 & #10

Frantic Games have released two new interviews they conducted with community members xtc-alec and Poopsmith, you can read them both in the Press Release section of their forums Here.

At this point, how happy are you with the progress of the game?
.
Well I could lie, and see we are the most dedicated, most hardworking team that ever graced this planet. (Hi Five’s all round to 1944 team, we are gods greatest game developers, we just have to sit here, and chat on MSN all day and the game just makes itself, Yeah we rule…. Woooo Hooo)
.
But then again, everyone knows I am upfront and care less of public perspective and more about honesty. So as you can imagine with a game of this size and scale it’s alot of work. Like any team we have trouble finding dedicated team members that do what they say they will do. For those of you who can view the trial members section, just one quick look will see the exact issues we come across. (For those un-aware we have a trial member section where any person wishing to join the team must complete tasks. This was to weed out those people who really just liked the idea of making games. It’s been good so far and has helped the team focus on their tasks)
.
We have introduced an incentive scheme, where the team member (s) that work the hardest, get paid a small incentive each month. This comes out of Chris Hunts pocket (while I contribute when possible). This has definately shown a boost and well deserving members have gotten the rewards. Bryan, Mike, Titus, Jona, Paul, Ivon and infact the entire core team put in a huge effort each month and develop well over 5 tasks per month. While it may not be stellar progress, it’s all accurate and it’s all done right.
.
Obviously where the team falls short and infact where many teams fall short is on the Texturing Side, Animation Side and Programming Side. So we combat this by outsourcing alot of our texture work, I put my hand in my pocket, whip out that credit card and max it out 3 or 4 times a month. With Animation we have hired a Veteran Animator with over 10 years experience who is paid a full salary and starts in June. We have also looking to hire a lead programmer who will ensure that the game is worked on every day.
.
Engine wise, well that’s another kettle of fish, we are looking at some big name engines and I won’t name drop because everyone will speculate as to what they are but we are working through ensuring that we eliminate our choices to those engines that most suite 1944.
.
Personally I am happy with the progress, nearly everything is modelled, we just need to do the high polies, and of course the textures and animations. Yeah things are good, they could always be better but when you have 30+ guys working really hard in their spare time, it’s very had to fault it. Especially when larger developers with 70+ development staff are afraid to tackle something on the same scale as 1944.

MadKilla Interview

Frantic Games released Community Interview #8 Thursday, conducted by forum member MadKilla.  You can read the full interview Here.

What sets 1944 D-Day apart from other World War II games?
.
Most WW2 titles focus on a very particular scenario, while 1944 D-Day takes the Operation as a whole. Accuracy, Every unit, Every Nation all selectable, to the average player this will not mean much but to the hardcore gamer and re-enactors this opens up all the possibilities of being able to take part in all those elements that are left out of all other games. Logisitics the entire world is based on the management of logistics, keep the lines open and ensure that the logistics can be moved freely and readily around the map.
.
Scale, the entire map of Normandy is accessible, and available to the player. Every unit on the map is selectable at any given time the player has access to around 250,000 units. During the course of the operation the player has access to over a whopping 13 million units. Over 200+ vehicles, over 100 weapons and over 35 different unique unit classes. The online system allows for 128 – 256 co-op play, with every other position being replaced by AI. Consider it a large scale Co-Op System.
.
The game is AI driven, the player doesn’t factor into this, the world goes on around the player even if they do nothing. Nothing is scripted and the world is ever evolving. The player does not assume one role or a specific unit, instead the player selects a unit typically controlled by the AI and assumes the role and life of that unit for as long as they wish. Once they are bored or had enough they can jump to another unit.