Hey Everyone,

I don’t know how many of you know about this, but there’s this sweet indie film being worked on about the greatest Dungeon Master…EVER!

OFFICIAL SITE

Awesome – can’t wait to see it!

Hey Everyone,

Long time no blog! The modding scene has been pretty slow lately. Lots of great games coming out, just nothing solid in the tools dept. Bummer… eh?

So I recently decided to take a serious shot at modeling a next-gen asset. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I asked Jonny to pretend he was a client who needed something. Turns out, his game was missing an Old Medieval Wall – So I got right to work!

Phase One:

I exported a simple rectangle from 3ds max and imported it into Zbrush. From there, I subdivided the model to around 5.2 million polygons and started the painstakingly slow task of carving out each individual stone. I must say, it felt like the good old days of shaping terrain.

Phase Two:

I used some global modifiers like Inflate and Noise to bring out the shape and course look of the stones. Two simple modifiers can make such a big difference when the settings are right…

Phase Three:

From there, I went back to some final detailing on the mesh before texturing. For the textures, I used simple rock and dirt photos from cgtextures.com. One of the hardest parts for texturing this thing was applying the Masks so that only certain parts of the model would receive information. Once I nailed that, the rest went pretty smoothly…

Final Phase:

Now it was time to take this high poly stuff and apply it to a low poly model so it can be used in games. Remember, the sculpt was around 5.2 million. But anyways, Jonny had a huge hand in this part because I’ve never done it before. We used TeamViewer so he could take over my machine and show me what to do. The program that strips this all down and takes the ache out is called xNormal. It extracts all sorts of maps from your high poly model (normals, ambient occlusion, cavity, etc.) and applies them to a low poly version. Here’s the low poly version (around 500 polygons) inside the Unity engine.

As you can see, the normal maps hold up well to the few lights I stuck in front of it. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. I don’t believe it’ll get any use in NWN2. Maybe something up the pipeline…

Next Assignment:

So now Jonny’s new assignment is to work off some concept art. He sketched this up real quick and sent it my way. Looks like a cool chest. I hope I can do it justice. I’ll post another workflow thingy when I’m done.

Hello everyone, I know its been a while since we’ve posted anything here, but I wanted to share with everyone that we have released Grokion on Kongregate today which is available here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/DodoDomination/grokion-inception This means you can play it for free

If you like it, please rate it, a high rating will help us greatly in developing the second chapter as well as the third down the road.

Thanks for all the support!

We’re psyched to announce that Grokion: Inception is now available on the App Store for $0.99!

http://itunes.apple.com/app/grokion/id375585053?mt=8

Hello Friends – it’s been awhile!

I’ve got a couple of Original Soundtracks for you:

Download Misery Stone OST

All of the original music from Misery Stone can now be yours.  It also includes a Bonus Track too heavy for theaters… I mean, the module – Sweet!

Download Grokion OST Vol. 1

This is the OST for our upcoming iPhone/iPod Touch game, Grokion: Inception.  I composed & recorded it on a  2G iPod Touch using an app called Music Studio.  The small keyboard was a bit tricky to get used to, but being able to pace & compose was awesome – I love to pace!

I hope you guys enjoy the tunes!

Here is a Gameplay Trailer for the upcoming iPhone/iPod game we’re working on.

Patching the Stone:

I’m pulling the team back together for some patch work.  Zach is on board for some additional writing and companion interaction.  Laurence has been helping out with some bugs, and I’m taking care of the small stuff like minor bugs, encounters, balance, etc.

We’re going to try and put as much work in to make it worth a replay, so it’s going to take some time.  There’s been a lot of feedback and we want to address as much as we can.  At this point, we’re probably looking at mid-march, give or take a few weeks.

The module has been really well received so far.  It means a lot to know we’ve created something people are really enjoying.  We want to thank all of those who took the time to come back to comment and/or vote.

Polishing the Biosphere:

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far from Firglore, Jonny and I have been wandering around the Lunar Biosphere with our overalls and paint brushes – polishing up the place for a March opening. On one of our breaks, we decided to take a look around and stumbled into the main character’s dressing room. We started toying around with some of his cool stuff (like a grenade launching arm cannon – no Jonny, I will not pull your finger with that on…) when suddenly, we heard the sound of heavy metal stomp in behind us – and there we saw him…

Say ‘Ello to our Lil’ Friend!

LDU-1  stood there in his awesomeness.  As I looked, all I could see were our melting faces in his reflective mask.  But he was totally cool and we talked about the lame superbowl half-time show and how hard it is to find a good pub on the moon.

We’re almost done with the iPhone game we’ve been working on – Alex ported a demo build to the iPhone and it’s Slick – the fluidity of the controls is something people will notice right away if they’re used to playing sidescrollers on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  For those who’re interested, it will be on the appstore no later than March – more updates to come!

Some WIP Screenshots

DOWNLOAD MISERY STONE

READ ME

Thank you for the inspiration.  Thank you for the support.   Now go get slaughtered!

I packaged up an Installer and uploaded the final beta for the testers.  If nothing crazy pops up, I’m going to release Misery Stone this weekend.  It may not be where I want it, but to get there would probably take another year of development!  So no, It’s about time I’ve released this to you guys!

And that’s it, folks – Wow…

To be honest, it’s somewhat surreal to be this close to release. I’ve been working on this module, albeit off and on, for about 2+ years now.  It has become something I think about daily – characters and stories in a world which I feel both saddened and relieved to leave behind.   It’s as if the mists are clearing and I’m escaping Ravenloft myself!

But no cork-popping just yet – that’s for the next update!

About two months ago, Jonny came to me with an idea to start developing games for the iPhone/iPod Touch.   So I quickly snatched my wide-rimmed hat, leather whip, WWII pistol and sat down at my PC (boo!) – Our adventures in Indie development had begun!

And like all great adventures, we met a friend while traveling these unfamiliar and dangerous roads.  He hailed from the small village of Lucas Arts and was on a quest of his own (designing a game) and needed help finishing it.  So of course, we accepted this side-quest and have been working with him for several weeks now on Art, Sound, Story and Level Design.

The game is a Metroid/Megaman-Inspired title aimed to give a classic/nostalgic feel with some updated bells and whistles.  We’re shooting to release in Jan/Feb 2010, depending on how quick we can implement some final touches, but most of the game is complete (and FUN).  If you enjoy 2D puzzle sidescrollers, you’ll have a blast with this!

Here are some WIP Screenshots… More info will be posted in the coming days!

So this is a big part of why Misery Stone has been so slow out the door.  But timing-wise, with DA:O and all the other big NWN2 mods wrapping up, the delay isn’t that painful.  And let’s face it… who really cares about this dumb module anyway?