Beyond Despair development

Hello there!

At the moment our team «PixelMate» developing new our project with the working title - «OWSP».

We will be happy to share our experience and inform you of the development process, our plans and achievements. We hope that the dialogue will be interesting both for you and for us.

Now, more about the project …

Name: At the moment, the project has the working title - «OWSP»

Genre: Survival/Horror.

Developer: PixelMate.

Technology: UE4

Our site: http://pixelmate.ru

Our twitter:

Our project on IndieDB:

Project summary: The world after powerful and destructive disaster. Players are survivors whose destiny depends on their own abilities. Aggressive environment with it`s difficulties, wilderness, the remnants of the destroyed civilization and many other exciting things including mystical and paranormal atmosphere constitutes a real challenge to the player. Do you think that you survived? The real survival begins…

Progress:

>We have already developed an early build of the project. A constant work is being done to improve this build.

>Our team is working on different gaming mechanics. One of them is shown in the video. This mechanics identification of objects and their gathering.

>Game locations are constantly replenished with something new, for example, in the video below you can see the weather conditions.

>Much work has been done over the objects for gaming locations.












>Developed game characters.



>A few screenshots from one of the game locations.





>For our Russian-speaking audience, we have prepared a short audio podcast. In this podcast, we answered the questions of our community. We really want to do that for English-speaking audience. If amongst you there are people who want to help in this direction - scoring of podcasts, write to our [EMAIL=“”]email, we will be very happy.

Oh… And many others. It is difficult to tell absolutely everything about the project and that is why we will present it little by little. At the present moment we are thinking about finishing current build, some content and to achieve the access to the «Steam Greenlight».

We are welcome for new comments! Follow the news! A lot of interesting is waiting for you!

Really great work here! Keep it going!

Thank you! :slight_smile:

wow, this look amazing.

Thanks, Sanford87!

I had expectations, but then they were dashed. It definitely isn’t a Survival Horror game of what traditionally has been known. Heavily more geared towards a shooter with “Horror”-like design choices. Its what differentiates a Silent Hill from a Resident Evil (by which I of course mean the later Resident Evils as the earlier ones kept the action slightly more constrained).

Still it is more certainly a visually appealing aesthetics. Gives me feelings of Metro: Last Light.

Yeah, I hear ya. Silent Hill 2 is probably one of my favorite games. They did have a chain saw in it though. I think the biggest factor is the amount of ammo. Metro: Last Light has it pretty good but so did the first two resident evils. This looks really promising. If you go greenlight you got my vote.

This looks promising. The art looks fantastic. Good work!

At the moment, our team has a clear understanding of what we need to do a really good and interesting game. This idea motivates us and we are gradually moving towards its goal.

Talk about some of the details and compare with other projects is not very correct. It is too early discuss it, because we are only at the development stage.

Thank you for your fidbek, it is very important and helps us move in the direction of improving the production of the project.

Thank you, sanford87!

Thanks, we are very pleased!

Telling you about our new project we mentioned that it is survival and the fact about it contains the elements of horror but we do not mentioned what is certainly happen in the world and what leads to the people`s need of survival.

The game world of project OWSP – is a world after disaster. This very disaster is unique by it`s character. It is occur without any harm to the cities, without turning cities into ruins with messy dumps of concrete and metal. There is no fire in residential districts, there is also no earthquakes, floods or tsunami. Of course there is no war and no usage of nuclear weapons, there is no zombie-apocalypse.

No.

This catastrophe is unique. It is unique in it`s horror, consequences of disaster to the natural world. Birds. Animals. Nature. People. The nature is changed into something terrible, horrible, dreadful and hazardous.

The survivors woke up not in a ruined world. People used to be in the world which they can not perceive as their old. It is something different, strange and hostile.

We will give you detailed information a little bit later and now we want to show you some screenshots of game objects.

We decided to fix our steps and plans for the future. Here are some of them:

Done:

*We made all essential and necessary content for early access.
*Also we made basic gameplay. This is a kind of base which allows to consider our project as a game. But still it is not enough for early access. There still few objects and ideas.
*Remaking of game universe is also made.
*All necessary shaders and materials are ready for early access.
*We succeed in rethinking of our marketing campaign of the project and prepared some stages. It is still far from what we would like to have at the moment.
*Everything is ready to enter the GREENLIGHT. But we are thinking about video performance. But still we have an idea on which we are working.
*The character is already able to eat, to be hungry, dehydrated, freeze, choose from any locations, shoot, die, run, jump.
*We begin working on sound design. There are no problems with music but sounds are need to be developed. We bought a pack of more than 3,000 high-quality sounds. So we need to work with sounds.

About nearest plans:

*To finish materials for Greenlight. It is time to get this aim. Once we delayed this month.
*Finally decide something with an animator. We want to have our own animation
*Start the global production of ENT elements from the notes to the audio recordings. This is important thing.
*To teach the character to be ill and to injure itself.
*Balance-balance-balance. Until all is not so good.
*Postproduction of the location. There are a couple of sounds. The world is deaf. Working on it and hope to solve the problem.

And here is the second podcast from PixelMate!

Unfortunately, it is only in Russian. We have already mentioned that it is very important and necessary for us to find people who are English native speakers in order to voice our podcasts for English-speaking audience. If there are those who are interested in the project among you and want to participate in the development of our project, we will always welcome your messages to the and comments to this post.

The aim of these podcasts is to collect questions from the audience. The questions are related to our team, projects and to the gaming industry in a whole. In general, we have not polished, perfect record. Work on the game in full of swing, we have less free time. Despite this, between the tasks we are happy to show you our materials and thinking about the development of this format of communication.

Follow the news!

We have great news! Release on Steam Greenlight, it’s happened!

Yes, it’s happened, and we are very happy!

But are you glad? Are you ready to support the project on the Greenlight?

Then, let’s go! PixelMate team will be very grateful to you!

The jerkiness of the gun in one of the first videos you posted gives this really weird stop-motion feel to the project.

I have honestly never seen that before in a game before (And I’ve played A LOT of games). Honestly, when I saw it was like: “The gun animation is off… Wait a minute… WOAH”.

If you keep that animation in, you could be on to something. Imagine your whole game feeling as if it was shot in a stop-motion style.

That might not be the effect you’re after but the fact you’ve stumbled on something that I’ve never seen (I did animation in University and I’ve never-EVER come across someone doing 3D animation that’s looked so convincingly like stopmotion).

Maybe you could do it for your whole game; Who knows. I think you’re on to something - Even if it was done by accident :stuck_out_tongue:

Yep. With the animations we have trouble. Now just looking animator. :frowning:

Nah, I don’t mean it in a bad way - It’s possibly a revolutionary animation style if you can pull it off well! I have honestly never seen anything like it! Now all you have to do is make the whole game run like it :wink:

During the project is on the site OWSP Steam Greenlight, we often receive a lot of questions. They related to the project team, technology of development, and other things.

http://pixelmate.ru/public/OWSP_Shot_09.jpg

We are very pleased that you are interested in our project. We decided that current information about the project can not give you absolute view of our in-game world.

After analyzing feedback, we formed a few general questions that will enable you to learn about the project a little bit more.

  1. Quite often users asked us: «What is your game, guys? Again survival? What is special about your project? How it would attract players? Is it possible for you to compete with other similar games?»

Let’s begin one by one.

PixelMate - is not only developers team, but also a group of inveterate players. We are found of the survival genre and horror, but the modern market is literally full of similar projects, which differ in a minimum of things - the visual component and a pair of small mechanics parts.

As players, we sincerely tired of formulaic PvP modern survival projects. We want to add to the process of players survival something new, more than terrible, frightening, something with greater atmosphere.
We want to get away from the hackneyed game world with a zombie apocalypse. This will allow to make the ENT which would make the game and its features in a certain way. Namely, will affect the activity of the players.

http://pixelmate.ru/public/OWSP_Shot_10.jpg

How do you plan attract players?

We think that it is better to ask namely players after the release, as our opinion in this case is some kind of subjective sentiment. The only thing we can say about it - we will try to make a very good, interesting and qualitative project.

  1. People are interested about the situation in the game world. There were question about the origin of all those monsters. And of course why people have to survive in this world.
    We are pleased to respond this question.

The game world of project OWSP – is a world after disaster.

This very disaster is unique by it`s character. It is occur without any harm to the cities, without turning cities into ruins with messy dumps of concrete and metal. There is no fire in residential districts, there is also no earthquakes, floods or tsunami. Of course, there is no war and no usage of nuclear weapons, there is no zombie-apocalypse.
No.

This catastrophe is unique. It is unique in it`s horror, consequences of disaster to the natural world. Birds. Animals. Nature. People. The nature is changed into something terrible, horrible, dreadful and hazardous. The survivors woke up not in a ruined world. People used to be in the world which they can not perceive as their old. It is something different, strange and hostile.

http://pixelmate.ru/public/OWSP_Shot_11.jpg

  1. Users are also asked questions about the organization of multiplayer: «Do you have people with experience of developing multiplayer projects? In what way multiplayer will be realized in the game? How many players are planned to be on the servers?»

Not only one person is experienced in multiplayer but all our team as a whole. Almost all of PixelMate projects were namely include multiplayer.

Multiplayer mode is planned for 15-20 people. We are not going to create some kind of MMO game with a lot of players on the servers. With this feature the thing is that the the server can be organized by any player. Set up a server, invite friends, or just make it open for all users - enjoy the game.

  1. Probably the most common question is: «It is too early for you to be on GREENLIGHT. Despite the raw materials you show it. Why?»

Publication on Steam Greenlight is not an event at a time. Our goal is to keep the audience in the course of development process. We are updating information about the project step by step as it is.

We do not conceal that fact that some materials are unfinished, but we’re not going to stop there. Each person will be able to become a witness of how the project grows and is formed into something more meaningful and playable.

In addition, the publication provides an opportunity to gain an invaluable feedback from you, and this is extremely important for us.

http://pixelmate.ru/public/OWSP_Shot_12.jpg

And there are few frequently asked questions:

  1. «What are technologies of your project? Are you planning to release the project on any other platform except the PC? Other OS? Linux?»

We are working on the technology of UE4. We are very impressed with this engine. It allows us to realize all our ideas. It is also worth to mention that the team has experience with technologies of company «Epic Games», it makes the job effective and convenient.

Frankly speaking, we do not want to plan it right now. Now there is a specific goal - PC and MAC. When we achieve this goal it will be clear whether we need to develop cross-platform or not. It should be mentioned that there are certain restrictions imposed by the technology itself. Some of UE4 platforms are simply not supported.

  1. «In addition to the profile of the project, what other languages do you plan to use? And how it will be realized? Will it be voiced or use subtitles?»

It all depends on the audience. If there will be a lot speakers of any kind of language among the players and this very language is not used in our project we will certainly think about the localization. Talking about methods of localization is so early, but we are thinking about voicing. At the first versions of the project it will be in English and Russian languages, all the rest languages will be realized through the use of subtitles.

While working in order to fix some bags the rest part of our team continue to work on the project.

http://s019.radikal.ru/i628/1503/c1/2f16d5a47bdc.png

We`ve done with creation of a monster. This guy is messing around and try to find some new friends. But we recommend you not to do it. The lethal outcome is possible in this case.

http://s017.radikal.ru/i421/1503/bd/0f3c1f89f40e.png

We begin to work on new animation of monsters. It would be possible to kill them.

http://i004.radikal.ru/1503/a2/4a96765be4d6.png

We`ve tried to make another part of our rubric - responses to some questions. It is great that a lot of people are interested in and want to know something new about the project. But it did not happen because of the sound. We are waiting for some free time to record another video and thinking about the quality and new ideas. Do you have any ideas and thoughts ? Shall we change something or add something?

http://s017.radikal.ru/i400/1503/80/65c6ca36a92d.png

Also we are glad to share with you dark ambient from a marvelous composer Dmitry Fyodorov.

In general we are working without standstill.

P.S: We still need a game designer. Answer back :

Today, walking on the gaming locations after solar eclipse we decided to check if everything is OK.
Awkward to say, but we found that we forget there one member of our research team.

In defense … We warned him that to look at the eclipse for two hours and even more and even through binoculars is dangerous.

http://cs625422.vk.me/v625422496/2370e/XtoEytVuBlA.jpg

When we have some free time, we are working on the game menu.
Here, for example, we`ve made cockroaches. They are on animating now.

A lot of ideas how to use them in game. Сan suggest us how to use them? Maybe one of your ideas will be implemented. Let’s think together!

For example: for cockroaches - to increase the size of a small dog and settle them into the sewage.

http://cs625422.vk.me/v625422725/2594a/8GuMwmkMkXQ.jpg

And a few more screenshots of the latest build…

http://cs623331.vk.me/v623331496/25759/zneprhnJiqI.jpg

http://cs623331.vk.me/v623331496/25763/ifxIhQHfk7k.jpg