Well Happy New Year to everyone!
Its been a while since our last news post so what better time for an update than the end of the year. We have had some challenges the past few months, both personal and professional, so development of Ground Branch has gone slower than we had hoped or planned for. However, we want to make it very clear that development is still going on and we are as committed as ever to the project and keeping development more consistent in 2018 and beyond! Here are a few things being worked on……
The character/animation changeover has been the biggest issue over the past few months so now would be a good time to explain a bit about whats going on. The animation system in the currently available Ground Branch build was no longer allowing us to add the features that we have always had planned. Due to the way it was constructed, adding new features would break things in a way that required to much work to fix or that simply could not be fixed without breaking other things. Given our current resources, specifically no dedicated animator that understands how UE4 works in the context of the Ground Branch design, we have had to improvise and work through various challenges so that we can move forward with adding the necessary features the game design requires.
A few new animation items in the works:
On top of a more stable foundation to work with, it allows us to more easily add new character related content. There will be lots more clothing choices coming that will allow players to customize themselves beyond more than the militaristic looks currently available with some “lower visibility” and indigenous choices.
A few examples:
There are also more camo patterns to choose from as well:
Gear and weapons as also being added while we work through the animation issues.
We are also starting to source some new bad guy models as well. These will have lots of unique meshes and materials of their own, so no more shooting at badguys that look like other players.
A few more maps are in development as well, though nothing to the stage where screenshots would do them justice. As a tease, there is a map being built that involves a large civilian aircraft!
So there you go…. We GREATLY appreciate the support you all have given us to this point an we will continue to keep developing the game we set out to make. The next playable build update shouldn’t be to far off so please hang tight a little longer.
Thanks again and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
