Chapter 1 alpha preview

I've been extremely busy this week.

I've spent the week finishing Chapter 1 and working on some spoilerworthy stuff, so I couldn't really stream or talk much about what I had going on. But now, the chapter is built and I can start focusing on Chapter 2, whilst tweaking the look and feel of the completed sections.

Chapter 1 is a flaunt through the ruins of Nova Prospekt - you're literally treading in Freeman's wake. The whole place has become infested with Antlions, which are thriving due to the amount of 'food' left behind for them.

In the preview you'll notice rain but I'm thinking about changing this to ash and having it a bit more dustier. I'm also thinking about changing the Antlions to freshen the experience. I'll see how I go with that!

I'll be streaming again this week. I look forward to sharing more development stuff with you. For now, it's back to work for me!

Discord + Trello + other bits!

Discord is up (if you're interested in that kind of thing) and you can get an invite right now, right here! If you're headed to Discord to chat to me directly, please don't take it personally if I'm not around much. I tend to spend my time at my desk working on stuff!

I also launched a Trello page today. I've always been pushing a transparent development agenda and this is actually a pretty cool way for me to show you exactly what is going on behind the scenes. Check that out and keep an eye on it here!

Today I've done a TON of work on beefing up the combat further. You'll be seeing this in action soon once I'm happy with what I've got.

A lot of the impact effects are a bit more dramatic, sounds are being changed and also some of the NPC behavior is being tweaked.

Half-Life 2 NPCs have an unrealistic tendency to stop firing immediately after the player finds cover. In EZA the NPCs will know where you're hiding if they've seen you duck behind a crate, or dart around a corner - and they're going to keep shooting suppressing fire at you until you're flushed out - or your cover is destroyed.

It's been a lot of fun tweaking this and seeing it work and I can't wait to get my hands dirty and formulate some real firefights for EZA.

Still working on that Q&A video - hope to have it done soon.... hopefully... if I can step away from EZA.

EZA - Reworking Chapter 1

Quick update for you. I'm going to try and post weekly updates to let you know what I've been working on.

This week I'm modifying the already built first chapter, to comply with the changes in narrative. It's finicky work and is taking me longer than I would have hoped - but progress is being made regardless.

I have also been working on part 2 of my Q&A videos - hope to have that up next week sometime.

And finally, Discord is right around the corner. I'll update you when I'm ready to go with that!