Archive for ‘Spotlight’

By Austin Graham, Senior DET Major, portfolio

If you have wanted to see the inner workings of a start-up indie company, then look no further than ArtCraft Entertainment (ACE) based in Austin, Texas! With their flagship game, Crowfall, announced in January of 2015, ArtCraft has already had a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $1,766,204. That was just over 220% of their goal! The company was founded by J Todd Coleman, Creative Director, and Gordon Walton, Executive Producer, who are big names in the MMO field. Not only that, ArtCraft is pulling together talented artists and game designers from all over to make their idea a reality.

Crowfall is a “throne war simulator” that pits teams of players against each other to conquer worlds before they are destroyed, bring back the spoils of war and go out and do it all again. With what promises to be an intricate crafting system, diverse roles of combat, and political ties and intrigue, there are many ways to play that should keep players very busy. It is currently in Pre-Alpha development, but there is no NDA so players are allowed to stream their gameplay on Twitch and Youtube.

What we here in the DET department really like to see is the transparency and behind the scenes access ACE has given backers and players. Their YouTube page is full of behind the scenes videos showing the different skills and art forms that go into making games. From 3D modeling, to system design, there are videos showing just how much thought and work is going into their game. Below are links to a few of the videos that deal with some of the different areas of DET.

3D Modeling and Texturing: Centuar Helmet Creation with artist Eric Hart

Animation: Meet Crowfall’s Animators

Visual Effects: Meet the VFX Team

Bringing it all together: First Look – Gaea’s Wail

By Katey Bluel kateybluel.weebly.com

Dragons and Gods

Game developer Charlie Velazquez has just released an app on the ITunes app store called “Dragons and Gods”. He worked on developing his app for a little over a year. Charlie explained that “Dragons and Gods” is a side scroller game, with the goal of unlocking new dragons and leveling them up to see them evolve.

As the sole developer, he used multiple programs to develop the project’s content. The programs used were Corona (game engine), Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Texture Packer, Physics Editor, FL Studio, myscriptfont.com, and Audacity. When Charlie was asked what inspired him, he said, “Since I can remember I’ve loved dragons! But what really inspired me to create “Dragons and Gods” is a game called “War Dragons”. “War Dragons” is a 3D game that is all about collecting over 100 unique dragons and leveling them up in
order for the player to become a feared dragon lord. It has astounding graphics, it really brings dragons to life, and I wanted to give that a try in my own way.” His favorite part during development was programming as it really opened his eyes as to how games are developed as well as using programming to bring his artwork to life. Although programming was his favorite part, he admits it was also the hardest part. “When I started this project I did not know the Lua language, I did not take any classes to learn it either. Luckily, ACU offers times every week during the fall semester where there is a tutor available to help with Lua programming. So, I went to tutoring as often as I could. I got the help of awesome tutors and I probably couldn’t have done it without them.”

His advice to anyone who wants to develop an app is, “Have fun with it, and be creative! Put in a little time and effort in everyday cause it all adds up.” Support Charlie with his accomplishment by downloading “Dragons and Gods” today!

You can see more about “Dragons and Gods” by going to Charlie’s website.