For those of you who aren't familiar with our development plan we have spent a formidable amount of time over the last couple of weeks merging the game engine with the menu system. It was quite a tricky task.
What have you been doing?
So far we have succeeded in finalising the lobby system (with map and mode selection, vetoing, mid-game joining and round introductions) and got the customise system fully working. (See image)
On the topic of customisation, for those of you who are interested in the customising options the game offers I'm happy to tell you they are fairly extensive. We have a wide range of armour's available in which individual components can be mixed and matched (Helmet, Visor, Torso, Shoulder+Arm pieces and legs). Individual colours can also be changed however in team game-modes armour colours will of course be overwritten.
The system extends beyond the realm of cosmetic armour changes however and into loadout customisation. The store is packed with assorted guns of numerous types (assault rifles, laser cannons, electric crossbows etc etc). These all behave uniquely and can radically alter your game style. They also are all fully skin-able.
Equipments can also be selected and customised. I plan on making the next blog post detailing each individual equipment made so far (there is about 8) but rest assured they are useful, exciting and have the capacity to significantly alter your play style. Think jetpacks, evades, frag grenades, tracking beacons, denial of effect pulse grenades and a bunch more!
Something we're very pleased to announce is that all of these options will be made available to non paying players (ie you can unlock everything through earning credits through normal game-play). Of course if you fork out the Robux to buy extra credits your going to have some pretty rad looking gear a lot faster than everyone else.
What comes next?
The last key area that needs tying up is post-match stats-tracking. We have the server infrastructure and UI already made to handle all of this but we are still finalising how best to present this data and how much depth we want to give it in (we've got the capacity to track some pretty advanced stuff but how much of it players actually care about is another matter).
Audio development is also another area that we're planning on putting some more effort into. We're gradually working on diversifying our sound effects (although the ones we have already are pretty neat. We do have a very talented voice actor who is working on lines for the announcer voice but progress is a little slow on that front. Anyone who feels up to rallying to the cause of Hex tell BoostPowah to get busy!
Word on Alpha, Beta?
Hex has been in a semi-closed Alpha state for quite some time now. A number of very helpful users have been playing Hex rounds with me and Silent for months now to help us test new features and fix bugs (and also because it's damn fun!). There hasn't really been an Alpha test for the last couple of weeks however as me and Silent have been doing some pretty hardcore behind the scenes coding that we'd rather separate from mainstream testing.
For those of you who Alpha test with us (of which there are a fair few, essentially friends and friends of friends on xfire) rest assured that Alpha will re-open in the near future. Once we get stats-tracking ticked off the list we're planning on getting right back into the motions of testing.
For those of you who want to know more about the Beta I won't divulge too many details now. However I will tell you that it will almost certainly come mid-January (our original plan was before the end of 2014 but we got sidetracked by a lot of work commitments). Beta will be, to all intents and purposes, the full game minus several unreleased superfluous features and some assets. During the Beta period it is likely (though not a final decision) that we will implement some form of pay-wall (it will be cheap) to limit attendance whilst we are ensuring all bugs are ironed out. I highly encourage anyone who isn't super keen to play the Beta to wait for the full release and save some money!
You done?
Yeah. Sorry for the slow blog progress and I'm very excited to do another feature similar to the map one from a couple of weeks back (most likely on equipment). Until then, thanks for reading.
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