You want it when?!

"As the Troop Dirigible HMAS Intractable climbed away Brigadier General Snodgrass surveyed the deposition of his troops and equipment. Nothing seemed out of place or wanting. Time was fast approaching to advance on the Martian position and finally claim this region of Mars for Her Majesty Queen Victoria. He signalled the Land Ships to advance. It would be all over within a matter of hours, one way or another.


God Save The Queen! "


The Last Stand is coming along well and we came to a momentous step as a group by setting a deadline! I know, I can hear you gasp even as I write this. But it's true, we now have a deadline. And I think it's having the desired effect - we're making better progess.

What I've been doing while Novack and Guy focus on implementing code is to start working on models and designs for the game. As you can tell above with a little quote from our design brief, it is based in a very steampunk Universe. The first step of course is to do your research which I've been and have accumulated a fair bit of material on our project forum. I've posted some in progress work for you to see. Note: These are not final nor are you looking at in game renders (obviously).


I've focusing on the actual geometry for now, working up the UV maps and test textures to make sure it works. Once the models are done I'll work on the texture maps with more focus or if I'm lucky, I'll find someone who will be interested in working on them for me while I soldier ahead with other pieces.

On the note of contributors, we've been having a tough time as I'm sure many people on the GG forums have. It's very hard to keep people interested and moving forward on a project when this is all done in ones spare time. Many of us have our own projects we want to work on or quite simply life gets in the way. No hard feelings as we've all been there. But I still live in hope of finding someone or ones who are dedicated enough to see a project, well, this project through.

Back to Last Stand.

The biggest concern was not so much what the Brits would look like in this mini game but what would the Martians be like. Insectoids? Humanoid? Slimey many tentacled bug eyed...things? Or a combination? After a number sketches and research, what I finally decided on was (in hindsight) a little bit of everything. Since the premise is of the British colonizing Mars, then pulling a bit of an African theme seemed like it might be interesting way to go. My research there turned up some interesting visuals, which coupled with a bit of insect social behavior seemed like it might make for an interesting mix.


This is the first design based on that premise and in working on this, I started to write up a "bible" of sorts for the Martian side of the game. I'll go into more detail perhaps in later postings but needless to say, it's helping focus the game design. I suppose this is something we should have done at the beginning but better late than never. It's all part of the learning process.

The models are proving interesting to make as I've not had much time in the last while to do much. So starting with simple things like plant and rock designs has started to warm me up.


This is a Martian Fruit tree that the Martian workers harvest to enable the hatching of more units. Again, you're seeing a test texture and I know what you're thinking - James, a test texture should be the checker board to look for distortions. I know, I know... I couldn't help myself. And the little "Brit" guy is just there for scale. He is the low LOD for the game and I stripped out most of his gear to use in this manner.

Well, that's all. If you are interested in doing some texture work or possibly rigging and animation, give me a shout (see my profile for contact details).

Until next time