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Project Wish
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> 2008 so far.
Jerky
post Mar 3 2008, 01:42 AM
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So far this year we've been lean, but have been more productive than ever. What we mean by lean is that we technically have less on the team than we have in the past, but those numbers are meaningless when compared to the actual output. We picked up a few new writers over the past few months who have been working miracles on the new world. The three latest are Areena, Brotoi and Miguel. You can see the new world map below in the Anniversary update, which has now been divided up into chunks, and our writers are each working on set areas. Hopefully in the upcoming months, we will be able to start releasing more detailed story and race information, along with a more detailed version of the world map. You can see their blogs on the left, which they have been writing to share little tidbits and insights about what they are working on.

At the same time, our programmers are still putting in strong work. On the server side, we have an initial prototype up and running that is simulating thousands of connections for testing. While we are still a ways from having a working client / server, this is promising progress. Along with that, our engine design has added a component-based approach that should allow for easy refactoring and simple addition of entities into the world. This is the base that will work behind the scenes to categorize all the assets that will be dropped into the world. With this in place, work on Dwarf has finally been resumed, which will be our roadmap toward Dwarf 2.0. Dwarf 2 will be the tool we want for the future of the project, a tool that can do all the work to edit the world, from tweaking items, to editing the terrrain and the textures on it.

The PWToolbox has also received some new features as well. We were approaching a public release when we found something new that needed adding. We will release more information in the future about PWToolbox, but we anticipate it being very helpful to anyone programming a video game usine C++. It will be a library of useful items that most game engines need.

Now, as far as art goes, things have slowed down, but that is not a bad thing. Over the years we have had a high turnover in all areas, but especially in the Art department. One of the main contributing factors has been the lack of story and design. Artists can't work on art when there is nothing to draw from. There has always been a lack of things to do, so artists have had to be creative and keep themselves busy working on mundane props, etc. This is all changing. With the writers detailing areas of the world, they are coming up with lists and lists of people, places, props, and so on that are becoming the assignments for future artists. Moreover, we have learned that even when there were assignments to do, its best to have plenty of them, as artists get burned out on one item, and like to jump between tasks to keep themselves fresh and motivated. Having been around for three years, we have noticed the patterns and what can make a more efficient team. What this means is, at this point, we are holding off on recruiting new artists until the world descriptions and design areas are more complete.

Did I mention design? I sure did. One of the number one items of feedback we have received over the years is that new people (that have never heard of Wish) have no idea what PW is. For them it is not enough to just be a project trying to recreate the feeling of a game they have never heard of. Their feedback, along with the obvious needs for direction for artists and writers, have led us officially work on completing the design for the game. Eventually, this will also lead to an official game name, and a change from Project Wish, but until that happens, we will continue to remain Project Wish. With this in mind, the page "About PW" in the menu has changed from under contruction to actually holding some real information. At this point, its still vague, but it is a step in the right direction. In the next couple of months, we will be slowly "finalizing" most of the design goals of this project. That will lead to much better direction and goals for the project as a whole, and should also help visitors to know exactly what PW is and what we are about without having to dig through three years worth of forum posts.

All this new information is going to need a cleaner and more intuitive website. It just so happens that we are working on new website, which we have been calling "PW2.0" internally. This should be a better site in all regards, and should also show off some of the concept art which we have been working on.

So, to sum up what you can expect in the upcoming months:
  • An official gameplay feature list and a page devoted to some of the items therein.
  • Some areas of the map being announced with details on what one could expect.
  • A large and beautiful map of the new world we designed.
  • PWToolbox should be released to the public for all the programmers looking for quality libraries for their game engines.
  • A new website, including a totally new look and feel that will better represent the vision we have for PW.
Hope you keep checking in on us!

-PW Development Team


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Erik Briggs (Jerky)
Project Manager
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echorev
post Mar 3 2008, 01:04 PM
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Woo! I love updates! Can't wait to get cracking at stuff the story team is writing up. smile.gif


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RicoSuave
post Mar 3 2008, 09:17 PM
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Many thanks, Jerky.
I love updates as well. I wasn't expecting the next one until April, so this is a surprise. I love surprises as well.
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Maxwell
post Mar 8 2008, 08:55 AM
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Great update. Also great About PW by the way!


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