Might and Magic X: Project Update August 1st, 2012

The role-playing games (I-X) that started it all and the various spin-offs (including Dark Messiah).
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MMXAlamar
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Might and Magic X: Project Update August 1st, 2012

Unread postby MMXAlamar » 01 Aug 2012, 20:56

Might and Magic X
Press Release: August 1st, 2012

Might and Magic X: Children of the Void

Project Update: August 1st, 2012

Happy August MMX fans! It's almost the end of the summer, and we've been working very hard this year. We continue to chip away at the level design, however, we are still on the tutorial. It's not an easy task to make an entire level from scratch, but our 3d modeling staff has returned from vacation and will be hard at work very designing the first town and adding objects to the sewer dungeon. It's pretty much the same story as last month, but we are moving ahead and beginning to finish some projects. We still have 5 months left in the year to finish this tutorial level, so by the end of August, we will need to be 20% finished with the sewer level, region, and town.

August 2012 Project Status

• Designing and producing the tutorial level.
• Skills database version 1.0 is 100% complete.
• Items database version 1.0 is 100% complete.
• Tutorial plot summary is 100% complete.
• Tutorial region map is 100% complete.
• Tutorial sewers dungeon infrastructure is 90% complete.
• Main plot outline is 80% complete.
• Tutorial quests and dialogues are 30% complete.
• Tutorial landmass is 20% complete.
• Tutorial character concept art is 10% complete.
• Tutorial town concept art is 1% complete.
• Tutorial character models are 0% complete.
• Tutorial town models are 0% complete.
• Tutorial cinematics are 0% complete.

(Note: these figures are relevant only to the level design/3d, art, and writing departments.)

August 2012 Project Goals

• Finish sewers dungeon infrastructure and begin populating the level.
• Finish all text and dialogues for the entire tutorial level and begin writing for the next level in the game.
• Finish main plot outline.
• Finish bestiary version 1.0.
• Finish potions database version 1.0.
• Finish spells database version 1.0.
• Finish races, classes, promotions version 1.0.
• Start items database version 2.0.
• Start skills database version 2.0.
• Finish 20% character concept art.
• Finish 20% town concept art.
• Finish 20% character models.
• Finish 20% town models.
• Finish 40%+ tutorial region landmass.
• Finish 50% Iranese world map.
• Finish 20% music and sound effects.
• Finish programming Iteration 2 and Iteration 3.
• Continue working on UI design and find a designated UI graphic designer.
• Continue working on brainstorming for 2d and 3d assets.
• Continue frequent project management meetings.
• Continue department meetings.
• Continue brainstorming new ideas to implement in MMX.

Update on Game Design Achievements

Level Design

The sewer level infrastructure is 90% finished and only needs texturing before it's completed. According to Christian Key, Assistant Lead Level Designer, the sewer level infrastructure will be 100% completed by the end of August. Afterwards, we will be adding static and some dynamic objects to decorate it. The theme for the sewer is dark, nasty, and full of disease. This is going to be the first and only dungeon in the tutorial level. Once the sewers are finished, the town and landmass for the tutorial level is our project for the rest of 2012. Next, we will start working on level design for the main continent, probably in early 2013.

Art

The continental map for the lands of Iranese is still in progress. We have finished the map of the tutorial level and are working on concept art for buildings, characters, NPCs, monsters, and objects/landscapes that will be used to populate the tutorial level. There is still lots of artwork to be generated, but we are making a lot of progress. My personal goal is to see work generated by project staff at least every week. Since we have quite a few artists, this would mean about 10 finished concepts per week. At the end of the month, we'd have about 40 drawings! I really hope this can be achieved, however, it means we really need to step up our game.

Audio

We have several sound clips in progress for the sewer and town areas of the tutorial level. There will be one base soundtrack for each level, and layered soundtracks for certain areas that you enter.

The audio department is now divided into two separate branches: Sound Effects (SFX) & Soundtracks (ST). The SFX division is responsible for all general sound effects and clips including, but not limited to, stingers, terrain walk, object collisions, object activation, user interfaces, projectiles, etc. The ST division is responsible for all musical compositions, including, but not limited to, background music, ambient sounds, soundscapes, and layered sound effects. When we are ready, there will be a Voice Acting (VA) division of the audio department, separate from the first two branches.

Programming

The Programming Department is now made up of 3 skilled coders and they are working with strict and organized deadlines. The first iteration is completed and there are 2 more iterations scheduled to be completed this upcoming month. We have also begun to meet about the user interface among the project leaders and will continue this over the rest of the year. The programming and art departments will collaborate on the UI design. The functionality will be dictated by he programmers, and the graphics will be generated by the artists.

Writing

The writers have been busy constructing several databases, these are: items database, bestiary, and potions database. More to come scheduled for the future are the updated skills database, updated races, classes and promotions, and the spells database. We have a tendency to sometimes alter our ideas in writing, but we are moving closer and closer to a definite vision. The main plot outline is 80% complete and we are going to start working intensively on different regions in the game. I'm assigning several of the writers to do complete region backstories, histories, and current events, and we will be studying and revising these heavily. Each region will undergo a process of masterminding where project members are invited to discuss their ideas for levels, quests, events, and any other ideas that might arise.

For the tutorial level, we have many finished dialogues and our quests are being wrapped up. The writers will spend the next month revising and finalizing all of the dialogues for the tutorial. No matter what, we are going to move on to the next area of the game in September in the writing department. I don't care if some of our writers working on the Ironfist tutorial are still struggling with their work - we must meet our deadlines and move on. And before we move on, our work must be revised, edited, and at least half decent enough to be worthy of reading in a Might and Magic game!

Reporting

For future project updates, I will ask each department leader for reports on how their departments and divisions are progressing, and I will try and receive direct quotes from them so the followers of this project can hear from the other developers.

Project Management

The leaders of the Might and Magic X project have their hands full and plenty of work is available. In order to meet the needs of the project, we have assembled a task manager to keep track of our project tasks and who is assigned to each task. It is critically important that each project leader updates their tabs frequently and holds regular department meetings to brainstorm assets, troubleshoot, discuss the project, and discuss their ideas. Community is a very important part of a fan project like MMX. Our next project in the area of project management is restoring the old wiki back to its former glory.

Thanks very much for helping us keep MMX alive!

Sincerely,

MMX Alamar
President of Might and Magic X

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Torur
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Unread postby Torur » 03 Aug 2012, 08:51

Great to see the game is progressing well...

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Unread postby Bowerbank » 05 Aug 2012, 07:20

wow, nice

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Kalah
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Unread postby Kalah » 05 Aug 2012, 11:48

If Ubisoft were running the show:
Right, guys, you have two months to complete the rest of the game. Come on, chop chop. Hurry up.
In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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Torur
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Unread postby Torur » 06 Aug 2012, 11:39

:lolu: Indeed... "and we are cutting the bugdet, you get way to much money."

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koval321
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Unread postby koval321 » 13 Aug 2012, 09:23

what is "tutorial"

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Echo
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Unread postby Echo » 13 Aug 2012, 17:09

Kalah wrote:If Ubisoft were running the show:
Right, guys, you have two months to complete the rest of the game. Come on, chop chop. Hurry up.

+1, cracked me up :D

A bit on the sad side though, it's happening to too many games xp



@koval

I'd say tutorial will be some easy, introductory level like the Emerald Isle or pirate-lizardmen isle in MM8 where players will get to know the game mechanics and familiarize themselves with their team and their capabilities. Maybe decide on the difficulty levels etc.


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