I thought I would kick things off on this new blog section. The basic idea for this area is that developers will be able to post their thoughts and get the public a bit more involved in where we are with development. We wont be sharing everything with you but these posts should give you an in-sight into how the project is progressing.
February has been a pretty good month so far with some major steps forward and a renewed sense of momentum.
Forum & Site ChangesThe first thing I have been working on quite hard is the website, I have been working on conjunction with some great guys from the Joomla community to help develop an SMF to Joomla bridge so we can get our own forums implemented properly. On a personal level Im really excited about the idea of having our own forums because BC-Central is really our last link to a specific community, and from here on we are "on our own". Hopefully you will all be reading this post not long after I have made it and that will mean that the forums are all working and the work has been worth it.
I am also working on a new section for the main website which will hopefully be full of nice downloads and links to media for our fans. Overall the site will be receiving several updates over the next couple of months.
StoryAnother thing that I devoted quite a lot of time to near the start of the month was the story; as we get closer to a playable engine we are looking towards the story and planning out the basic details which will form the basis of the Excalibur universe. Its been a challenge, but we have some great talent on board (which I will talk about another time) and the universe is really starting to shape up as an exciting place.
The basic premise is to stay completly faithful to the canon of TV and Films as well as giving a nod to the canon presented in books wherever possible. The story is set several years after the events in Nemesis and the state that we find the universe is completly based on the events that we have already seen; the impacts of what we have seen in Trek so far give us a very interesting situation to explore.
I'm excited and also slightly nervous to see what you all think of our vision for the future of the Star Trek universe that we all know and love, but the elements we have made decided on definately compliment Star Trek which is something only fans seem to be capable of at the moment.
ArtWhile I have been busy with other things Luiz has been hard at work producing ships, in fact he has been working on around 20 models in the last two weeks and everyone is continuously excited about seeing what else he has produced. The most exciting ships for me have been the Klingon vessels he has been working on (those who follow me on youtube will have seen a couple in action).
Matt and Luke have been hard at work on the Sovereign and Intrepid transporter rooms, both of which are pretty much completed at this point, and both of which look really good, I'm very proud of the work they have done for us over the last 6 months or so and I look forward to seeing more.
EngineOf course all of this work by the artists is great because we can see the effects immediately, however work on the engine is more frustrating for the visual members of the team. We have not had a new release of the engine since the middle of last year, and many of the features that we have had demos of remain exterior modules. Throughout this period LJ and Nano have been working hard and I am happy to say that we are now very close to a new build of the engine which properly utilizes LJs scenegraph, physics and UI.
We have developed a basic UI for the game which is in effect a place holder until we get a dedicated UI artist on the team. Nano has also been working on partical effects and sun effects which are both going to be amazing, especially when we can finally play them
. You can all expect to see some new videos of this build when it arrives.
Whats nextSo thats a pretty thorough roundup of whats going on from my perspective. Over the coming months Im going to be continuing work on the Story and hopefully finishing up the work on the site, but you will hear from me again soon (hopefully on the hailing frequencies podcast next month) to keep you up to date on any updates.
