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Hearts of Oak Dev Blog 27th Feb 2015

Armada

Sea Dog
Staff member
Administrator
Project Manager
3D Artist
Storm Modder
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Welcome to the first of our new Hearts of Oak development blogs!

We've decided to do things a bit differently with our news articles now, offering up a brief insight into our current development plans on a much more regular basis.

The usual news updates are few and far between, albeit quite long and packed with screenshots, videos, music and descriptions of all three. Therefore, we've opted to push out more frequent articles with only the most important information on the game's progress.

Don't worry, there will still be full news articles from time to time, but only at key milestones such as public releases or other big announcements.

So, with that out of the way, here's what we've been up to lately:

Developer Videos
In this video series, lead developer Captain Murphy talks through the latest updates from behind the scenes, explaining how and why each feature is being added to the game.

- Suimono Water System Overview

- Suimono Updates and FPS Controller

Production Plans
Recently, the team has been having lengthy discussions about how to move the project forward.
We are acutely aware of the lack of a public release thus far, but more importantly, the production roadmap was previously too vague, providing little framework to build from.

Now, we've begun to redefine the design document from the ground up. Don't panic, the final goal is still the same. The main thing we've changed is the route we're taking to achieve it.

What we're now working towards is a base framework that not only lays the foundations of future builds, but also has a strong focus on the core gameplay mechanics we want to include. This will lead into the first proper release with the following features:
  • Main menu with save, load and options dialogues
  • Top-down chart view for navigation, allowing simple trading, shipyard functions and basic interaction with AI ships
  • Ship encounter (in 3D sea view) between two identical vessels, with the player controlling one from the helm and the AI controlling the other
This game version won't feature islands, as the functionality of towns and colonies will be simulated on the chart view to start with. Remember, this is just a base version; we will be adding a LOT more assets and features once this release has been thoroughly tested and works to our satisfaction.

If you have any questions about this first game version, be sure to ask away in the comments.
Stay tuned for more updates soon!

Want to volunteer your time to the project? Check our List of Development Roles for details.
Want to support the project financially? You can donate through Paypal via our official site.
Check out our Frequently Asked Questions for more information on Hearts of Oak.
 
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