Defining Awesome

Link-Dead technology test is finally here on time and I welcome all to participate in testing. I want to test mainly video compatibility. Detect what doesn’t work or shows incorrectly and performance on other peoples computers. So when the proper release is here we can all enjoy it without glitches. Besides that if all works you can test playing a gostek in Link-Dead. I made a special climbing map just for this test. Try to get across the whole map and collect all red glowing artifacts. read more »

With a team, you would implement strategy, imagine having a sniper to scout ahead while you creep across the level, sticking to the shadows, silently knifing your enemies, while a hacker works hard opening doors and keeping robots from molesting you. You can’t achieve that in a 1 vs 1 match.

The problem with this is that it’s only your imagination. read more »

I’ve kept this a secret but really I don’t know why cause I can tell. You might have figured this out from the youtube idea videos I post. Link-Dead isn’t going to be a game like Soldat. If you say that LD will be worse than Soldat you’re right – in the sense that I don’t feel like I can do a game that has more action/speed/ease/. I never wanted to compete with Soldat and I won’t so I’ve been thinking how to make something unique. I’ve been actively trying to forget about Soldat. I haven’t played it for a couple months just to have a fresh mind. I haven’t even played any video game in the past months other than GTA IV for a couple weeks. I have an irrational desire to create the most awesome game ever and nothing can stop me. Even by making my life sadder by not playing my favourite game (the one starting with an S).

Since I released a press note about Link-Dead 2 years ago (which you can read on http://link-dead.net) a bit has changed. And it changed a lot about 2 months ago.
Link-Dead will be a real-time team strategy game with person control elements.
Not the other way around.
Soldat CTF in realistic mode is a person control game with team strategy elements. This is the reason why I have been working hard on making bots work right. Some people were asking why so much focus on this? Because the majority of the game will be controlled by your mouse and the bot AI.
Although I haven’t decided on this entirely yet (cause there might and probably will be some deathmatch kill’em all mode), there won’t be games for 32 players or so. Games will be rather played between 2 people, each controlling his team of soldiers. I’ve thought about this for a really long time and didn’t post anything about it, cause I thought it was crazy. There is no game like this out there and it won’t work. But eventually there is 1001 reasons for making this game like this and I am so deeply convinced about the awesomness of this game that I give a fuck about anyones opinion at this point. Link-Dead is gonna kick the nuts out of your sack and squash them. I am greatly inspired by this gameplay approach and it is one of the reasons why my productivity and focus has risen 500% lately. I know exactly what I want and how I want to do it. This means I’m ditching all the stupid programming libraries which have worthless features, I’m losing all my other commitments and projects, I’m ditching everyone involved in this project and am working alone. Like in the good old days when I was making Soldat and I saw that it was the best game ever to be made and I sat on my ass and all I did was create everything by myself from scratch and I didn’t stop working until it was done and thousands and thousands of lucky people could play it. This is the mind-state I am in right now. Let Odin be my witness Link-Dead will be the Greatest.

Disclaimer: I do not hold responsibility for what this software does. This is a test release and I want to check how it works. Windows only.

This is primarily a network game test release. It does not have much to do with Link-Dead. It has quick and dirty graphics and sounds which resemble a certain 1990’s game.
Please do not report any bugs. I don’t care. The only thing I’m concerned about is whether and how the network play works; if it crashes or doesn’t work in any way.

The controls are standard WASD. If you want details they can be found ion the menu (ESC).

T key is for chat

To play with yourself:
take off your pants.
Just kidding.
Press escape. Select Game/Start Server.
When it loads: Select Game/Join Localhost

To play with real people:
Download and install Hamachi
Create an account or whatever it tells you to do. When you’re ready, in Hamachi click “Join an existing network…”.
Fill in the details:
Network name: link-dead
Password: funnybunny

In the network, there should hopefully be other players. You can chat with them (click on link-dead for channel chat), setup your server or join their servers.

To start a server follow the steps above in “To play with yourself”
To join someones server press Game/Join Address. Change the IP:Port to the players IP. Default port is 50008.

That’s all. I hope it works.

Oh yes and the download link! Grab it here.

Please report if it crashes. Tell me when exactly in the game it happens, a screenshot will help.
The framerate won’t go above 30 fps, it is fixed, not slow. If it drops below 30 then tell me and mention what hardware you have.

UPDATES:

http://mm.soldat.pl/downloads/awtest06.zip

- fixed graphics messed up on some systems

http://mm.soldat.pl/downloads/awtest05.zip

- fixed crash on map1.png load

http://mm.soldat.pl/downloads/awtest04.zip 

- fixed crash on kill and possibly others

http://mm.soldat.pl/downloads/awtest03.zip 

- fixed disconnected player crash

http://mm.soldat.pl/downloads/awtest02.zip 

- fixed join crash

I changed the format of this blog. From now on I will be blogging really small messages about my development process. This will go simultaneously here, to my Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Feel free to add yourself as my friend (you’re my friend if you play my games) to any of these accounts. The messages will all be the same so you can use any of them to track my work. Of course mm.soldat.pl is the aggregate with all the links and all I do. From time to time I will post bigger articles here. My non-gamedevelopment stuff will probably go to a different section of this blog and won’t be part of the new blogging system.

I’m currently keeping people that registered Soldat in my Facebook account. If you’re not there join me now.

I decided to reset my blog and transform it to a part of a micro-blogging system using ping.fm. Stay tuned.

Sigvatr has started a new blog. He began with posting some Link-Dead stuff. Check it out:

http://sigvatr.com/

Transhuman Design is looking for a mighty warrior which will go to war with us and create tools for the upcoming game Link-Dead with Michal Marcinkowski creator of the 2D multiplayer deathmatch game Soldat. The Tools Programmer will manage and implement new tools that will fullfil the dreams of thousands of gamers and mod-makers and help create glorious maps, battlefield arenas and epic animated characters in the new Link-Dead Universe.

Essential Functions:

– Create and design tools to translate the artists and game community dreams into reality
– Build 2 primary tools: Map Creating Tool & Character Creator and Animator for the Link-Dead engine

Desired Qualifications:

– Professional C/C++ coding and design experience
– Good communication and scheduling skills (english, forums/messenger)
– Worked on at least one editor from start to finish
– Great technical and graphical user interface design
– Passion for playing and developing 2D games

Plusses:

– Map making or animation programming experience
– Experience with cross-platform and open source libraries
– Likes Soldat and/or Transhuman Design games, philosophy and mission

Please email resumes (along with demo reels, portfolios, sample code, and anything else that demonstrates your skills) to 

Maybe it is spring or something and we expect change. Sigvatr and I have come to the conclusion that we are heading in the wrong direction and we need to reevaluate not only our game design approach but our life philosophy in a further cosmological sense. Life is not a random event that is to be wasted. Either we take the best of it or we die trying. I personally have no interest in mediocrity. Sigvatr agrees. We also agree we are only humans and have physical limitations and the only thing that will break these limitations is our desire and drive to create brilliancy. I believe each of us can learn how to create excellence and how to master any specific area of life. In our case, the creation of games as true art that will stand the test of time.

That being said we are throwing weeks of work into the garbage. Berserker at this point is fun but we both know we can do better. So we’re starting over, mainly in the visual and feel department. The game you see now on the previews is just a sketch. We want more and we’ll take it.

Yours truly,
MM

Finally the deal is done. German pop star Thomas Anders from the famous duo Modern Talking will be writing the complete soundtrack for the upcoming Transhuman Design game Berserker. Anders after splitting with band mate Dieter Bohlen was looking for new challenges and decided to write music for a video game. The following clip is from the recent TV interview from German station Pro7 where Thomas announces his upcoming work on the game Berserker.

Modern Talking was a German pop music duo consisting of composer/producer/background singer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders. Genre-wise they were often classified under italo-disco. By sales, it was the single most successful pop group in Germany.

Thomas Anders (born Bernd Weidung, 1 March 1963, in Koblenz, Germany) is a German singer, composer and record producer. Anders was the lead singer of Germany’s popular pop-duo Modern Talking, which was produced by Dieter Bohlen in 1984-1987 and in 1998-2003.

Berserker is a side-scrolling multiplayer fighting game set in a mental institute where mental patients kill for survival and for fun. The game is being developed by Transhuman Design.