Sprint Update 15.12.2014

Hello there!

Another sprint complete and a nice mix of new features and a bunch of things that have been bugging us for a while have been straightened out.

not a bad day...

Today’s progress: Improved framerate by 10-15 FPS, reduced build size from 2.2GB to 1.1GB, fixed video playback problems we’ve been having and added keyboard controls to the game.  Didn’t get much work done on the data mechanics that were on today’s schedule but still not a bad day…

Sprint Update 01.12.2014

One more Off Grid development sprint completed, and it’s time for our Sprint Update blog post!

The first Off Grid Sprint Update

We decided that it would be a good idea to start writing more regular updates about what we’ve been up to - and what better time than every time we close a sprint in our development and start a new one?!  So, here’s the first ever public Off Grid sprint update.

More data mechanics!

Our main goal for the last sprint (and one before that) has been on improving the data-related game mechanics we have.  We’ve been busy coming up with new ideas for how data could be used in the game, and designing the underlying systems that would allow us to build a wide variety of interesting interactions around the data that exists in the game world (and that characters create when using their mobile devices, key cards, computers and so on).

Even creepier surveillance system

Our equivalent of the real-world PRISM, the system that tracks all data left behind by the player and all the other characters, needed updating to allow it to also track non-living data sources - phones, key cards, computers and other devices. So, no matter what the source of the data

Mozfest-astic

We had the privilege of being invited to demo the game at Mozilla’s Mozfest last weekend, as part of their Privacy Learning lab, and what a great time we had!

As well as facilitating, we got the chance to attend a few sessions too, my personal favorite being “Stay Connected! Mesh Networks, Routers, and Sneakernets” with harlo Holmes (@harlo) from The Guardian Project. Harlo went through the planning phases and possible tech required for building a mesh network in your neighborhood and what alternatives and other projects there are already out there.

Last fortnight ORG hackday, this week Mozfest!

We popped along to the Open Rights Groups hackday to see what wild ORG hacks we could try and plumb into the game and generally just meet some of the lovely folks in the ORG community, building awesome tools for advocacy.

We decided to try and pull web content from other participants projects and find fun ways of displaying them in the game using CoherentUi, our HUD and GUI system that is build on HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Morning Folks! Guess where we are today?!

If you have a ticket to Eurogamer over the next couple of days please swing by, say hello, and play the demo, we’d love to meet you!

http://www.eurogamerexpo.com/

Who needs a shotgun?

Right after the Kill Screen article we got an e-mail from Andrew Webster asking some questions about our game’s backgrounds and some of the design choices we’ve made. And a few days later this article made it’s appearance on The Verge:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/18/5915621/off-grid-privacy-game

Some very nice words...

Kill Screen and Erik Fredner have written a really nice insight into the game and what we are doing.

http://killscreendaily.com/articles/grid-game-about-privacy-digital-age/

Show it some love, give it a read, and share with your friends:

Been a while coming...but, how was Games for Change?!

richmetson:

It’s been over a month since I got back from New York and speaking at Games for Change and I have been so utterly wrapped up in following things up and getting a few personal objectives in order that I haven’t managed to properly let you lovely people know how it went!

The talk itself went…

FIGHT FOR YOU RIGHT TO PARTY (ON THE INTERWEBS)

It’s been a big week for autocratic policy making by the British Government. and if you are in the UK and fancy shouting about it here’s your chance. ORG (Open Rights Group) are putting together a national day of action on Saturday the 12th of July (tomorrow).

If you fancy taking part the details are here:

http://www.meetup.com/ORG-London/events/193474522/?a=md1_grp&rv=md1

And here’s a little primer on what’s been going on…

We have a website!

offgridthegame.com is up and running. Go and check it out, and make sure to bookmark the page so you can easily return to check what’s happening with the game…

And join our newsletter as well, and we’ll make it even easier for you and send any important news right to your mailbox (no spam, we promise)!

‘Bolum Sonu Canavari’

We got featured on ‘Bolum Sonu Canavari’, a well known Turkish gaming site, and kindly a friend of mine has done a rough translation into English for us! Enjoy!

We're going to New York!

How about that for exciting news! We’re going to New York to pitch to Valve and a string of highly rated funders and VC’s, check out the details and our peers here:

http://www.gamesforchange.org/2014/03/let-the-games-begin-meet-our-pitch-event-contenders/

The 2014 Games for Change Festival (April 22-24 & 26) will host its first ever on-stage pitch session in which 4 in-progress games have the chance to make their case to top funders.

If you are in the area, please come along and support us, and either way…

Fingers crossed!

OFF GRID trailer

Behold the new Off Grid trailer! Finally available to all the people who couldn’t get to BFI to see the game itself…

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Off Grid at the BFI

Well that was that! Pontus and I showed Off Grid at the BFI last week and had some great feedback from industry luminaries like Phil Harrision (Corporate Vice President of Microsoft) to admired journalist’s like Will Freeman (@spadgy_OTA of The Observer, Eurogamer, Develop etc.).

It marked the end of an era as we also both were awarded MA certificates from the National Film and Television School by none other than Ken Loach OBE, the world renowned social realist director of films like ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Kes’.

The NFTS has been a rollercoaster ride, highs and lows, but I think I can safely say that we are both proud of what we acheived there - we formed an indie partnership that hopefully will spawn many more games in the future.

For now, onto getting Off Grid out there! We have a couple of publishing deals on the table and just this week were chosen to pitch Off Grid to a panel of investors ‘live’ onstage at the Games for Change festival in New York in a months time, but whatever happens, we’re hoping to get a demo in your hands soon… watch this space.

New user interface

It’s been a bit quiet here at the blog lately, but that just means that we’ve been too busy working on the game… New user interface is up and running, story intro & tutorial level is on it’s way, we have plenty of new sound & music stuff to implement, and as you might guess from the pic, I’m working on some shots for our new trailer right now.