In case you didn’t see us shouting about it all over social media: Off Grid won the Indiecator Award at Sweden Game Conference!
It
came with the giant cheque of our dreams (literally - a HUGE check!)
and a very pretty bouquet of flowers! Rich was in Sweden speaking and
demoing the game, and was the lucky one to receive the award on behalf
of the team. We might have to stage reinactments next week so that all
of us can feel the glory of being handed a giant cheque!
All of us still have huge grins on our faces today. Thanks Sweden Game Conference - you've totally made our week!
Concept art, anyone?
We want to give you a little look at the beginning of Off Grid's visual style and whet your appetite for the 'Making Of' book!
Off Grid was destined to be low poly from the start. It’s an aesthetic style that we like and that is achievable for an indie team.
Here’s one of our first low poly environment tests:
An early low poly environment test for Off Grid
Another view of the early low poly environment test.
We also knew from the get-go that we wanted to create a world where
data was visualised and tangible. Not immediately visible with the
naked eye, but with the help of augmented-reality glasses.
This is was our first pass at what a 'data view' layer might look like:
An early concept of how 'data view' might appear.
We knew we were getting somewhere when we hit on this idea of using stealth mechanics to 'hide' your data.
Next
up was working out what the overarching objectives were for the meta
game. We wanted to create a dark, dull, dystopian near future, that
could be liberated with a new free internet (free as in open, not as in
cost). This led to thinking through what the liberating of zones or
areas of the world with 'mesh network nodes’ might look like.
Here's one of our first imaginings of what completing a level by installing a mesh network node might look like.
It's fun to look back and see how far the game has come, what has carried on, continued through, or has been left behind.
If
you like this sort of thing, there will be copious amounts of concept
art, sketches, notes, photos, and loads of other behind-the-scenes
exclusive content in the official 'The Making Of Off Grid' book!
Secure your own copy by backing at the NAMESPACE reward level or above! If you've already backed, remember you can easily up your pledge, too!
Funding update:
WE ARE 70% FUNDED!
Yesss! What a relief it is to say
that! We've been steadily climbing the £14k mountain this week, and
it's possible we have hit refresh more times than we care to admit over
the past few days.
We have had the best time sharing Off Grid with the world through this campaign so far. Nineteen days remain! A LOT can happen in 19 days.
If you have yet to back, please do! If you’re thinking about backing, please do! If you keep meaning to tell your friends to back, please do!
THANK YOU, BACKERS!
The Off Grid Team
p.s. If you're near London on today, go check out Inside Intel!
It's a very cool contemporary art exhibition with the theme of
surveillance running through it, put on by the Centre for Investigative
Journalism. It's FREE, and open all of Saturday.
If you haven’t already - be sure to wishlist Off Grid on Steam - each wishlist makes a big difference to us, and we really appreciate your support!
We’ve been Kickstarting for a week and we’re ALMOST 70% funded!
Nearly 70% in seven days is absolutely astounding. Thank you all SO
much!
It’s been excellent to hear from backers and hugely
exciting to get feedback from those of you that have played the demo.
We’ve gotten our first Let’s Plays, and overall, we are feeling pretty
good about week one!
Now for week two!
There’s a few fun things going on this week - Rich is Sweden for the Sweden Games Conference. The conference theme is ‘Games and Politics: Reflections on power, play & changing perspectives'... and we fit the bill! Rich was invited to speak AND Off Grid was selected to be on the show floor as part of Indiecator - a showcase dedicated to indie games!
If you’re in London - Off Grid is also on show as part of Inside Intel
- an exhibition of contemporary artworks, design objects and digital
assets brought together to investigate the confusion sewn by an
increasingly partisan media, sinister new technologies and the culture
of official secrecy and widespread surveillance. The exhibition forms
part of the 2018 Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Logan Symposium: Conspiracy. If the theme of our game is what’s piqued your interest - go check it out as it looks seriously cool! Plus it’s free!
We want to keep momentum for the campaign going - and we need you to
help. Please continue to share, share, share. Remember, it’s an
all-or-nothing campaign, so we must hit our target in order to recieve
the funding and fulfil the rewards. Keep on sharing, shouting, and
spreading the word for us!
Thanks again for an incredible first week, backers!
“If art is 5, then the performance is 6, and if frame-rate is 6, then code is 7, this monkey’s gone to heaven”
We are pretty sure there are Pixies lyrics about writing a python script to automate colouring a monkey’s face with 200 separate materials for a render test anyway… I’ll check later.
