OFF GRID IS OVER 50% FUNDED IN 24 HOURS!

WOW.  You backers gave us a seriously wild ride yesterday:  35% funded in 5 hours, 40% funded in 7 hours, AND THEN we hit the 50% mark within 21 hours!   

It feels seriously good to be 50% funded within the first 24 hours of the campaign!  Your enthusiasm and support has blown us away.  THANK YOU!

For this first update, we wanted to give you a little background on the inspiration for Off Grid.  As you might be aware, it’s been in the works for quite some time! 

The game was initially inspired when Rich heard Eben Moglen speak about net neutrality and data privacy at the INET conference in 2011.  It struck a cord, and the seed for Off Grid was planted. 

Soon after, Rich teamed up with Pontus, and together they built the first prototype of Off Grid.  The goal was to get people thinking about data.  The root notion was to try and physicalize it -  to make data into something manipulable, something that people would be able to go and play with and see as a thing you can walk around.

But the concept was still a little out there:  this was early 2013, before Snowden and NSA revelations.  

Fast forward to June 2013, and the first ever public unveiling of Off Grid (in a livestreamed interview at Etoo London) just happened to fall nearly 64 years to the day after the publishing of George Orwell's book, 1984, and the same week that Edward Snowden made his first leak.

And all of a sudden, it clicked.

Prior to the first revelations, it was a struggle to explain to anyone why what we were doing with Off Grid was important or would be interesting.  Then, almost overnight, Snowden gave everyone the vocabulary to talk about it.  People understood.

Now, years on, the revelations have just kept rolling, and everyone is much more aware of the issues surrounding data privacy and mass surveillance.    

It is the perfect time for a game like Off Grid:  people are tuned into the effects of data mining and the impact that bad laws around digital rights have on real life. Help us get Off Grid funded, and THEN help us shape the game so we can all try to picture a less dystopian digital tomorrow.

Let’s keep the momentum going - tell your friends!!

THANK YOU! 

The Off Grid Team 

P.S. If you want to chat to us a bit more informally, we regularly hang out in our studio discord - we’d love to see you in there!  Join us:  https://discordapp.com/invite/NDEVwBJ

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!

OFF GRID IS LIVE ON KICKSTARTER!

The moment we've all been waiting for:  Off Grid is now LIVE ON KICKSTARTER!

That means you now have the opportunity to:

-PLAY A FREE DEMO OF OFF GRID
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (the SUPER EARLY BIRD deal is a steal!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program (back at the PENTESTER level)
-Snag some official OFF GRID merch!

We are SO excited to bring you Off Grid!   To play the demo, visit the kickstarter campaign page and follow the link to the demo!

Help us make noise! 

Here's all the links you need: 

Website: http://offgridthegame.com/

DevBlog:  https://offgridthegame.blogspot.com/

Steam:  https://store.steampowered.com/app/526720/Off_Grid/

Kickstarter:  http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter

Tweet suggestions: 

Support OFF GRID:  A game about data privacy and mass surveillance.
Launching on #kickstarter today with playable demo!
http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
#offgridthegame

OFF GRID: A stealth hacking adventure where data is your most powerful weapon.
LIVE ON KICKSTARTER TODAY!
http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
#offgridthegame

Hack like you have to.  Game the system.  Don't get caught - your daughter needs you.
Support @OffGridTheGame on Kickstarter TODAY!  LIVE AT 4PM BST!
http://offgridthegame.com/kickstarter
#offgridthegame



Thank you!

The Off Grid Team

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!

OFF GRID DEMO AVAILABLE TODAY!

TODAY IS THE DAY!  The Off Grid Kickstarter campaign goes LIVE!

From 4pm BST onwards TODAY, you will have the opportunity to:

-PLAY A FREE DEMO of Off Grid
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (SUPER EARLY BIRD - it's a steal!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program!
-Snag some official OFF GRID merch

...and much more!

Back Off Grid

offgridthegame.com/kickstarter

Set your alarms!  That's:

4pm London / 5pm Berlin / 11am New York / 8am LA

Get in there quick to get the best deal on the game! Some reward tiers are limited... you don't want to miss out!

Help us spread the word! Share our posts, tell friends when you've backed, and let us know that you have by using #offgridthegame on social media!

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Off Grid Team

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!

That's right, in just over 24 hours, Off Grid will be live on Kickstarter!

Launching on Tuesday, October 9th, you will have the opportunity to:

-PLAY A FREE DEMO of Off Grid
-Secure your copy from as little as £8 (SUPER EARLY BIRD!)
-Get your name or handle in the game
-Help shape the game via our FIRST ACCESS program!

...and much more!

The campaign goes live at 4pm BST. That's:

4pm London / 5pm Berlin / 11am New York / 8am LA

Get in there quick to get the best deal on the game! Some reward tiers are limited... you don't want to miss out!

Help us spread the word! Share our posts, tell friends when you've backed, and let us know that you have by using #offgridthegame on social media!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Off Grid Team

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!

What do you call one of the top ten best games at EGX?! OFF GRID!

Yes, you read that right!  Off Grid snagged a pretty sweet accolade over the four days at EGX:  Eurogamer staff rated Off Grid as one of the top ten games on the show floor.  Read the article in full here.

Here’s the write up on Off Grid (complete with a pretty accurate description of Rich and his conversational skills!):

While that accolade was certainly the highlight of our EGX experience this year - plenty of other great things happened over the four days:

Off Grid’s Twitch Debut

Thursday kicked off with an interview and live play through of Off Grid on the Twitch Stage.  Rich talked to CaffCast and Spamfish in a livestream to over 2000 viewers - a first for both Rich and the game!  Watch it here.

We now have our own twitch channel - be sure to subscribe!  Rich took the opportunity to do some behind the scenes streaming while at EGX, so go have a gander at those if you’re interested.  In the future, we hope to use it to do playthroughs of Off Grid, talk in more depth about our development process, and perhaps about some of the inspiration and influences behind the the game itself.

The Geek Show

Pontus (not often seen on camera!) was interviewed by The Geek Show for their podcast and YouTube channel.  Get your glimpse of one of the powerhouses behind Off Grid here:

Friendly banter with the NCA

The National Crime Agency (NCA) had a stand at EGX and were handing out helpful information to all inquisitive passersby - including literature on the Computer Misuse Act and an NCA challenge.

Here’s a little closeup of their handout:

Big Red Barrel Duet with Yucatan Game

Fellow indie dev and Leftfield Collection exhibitor, Joe Bain, and Rich Metson were interviewed by the kind folks at Big Red Barrel.

They’ve put together a special EGX podcast, jam packed with all their favorite games.  Listen in at about 56 minutes for the very best bits! ;)

What else did we love about EGX?

You’re right, we already said the highlight was being picked as ONE OF THE TOP TEN GAMES OF THE SHOW!  :D  That’s totally true - it is awesome.

Off Grid was also highlighted in OuttaSite’s indie picks at EGX, and the VGChartz write up, Games to Watch Out for from EGX.

But what else did we love about EGX and our participation in Leftfield Collection?  Watching YOU play the game!

It’s always a treat to see how players make their way through the latest build - taking note what they find interesting and engaging, and what might be quickly passed over.

This year marked ten years of Leftfield at EGX - that’s ten years of showcasing great indie games alongside all the big hitters - thanks to David Hayward for all the effort supporting indie developers!

Off Grid Sprint Update 05.07.2017 - Modder-dod-a-ding-dong

We have spent the month hard at working putting together new changes to the game’s interface and the modding tools. We have also brought our wiki documentation forward so that it is usable because we have had our first modder working with us this month!

Our First Modder

We were lucky enough to be contacted out of the blue by Dominic who goes to college not far away from the studio and was looking for a place he could do work experience at a games studio. We jumped at the chance as many of us got our first breaks in life through being bold and asking
for work on a whim and we were glad to be able to offer the opportunity.

Dominic has been testing our modding tools and helping write up documentation on our wiki on how to use them this last week, but we’ll let him tell you what he has been up to…

Off Grid sprint update 02.03.2017 - A little *more* conversation

A little more conversation, a little more action, please!


Somebody must have been listening to a little Elvis Presley around here. Are you dancing in your seat a little bit? We are! :P

Annnnnnyway - a merry March to you!  We’ve had a good February, full of all kinds of progress, on systems, content, and biz dev, so without further ado, here’s our action:

Finishing the city map

There were few small details we wanted to do on this pass of the city map scene left for this sprint:


First, what would a map be without proper markers? We replaced the placeholder ones featured in last dev blog post with new ones, this time drawn on the UI side. Not only do they look cleaner, but also this means we can more easily switch markers for different missions; for example, to differentiate between side quests, or different story lines and content coming from different mods.

…and then, we added support for multiple missions taking place in the same location, or in same city district. Just because it seemed like a good idea. We’ll still need to add the UI stuff for selecting between the missions if they are available at the same time, but on the code side, things are already in place.

Sprint Update - 27.01.17 - Voron-Oi-Oi-Oi

Hello folks!  We hope you have had a good start to 2017 and are fully recovered from the post holiday slump! It has been a pretty busy start to the year for us. We have built a whole new system for mission selection, added new characters and missions, and all the while been busing doing release planning and following up on biz dev.

Rigi.py

We rigged up a new character and have been working up some new content.
There is a fantastic python script available to take the standard Rigify add-on in blender. It gives you the ability to to switch between the tools needed for animating in Blender and alternatively stripping the export down to just what is needed for importing into Mecanim for setting up with Unity’s humanoid system. We won’t say any more but if you use Rigify and Unity this will make your life sooo much easier!

You can grab the script from here:
https://github.com/trynyty/Rigify_DeformBones/blob/master/Rigify4Mecanim.py