New Dev Blog

Hi everyone! Sorry I'm not around much to comment/help these days. I'm now on the final year of my Software Engineering and Game Development degree, and I've been working on some personal game projects, which has kept me very busy. I've recently started a new portfolio site, if anyone wants to follow what I'm currently programming. It's not really a showcase of sorts, as it's mainly small tech demos and things like that. The site is basically to chart my learning in the field, but if you'd like to see what I'm up to, here is the link:

roberthelmsportfolio.wordpress.com

Harold Johnson Will Never Die!

Winston Romanoff - the voice of Harold Johnson

Where Is The Beyond Team?

I know it's been almost a year since we've done an update, so I'd like to give a bit of an explanation for anyone who's wondering what happened or where the team went.

First of all, we didn't give up and the core team did not disband. Last year I started a degree in Software Engineering and Game Development, so that has taken up most of my time. Iain (Ionis), who is co-lead with me and lead level designer, started work as a level designer for an Indie team making an actual game in the Unreal Engine.

So as it stands Northpoint is going to be released as a sandbox mod for now. It was supposed to be a large project. It was ambitious, but not over-ambitious, as it was still smaller in scale than Beyond Boulder Dome, which our team proved we could see through to completion. It's just that now our priorities and ambitions have extended beyond modding, as we are now making actual games.

We won't be ready to talk about our first game for quite some time yet, but we are well into the design stage. I can say that the game will be a 2d scifi RPG, using a game engine I've written from scratch in C++ using the DirectX libraries. It will have a rich lore and break new grounds in 2d gaming.

Thanks to everyone who has followed our team and played our mods. Watch this space!

- Robert Helms (RJHelms84)

Northpoint: Progress Update (19/08/14)

It's been a while since our last update. But that doesn't mean we've been twiddling our thumbs. We've been busy at the less 'showy' aspects of the mod:

Firstly, I have been bugfixing, polishing and refining the landscape and interiors. Northpoint in its current state is fully playable as a sandbox mod.

The second major area I have been working on is writing in-game books, journals and notes. Currently, Northpoint adds 29 new books (some from previous TES games, some completely new) and 22 misc notes/journals (not including quest-related notes).

As a little treat, here is an example of one of our new texts, which gives a little insight into Northpoint's lore:

Hircine Model Now Textured!

I'm happy to report that our Hircine model is finally ready, thanks to the hard work of Xenoo who modeled and textured Hircine, and to Kaelin for final texture adjustments.

Northpoint Interior Design Screens!

Ionis has just about finished the interior level designing for Northpoint, so I've been exploring them all the last few days, and I've grabbed a ton of screenshots for you guys. 26 in total! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

New Rigger Joins The Team

A warm welcome to Lifestorock, a well-known modder from the Skyrim Nexus, who has recently joined our team as a creature rigger. When we create a new creature, we choose an existing creature from the vanilla Skyrim game who is similar in terms of anatomy and animation, then it is the rigger's job to weight-paint our new creature to the existing creature's skeleton, so it can use its animations.

Lifestorock has already begun work on our Scamp, who is being rigged to the Falmer skeleton. Here are some progress shots he's shared with us below:

If you wish to see more from Lifestorock, keep watching this blog, but you can also visit his popular creature mod on the Skyrim Nexus, called Skyrim Immersive Creatures.

Ogrim Preview Clip

Check out this little video clip preview of our Ogrim, created by Yogi Patel. Watch it from 25 seconds in to see it in HD, as the start of the video turned out a little low-res for some reason.

Aspects of Hircine

While Iain is finishing off the last remaining interiors of Northpoint, I've been making some good progress on the programming for Bloodhunt. That's coming along very well. We have a very special professional voice actor, who you will recognize from a few video games, who is voicing one of the main characters in the mod. I won't give away who it is yet, but it will be a nice surprise! He already recorded his audio, and I've got a good chunk of it programmed in already.

Also, the Hircine model has now been completed, so hopefully we'll have a render shot for you soon enough, with a nice pose and background. In the meantime here is some concept art by Andrew Short, who is working on modelling the Aspect of Strength this coming week, followed soon-after by the Aspect of Speed.

Northpoint Mod Forum Thread

We've started a new forum thread for our Northpoint project, which you can find at the following links:


http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1359634-wip-northpoint/

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1485695-wip-northpoint/

Northpoint - Trailer 01

It's finally here! Check out our new trailer, which shows off the excellent level designing skills of our very own IonisTheBear. Video created by Unoctium!

Northpoint is a fan-made DLC for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Take a voyage to the High Rock kingdom of Northpoint. Explore the wintery locale, visit new settlements and take on challenging new quests.

Watch this blog for progress and updates.

Northpoint: Wereboar

Today we are introducing another unique creature of Northpoint; the Wereboar!  Created by the very talented KaelinH.  These nasty creatures dwell in the deepest woods and caverns of High Rock and make for formidable opponents.

Northpoint: Interior Level Design

We've been hard at work these last few months on Northpoint's interiors.  This means: town houses, farms and dungeons.  Here's a little visual update:

Scamps!

That video I promised should be ready soon, our video guy assures me, but in the meantime check out a new creature model for Northpoint by Nate. It's the Scamp, who will feature in a new conjuration spell:

Deadpan Pays Fisto a Visit

A short video by Kaz Foxsen, from the gameplay of Beyond Boulder Dome:

Sorry for the delay, to those awaiting our next big update! I've been holding off on the updates for the past few weeks, as I was waiting for a video to be completed that I wanted to show you guys. Unfortunately, our video guy has been having some computer troubles lately and lost some of his work, so it'll be a little while longer yet before that big update.

But don't let the blog silence fool you! We've still been hard at work and made considerable progress. I won't go into specifics in this post, as not to spoil anything for that big update, but I just wanted to let you guys know that we've not gone anywhere and we're still hard at it!

Rob

The Herne

This is not yet the big Northpoint update I promised, but just something to tide you over in the meantime. This is the Herne model, created by Andrew Short, for our Bloodhunt project. This Herne is a unique creature, the size of a giant, and he's taking part in the hunt in Hircine's realm. Think you've got what it takes to bring this guy down? If you click on the image below, you can view the model in 3D:

Controls: Hold left-click and move mouse to rotate. Hold right-click and move mouse to pan up/down/left/right. Scroll mouse-wheel to zoom in/out.

Quick Update

I know it's been a long time since our last update guys! Just letting everyone know that we've not gone anywhere, and we're still hard at work on our projects. I won't spoil anything yet, but there's gonna be a big update soon, as we've made considerable progress. So watch this space!

Progress Update: 17th July

Our modellers have been hard at work and made significant headway in the past few weeks.  The Ogrim is nearing completion, the Sheep and Rams of Northpoint are nearly finalised and the Herne of Bloodhunt is currently being textured.

 
Ogrim by Yogesh

Northpoint Ram by Kaelin

Herne by Andrew Short

A New Writer Joins The Team!

We are happy to welcome Sandra Carrington-Smith to the Bloodhunt team, as our new dialogue writer! Sandra is a very experienced writer and published author. One of her novels, THE BOOK OF OBEAH, is in pre-production to be a film.

The audio-book of the same novel is narrated by Dave Fennoy, who is the voice of Lee Everett in The Walking Dead video game. She is also currently writing the third book in her CROSSROADS series.

She's already been working on Hircine's dialogue and has done a fantastic job!

Check out her website: www.sandracarringtonsmith.com/