Heimdall : Pre-Order Phase One

[Adrian Browne]

Originally Posted by VladR

Sure, but I'm known for the feature-creep and constantly postponing for few days or weeks as you can forever keep adding stuff.

I had a hard cut off date as last Saturday I had to take a trip to Europe but I'm on my way back and should be home within 50-60 hours and resume the work.

It turned out to be a great decision as I learnt a lot during the last few days (instead of postponing for few weeks)

Cool. I will check in here to keep up with progress from time to time.

[gshumway]

Your estimate, after taking money was the end of May. Is there a new link to paypal you where I can purchase your game?

[VladR]

What happened to forum notifications ? I only randomly found this response but never received an email notification despite being subscribed.

[VladR]

Originally Posted by gshumway

Your estimate, after taking money was the end of May. Is there a new link to paypal you where I can purchase your game?

The pre-order phase ended after 3 months. So, you can't pre-order anymore.

Since there was exactly 0 people interested in non-Vampire (e.g. 68040-68080) versions, I suggest you follow the thread on appolo-core forums for all updates.


TLDR: The technical scope of the game has significantly changed. Upwards.



But since I am here, here goes Long version:

Since May I took a significant detour with a rewrite of the engine to support 640x480 (it does look significantly better in 640x480 than 320x240) and as of right now can run it up to 1920x1080 (in adequate framerate).

Switching to 640x480 revealed I can now have higher-polygon meshes (which look like pixelated mess in 320x240, but are actually pretty nice in 640x480). These do take significantly longer to create.
Previously, my 3D ship was around 25 polygons, which can be created easily in a day or two. My last one is ~550. That took about a month till I was happy with the result.

Same goes for environments. Higher resolution allows for more detailed 3D meshes. If you've seen my first video, the in-game level had about 10 polygons per segment (you can design it even in source code). At 640x480, I figured via weeks-long experimenting and benchmarking on real HW that I can pull off about an order of magnitude more.
You can't create that 3D mesh in a day either.

Higher resolutions would however benefit greatly from reduced bitdepth (from 32 down to 8) as each pixel drawn consumes a CPU instruction.
So, right now I'm experimenting to see if it makes sense to support both bitdepths. While flatshaded environment is perfectly fine with 128 colors, the space background quite sucks with only 128 colors.

I created a function that butchers the 16.7 Mil color background to 128 colors, but it looks like cr*p. So I will need to spend at least 2-4 weeks implementing various color-space conversion techniques.

[gshumway]

Is this game shipping? How do I buy it and where can I see some recent gameplay footage?

[gshumway]

Any updates on this fantastic game?

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by gshumway

Any updates on this fantastic game?

Not that it's necessarily related.. But.. Paypal link in original post still appears to be invalid. (At the time of writing this)

[junosix]

Flicking through his Road Rash thread on AtariAge may give some idea: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/26...-fps/#comments

[Methanoid]

My cat is called Heimdall... my wife thinks its from Thor movies and mythology but I know its from the Amiga game and from when I was in QTX and we cracked it ;-)

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

My cat is called Heimdall... my wife thinks its from Thor movies and mythology but I know its from the Amiga game and from when I was in QTX and we cracked it ;-)

Well technically she is not wrong, given that Norse mythology is the inspiration for Heimdall the (Amiga) game

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Well technically she is not wrong, given that Norse mythology is the inspiration for Heimdall the (Amiga) game

SHuSH.. she doesn't need to know ANOTHER thing she is right about

[manossg]

Originally Posted by gshumway

Any updates on this fantastic game?

There some relevant posts by VladR on the Apollo forum:
http://apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=3&note=28363&order=&x=3

[VladR]

Originally Posted by gshumway

Any updates on this fantastic game?

TLDR; I have just resumed the work few days ago.

Last 6 months were very problematic for me and basically almost impossible to do any mental work due to the very painful healing I was (and technically still am at present) undergoing. As a positive side effect, I lost over 50 pounds, so that's good.

I didn't want to keep updating this thread every month, because I didn't really know the exact date when I would be physically and mentally capable of resuming my coding as back then I would be just trying to make promises I wouldn't know if I can keep in the first place.

This has finally happened this week, even if I currently can pull off only about 4-6 hours of work per day. And that's with quite a few friends and neighbors helping me with errands/shopping and things.

Of course, if you (or anybody else from those 6 people that preordered) want a refund, I can issue it. I have not touched those funds on my PayPal.

Maybe I should consider downgrading the game's feature set, complexity, art quantity (and price point) as right now I don't think it's realistic to pull off that much work just by myself in a reasonable timeframe.

I can't currently do 60-80 hrs of work per week as I did last year. 25-30 is about max I can do right now.

Give me about 4-6 weeks to figure out what is reasonable and realistic amount of work I can pull off now.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by VladR

TLDR; I have just resumed the work few days ago.

Last 6 months were very problematic for me and basically almost impossible to do any mental work due to the very painful healing I was (and technically still am at present) undergoing. As a positive side effect, I lost over 50 pounds, so that's good.

I didn't want to keep updating this thread every month, because I didn't really know the exact date when I would be physically and mentally capable of resuming my coding as back then I would be just trying to make promises I wouldn't know if I can keep in the first place.

This has finally happened this week, even if I currently can pull off only about 4-6 hours of work per day. And that's with quite a few friends and neighbors helping me with errands/shopping and things.

Of course, if you (or anybody else from those 6 people that preordered) want a refund, I can issue it. I have not touched those funds on my PayPal.

Maybe I should consider downgrading the game's feature set, complexity, art quantity (and price point) as right now I don't think it's realistic to pull off that much work just by myself in a reasonable timeframe.

I can't currently do 60-80 hrs of work per week as I did last year. 25-30 is about max I can do right now.

Give me about 4-6 weeks to figure out what is reasonable and realistic amount of work I can pull off now.

I think that sounds like a good plan. Good to hear you're recovering. If you don't have your health you have nothing. So start from the perspective of your well being and downgrade the ambitions to whatever seems like a good next milestone.
As for refunds, yea its probably a good idea to get that monkey of the back to avoid unnecessary negativity from some individuals ang get that unnecessary pressure off.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Methanoid

My cat is called Heimdall... my wife thinks its from Thor movies and mythology but I know its from the Amiga game and from when I was in QTX and we cracked it ;-)

Thank fuck Quartex didn't crack Top Banana and you got misty eyed over that one!

[VladR]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

I think that sounds like a good plan. Good to hear you're recovering. If you don't have your health you have nothing. So start from the perspective of your well being and downgrade the ambitions to whatever seems like a good next milestone.

Recovery is actually a proper word to use here - and yes without health you have nothing. I am in recovery right now and getting my health back on track.

Well, aside from those 50 pounds lost, I don't want those back, I am enjoying my 6-pack, thank you very much

I currently have to spend about 3 hours per day slowly walking, so that eats into my available hours. And sometimes I just crash as it's exhausting

Originally Posted by eXeler0

As for refunds, yea its probably a good idea to get that monkey of the back to avoid unnecessary negativity from some individuals ang get that unnecessary pressure off.

Yeah, that is actually a great idea. I mean, those 6 pre-orders are about ~$200, which is next to nothing to actual living costs.

I guess I will go figure out my paypal login and see how that process works as I never did that.

[VladR]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

As for refunds, yea its probably a good idea to get that monkey of the back to avoid unnecessary negativity from some individuals ang get that unnecessary pressure off.

God, I love the forums and reasoning things out. For last 4 months I have been thinking about this, but it's basically your response that made me realize a best course of action!

If I refund those 6 people, then I can simply release a budget version with less assets/complexity/features without anybody being pissed that they are not getting what they paid for.

Problem solved! Thank you

[lmimmfn]

Get well soon VladR, its difficult if you've committed to something and with expectations etc., but health is above everything else!

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Thank fuck Quartex didn't crack Top Banana and you got misty eyed over that one!

Quartex would be a pretty dope name for a cat though. "Top Banana" on the other hand... well errr... Maybe for a hamster or something...

[Methanoid]

Not sure wife would like opening a door and shouting "Here Quartex, Quartex, bed time!"