Developer Updates #1

A lot of work has been getting done around the team lately including a lot of new models and systems. Here is some of what's going on:

Martin F has been working extremely hard on modeling and has completed many mobs and boss mobs to be sent on for texturing and animating including a Hydra, Cerberus, Centaur, and the Mutant Bat.

Scribbleboy is getting ready for final exams as are some other of are developers and because of this he will not be able to push out new structures for awhile. However, he hit the ground running as soon as he joined the team so we have a large surplus of structures and his department will not be holding us up.

Gelco and Conquer have been working hard on the various systems that need to be programmed. Conquer is working on the guild system while Gelco is working on the combat and looting system.

Toth has been a bit busy with his real life job but in his spare time he is still texturing and animating for us, when he gets a bit more time he'll be able to finish up a few other models and we'll use those Model Shots as the ones we are releasing in the newsletter. After that Toth will be creating a new user interface for the game and Gelco will update it and push out a new update for the game making us one step closer to the next stage of Alpha (bringing a few community members in for testing).


There are so many people doing some great work on the team but I figured I'd fill everyone in on those people for this update.

Until next time,
Robert

Introduction

First off I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Robert Lee and I am the Project Leader of Etherea: Dark Genesis. Games have been my passion, as they have been for millions of people around the world, since I was a little kid. Some of my earliest memories of games were on the Sega and Nintendo. I eventually moved up to the Playstation and got Legend of the Dragoon where I invested many hours of game time. I then got interested in computer games like C&C and then Diablo II where I started playing online games for the first time.

After playing online games I found the great joy of playing with multiple people at a time. Time went on and I started playing my first MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies. During that time I also tried out WoW, EQ, and EQOA. SWG was my passion and there I spent 2 and 1/2 years of playing as a Bounty Hunter, Jedi, and Chef (two accounts). After the changes to SWG and the exit of the community I loved I decided to quit playing SWG.

Inspired by such MMORPG's and other online games I decided that I wanted to create my own online game. I started writing up information about the game and eventually found a site with an affordable and customizable game engine that a small team and I could use without thousands of dollars. Some people joined my development team (one of the originals was Gelco who is now the Lead Developer and programmer/work horse). We got some forums, met on mIRC and came up with the name Etherea: Dark Genesis. The team got a website, went into development and ever since then people have been joining the team with the desire to create a great game that many could cheaply play. Some people joined the team to build their resumes, some just for the fun of it, others to change the industry by having a cheap MMORPG, and then myself for wanting to create a great game that many could enjoy and have a strong and fun community. Everyone on the team works for free and will continue to do so and the team has decided to offer the game as a free download with a low monthly cost of around five dollars to support the server and game costs/upgrading engine later on.

I have wanted to keep my age hidden because I assumed that I would lose respect in the gaming community if anyone found out that I was 17. Well I am now 18, have been working on this game for over 10 months, and now I have been accepted into the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado where I will work towards a Computer Science major. I will be leaving June 27th 2006 and thus will not have as much time to devote to the game as I do now. For the first six weeks I will be in basic training and will have no communication with Etherea and the community, after that though I should be back to normal and able to talk on the forums everyday or at least every other day (on a busy week).

My goals for Etherea: Dark Genesis include making the great game, helping to build the game, and saving the money made on the game to have enough money to buy a better engine such as the BigWorld or Unreal Engine so that the players may experience great graphics alongside the plethora of features we are offering.

I will be staying in touch with everyone not only here but on the forums/site as well. Hopefully this blog will be another means of reaching out to people and letting them know about Etherea: Dark Genesis (the main goal for the dev team is to have tons of people playing our game, not for the money but for the reason of having tons of people enjoying our game). I'll be posting more game related updates on the main website's news (www.etherea-dg.com) but I'll post some development sides and more personal sides of the game development here. I may also start a role playing story about my character in Etherea. (Just for the fun of it!)

Well I wish you all the best of luck and I'll post again when I have more to say ^_^

Robert