Hi all! This is your UI/UX Artist Paul here. This week I've got a new development for the in-game Heads Up Display to show you. Introducing the Compass!

If you've ever played first person shooter games like Call of Duty, Halo, or any action game, you may have noticed that there's often an indicat…

After I got Ableton Live 10, I started playing around with the Wavetable instrument. I'm still learning the instrument, but I'm beginning to understand just how powerful this instrument is. I highly recommend it!

This is what I came up with. It's called "Right in the Face," because I wanted someth…

Along with fixes to the multiplayer (second live stream this Tuesday!), work is being done to update the HUD graphics and functionality.  In the screen shots, you can see the new "targeted ship" monitor in the upper left, with the old one for comparison in the lower right.  The Damage bars fo…

Short post on the Warmaster today. Under the link are sketch poses and progress of the default pose colored.

Original post blogged on Rank: Warmaster Dev Blog.

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Hi all! This is your UI/UX Artist Paul here. This week we're going over the revised Targeting Reticles and Player Self Monitors design elements! 

While in the fray of your outerspace battles, you want to know who's who and what they're doing (and what you're doing to them) upfront, instantly, …

I really enjoy when game soundtracks have connective threads in them. Even though this track uses a lot of percussion and orchestral samples, I still wanted to feature the horns. This time, I wanted to make this part epic, with a soaring horn melody over all of the rhythmic pulses happening unde…

Here is an example of the multiplayer with capitol ships firing upon each other.  You can see the turrets firing as well as the enemy capitol ship firing and the player taking damage.  The shields on both the target and self-damage monitors are showing the damage by showing the blue …

Below are some samples of the debris you may witness as your adversary blows up in front of you. The models were created in zbrush and textured in 3D coat. 

Original post blogged on Rank: Warmaster Dev Blog.

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Hello again, this is Adam coming to you with another look at Rank:Warmaster's systems and mechanics! Today I'll be talking about the structure of our game's technology tree.

Researching new technologies, buildings and ship components begins with constructing a Research Facility in a player's base. …

We can now receive status messages and requests from other players or the AI via the asset screen in the new message asset bar (seen here in blue). You'll receive messages when ships or buildings have been constructed, when your AI needs orders (maybe the mayor of one of your cities needs to kno…

Hello all, this is your UI/UX artist Paul here.

For this week I thought it'd be neat to give a little more "behind the scenes" look at how the icons are going to do what they do, and even what the look like without their make up on.

To lay the groundwork, future-proofing has been a key elem…

I listen to a lot of prog rock and metal, and I always liked things that used uneven time signatures (meters that aren't in 4 or 3). For this track, I wanted to create a groove that was slightly off-putting if one tries to count it or feel a steady beat. 

The meters are: 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 | 1 2 1 2 …

Lots of things behind the scenes such as better network code and support for scenarios and game styles in multiplayer.  Tests have already shown that 6 players have no issues playing.  I'm trying to organize an larger test.  Of course the things that are more  obvious is better "…

Hey, Kat again. It's finally time to share a character feature and not just any character, it's the Warmaster!

Below are some concepts. My biggest concern for the character was the helmet and I wanted to keep the Warmaster's face hidden for two reasons. One was to portray them as someone w…

Well met and greetings! Today I'm going to dive into how to design a ship. This is a central part of Rank: Warmaster's gameplay, as a fleet of ships is the player's primary tool for exploration and discovery, as well as projecting power in the treacherous game of corporate politics.

The design p…

The asset screen is starting to come together. We can now see, in order from top to bottom: 1) information about our corporation, 2) information about our personnel file(s), 3) information about the city or cities that we've built, and 4) information about each of the buildings in our city or ci…

Hello all. This is your UI/UX artist Paul here. The lastest update on my end are the new Targeting HUD icons! 

A lot of games have simplistic combat mechanics. You damage a ship until it runs out of "health" and then it explodes. We want more finesse than that. In Rank: Warmaster, ships have…

Ever since I played my bother's keytar, I've always wanted to write an awesome synth solo. I am very happy that I got the chance to write one for the Rank: Warmaster Soundtrack. The only problem was I'm not very good at soloing in C# Phrygian, so I transposed my keyboard so that I could play in …

The Load/Save code is confirmed working, even with the cities and AI.  So now the game state can have progress!  Also, we have our first two multiplayer tests.  The first was local and because of a bug, could only do three people.  The second lasted for 3 hours and had 6 people (…

Another building to share, the refinery!  This time I had an idea what shape I wanted (#1) but created additional drawings because you always want to be open to other idess before a final decision.  No matter the shape, pipes and tanks had to be in the design.  In the end the shape I…

Hello there, it's Adam again with another post about Rank:Warmaster's game systems! This time I'll be talking about bases, buildings and bots.

Base construction and management is a cornerstone of gameplay. You'll research technologies, extract and refine resources which become the ships and buildin…

Continuing on with the recurring horn melody from my first post, here is a battle track that uses the same horn theme. Instead of sounding peaceful and calm, I wanted something that sounded really aggressive and energetic. I changed the key, put a chromatic bass line underneath it, and made …

Shared in this post will be the heavy missile and agile missile. Although you may not see these for long on the screen, it's just as important to give them their own shape and style. Below is the concept art and final models.

The heavy missile is slow and heavily armored but deals a lot …

I am almost done the load/save code.  This will be a HUGE milestone, because not only does it provide the foundation for the full multiplayer code, but it allows long term play of Rank: Warmaster.  This is crucial since any testing so far was always a brand new game because it had to be.  I am lev…

Hello again! Today I'd like to talk about Rank: Warmaster's defensive strategies and mechanics, as well as how the game models the damage you take from all those lovely weapons I discussed last time.

Before a ship take damage, there are a couple of tricks that can keep it out of harm's way. Ships …

This is the beginning of the new asset screen. It doesn't look like much yet, but quite a lot of work has gone into it already behind the scenes.

In order to see just the data in this screen shot, an entire workflow had to be developed to allow the computer to create each record, automatically de…

Hello everyone! This is your UI/UX Designer Paul. Recently I've been working on the design elements for the in-game Heads-Up Display!

For context, here' how the current "cockpit" outlook appears in-game. The ship rendered in green on the top right corner is the player's display monitor. This sh…

The first sound you will hear in the game is this synthesizer, which is an instrument made with Max for Live.

This instrument, with all of the other effects that I added to it, sounded great, but didn’t handle dissonance well (when two sounds beat against each other). I ended up creating a seco…

While I was out at PAX Dev, for demo purposes, I updated the sheilds and how they look.  Here is a live demostration of the shields being hit, with the monitor that shows the target's status zoomed in on the left for the pilot to see what area is most damaged, and therefore vulnerable.  In …

Kat again with another building share. This time the research building. 

 As usual the concepts are created either with silhouettes or sketches. For the research building I wanted it to have a unique look. After drawing some designs out and group reviews, we came up with an idea to…