DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Chapter 3: Project Alpha
November 2000 - March 2001
by RambOrc
Sometime Fall 2000, a change was made in the
project roadmap. While the original roadmap called for a public
beta in Q3 2000 and for the final game in early 2001, in October
2000 it was obvious that such a roadmap is nothing more than
a utopy.
Thus, a new roadmap has been laid out. It called for an internal
Alpha demo as soon as possible (a month or 2 at most), a beta
in early 2001 (February or so) and the final game in Summer/Autumn
2001.
The internal Alpha would've featured a "town" of
4 buildings and 3-4 dungeon maps, all without any special texturing,
for internal testing of the game principles only. The public
beta would've featured 2-3 maps, some or all of them original
Hexen locations remade with the new engine features. Indeed,
the main point of the beta was to show off the new 3D engine
and RPG features.
With the new roadmap in the pocket, development started on
new tracks. The first change came within days, as I started
creating a small town in as short a time as possible --- but
lost myself in the details. The town rapidly evolved into something
much more complicated and too cool for just using it for internal
testing and a couple of screenshots. Thus the decision was made
to release the Alpha demo to the public.
On the 3D engine side, we started experimenting with thatched
roofs and found an acceptable-looking solution, though it was
far from satisfying.
On the RPG front, the shopping system was partially programmed.
You could buy artifacts by going to the shop table and pushing
the "use" key. And a basic feature found in most role
playing games, the Journal, had been implemented as well.
In February 2001, our team got a much-needed
member boost in the person of Kendrome. Sadly, his debut work,
the Serpent Staff, was also his only work. While he started
work on new, more advanced roof models for the town, nothing
ever came out of it. On the other hand he was always full of
suggestions and contributed a lot to the gameplay concept, especially
for Korax Mod version 2.0.
Around February, I started work with a new area, the Mines.
According to the roadmap at that time, it'd have been about
half of all the dungeon areas so it was important that you can
get a good fight in there. Those tunnels might look small for
monsters, but even Chaos Serpents had no trouble finding and
nailing me in the test runs. :)
In March 2001, another team member joined our
ranks, The Cush. He delivered a couple of story sketches and
ideas for the main plot, then disappeared. He was the first
to do this, but unfortunately not the last.
As we had no 2D artist in the team, I had to take this job
and created some new textures for the town. A lot of new town
buildings have been created as well. Since the places of all
important buildings have been already confirmed, I published
a city map to give people a better idea.
- Northern
Gate (currently to the swamps)
- Western
Gate (to the Wastelands)
- Southern
Gate (to the Mines)
- Clock
Tower
- Town
Hall
- Tower
of the Magi (you can enter only when playing as a
mage)
- Keep
(you can enter only when playing as a fighter)
- Temple
(you can enter only when playing as a cleric)
- Mage's
Shop
- Library
- Inn
(no name yet)
- Castle
of Spices (a restaurant if you didn't get it)
- Tavern
(no name yet)
- Bank
- Armory
- Adventurers'
Shop (not yet a final name)
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