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Prospekt Year 1 Update!

Community Announcements - Rich

Hi everyone Rich here, so tonight I’m putting out quite an extensive change for
Prospekt, I have also made a new Vlog for you on Youtube all as per requested by
quite a few of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYp3cFcleI

This vlog is a look into where I work and make Prospekt and what's coming out in
this update so be sure to check it out if you want to take a look into what
equipment I‘m using etc to make the game.

So to begin with I guess ill say today is the Prospekt 1 Year anniversary.
Exactly one year ago I got an email saying Project-X has now been Greenlit. What
a crazy year it has been. Being given permission to design for video gaming's
most prestigious brand has been incredible. Massive highs and massive lows.
Endless work periods, sleepless nights.

Conferences in Colonge and London, online meetings with people in Seattle. A new
business was born. Many contracts signed, thousands of dollars and pounds
exchanged. Met some great people. Over 1 million people have visited the store
page, at one point peaking at 10,000 people a minute. Articles in every major
and minor video game press outlet both online and in print magazine oh and don't
forget BBC news, that was crazy. Then both the hatred and love from thousands of
people.

If you would have said this would be my future three years ago when I started
this project. I would have called you crazy. But here I am, and I'm super
grateful to Valve for letting me do this. I Look forward to continuing to work
with them in the future to make more great games. To anyone who has an idea they
truly believe in i'd say shoot and just go for it. Worst case scenario you end
up back in a job similar to one you just left.

Also I have decided due to the huge demand to play the closed beta to just make
it an open beta because of the high demand it's just easier to keep it open.
Anyway, with all that being said, I’ve been working flat out non stop on
Prospekt for the last three weeks so here goes… This is what is in this update
today.

( Its quite extensive. )

Changes Include :

Fixed node graph issue that was causing players to have node graph on there
screen rebuilding despite node graph not being needed to rebuild

New graphical improvements throughout the game by changing the final render to
remove the grey tone some of you may have noticed, now when you play the game
you will notice the colours are all much more defined, sharp and provide a
vastly greater experience.

New hunter battle vastly improved from the original Combine Power Co level which
includes a dynamic arena with some destructible environments.

Added more random supply crates that people were asking for through level three.

Added extensive decals to levels one through three. ( I know some of you may
have noticed the lack of decals in the release version of Prospekt, this was due
to a complex bug that I couldn't fix in time for release unfortunately. This bug
would come into effect when you would use a real time light. Regardless of where
the light was shining in the map it would light up every decal to full
brightness and look absolutely terrible, so I had to make the call, real time
lighting, or decals. I chose the lighting. However this has now been either
fixed or worked around in many areas allowing me to use both.

Improved some areas for more detail in level one

Greatly improved lighting issue in Cold Water Intake

New signs throughout level two and three to improve immersion and help guide the
player

Entirely new designed from scratch second stage of level three.

New particle effects for the alternative fire on the AR2 weapon. ( I am aware
the particle effect is not attached to the weapon and im working on it but
couldnt get it done in time for this update )

New particle effects for the shotgun, now when you fire a round the shotgun will
release a small trail of smoke.

Greatly graphically improved Combine Energy Ball Generator with new particle
effects, higher resolution, and sprites.

Introduced new models to level three which include dynamic computers that have
randomised sprite based flashy computer lights.

Introduced some new small combine models that I have been working on.

A new Ultra High Definition texture ( UHD ) that I would like you all to test
and see how your FPS has been effected. This can be found on the power station
floor

Added several new textures over all that I have been working on.

Increased detail of older textures in Half-Life 2

Introduced real time dynamic lighting in level three that I would also like to
see how this affects people's FPS. I have Included a nice easy switch in the
main menu to turn on the FPS counter. I have over done the lighting on purpose
to see what peoples FPS drop will be like. It’s almost a small stress test to
see how far I can push the engine on your pc’s and when I put this version out
for good ill have a reasonable idea of how much dynamic lighting I can include.
So if you are getting low FPS in the particular area it’s on purpose. However it
is awesome to play, every hanging light can be shot out that provides a totally
different combat event on each play through.

I would be really greatful if you are experiencing low ~ mid FPS to tell me your
system spec in the forums so I can get a good idea of peoples hardware
capabilities.

Removed the super annoying explosion that completely owned people if they got
unlucky in the portal room of Nova Prospekt.

New Font that I have designed for Prospekt based on Opposing Force.

And of course most importantly of all, fixed the rather insignificant double
doors that people were having a total meltdown over. ( I would also like to add,
I did actually purposely design it that way, the thought being how can you open
two doors at the same time when you are holding a gun in one hand but need to
twist two door handles without putting the gun down? But I do agree it looks
better in the game. )

Please do remember this is a beta for the time being so you may have some bugs,
if you do please let me know and ill get on it.

To take part in the beta just go into your games properties, it will be called
“Prospekt Phase 2”

Hope you enjoy it, now its time for a beer.


Prospekt - The Forward Plan

Community Announcements - Rich

Hello to everyone following Prospekt I hope you are all well. So it's been
exactly 4 whole weeks since I put the first update for the game out and not only
that we’ve all now seen the new Steam review system change.

After addressing the main issues that were repeatedly coming up in patch one, I
thought I would give it some time to see how things level out. So far so good,
we have jumped quite a bit from 47% approval overall to between 69% ~ 70% in the
last 30 days, coupled with me talking to people one on one about what they
didn't like in particular. I feel that has given me a firm direction on what
needs to be done to the game.

So what's new and what's happening in the land of Prospekt? Well the plan is
over the course of… well... time... Work on every level in Prospekt giving them
an extension to increase overall gameplay time and improving current content.
There are also some things in the background that i'm going to keep a little
secret until i’m in a position to reveal to you all.

There will be a closed beta coming out on either Monday or Tuesday if anyone
would like to be a part of this you can go onto community discussion and let me
know your interest there. On top of that there will be an update coming out soon
after I have had some feedback on changes from players.

To give you a taste of the improvements that are in the works there is a good
example below...


So now it’s time for me to continue working on the game and generating new and
improved content for you all to play so once again ill say thank you all very
much for your support and I will be back in touch with you all in the course of
well... Time... Share:

Prospekt first official update!

Hi everyone Rich here, after speaking to many of you on both sides of the
Prospekt club I've taken a tonne of feedback on the game and have a good idea
for its direction. Over the last two weeks I've been keeping my eye on the beta
and people seem to really like the changes and really feel that it is a good
improvement to the game. So tonight, I am making the update official.

What's in this update?

1. Reduced difficulty

2. Overhaul of the flashback effect to make the game play better whilst in a
flash back event.

3. Drastically reduced the effects on the final level making it much better to
play.

4. Added red shotgun soldier to differentiate between the two enemy types.

5. Reduced the overall file size slightly.

6. Increased the overall detail of level 2

7. Added extra cover to level 2

8. Added monitor to level 2 so player can see when they shutdown the shield
wall.

9. Increased overall brightness slightly in level 2.

10. Reduced Antlion swarm on level 2.

Due to some level reworks some of you may experience some corruption of your
saved files. Apologies for this. I am looking into an advanced way to distribute
game files without it effecting the end user so that should help in the future.
For the time being if you do have an issue.

You can either:

A. Restart the chapter you are on to solve your problem or

B. Open console and type sv_unlockchapters (then the number for your chapter
here) if you have lost progress.

If you do have any more issues ill be on hand all of this evening until around
1am UK time to speak to you all and give help on the forums.

Also the node graph rebuilding issue is being hunted down, I am aware of this
and not just myself but other developers are working on a fix so hopefully soon
that will be a thing of the past.

Thank you all for your support. This has been a life changing time for me and
I'm learning so many new things about game design and development at such a
rapid pace its quite overwhelming. I have listened to a lot of your feedback and
it is clear you wanted more. So I going to do my best to deliver more. Prospekt
will continue to get updated in the future with many new exciting things that
are in the works.

Thank you all for your support so far.


Prospekt first update is live!

Community Announcements - Rich

Hello all, its been a mad week and i've got to get up for Egx in London in 5
hours time and drive for 3 hours to go to Egx Rezzed but that being said, ive
put a beta build of Prospekt up to play on the game so all you have to do is put
the game into the beta mode in your games settings. Prospekt Beta 1.0 should be
the name. This update includes:

1. A complete like for like copy of the enemy health and difficulty of Half-Life
2 Episode 2.

2. New shotgun soldier skin ( Red ) to differentiate between the enemy types.

3. New significantly reduced overlay for flashbacks.

4. Massively reduced both shaking and HDR exposure on the final level.

5. 200mb reduction in file size of the game.

If everyone is happy over the upcoming days with this I will implement it
permanently. I'll be in London till the 9th not back until the 10th. Let me know
what you all think.

Once again thank you all for your support. I am listening to everyones feedback.
More to come soon!

Enjoy and have fun!

Rich