AfterWorld Survival Forum

it was all me, devs had nothing to do with the name.. 

Duh why else would I have picked the name. I mean it wasn't like I looked up a list of Russian females names or anything....  duh

She was my first love in my first book yes.   There is another grave ingame also from the book. (Hint yellow brick road)

Quote from: Gebeleizis "Hultaan" Kapnobatai on February 06, 2014, 12:08:11 pm

MantraX-L4 driller

It's about the green colored Extractor?

No No its all about red extractors for speed around the mining wave.... 

Pila has this problem.  I expect the devs consider you a newb like her    she says a relog works to fix it.

For Anti's use and everyone else to read.  I didn't totally Americanize the words, I left the Russian feel to it.  Pictures are still on the webpage he pointed u too.  I have it in word with pics if u want it anti.

enjoy
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In industry there is a joke that every newbie wants to play a MMORPG that's dynamic, a living world, with living economies responsive to a players' actions and changes in the universe, with thousands of kilometers of territory, crafting, with which you can do anything and servers that can withstand tens of thousands of people simultaneously.  Usually such ploys are nothing but wasted time. By the way, I confess: fifteen years ago, it was under a "project" I tried to get some money from "1C" and "Akella".  I met with the guys from "Buki" probably considering they were fun.

So whether you can make a game on their own, the enthusiasm, without investment? Or even with investments from scratch, with a new team, which has no experience in game development? By any sober assessment, the chances that the game will be made, tend to zero. Kelvin. Nevertheless, miracles happen ... and one current striking (for me) project called   AfterWorld , I want to talk about it further.

2005: Start
It all started with the game Project Entropia. As often happens, the players (in the amount of two people) got together and thought, "Entropia is good, but a lot of things that do not suit us. Let's make their own, with the realities of our own great country and the changes that will bring more fun and interest to more people! ". That you understand all the courage and the big idea they had: Entropia at work then had 40-60 people in the state plus remote employees, the company was into freelancing. Now Entropy has its official bank and the banking license swirling million revolutions, goods are bought and sold for tens of thousands of dollars.

No sooner said than done. One came with $200 in his pocket, and their apartment was small. All discussing all prepared in late 2005, in early 2006 they began work. One - the programmer, the second - Level-designer, modeler and game designer in one bottle. The engine was chosen Torque (I will not speculate about the correctness of this decision, but remember that if Unity was not on the horizon, UDK / Cry were either unavailable or at exorbitant prices).
Were found artists, volunteers, musicians, enthusiasts, modeler’s assistants and many others who could participate in the project for the "thank you" and probably some benefit in the distant future. In those days it was easier to play the enthusiasm of faith, the industry was much smaller and narrower.
2006: Alpha version
The game starts as early as 2006-2007 in an open alpha testing. They immediately found players of Entropia and began to form a community that is set up and turned the game.  The developers are extremely positive.   Probably just because they were "friends" and until recently the same players Entropia. The community developed itself, no advertising never started. Working with word of mouth and a few notes in the gaming media.
At this time, there was no charge to play the game. Moreover, the developers handed out the "real" currency free 100 AWD (equivalent to ten U.S. dollars) a month.  It was necessary that the game revolved around real money for the economy to work and be fully tested as functional. For players of course it was nice that they are given "real" money.
 
Such was the alpha in 2007
Interesting fact: In 2007, the initiator of all this movement, Victor (known as Vik), in order to survive, had to sell his bus. This money was enough to pay for the server and the Internet, food and some things for the team. The team worked in Spartan mode, gathered at Vik’s apartment.
2008: The first payments
In 2008, the developers were able to make a PayPal wallet (back then it was more difficult in Russia it was not) and to realize the functional payments.  At this time in the hands of the team was only 500 euros and what to do if suddenly a miracle happens, no one knew. Therefore, all the money distributed for free have been cleared and the community was told, now that the game can exist and develop, we need your help. Purchases were called "donations", the site appeared corresponding button PayPal to donate and on went the payments (donations).
Payments quickly become sufficient to expand the team to a couple of more people and hire remote artists to expand the game world. Community gradually grew and grew online. Nevertheless, the rise of online to hundreds or thousands of people was not yet happening, yet it was alpha. Marketing and advertising money was not used, and such sums are still not there (costs of work without a publisher, on their basis). It was probably during this period they should have found publishers but the game is working, bringing money, and had a loyal audience.

2009: Daylight Torque3D and announcing AfterWorld: Survival
In 2009 an event occurred which determined the future of AW. A new version of the engine, Torque3D. She was on the order of "cooler" compared to the old engine, giving many new features, better pictures and much more that was not in the previous engine. The team consulted and decided to porting to the new version by transferring functional alpha onto the new engine. Announced a new version of the game: AfterWorld: Survival , and this name is very accurately identified the team's future in the coming years.
 
Survival - a screenshot of the new engine
Real life Torque3D was insufficiently thought out and calculated. Its complexity has been underestimated, because over the years was a huge amount of functional systems and content. As a result of this decision, the following situation occurred.  The old version of the game, which was played and the developers stopped developing and only maintained bug fixes.  All while a new version not being ready. This led to players getting bored and started to leave. Logically, because usually once the game stops growing it almost always begins outflowing of players. For a game with a small audience it proved a critical error, with the little cash flow, while the existing team began to wither and eventually dried up.
2012: The crisis and the collapse of the team
Once the money stopped coming, while the team was working on the enthusiasm, times are now very different.  The developers are now older, they have a family or relationship, and an independent life. So two programmers were forced to look for another job and, after some time, went to another project.  They did not forget about AW, continuing to maintain it, developing it for new, complex systems and waiting for the situation to be normal again. Money to pay for remote workers also did not continue and they also stopped.

After the crisis and the collapse of the command to "work" there was only the one person who originally came up with it all left. He only continued to work on the new version of the world, leaving no hope to revive the old game. In parallel, while he was looking for ways to do this, he was searching for investors, negotiating, attracted other intermediaries to help (for a stake in the case of successful solutions). But without much success. Simultaneously with these searches Vic studied question kraudfandinga and Kickstarter, suggesting that this may be the only real way to save the work they have invested in the past seven years. That’s when in the spring of 2013, I went to Vic, with an offer to help them carry out a campaign on Kickstarter.
2013-2014: AfterWorld: Rebirth!
When I looked at the amount of work done on the quality of the picture (which is done under the new version), I was surprised. Hearing the story, I was even more surprised. It is a classic American success story.   The Rise and Fall, and the hero does not give up and do everything to win. This story, which is ideal for a Kick. Moreover, instead of some promises, already we have a game that you can play (albeit crude, but already there), there is an audience that will support the project.  In general, I thought that AfterWorld had high chances for good fees and Kickstarter agreed to help make a good campaign.

But then began surprises: I learned that the team is no more, and there was only Vic, that there may be problems with the copyright to the code. The code is clear when the organization is not.  In the end it turned out that if the project is go to Kickstarter, in its current situation, it is impossible. In order to bring it to the COP, and the team needs money. That is - to return to the search option of additional investments. I contacted some people had different options, but it did not go very fast, talks were vague, some in St. Petersburg (all very interesting, but later on). The more I understood the project, its situation, operating time, functionality, the more I realized what the guys have done a herculean job in seven years. How much more do you need to make / remake, the game to get it to a commercial level.
So I consulted with my partner, and a month later we decided that we take AfterWorld under his control. We got a little team and expanded it, made adjustments in the future gameplay, game balance, economics and management. Now in the next room over is a full, productive team working on the game. This will soon become a full-fledged open world MMORPG FPS. Created (for the first time in the history of the game) of full, modern looking, animated new characters, in a finalized game universe.  As well as being prepared to campaign on Kickstarter, the success of which I have no doubt.
 
AfterWorld: Rebirth! - Screenshot of the tutorial
Moral of the story -  miracles do happen. This does not mean that everyone should urgently make these games. But it does mean that persistence, patience and work, the ability not to give up and start throw things can significantly improve the chances to make the game of your dreams. I like this story as it is - the story of these indie developers that went all the way to the green beginners to veterans, making their own design from scratch, and without assistance, without the huge budgets and without a publisher.
So I wish them (or rather, now we) - good luck! Wait for the news on this project closer to fall and put your gold to the day when we will launch our campaign on Kickstarter. If we do everything as planned, we will surprise you very much (why exactly? So far a secret, but it will be something completely new to the gaming industry, which personally I have not seen in games).

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