What changed
0 fixes1 addition0 changes0 removals
addedTo react to recent posts, Bot Colony is still being developed. I'll summarize the game history for those who are new to this Community, and say a few words about our future plans. WHERE ARE WE NOW AND HOW DID WE GET HERE? When we released it in June 2014, we were 45. Now we're 7. If you go through old announcements, you'll see that the game came close to being shut down in January 2015. Recent posts complaining about jerkiness, frame rate, sluggish graphics - are unfortunately well founded. We won't be able to do much IN THE SHORT TERM. In a nutshell, we weren't lucky with our first 2 game engine choices. First we developed our own, called Anitron, until its architect (Glen Ozymok, recipient of an Academy Award) passed away in 2011 at a very young age. It took more than a year to switch to the Havok Vision engine. Then, Microsoft acquired Havok and discontinued Vision. Autodesk, who made HumanIK used for Inverse Kinematics (to get robots to grab stuff), shut it down. Ditto for Scaleform, used for User Interface. Bot Colony could have great potential if we had the resources to switch engines (again :) and go to Unreal 4 or Unity. However, the game never sold enough to support itself. In this situation, we need a partnership with another studio that believes in the potential of the game and wants to partner with us and help us change engines and improve gameplay. Or we need to make serious money in some other way. WHAT'S NEXT? We kept developing aggressively since 2014, but we focused mostly on our NLU technology, which is the unique thing about Bot Colony. It's also the technology we can control (as opposed to engine). We DO have the major parts of Riot working, but the Hunter Bot circles the Oil Rig at a frame rate that's simply too low. We decided that it was critical for us to keep making MAJOR advances in Natural Language Understanding (NLU). We're now working on a new game called Jimmy's World (see http://northsideinc.com/index.php/videogames/ ). Jimmy's World will be a free game using our next-generation technology platform. We'll launch it first on Steam and then on mobile and tablets. This is where our efforts are focused now. The technology from JW will be used in Bot Colony - but we'd really like to switch engines to benefit from all our work. If we can't offer a smooth game experience - similar to other 3D games, the game will never make it, never mind how great the conversation is and how smart the robots are. Microsoft have kindly given us the sources to Vision - but we'd rather work with a supported engine. We'll deliver on our promise to launch Riot, even if it has to be on Vision - but we won't do it before Jimmy's World is launched. FYI, we do have the story, assets, animations, etc for TWO episodes after Riot - one in the Old VIllage and one in the Hotel (if you read the novel), but it's premature to say more about that. Currently, Bot Colomy definitely qualifies as a labor of love. WHY BUY AND PLAY BOT COLONY? In spite of being rough around the edges, Bot Colony is a very unique game offering a very unique experience that simply cannot be had with another game: conversation as the main game mechanic. You can command robots through some fairly detailed actions, and you can investigate using your own words. You
Bot Colony changes
addedTo react to recent posts, Bot Colony is still being developed. I'll summarize the game history for those who are new to this Community, and say a few words about our future plans. WHERE ARE WE NOW AND HOW DID WE GET HERE? When we released it in June 2014, we were 45. Now we're 7. If you go through old announcements, you'll see that the game came close to being shut down in January 2015. Recent posts complaining about jerkiness, frame rate, sluggish graphics - are unfortunately well founded. We won't be able to do much IN THE SHORT TERM. In a nutshell, we weren't lucky with our first 2 game engine choices. First we developed our own, called Anitron, until its architect (Glen Ozymok, recipient of an Academy Award) passed away in 2011 at a very young age. It took more than a year to switch to the Havok Vision engine. Then, Microsoft acquired Havok and discontinued Vision. Autodesk, who made HumanIK used for Inverse Kinematics (to get robots to grab stuff), shut it down. Ditto for Scaleform, used for User Interface. Bot Colony could have great potential if we had the resources to switch engines (again :) and go to Unreal 4 or Unity. However, the game never sold enough to support itself. In this situation, we need a partnership with another studio that believes in the potential of the game and wants to partner with us and help us change engines and improve gameplay. Or we need to make serious money in some other way. WHAT'S NEXT? We kept developing aggressively since 2014, but we focused mostly on our NLU technology, which is the unique thing about Bot Colony. It's also the technology we can control (as opposed to engine). We DO have the major parts of Riot working, but the Hunter Bot circles the Oil Rig at a frame rate that's simply too low. We decided that it was critical for us to keep making MAJOR advances in Natural Language Understanding (NLU). We're now working on a new game called Jimmy's World (see http://northsideinc.com/index.php/videogames/ ). Jimmy's World will be a free game using our next-generation technology platform. We'll launch it first on Steam and then on mobile and tablets. This is where our efforts are focused now. The technology from JW will be used in Bot Colony - but we'd really like to switch engines to benefit from all our work. If we can't offer a smooth game experience - similar to other 3D games, the game will never make it, never mind how great the conversation is and how smart the robots are. Microsoft have kindly given us the sources to Vision - but we'd rather work with a supported engine. We'll deliver on our promise to launch Riot, even if it has to be on Vision - but we won't do it before Jimmy's World is launched. FYI, we do have the story, assets, animations, etc for TWO episodes after Riot - one in the Old VIllage and one in the Hotel (if you read the novel), but it's premature to say more about that. Currently, Bot Colomy definitely qualifies as a labor of love. WHY BUY AND PLAY BOT COLONY? In spite of being rough around the edges, Bot Colony is a very unique game offering a very unique experience that simply cannot be had with another game: conversation as the main game mechanic. You can command robots through some fairly detailed actions, and you can investigate using your own words. You
To react to recent posts, Bot Colony is still being developed. I'll summarize the game history for those who are new to this Community, and say a few words about our future plans. WHERE ARE WE NOW AND HOW DID WE GET HERE? When we released it in June 2014, we were 45. Now we're 7. If you go through old announcements, you'll see that the game came close to being shut down in January 2015. Recent posts complaining about jerkiness, frame rate, sluggish graphics - are unfortunately well founded. We won't be able to do much IN THE SHORT TERM. In a nutshell, we weren't lucky with our first 2 game engine choices. First we developed our own, called Anitron, until its architect (Glen Ozymok, recipient of an Academy Award) passed away in 2011 at a very young age. It took more than a year to switch to the Havok Vision engine. Then, Microsoft acquired Havok and discontinued Vision. Autodesk, who made HumanIK used for Inverse Kinematics (to get robots to grab stuff), shut it down. Ditto for Scaleform, used for User Interface. Bot Colony could have great potential if we had the resources to switch engines (again :) and go to Unreal 4 or Unity. However, the game never sold enough to support itself. In this situation, we need a partnership with another studio that believes in the potential of the game and wants to partner with us and help us change engines and improve gameplay. Or we need to make serious money in some other way. WHAT'S NEXT? We kept developing aggressively since 2014, but we focused mostly on our NLU technology, which is the unique thing about Bot Colony. It's also the technology we can control (as opposed to engine). We DO have the major parts of Riot working, but the Hunter Bot circles the Oil Rig at a frame rate that's simply too low. We decided that it was critical for us to keep making MAJOR advances in Natural Language Understanding (NLU). We're now working on a new game called Jimmy's World (see http://northsideinc.com/index.php/videogames/ ). Jimmy's World will be a free game using our next-generation technology platform. We'll launch it first on Steam and then on mobile and tablets. This is where our efforts are focused now. The technology from JW will be used in Bot Colony - but we'd really like to switch engines to benefit from all our work. If we can't offer a smooth game experience - similar to other 3D games, the game will never make it, never mind how great the conversation is and how smart the robots are. Microsoft have kindly given us the sources to Vision - but we'd rather work with a supported engine. We'll deliver on our promise to launch Riot, even if it has to be on Vision - but we won't do it before Jimmy's World is launched. FYI, we do have the story, assets, animations, etc for TWO episodes after Riot - one in the Old VIllage and one in the Hotel (if you read the novel), but it's premature to say more about that. Currently, Bot Colomy definitely qualifies as a labor of love. WHY BUY AND PLAY BOT COLONY? In spite of being rough around the edges, Bot Colony is a very unique game offering a very unique experience that simply cannot be had with another game: conversation as the main game mechanic. You can command robots through some fairly detailed actions, and you can investigate using your own words. You
