Ascend : Multiplayer FPS

@PixelNecktie

Thanks! Updates has slow down, but we are working hard on it!

 

I'm glad because I really don't like CoD/Haloish games, I like the tactical feel of more sim-style shooters.

Very excited for this game, as a huge FPS player.

 

@IAmCraigSnedeker
Sorry, somehow I missed this message. We are still trying to balance good aim so that we don't punish people for being good, but it's only ONE factor in deciding the winner.

A little short update fellows. Sorry for the slow update, but Ascend has progressed a lot since last update. The previous past few months, I have been hunting down a game breaking bug, where players will randomly drop to the ground and die, as if there's no more floor. It was frustrating for the player and proves to be an elusive bug, but it's since been squashed!

Other than that, we have thus since implemented numerous features:

GUNS


All of the guns we planned for the Vertical Slice has since been implemented, though there's still the lowpoly stage as well balancing left to do, but overall it's pretty satisfying to fire each gun.

PSYCHIC POWERS


One of the customization option for your player is to choose a Psychic Power to bring into battle. Showcased on the top is our first Power which is a Bubble Shield, which will absorb all external damages and keep the player safe.

BLACK LOTUS - ASCEND'S 1st Soundtrack
Joshua Chin, a talented artist, has helped us in creating Ascend's first soundtrack, Black Lotus.

Lights of Hong Kong
And finally, we had the chance to work with Giuseppe to craft Ascend's world, and one of the end result is a short story written by him to give you a glimpse into Ascend's triad world. Please do check it out and if you like it and would love to read more of this short stories, let us know!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3061307/Giuseppe Mastroianni - The Lights of Hong Kong.pdf

Check our our indieDB page for more, especially weapons concept art!

 

Yung thanks so much for posting the short story I wrote. I really want to say how Ascend is being based on the possibilities of what I call a "realistic cyberpunk" dealing with a realistic political setting (as well as premises...) and good management of troops and places.

 

Hey Zelpi,

No problem at all, it was a pleasure working with you. Hopefully we could collaborate again in the future! I foresee more short stories!

 

Looking fantastic man!!

Claudio

 

@dragonboy77
Thanks for the comment! Glad you like it!

 

A small little update on our first level,

Skypark


We've started blocking and prototyping our first level design which is titled the Skypark. We will see more of this in the coming months but lets kick it off with some concepts and first look done by our artist Andy Wong.

This features a distinct oriental influence to it. The idea of the Skypark is to blend the old and new together. there will be slums,present day architectures, highly advanced-sleek buildings. Theme would be pushing more towards a futuristic corporate dystopia setting.

Rooftop segment Line art and Warm color studies.



Alt angles concept + Color variations.



Skypark Blocking Birds Eye View


Hope you guys enjoyed the updates and see y'all soon !

 

Progress for Ascend, showcasing some multiplayer gameplay. Just a very short one

 

That wallrunning looks fantastic. How much would you say it adds to the gameplay during multiplayer?

 

Do you have a facebook presence? Usually I don't like future weapons, but your concept looks so nice.

 

The art in here is sooo pro

 

Art looks AAA quality, and I love sci-fi twist. Looking forward to this!

 

@Fishman92 , thanks! Right now the wallrunning really makes things much tense and opens up quite a bit of routes to flanking your enemy. I personally loves to wallrun and shoot!

@LazyPoet91 No we don't have a facebook presense or page yet, we will look into creating one!

@Pulov and @Cheburek Thanks! Glad you like the artwork!

 

this looks AMAZING

 

Wow! Looks amazing!

Any plans to do some Masamune Shirow-esq spider tanks?

Always wanted to hop in a Ghost in the Shell tank in a FPS.

 

@jiveturkey thanks!! Glad you like it!

@Not_Sure not at launch but definitely one of the plans in the future

 

Short update on the exosuit

And stay tuned next week, as we are launching our public test on 24th of April
Looking forward to some games with you guys!

 

We are running our multiplayer test, please feel free to join in for a few rounds.


Alternatively, you can play straight om your browser with the link below


(requires Unity Webplayer)

 

Small little update, we got the first working exosuit implementation.

 

Looks awesome! Reminds of me of Titanfall

 

Good job, I made 3 FPS, and this one will be fabulous.
Congrats

 

@ntxboyll Thanks! Titanfall definitely had a huge influence.

@menfou Thanks! I am still struggling to finish this one.

 

if anything character animations could use some work.

 

Have you given any consideration to your respawn system?
Meaning, how does the game determine the location that a player respawns. You should keep in mind that a certain percentage of players are really hardcore, and will make a big effort to figure that out. Once they do, and they build strategies based off that knowledge, they'll be crushing people.
Now you might just only have gamemodes where everybody only has a single life to completely avoid the issue, but having respawns dramatically changes what high level strategies people will be running.

Games like Halo 4 respawn players based on calculating a number of factors, and then comparing those weights to the other potential spawn points to determine where the player will respawn (Which is why people will often notice the team's switching spawns, because one team was overly aggressive and pushed too hard, which affected those calculations). Much high level strategy relies on using that to help your team respawn in favorable positions, while trying to get the opposing team to respawn in inferior positions that you're ready to attack once they respawn. I've killed thousands of player's who didn't do anything wrong, they didn't make the wrong play, they weren't a bad shot, they simply got screwed because I used the game's mechanics against them to force them into an unfavorable respawn. It's fun for me of course, but honestly it isn't a "Fair" game design. People should lose due to their mistakes, not due to their opponent's forcing bad respawn points.

Other games might give a few seconds of respawn invincibility to help with that, but then you potentially run into the problem of playing getting killed by invincible enemies who happened to spawn right in front of them.

Some games might have a protected starter base, where the opposing team simply cannot enter to spawn kill.

Other games (And my personal recommendation) allow players to choose which zone that they'll respawn at. I feel this is the superior option, because with enough respawn points to choose from, it becomes impossible for the opposing team to lock down each of them. No matter how good a team is, you can only control so many spawns with so many players on your team. This means that the team will always have a way to avoid the spawn trap. It also avoids having players repeatedly spawn on the other side of the map as their teammates, and getting homelessly outnumbered while alone. Lastly, done properly, it's the hardest one to exploit.

Though of course, maybe you simply want it to be the type of game which rewards the diligent player for learning everything they can about the game's obscure mechanics. Or perhaps you want victory to come primarily from which team has the better shooters and teamwork. Whatever respawn system you choose will have an impact on this.

 

@Gerald Tyler good point on the respawn system. I personally am looking at the player choose their spawn point system, for benefits such as the one you have mentioned. This does indeed greatly affect the whole gameplay mechanic. Appreciate that you give such a detailed feedback.

@Cheburek thanks for the critique, any character animation in particular that needs to improve?

 

I personnally think the animations look fine but i was never great at seeing the difference between good anims and great anims.

 

not an expert obviously, and I am judging you on standards of top-quality AAA level games like Battlefield But imho characters look a little jerky/animations don't seem to blend well. On top of that are you using locomotion? It seems like a great opportunity to experiment.

 

How many people are working on this game?

 

Looks great! I like the cross between Modern FPS and Futuristic!

 

I hope this game is still being continued. I just found this thread and it looks amazing!

 

@StarGamess cheers mate! Glad you like the animation!
@Cheburek that's a valid concern, though we do aspire to aim for triple A quality as much as we could. I will pass this to the animator!

@Harold_83 there's currently a core team of 4, with many freelancers helping us out from time to time. I am personally in charge of coding and design.

@Whiteleaf yes we are still working hard on this, and we recently fixed some major issues so we could now aim to provide more updates. Thanks for checking us out!

 

Hi guys, I've submitted Ascend to Steam Greenlight
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=759034450&tscn=1474129977

Would appreciate it if you can spare some time to take a look and vote!
Thanks for taking a look!

 

Wow, this game looks really cool! Great work!

Slight problem, the link is broken...

 

Dang, sorry for that. Thanks for letting me know @RavenOfCode

 

dont look now, but you have a fan on kotaku....

http://kotaku.com/indie-studio-making-its-own-titanfall-1786780044

 

Wow! The comments on this page is horrible, especially considering this game has been in the works before Titanfall was even released!

 

A pretty terrible 'report' if I'm honest, all he does it bash your game. I would like to see what he would make if he were an indie dev. Also his points aren't really very valid, this game reminded me nothing of titanfall, the only thing that is similar is the calling the mech part. It actually felt very original, which is rare in an fps.

Keep up the good work!

 

Nah. Titanfall's development started in 2011 and it was published in 2014. Ascend's development, however, began in 2013 and it isn't out yet. Still, the Kotako news reads like "we have to fill the cucumber time somehow".

 

The comments are pretty alright. I did I started later than Titanfall, exactly six months before their first announcement in GamesCom I believe? Thanks for checking out Ascend, and the kind words, fellows!