[HaJ News - April 2007] One Year On...

[Ginger Lord]

April 1st last year we publically unveiled the mod, perhaps too early in retrospect or perhaps not early enough in others.

Compared to other Source engine mods 1 year of offical dev time is miniscule, others have been in production for 3-4 years, some even from before HL2 was released and still have not released. I think its pretty amazing we have gotten as far as we have with effectivly a core of about 5 people doing the work with others chipping in.

That said we had hoped to be much further along now, we are held back by two things really. Coders and Animators. Essentially the maps for version 1 are pretty much done and we just need the coders to finish our objective system and playtest and fix bugs. We need the animators to animate all our weapon models, which are all modelled and the mjaority unwrapped. We want to get the animated before skinning as we can then optimise and give the skinners the best possible UV to work with.

The mod literally hinges around these two roles, with only one person on each task at the moment (mXed isn't even supposed to be doing the animating but has had to as no one else is!) and being down the 1 coder we are really slowing down and its frustrating.

So we need your help!

If we had a professional animator and coder and they gave us a week or two of solid work I have no doubt we'd be close to releasing the first version to testers if not already, these jobs are literally holding the rest of the mod up.

All this has come at a generally slow time for mods which hasn't helped at all and combined with a fair chunk of the team having some "real-life" problems ranging from broken fingers, sprained ankles and knackered hard drives to tonsilitus, glandular fever and end of year exams it really couldn't have been a worse month or so.

I hope to get some new media up for the next news bulletin, hopefully we'll have a few more weapons skinned and animated to show off ingame.

[fess]

God, I wish I could help out, but I don't possess any of the skills nor know anyone who does. Best of luck in finding new team members, and thanks for the update!

[Hugo.B]

Ditto.^^^^

H.B.

[zone trooper]

I just wish i knew how to code. I would gladly help out but i can't code or animate.

[mXed]

you never get too old to learn ; )

[Hugo.B]

Yeah... Well said mXed, zone trooper, I recommend you Python.

H.B.

[Arturo]

Thanks for the update! Hopefully you find the required positions.

[Sly Assassin]

I know what it's like to try and find coders and animators, the mod team I was on, have forever been looking for an animator, they're a rare occurance at the moment.

It's easier to find a mapper, sound artist or skinner then a coder or animator (Player or weapon). Good luck in the hunt for one, if I hear of one I'll let you know or point them this way

[Talbot]

Perhaps a propaganda campaign?

Are there any Battlegrounds folks who can help?

I'd be helping in a flash if the logical side of my brain worked for programming, but unfortunately it doesn't.

The guys making the Trenches 2 are I think short of staff as well so it's a universal issue.

[Slackiller]

Wish I could do either one of those to help out. I should learn to animate as it seems to be what all the mods need.

Good Luck in finding the staff you need. I'll keep an eye out for them also.