Still On Target

It has been a while since the last update due to a move, work and studies. In any case, the Cold & Dark project is moving forward and our illustrator has done some great work. The Packages (classes/stereotypes) are coming together nicely.

The Working Man

Mining is the lifeblood of the C&D universe. All their energy sources are derived from it. An extremely lucrative, but perilous, way of making a living is prospecting. Mining prospectors travel far out in the big empty, visiting uncharted systems hoping to hit pay dirt.   

Freelance mining prospector Kyle Yenkov.

Packages on the way

At the moment we're working on the visual designs for the packages. Packages being the equivalent of stereotypes/professions. Our illustrator Johan Fredriksson has done a formidable job and is carving out the GIC Marine design a bit more.

The Rebels are here!

The struggle for the control over resources and power is a ferocious one. The GIC (Governmental Industrial Complex) try to lay claim to every ounce of belinium and coreanium, the lifeblood of the modern world. However, there are forces such as MEC (Military Economic Corporation) and CIM (Clandestine Industrial Militia) that oppose them. Using guerilla tactics and terror attacks these groups have proven to be fearfully successful.

Corporal Miko Fuentes of the CIM, mobilizing her troops to withstand the second wave of GIC border guards on the planet Vivrak in the Sumizome  system.

At the Heart of Things

Got a nice sketch of the reactor room of a ship. The coreanium core is suspended in an electromagnetic field. The amount of current that is run through it decides its energy output. This is the center of the ship, the main source for all its energy.

GIC Marine Corps!

Got some nice drafts of a little skirmish between the marines and their arch enemies, the ferocious aliens known as rippers. Soon we'll put up sweet sketches of some ship interiors.

Wouldn't Be Horror In Space Without Them

We have developed a font consisting of a glyphic alphabet. These glyphs can be found on alien artifacts, as well as on ships where the Void Psychosis Syndrome has taken over the crew. Any good with ciphers? Have a go at deciphering the message. It's fairly straight forward...

Not Exactly the Garden of Eden...

We have gotten our first rough sketch of a ships SAC, Simulated Atmosphere Containment. This will provide  a crew of thousands with water, food and air. Everything is engineered and synthesized. But at times the officers keep one or two real fruit trees or vegetable gardens in the system for those special occasions. But as you can see they don't leave it unguarded.

Some Conceptualization

First I want to get something out of the way. The abbreviation COG (which here stands for Customizable Operations Gear) has nothing to do with Gears of War, nor has it been inspired by the game. It was simply a coincidence. Now, onto the design.

When I sat down with our artist Johan Fredriksson to discuss my vision he was quite happy with me wanting to stay away from bulkiness when it came to the design of the armor. C&D Is played out in a high-tech world some six hundred years from now, but I wanted It to be gritty as well as sleek. So the COG was born.

Players will probably care as much about their COGs as for their avatars (characters).  The nano-integrated suit comes in nine models with approximately fifty applications and two hundred upgrades available. Below you have an example of how an avatar might look and what she might carry while out and about in the big empty.  

I have also been able to continue on the starmap for the Sirius Galaxy, and it's starting to go in the right direction. A big thx goes out to NASA and ESA for providing shots of the NGC 4414 galaxy, from which I used some nebulas for increased density in the new Sirius design.

 

And the work goes on...

The Cold & Dark project has been under development for nine months total and things are coming together. I finally managed to send the manuscript to proofing, and we have locked down our website at the moment as it is under construction.

I  Recently had  a meeting with our main illustrator and assistant AD, Johan Fredriksson and we got into some very nice designs. We are currently getting deeper into the creature designs, especially the Rippers.  Moray eel, sloths and centipedes has acted as inspiration in order to design the species. Involving the sloth might seem an odd thing to do but Johan found a really cool way to incorporate some of this animal into the design of our nasty predators.  Hopefully I will be able to provide you with some early sketches soon. In the meanwhile you have to settle for another piece of art. It's a wallpaper adaptation of some in-game art.

 GIC scout overlooking  terraforming units in the Tsu-Lang system, planet Helos, located 10,000 ly from the closest core system.

Damage and Progress

The new Wicked World webpage is still being designed and we're very happy with the result so far. Sorry about the hold up in the blogging but I managed to get into quite a severe accident that almost tore my right hand clean off (no, I'm not joking). But the cogs of the wicked machine keeps turning. We hope to be able to have Cold & Dark ready and out on the market this fall.

And we have some new awesome artwork on the way!

C&D Art

We have had some art coming in for the project. This is almost completed and shows a PCR (Planet Construction Rig) with a colonist inside. Johan Fredriksson is our main artist and we think ourselves lucky to have him on board.

Out on a trip

I came to England this Monday so it has taken some time to settle in. I’m here in Swindon doing my internship at Mongoose Publishing. But I think I’ll manage to keep the blog and the development of Cold & Dark up and running as well. So without further delay I have a new ship design I would like to share. This is the continuation of the earlier design of the core harvester...

Let there be light…but it’s still a mess

I’ve finally stopped dragging my ass and drafted the star map over the Sirius galaxy, the galaxy in which the stories of Cold & Dark are played out. I’m working on some interactive features that will be quite fun and useful. This is the first rough draft and I will work on the details, shape and color selection as well as some more systems. The map isn’t scaled but rather its purpose is to provide an idea of the size and distances involved. A rough guide if you will.

Design Underway

Last week I got a lot done. I managed to finish the core design for most of the space ships which are going to be featured in the Cold & Dark core book. There are some details left, like the exact size of some of the classes and the fine polishing of the look. I have been inspired by many sci-fi movies and games while creating the Cold & Dark “armada”.


I’m pretty happy with the combination of “clunkyness” and the organic. The world of insects helped some with the design of this cargo carrier (above).


Others, like this C-class hunter (above), have been modeled after submarines and other ships but with some added box-like features.


This E-class core purifier (above) has a bit of USG Ishimura (Dead Space), Event Horizon and oil tanker in its design.


This deep space B-class survey ship (above) is a favorite among medical technicians, site engineers and mining prospectors due to the fact that it’s the only B-class craft that uses a reactor core, which gives it ghost jump capabilities. However, this is the new generation of ships and it’s extremely expensive. The design has been inspired by the UAC Darkstar (Doom 3) and the USG Kellion (Dead Space).

Development in Progress

Almost every aspect of the Cold & Dark game mechanic has been written and tested. So it’s time to get the examples down on paper. Basically there are three things left to write: Examples, additional equipment material (ships included) and the ready to play story. That will conclude the bulk of the text. Some last QA work and then it’s time to get on the proofing. There will also be some news involving Noctum coming up in a while.

Creature Design

I’ve buckled down with the creature design for Cold & Dark and I’m trying to find the right look for the nasties in the game world. I have the basic ideas ready for the alien races. The antagonists are quite unpleasant and extremely hard to deal with at times. But that’s in line with survival horror in space. Being sealed up in a gigantic steel box in the middle of a vacuum together with hungry creatures that kill humans on sight is never a pleasant experience.

Running the Mechanics Ragged

This weekend’s playtesting is over. We gamed like crazy and I subjected the avatars (the equivalent of characters when using the Cold & Dark nomenclature) of the players to some really nasty stuff. The main idea was to test the combat and health system. And test them we did!

The players squirmed as their beloved avatars were shot, bitten, suffocated, irradiated and splashed with corrosives. They even got grenades flung at them. The system held up pretty good, but there were a lot of things that needed to be clarified, changed and developed further. It was a good session as it gave me a whole lot of information to work with.

When it comes to the musical aspect we managed to compose the first track. We named it Sleeping in the Ghost. This song is our first step towards finding a unique sound for this soundtrack.

New Music and Combat

Today Peter Skopa is coming over to work on some new tracks. The focus is going to be the game Cold & Dark. This whole weekend is about that very game. We need to find the right mix of horror, action and suspense that we can apply to the soundtrack. We’re also experimenting with some podcasting ideas that will be used for marketing. But this, like a lot of other things, will be introduced further down the line.

Then of course there’s a game test. Tomorrow we’re going to beat the crap out of the combat and health system and see just how airtight (or not) these mechanics are. I’ve added some new nasty details like critical hits that have a dismembering effect.

The New Logo

We have been developing a new Wicked World logo and we’re quite content. We think it goes hand in hand (no pun intended) with the kind of games we produce. A bit gritty one might say. Here is a closer look.