Each mission in Count|Down usually gives the player a set of objectives to complete. Objectives range from finding key cards to hacking terminals, and must be completed before the player can move on in the level. In mission 1, the objectives require a few different areas to be built. The unde r ground facility is the first, and you have to reach the elevator to get to the ground floor. Then, after a few other objectives, you are able to access a new area, the comm tower. The underground facility is almost complete, so next up is modeling the ground floor. (Each area is modeled individually in Maya, then imported and put together in the dim3 Editor.) Anyway, just a little progress update. We are hoping for a (small!) demo in perhaps a month and a half, and although we have plenty of material for a complete demo, we are lacking good AI, and until that is finished, there's no change of a demo. :) There are also a few new images in the Media section too. :)

Somebody accidentally let Aaron into the particles folder, sparking his love for gore and blood and guts and leading him to make a new blood spray particle group for when you shoot guys. It looks very nice. We also found a very interesting picture of the new death animation, which features a mutant flying through the air. :-D

We are enhancing the Count|Down environment with normal and specular maps for all the textures and skins. We hope to have some screenshots of the new and improved textures in action. Hopefully in a few days. A new level is being pieced together, and has already been roughed out in Maya. There are a few tweaks and such that need to be completed, but everything else looks good. We are starting work on some props to prop around the level, so expect very sexy looking slightly roughed up wooden planks.

The first level of Count|Down is complete, with only the AI paths set up needed to finish it. The second level's geometry has been roughed out in Maya already, and we are starting to move it into the editor. AI, right now, is looking bleak. The damn node bugs are killing us, because of some stupid bugs that make the AI spin around on a node if not going fast enough. Sadly, all of our mutants move fairly slowly, so the bug is happening to all the AI. We hope to have that fixed soon, but until then, don't expect any videos, because there's no point without working AI. :(

Today BTD proudly launched the new Count Down development blog. We'll be updating you of any happenings here. Check the media section, as there should be some nice screenshots for you to drool over. Maybe we'll get a page up about the game some day. We'll be migrating this design to WordPress in a few, so bear with this more static version for now. Aaron needed a break from PHP... so he switched over to JavaScript. :P