Up to now BASHandSlash.com has focused on the "major" studios and their blockbuster releases. However, by concentrating on only what was happening in, for example, the CoD and BF world, we have been missing all the really cool PC-centric stuff that has been happening in the indie scene.
For some, like BASHandSlash.com forum reader Kucd, the activity from independent developers is of no surprise. But for many, it is truly an unknown world. Some of this activity is quite interesting and revolutionary, so, given the positive news coming out of PC FPS-gaming of late, I thought we should continue the trend and mention what one indie game developer has been up to.
On to ensure they are no longer an unknown world to our listeners, is the Game Director for Unknown Worlds, Charlie “Flayra” Cleveland.
Charlie talks to us about Unknown World's latest offering, the online FPS game, Natural
Selection 2 (NS2) and also delves into his vision of the future of PC game modding.
My co-host on this cast is Crosshair’s iBleedv20.
While the “big blockbuster” FPS producers are busy trying to build
walls around their intellectual property, folks like Unknown World’s
devs are opening as many welcoming doors and windows into theirs.
In this cast, Charlie gives us a really cool, inside look into the
thinking behind NS2 and its predecessor Natural Selection. NS2 is
currently days away from being in Alpha and we hope all of you get over
to naturalselection2.com
and learn more about the game and download it!
Here's the teaser for NS2. Given that it has had over a quarter of a million views, there are obviously a horde of PC gamers keeping their eyes on this game.
Gameplay
As you can see, this looks like a futuristic shooter. Charlie describes the game as a mix between Counter-Strike and Starcraft. The RTS side of things comes through the "Commander" mode which was an innovation that came in with the first game in the series, Natural Selection.
Made for the hardcore gaming community
The game is definitely suited to our community. Win32 dedicated servers
will be available and Linux dedis are right around the corner. Modding support is exhaustive in this game. Rather than discouraging modding, NS2 goes out of its way to support mods.
The game is built on Unknown World's own engine and scripted in LUA. The engine supports PHYSX and dynamic lighting.
UW will provide a LUA debugger, a level editor, a cinematic tool (and many more items) all as part of the game. You should see many total conversions of this game, given how many tools Charlie and his devs will be giving you.
No console port here. This game exudes the spirit of its developers, all of whom are hardcore PC guys.
Links:
Here are all the links you will need to order the game.
