Progress on Space Jump

Did a little more work on the obstacle-type course in between other things. Here is a little stitched together panorama of it (click for big)

Space Jump WIP video

This is a 4x speed run through of a map I am working on to test out a "gauntlet" type game mode where the goal is to be the first to get to the finish against the clock. We are planning on having checkpoints throughout the map so that if you fall off you can respawn. Brian is also anxious to add physical obstacles along the blank straight lengths that will move around which you will have to dodge.

In other news, I have found a new place to work on Zero Gear - a real actual office space shared with my brother, exciting!

New Character: Cacti

From the barren and windswept mesas of the desert comes our newest character Cacti. Say hello, but I wouldn't touch!

Zero Gear Trailer 1

We were asked to provide a video that will be shown along with our entry for the IGF, so here is something I whipped up!

Happy Holidays, and new character "Eye Guy"

Hope everyone is relaxing and having a great holiday instead of reading this post! Here is a little purple present in your Zero Gear stocking. This has to be our most ridiculous character yet, it's a blast to play with the colors and put items on this little dude.

Beep Beep I'm a Jeep!

It's been a while, but I pulled some time out of nowhere to make a new kart model. A ww2 era Willys MB!

RinkyDink level video

I needed an excuse to try out YouTube's new HD video format so I decided to try posting a short flyby of a new level I am making called RinkyDink. RinkyDink is the same "goal" mode gameplay as Kick It, only with ice and a puck. It is hard to pick out in the video but the ice in the rink is using our patented, cutting edge, "Reflect-o-Matic" reflection whizzbang technology.

Not dead yet!

I feel happy! I feel happy!

We have been keeping very busy as usual - spending a lot of time dealing with some nasty memory issues and other non-glamorous things. But to keep our spirits up we started on a new game mode, check out the screenshot and maybe you will be able to guess what it is!

New Steam Group and Screenshots

Just a quick note to drop off, we have a newfangled "Official" Game group on Steam, which you can join to show your support here.

It has some new screenshots on it that you I also added to our official media page here.

Chute Shoot video to boot!

Here is a video we took last night while playtesting our new map, it was a blast!

Chute Shoot!

Just popping in real quick to show you a screenshot of a new game mode we are hoping to have working by the first. I don't think it needs a whole lot of explanation!

Twister Item video

I know it is sat. night, but what else would you expect us to be doing with under one month left until IGF submissions are due? Tonight we took a break to make a little video showing how fun our new twister item is. It is the latest in our quest to create physics based weapons. Click to watch!

new item sneak peek

introducing the L.U.V. Bot:

The primary function or intended purpose of the L.U.V. Bot is still a little hazy. However it is known to run lustfully at any moving object and latch on in a merciless hug, until it's emotion chip shorts, resulting in a massive L.U.V.-splosion.

quick new map

we are having a lot of fun with the tag game mode in our playtests, but we only have one map for it. So I decided to whip up another quick one for fun. This one is called the Punch Bowl:

2 new characters

Meet Squiddles and the Brain:

New movin' pictures: Zero Gear race track showcase

As I have been promising for some time now we finally have a new video for everyone. This video showcases our initial 3 race maps that we are working hard to outfit with all the gameplay gears and gadgets that Brian is developing as we speak. These will be 3 of the 5 maps that we plan to have for our first beta release.



Looking forward to racing some of you in these soon!

P.S. These beautiful levels would not be possible without the fine rendering engine Ogre3d, as well as the well crafted particle engine, Particle Universe.

Level polish time!

I have been spending a lot of time polishing up the tracks in our game in preparation for the race mode that Brian is working on. One of the fun parts is adding particles to the level, here is a shot of the mine from Spaghetti West with lots of glowy particles.

Zero Gear marks 1 year of development

The other day we were trying to figure out exactly how long we had been working seriously on Zero Gear, so I went into my backups folder and lo and behold - the first backup of "kart game" I have is dated August 13, 2007. Things have come a long way since then, and there is a long way to go as well.

Apart from doing all we can to get a build of our game ready for the IGF, we have been distributing alpha builds of our garage editor to salivating artists who are hell-bent on creating all sorts of custom items for the game. As part of that process I have been writing documentation for creating those assets on our new Wiki. We are already building a great community with lots of talented artists around Zero Gear which is very exciting. Here is just a sampling!

If you would like to see what other stuff these talented guys are cooking up, go check out the polycount thread (23 pages long! might want to skip towards the end ;)

Also, a sneak peek of our main menu:

Skullkar lives!!!

Something a little darker than usual happened to show up in the garage today, check out these shots!

Latest out of the monkey mill

Here is another fabulous sock monkey whipped up by the lovely Chelsea Heyneman. Hopeully you will have a chance to bid on some of them soon to help us raise development funds!