Development

Development

Our Approach

We use a very relaxed, iterative approach to building War Angels and the components around it: the tooling, the website and the Arbiter back-end. There are no set deadlines for a final release – instead, individual components are developed bit by bit, put together and published for the community to see.

Our first set of downloadable releases are called Technical Releases, or TRs. TRs are intended to break the quiet period of time before a gameplay client is delivered, by demonstrating some in-client functionality such as the chat system, in-game rendering capabilities, et cetera. These are not prototypes that are thrown away – they are bundled deliverables along the way to a gameplay milestone. Each milestone release is preceded by one or more TRs, as there are a lot of components outside of the gameplay alone that will be worked on.

Current Development

  1. Base Design Documents More Info

    • Pending Map Editor - Start Here
    • Pending Mesh Editor - Start Here More Info
    • Pending ParticleFx Editor - Start Here More Info
    • Pending User Interface (Client) - Start Here More Info
    • Pending Physics and Animation - Start Here More Info
    • Pending Rendering (Client) - Start Here More Info
    • Pending Networking - Start Here More Info

  2. Milestones / Game Types

    • Pending Technical Release 2 - Subspace Trench Wars More Info
    • Pending Technical Release 3 - GravBall (Inf 1 Adaptation)
    • Pending Technical Release 4 - Skirmish / Mech Skirmish (Inf 1 Adaptation) More Info
    • Pending Release Candidate 1 More Info
    • Pending DM / TDM / KOTH (Inf 1 Adaptation) More Info
    • Pending CTF (Inf 1 Adaptation)
    • Pending Headquarters (Inf 1 Adaptation) More Info
    • Pending Inf 2 Custom Zone - Conquest More Info

  3. Backlog

    • Pending Render Item in The World More Info
    • Pending Pick Up Item More Info
    • Pending Drop Item More Info
    • Pending Minimap More Info
    • Pending Implement SSAO
    • Pending Implement Audio and Effects More Info
    • Pending Implement Background Music
    • Pending Implement Camera Shaking More Info
    • Pending In-Game Context Menu More Info
    • Pending Highlight Nearby Item/Door/Vehicle Actionables More Info
    • Pending Implement Shop Logic More Info
    • Pending Implement Shop Window More Info
    • Pending Implement movement blocking More Info
    • Pending Add Channel Window More Info
    • Pending Implement Player Profile Widget/Window More Info
    • Pending Implement Client Console More Info
    • Pending Asset Lookup Propagation More Info
    • Pending Enter Vehicle More Info
    • Pending Exit Vehicle More Info
    • Pending Central Asset Server More Info
    • Pending Client Asset Downloading
    • Pending Toggle Door
    • Pending Show Current Sector and Volume Name More Info
    • Pending Implement XInput Controller Handling More Info
    • Pending Implement Water (Placement and Rendering) More Info
    • Pending Implement Environment Probes More Info
    • Pending Beam/Ray Support More Info
    • Pending Build Item
    • Pending Build Computer
    • Pending Secure Remember Me Functionality More Info
    • Pending Setup Infantry URI Handler More Info

  4. Technical Release 2

    • Pending TR2 Pre-Release Bugs and Fixes More Info
    • Pending Read in the Base Configuration file. More Info
    • Pending Trench Wars Game Script More Info
    • Pending Trench Wars Level Layout More Info

  5. Done

    • Done Implement Specular Highlight
    • Done TR2 - Implement Inventory Calculations
    • Done Technical Release 1 - Up and Running More Info
    • Done Rename to War Angels More Info
    • Done Implement UI form-based logic. More Info
    • Done GS2C - Pinned/Ticker Messages More Info
    • Done Mesh Editor - Mesh Preview More Info
    • Done Infantry Studio - Save settings to file More Info
    • Done Implement Parallax Backgrounds Rendering More Info
    • Done Inf Studio - Move/Rotate Objects More Info
    • Done Render Flag/Ball in The World More Info
    • Done Immovable Flag Objective More Info
    • Done GS2C Player Leave Packet More Info
    • Done GS2C Flag/Ball State Packet More Info
    • Done Finish Base Network Layer More Info
    • Done Inf Studio - Flags Window More Info
    • Done Main Menu Screen TR2 More Info
    • Done C2GS "System Message" Packet More Info
    • Done GS2C Ping/Player Count Packet
    • Done C2GS Ping/Player Count Packet
    • Done Implement Class Window More Info
    • Done Limit Minimum Window Size More Info
    • Done Chat Widget TR1 More Info
    • Done Login Screen TR1
    • Done Create C++ Win32 Project
    • Done Import Libraries for Direct3D, SimpleMath, FBX, Enet
    • Done Write a Screen interface. More Info
    • Done Implement Visibility Cones More Info
    • Done Implement Classes More Info
    • Done Wire in Network Connection with the Application class.
    • Done Button Widget
    • Done Write the S2C Message Proto Packet. More Info
    • Done Write Network Connection class. More Info
    • Done Write the S2C Player List Proto Packet. More Info
    • Done Write the S2C Player Join Proto Packet. More Info
    • Done Input Box Widget
    • Done Write a Direct3D Device Class. More Info
    • Done Write Render Mesh Method + Shader More Info
    • Done Implement Shadow Mapping
    • Done Implement Directional Lighting
    • Done Implement ClearType Rendering More Info
    • Done Handle Window Resizing Gracefully More Info
    • Done Write Infantry Client Application Class with a set of basic methods. More Info
    • Done Write a Direct3D Camera Class. More Info
    • Done Write a Mesh Class. More Info
    • Done Write Shader to Render Wireframe Object in World Space More Info
    • Done Write methods in the Window Class to handle Key and Mouse messages.
    • Done Write Window Class With Generic WinProc
    • Done Discuss what bare components need to be developed first.
    • Done Write the In Game Screen class. More Info
    • Done Write a Render Label method.
    • Done Write Raw Input classes. More Info
    • Done Write a basic device-agnostic Input Class. More Info
    • Done Write Shader to Render Textured Quads in "IScreen" space. More Info
    • Done Inf Studio - Save/Load Map
    • Done Display Build Number More Info

Timeline & Milestones

As an on-going process, the website and the Arbiter back-end are worked on and refined throughout the development. As time goes on, more areas of the website will be developed and eventually be opened to the public.

Our first gameplay milestone is the Subspace Zone, a re-imaging of the classic Subspace gameplay in the new War Angels environment. The players will be able to join the zone from the game's UI, select one of few available ships, and move around the map shooting their primary weapon. Players that are logged into the game will be able to chat with other logged in players.

From here on, we intend to bring back the land-play zones such as Skirmish and CTF.

Our aim is to have a private test starting with 15-20 players, and ramp up from there to see how the server and latency holds up as we add more players.

Long-Term Goals

Remake all the key elements of Infantry Online 1 with a new, higher fidelity look. Players can fight across multiple planets each with a distinct environment – the desert moon of Titan, the swampy and lush forests of new Earth Terra, and the barren cold wastelands of the Titan Militia stronghold on moon Tethys.

League gameplay is distinctly supported and seasonal rankings are displayed in player profiles in-game.