Omicron Update 4: Concept Art Sneak Peek

[art: Tuncys]

As Omicron races towards the finish line, our beloved artist Tuncys continues to deliver concept art.

- R. out

Omicron Update 3: Poster Sneak Peek

[art: tuncys]

As per promised a sneak peek at the Omicron poster art.
Cheers,

E. out.

Arkady News: People Skills & Omicron Trailer Video

[picture: Rajat Anantharam]

e: Look at this... Years of programming and I am reduced to a light stand.
g: Shut up, I am a physiotherapist.

We have been shooting a new video (in color!) for Omicron with Arkady's talended crew and friends. The end results are interesting, mostly showing that we would do really well as carpet or insurance salesmen.

We are ever vigilant however, working to make the best of what has been recorded, even though we now have enough takes of ourselves to watch and laugh at for the rest of our lives.

The entire experience taught us many things such as how to build set lights, how to write a pitch script, how to shoot a video, how not to act, and how to communicate with an Icelandic physiotherapist wall-climber and outdoors-man who was more than eager to help us with his camera and excessive handyman skills. A big shout out from here to Gunnar, without whom we would be less humbled men. I personally look forward to future collaborations.

Bloopers, documentary, general silliness, madness, insane cackling, and such will eventually follow at a later date.

Cheers,

E. out.

Omicron Update 2: Pili

Screenshot of a new feature: the Pili. Hair like growth on walls which regenerate over time.

Cheers,

E. out.

Omicron Update 1: Art and Design

Several new things happening on the Omicron front, check points are being reached, art work is being revamped, levels being rethought, and enemies, I mean the ecosystem is blooming with life.

The list.
-New cutting edge concept art, for posters and even likely to be in game.
-Colors and particles are being re-adjusted to give the game a clearer feel.
-Optimization regarding the particle count at a given level segment.
-An "Omicron Poster Page" is in the works.
-Shooting a video for documenting the development process with friends' help :)
-New trailer in the works.
-New environmental features such as wavering foods, and tactile grass.
-Possibly new moving mechanism for Omicron to make it move a bit more fluidly.
-Food varying in size and color.
-Composite power ups.
-New website look.
-And a surprise!

Watch out for updates, I guess I will be writing based on completion of each new item in the list with screenshots, info, videos, etc.

E. out

Arkady Studios at DiGRA 2011

Arkady Studios attended DiGRA starting from 14th till 17th. It was loads of fun, many great things learned, morale boosted, and cakes were consumed. We were exhausted at the end, and mayhaps some of the talks were ideologically clashing our own convictions, however there is pleasure to be taken from such adverse points of views; the mental stimulation was very welcome.

And yes, you heard me right, I said: Cakes! When it comes to Arkady Studios, Cakes are no lies; we spared no expense to bring the best Cake Master of the world, right from the depths of Iceland, just so that we may share the joy of showcasing our game with others in the tastiest fashion possible. She baked them between 2 and 4am in the morning, when the planets aligned in their most auspicious arrangement. I witnessed her listening closely to the sound of Red Velvet Cake and arguing fervently with the ElfCake.

Long Story Short: We might have overdone it a bit, since people tended to say: "aaah, arkady studios, the one with the cakes right?" Yes we would reply, "but, have you tried Omicron yet?". No harm done though. People who tasted the cakes were more likely comment thoroughly on the game.

Of course, a huge thanks to Dutch Game Garden for having us, especially right next to the entrance. An equally huge thanks to all the people who played Omicron, and commented. I do not really need to mention how awesome the entire organization was, and how thankful we are to everybody involved as well. But I just did.

Also, Omicron Beta 0.75 is out, available for download on our website. We have optimized, redesigned, and replaced a great deal of things. We are still not at the point where we would feel comfortable listing all the changes. Yet. But as soon as Omicron Beta 1.0 is released we will keep a full update history of all the features and changes.

Noticeable changes involve new sound effects, new level designs and a few new elements.

Oh, also! We have updated the website a bit more. Now we are accepting Donations! Please support us so we can continue occupying space in congresses where we will be distributing free world class, home baked, eccentric cakes.

-E. out

More Friday News

First, and foremost; thanks to everyone for all the nice comments, valuable critique, and support we have been receiving so far. We are still a budding company and we are learning a lot thanks to the feedback.

Please keep in mind that Omicron development is going on full-steam. We will update the game as we reach breakthroughs along the way, with the ultimate hopes that the finished product will be available on September 1st. We are clawing our way to our first patch/beta 0.61. We will put a through list of changes when they are finished, but let it suffice to say for now that we are tackling some major performance optimization.

On a different note: We will soon have donations available as a free service to all the philanthropists amongst you :) I shall update the blog once we get that sorted out.

E. out.

Omicron Beta is Out!

Arkady Studios is very proud to announce that the beta version of Omicron is available for PC and MAC. Grab your copies from the website and let us know what you think about the game.

Go get it at

Flash!

Hello World!

For the past three weeks Arkady has been working like never before. Each and every day we are getting breakthroughs, and our game is looking better. Which game you ask? What company you say? Perfectly normal questions...

Arkady Studios is an independent game studio. We make games. Currently we are working on Omicron, an artificial life game with a lot of music involved.

[Omicron Concept Art by darkmoose :) ]

We are hoping to showcase an early beta demo of our development this Wednesday the sixth at the Dutch Game Garden monthly gathering which is free for all to attend.

On a final note, personally I welcome any and all readers to our blog page. It goes without saying that following this blog is heavily encouraged for aspiring game developers as it will probably include lots of insights on game development processes from the eyes of a dedicated trio of computer scientists and master's of game development :).

Cheers

E. out.