8/1/10

Bellum Ex is now being developed for the XNA platform heading for the Xbox Live arcade!!

1/16/10

As of now Bellum Ex has entered into production of a real Beta. After the initial "beta" release we realized that it was not really a beta at all. Instead what the "beta" really turned out to be was an exploration. It was a critical tool in building the the very substantial model for Bellum Ex that exists now. The new Bellum Ex won't be very recognizable to the beta testers from October. The game is no longer strictly bound to distinct views. Instead, we've ripped the camera out of it's mount, strapped it to cinematographer, and then we told him to follow the action of the game. The camera pans dynamically around the action in Bellum Ex, adding a significant cinematic component to the game, and really showing off our 3D graphics. As the camera pans, your ship, and enemies, are constantly mapped to a 2D pane that is orthogonal to the camera's vector of view. The result is a 2D game in a truly 3D world, this has been the spirit of Bellum Ex from day 1. This novel approach to the side scroller has the advantages of: never having been tried, capturing the simplistic perfection of the 2D shooter controls, and maintains fully realized 3D graphics. We call this style of cinematographically scrolling shooter cross-dimensional as opposed to 2-D or 3-D, because it spans both styles. Along with cross-d, we will be commencing production on an actual Beta. This version of the game will include:

• A final, though incomplete menu system
• 3 levels that tell the beginning of the games story line.
• One playable user ship with a complete weapons payload.
• 7 enemy ship models
• 3 enemy bosses
• All models textured
• Completed background designs
• Unique music for each level as well as menus
• A complete arsenal of sound effects
• Save/Load or equivalent system
• Customizable Controls
• robust Audio/Video settings
• Gamepad support
• 2 Easter Eggs
• Storytelling setup Cinematic
• 3-5 scripted sequence cinematics
• Credits