Hey everyone,
We've been so busy coding, Facebooking and Tweeting that we haven't posted here in awhile. Well it may not look any different, unknownworlds.com is now running on a very fast new linux machine so we can scale with demand. We saw a bit of downtime with the release of our teaser a month ago and we don't want that to happen again. We've definitely outgrown our old machine and with help from the NS community and some local friends, this new server is up and running and faster than ever! I hope we're ready to handle tons of traffic.
We are hard at work getting our content tools (level editor, cinematic editor, model viewer and builder) shippable so we can give them out to everyone that pre-ordered Natural Selection 2. We want to give you guys an early peek at our technology so you can get up to speed with the tools and so you're ready to mod the heck out of NS2 when it's released. We're also hoping to get lots of feedback so we can make sure the tools are useful, intuitive and pleasant to use.
Along with these tools, we're planning on releasing our environment artwork (textures and models) and NS2 mapping guidelines so the community can start making maps. We did this a looong time ago with the NS Technology Release and it worked out fantastically. Of the 20 maps that ended up in NS1, well over half were from the community! Right now we're only giving out this stuff to those that pre-ordered (the NSTR was free for everyone) but we hope to give out the NS2 tools for free to everyone in the future.
If you see any problems with the new site please let us know (charlie@unknownworlds.com)! Over and out.
Hey everyone!
It's been a bit quiet on the news/blog side of things recently, but we have a good excuse! We've just finished the new NS2.com promotional site, started taking pre-orders and released the first video showing off the first glimpse of in-engine aliens in NS2!
We're anxious to hear what you guys think. Both sides have evolved since NS1 so will you guys like the new alien look? Technology has taken a huge leap forward too, so old NS1 look (Eclipse textures!) really wouldn't translate and allow us to still look current. So far the feedback has been quite positive which makes as quite warm and fuzzy.
Here's to a new chapter in the Natural Selection universe. It's good to have you with us.
ModDB just posted an interview with Andrew "KungFuSquirrel" Weldon (personal website here), the lead level designer for NS2. Andrew created the two most popular maps for Natural Selection (ns_eclipse and ns_veil) and has been taking the reins for all that is level design in Natural Selection 2.
The interview talks about how he got into level design, his involvement with Unknown Worlds, how he works off-site, how NS2 maps will compare to NS1 maps and the proverbial more.
