John and I have given the website a bit of a brush up. Hopefully it'll work for everyone - feedback welcome!

Hope you all have a great weekend

I'm the newest addition to the Beatnik team, filling in the role of 'el artisto' as of last week. I've been busy whipping up new levels and art assets for Plain Sight and am excited to be a part of the team! Beatnik's lead artist John and I will be kicking ass and taking names in the world of art. Unless that world of art happens to be inhabited by behemoth monsters with 13 eyes and tentacles for arms...even then we'll kick some kind of squishy thing!

It’s pretty quiet on the website these days. This isn’t because we’ve given up and gone home, it’s because we’re slaving away on the final release of Plain Sight.


So what’s the game looking like? Well, it’s looking pretty snappy I must say. Here’s a quick screeny:

Things we’ve done:

1. New shading/line drawing. The game now looks just like our original concept shots (phong shaded with line edge detection). In other words, sick.


2. AI – We’ve got a gang of 11 (rather stupid) computer controlled bots running, jumping and kicking arse. As Alex put it, ‘our AI is currently held together by soot and wishful thinking.’ So, lots of work is needed, but we’re getting there...


3. Networking – totally re-worked. New, fast and generally sexy.


4. New attack animation system. No longer do you just spin towards your opponents, now you leap forward and attack them, true ninja robot style.


5. Combo attacks.


6. Fine tuning of the ‘charge up’ attack system.


7. New movement animations.


8. More levels.


9. An interactive tutorial level (nearly finished).


10. Auto updating (nearly finished).

What we’re going to do :

1. Lots of server stuff - make the game robust for launch. We’re also hoping to have dedicated servers for launch day. This would make 15+ man games lag free...


2. Gameplay and visual tweaking – make it sassy and more fun.

There is obviously more – but that’s what springs to mind.

Expect to see more activity on the site in the next month or so. Here's another screen for your eyes...

PS: please start talking to us in the forums - we're lonely *sad panda*

click below to see the awesome.

And that is exactly what I am since joining the Beatnik team Monday!*

I'm the third programmer on the team and am delighted to be working on Plain Sight. This week I've been familiarising myself with the Plain Sight engine by implementing a snazzy tutorial that will help you learn the ropes of the game.

As for the other guys in the team.... It's no exaggeration when I say that they are really pulling out all the stops to squish bugs and produce great new content. Just this week Alex has been blitzing network code that we're already seeing the benefits of, Lawrence has been tweaking the GUI to ensure functionality and sexuality, and John is carving out new meticulously designed levels like a crazed Greek sculptor.

Needless to say it's a feverish atmosphere of productivity right now, so check back soon for more updates.

*Oh and sorry to get your hopes up but I'm not actually a programming panda, I'm just happy.

With the close of the open beta, so too comes the end of the level design competition. Thanks to everyone who entered, it was great seeing all your wacky sketches and ideas!
In the end, though, there can only be one winner. And that winner is forum newb Chris (otherwise known as gitssac)
We were sent reeling (ha!) with his unwound tape cassette floating in space design. Look out for it in the final release of Plain Sight! Coming to you... when we finish it.

Thanks again to all who entered! You're all awesome, and if I'd had it my way you all would have won.

Well, it’s the end of the week, so I guess I should really post something about what’s going on in the Beatnik world.

As you may have noticed, there is currently no open (or internal) beta available for testing at the moment. This is for a pretty obvious reason; there’s a ton of stuff to do and we’re in the middle of doing it.
At the last count, there are 20 things that need to be fixed or added. Some are pretty big, some are pathetically tiny (like crippled ants). Anyway, once those are done, we’ll ship.

The general plan is to kick off the internal beta again at the end of March. There will then be regular updates over the next two months until release, at which point we’ll have a free trial for everyone to play.

So, we’re looking at a June release date. I know, it’s not Q1, but it’d be a crying shame to push Plain Sight in any state other than ‘super awesome’.

In the meantime, we’ll be posting screens and sneak previews of upcoming features. As always, we want to hear your feedback. This game development lark gets lonely so keep us company (I know Lawrence is always partial to a hug)

PS: We moved into a new office! It’s basically an unused attic space in the same building. Those who came to TIG Jam will remember it … it’s so bohemian. Bohemian is so hot right now.
Photo above

The Plain Sight open beta is now officially over. Thanks to everyone who took part and helped us out.

All your feedback has been incredibly helpful and we feel confident that we now know what needs to fixed, added and changed for the final version of the game.

Unfortunately, there were a few fixes that we didn’t quiet get finished in time to squeeze into the beta. These included the (much requested) new camera and networking systems. But don’t worry, you’ll get to see these and a metric ton of other Plain Sight awesomeness in the free trail we’re planning prior to launch…

In the meantime, we’ll be posting regular updates on the progress of the game. We’ve got lots of tricks up our sleeves, so watch this space…

It just wouldn’t be Beatnik Games if we weren’t totally changing our minds at the last minute.

Maybe it’s because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, but we’ve had a few requests and... well, gosh darn it, we feel gooey and lovey enough to extend the beta deadline by just the teensiest-weensiest bit. Call it a week. There might even be a little bit of an update too, oooooh!

Just this once!

Just for you.