We Create Stuff blog

Some of you may have noticed the date on the Echoes website. It says the first Act of Echoes is scheduled for Q3 2009… And, it’s also past September, meaning we’re in Q4.

We’ve already said that in the forums: Echoes is slightly delayed and will be released in this final quarter of the year (Q4 2009). Trust us, it is better this way. We’re a bunch of perfectionists, and we want our final product to be precisely as designed. This probably doesn’t mean anything to you yet, but I can assure you it will make all of the difference, eventually.

The good news is we’ve got some new Echoes media for you guys. Remember the awesome poster Axel made, before the website officially came online? Axel made a desktop version of it, for all the resolutions. Click to download.

I also captured in-game screenshots from the development. Here:

Echoes development screenshot #1 - Combat Mode, Dem in action selecting some units.

Echoes development screenshot #2 - Basic base up, purchasing some Combat Marines from the Unit Station.

Keep in mind some things seen here may change. Like the fog of war on the minimap, and Combat Mode’s ability icons. Axel’s touch is everything!

Hola!

Since this is my first blog post here, I just want to start off with a few words about myself. I’m Axel, and I do pretty much all of the graphics for Echoes. And the animation. And a bit of game design. I’m a twenty-something, from Stockholm, Sweden. I love music, photography, creating visuals, I love to write, cook, play the drums, create music, and many other things. Started an engineer program in Media Technology at KTH in Stockholm a week ago. But enough about me! (for further info, head to the ‘about’ section – coming soon)

I thought I’d say a few words about the building pods, an important (and really cool) element in Echoes. Here’s how they work – you select which building you want to construct and a location where you want to build it. Mother Earth (the huge temple ship hovering above you) then receives the data, and drops a pod with non-human precision on your desired location. It continues by unfolding, it builds using rapid construction technology, and voila – you have a building, readyto be used!

Just hearing about it and seeing a screenshot may not be enough to make your arm hair rise, but take my word for it – its awesome. Stay tuned!

Echoes pods (click to enlarge)

/Axel

The website of Echoes, our upcoming Flash game, is finally up at echoesgame.com !

We filled it with a lot of information – regarding the universe and story of Echoes, a dedicated media page and a blog page to keep up with everything posted here. We will update the site occasionally and release more details and media about Echoes soon.

Echoes

It was designed by Axel, who is also the lead artist & animator in Echoes and is working very close with me on the game. I can’t help but love his style, it fits Echoes perfectly! Special thanks goes to the guys at SmartWD for the coding help and organizing the server-side stuff!

• Hit this link to get to the new website

As mentioned before, one of the main features in Echoes is allowing the player to instantly switch between Strategy mode and Combat mode. The Combat mode is the primary mode designed to assist your fellow men in combat, by controlling the main character, ‘Dem’. This name will make sense to you all soon

“General Dem is the current Commander-in-Chief of all UEN forces based on the Mother Earth. He is believed to be the first human chosen by the Hybrid Pantheon to undergo their ‘Ritual of Ascension’; the physical and mental integration into the Hybrid leadership caste. His escape from captivity before the completion of this process has left him with advanced Hybrid implants and abilities, but with no recollection of his past.”

- Echoesgame.com, Universe – Characters – Dem

Player DEM ingame visuals

Dem is able to carry an arsenal of weapons designed for different combat situations. But most importantly, he can use a number of Hybrid abilities, supportive and offensive, to fight along significantly with the UEN.

And here’s some more art:

Concept art of Dem, by Axel & Susanna

The website echoesgame.com is coming up in a few days!

Heya!

I think it’s time to push the April fools posts down, and as well keep you guys up to date on what we’re working on. We’ve got lotsa stuff planned in the following weeks, and we sure hope you’ll like it.

First off, some of you may have noticed the front page is going through some redesigns. These changes are made in order to expand the theme of WCS to the rest of the website. This means, eventually, this blog and the forums too will have the same sleek look of the front page. Oh and the forums will be upgraded: PHPBB2 did a fine job for the past year or so, and it’s time to move on.

Projects-wise, both Echoes and Nightmare House 2 projects are going well! Echoes is gonna get its website set up real soon, so be sure to read around. NH2’s website is also gonna get an update, as it is rather outdated at the moment. Meanwhile, Hen told me to put this up:

Nightmare House 2. yarrr, wat the eff ey?

Echoes is going great. But there’s still work to be done… So meanwhile, we got a bunch of sketches and colorful artwork to show off!

The following sketches are by Susanna W, who joined our team to help us with the character art. Tracing’s done by Axel Hammarback, who’s also our extremely talented animator as shown in the last post. All the artwork follows the awesome storyline of Echoes written by Paul Komenza.

Echoes artwork: Lt. Richard Parker and Synderion

Echoes artwork: Cptn. John Miller and Dr. Daniel Hunter

See you soon.

Heya!

I’ve got some cool news for you today. For the past few months now we’ve been working on a new title, Echoes. It’s a Flash strategy – shooter game, in a futuristic war theme, and I can’t wait to show you some pics.

Isn’t that one awesome logo. Wait ’till you see the following characters. Axel Hammarback is the one responsible for their sharp looks – He’s the lead art & animation on Echoes:

Snap, awesomeness!

Last, I forgot to update about it. Portal: Still Alive is out and available on the Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 points ($15). It includes ALL of the original Portal game, plus a number of new challenges (That’s where we come in. Go Hen!), and new twelve achievements. Seven-hundred megabytes of win.

I’ll keep you guys posted.

Howdy people! We’ve got some exciting news – Our very own Portal: The Flash Version was nominated for the Best Web Game of 2007 at Zeebys’ Second Annual Casual Game Awards 2008.

This is awesome by itself, but it doesn’t end here. We still have till around July 11th to vote for it to win the award! So stop reading this, and follow this link:

Our game is in the ninth category: Web Game. You’ll have to vote through the rest of the categories – but worry not! It shouldn’t take more than a minute. In the end of the process you will need to confirm the voting.

You guys have no idea how grateful we are for your support Thank you!