I found this screenshot so awesome, I just packed it for all resolutions and decided to throw it out here. Without telling too much about the storyline, it might look familiar to those who played the first Nightmare House and its remake.

Nightmare House 2 wallpaper

- Click here to download

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!

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

Recently I’ve been getting more and more emails and forum posts, asking about what’s up with Nightmare House 2, how the progress is doing and whether it’s still in development at all.

I understand your worries completely, especially because the current website is very, VERY outdated. Well, not anymore. First of all, a new website, full of fresh new info and media is being worked on, and will be up in the following weeks.

Until then, regarding the progress of the mod, I have a little surprise for all Nightmare House fans: We just put up a new temporary minisite for the mod, with a brand new HD trailer of NH2 at its best. It shows a lot of the stuff you may encounter in NH2, so I’m waiting to read theories!

Go watch it here:  nh2.wecreatestuff.com Change your pants and come back.

Nightmare House 2 official trailer

FAQ

Q. Damn it Hen, when’s the mod gonna be released?
A. I don’t want to promise any dates. The current progress indicates the release of the mod will be around Q4. I’ll update you guys otherwise. Speaking of which, if you’re interested in the development, follow it on: Twitter, Facebook, the official forums, and… this blog!

As a final note for this post, I’d like to thank again to all of you guys for expanding the ideas thread. It helped me a lot, even beyond just ideas – it was and still is a motivation fuel for me.
Cheers!

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

“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!

The new boards offer a reputations system, better management, easier access to different content, meaningful profiles (for a change), and they even support old style links if you still have old Portal TFV threads fav’d

Isnt this way better?

Aside from being pettier and easier to use, it’s the first hint to our new agenda for creative projects. We will post more about this in the coming months. For now, hit the boards!

Further information for existing users can be found in this topic.

Last week Valve finally released the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools. It allows me and other mappers to have fun in L4D’s dark atmosphere full of zombies.

So I took a break from Nightmare House 2 for one day, and made the following map: God Dam. It’s a rather simple survival map, with two main zombie streams, opposite directions. Sounds easy, but I can assure you it is challenging. Have some screen caps (download below):

L4D Map God Dam from a distance

L4D Map God Dam from an epic angle

L4D Map God Dam Gameplay

L4D Map God Dam Gameplay 2

I like the new tools, I might make a campaign too.

So, Click here to download.

Mirrors: 1|2

Instructions, (readme.txt) goddamn it:

Put both the bsp file and the nav file in:
\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\maps

To play the map, open up the console and type “mp_gamemode survival” and then type “map l4d_sv_dam”.

To start the action, go to the far side of the dam and press on the switch.

Made by Hen Mazolski of We Create Stuff
www.wecreatestuff.com

HF, any feedback is appreciated!

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?

I spy!