Magnate: Second Development Team

It has been a crazy time for Dominion Arts but we have fantastic news!

Not only will Magnate be on the iOS and PC but we've put together another development team to make a browser based version as well! Sean and Mike will be helming the development efforts for this new platform. We'll be modifying it and writing a whole new script separate from the PC story. Unlike the PC version, the browser based game will be free-2-play and have micro-transactions built into the mechanics.

The story used for the iOS and browser based versions will be a prequel to the PC, focusing on Taryn and her struggles some 8 years before Aiden takes the reins. Lisa, our main story editor, will be penning this prequel herself with Patrick staying on the main PC epic.

Our browser development team has been using RiouxSvn (http://riouxsvn.com/) for source control. It's a great tool that can track any code changes securely and effectively. Best of all: it's free! And allows unlimited number of users. Try it out!

As a side note, we're taking suggestions for swag you might want coming from our Kickstarter project, once we start it. Some items we have in mind are key charms, PDF artbooks, digital soundtrack and a custom Magnate Knight Armour USB stand. Any other ideas, please shoot them my way (timothy.kiem at gmail).

Until next time! Keep fit and have fun!

Magnate: Pre-Alpha Preview

And across the finish line!

We were able to pull something together and submit a video to Sony for GDC. We weren't able to get all the features we wanted finished, but we'll be doing that and fixing some bugs over the weekend before submitting our code if we're chosen by Sony. It's an exciting but nerve wrecking time for Dominion Arts!

The video we submitted was over 10 minutes long with our main programmer going into detail about what we did and how we did it, but I have a shorter version showing the game in a pre-Alpha state to give you all a taste with some music by Brendon (which is a little loud so please adjust your audio volume). Again, a lot of the pop-up screens are placeholder and there is no combat animation yet. Come Monday I'll post another video with what we were able to accomplish over the weekend! :)

For the HD version, please click on the video to watch it on youtube.

In the coming weeks, we should hopefully have an alpha build ready to be tested and when that time comes, I hope to be able to select a number of people to help us do just that. We'll also start a crowd-funding campaign to help financing, so stay tuned for that!

And to end it off, just a reminder that all the coding for what you saw in the video was done by 2 brave souls, Roger and Eric, over the course of 12 days! And on that bombshell, farewell! :)

Magnate: PSS Update!

It's a new record!

Nothing but good news for this update. We are 3 days away from submitting our demo to Sony and GDC and we've made amazing progress. To think that a mere 9 days ago we did not have a build for the PlayStation Suite to having a playable demo in 12 days is going to be pretty amazing. Mad props to Roger and Eric for crunching this out like a boss.

I thought I'd give everyone some in-game screenshots (yes, I'm looking at you, Jacques) on our progress thus far!

 

This is the combat UI in game.

 

Testing our dialogue UI.

 

All the game pieces on the part of the world we'll be using for the demo.

Also, some of our plans have changed. We still plan on bringing Magnate out for the PC, but you'll be seeing an iOS version first! We've written a whole new script for this new platform, but it will still involve the wonder twins Aiden and Kira. Our plan is to have it done by April! I'll keep you all posted as we go!

And that's it! Think I'll go flip some pancakes.