A
Alex Drake
Guest
Story:
The United League of Planets, the greatest peaceful union mankind has ever known, lies in shambles. The once proud coallition of humanity's greatest super-powers now wage bitter war across the cosmos. A devestating war threatens to tear apart all that has become of nearly two centuries of peace and prosperity among the rim worlds of the Third Exodus.
In grand, imperial fashion the Antarean Empire and its allies seek no less then the utter destruction and domination of the spaceways. Having grown disillusioned with the stagnant pseudo-democracy of the ULP and having been disgusted by the League's treatment of so-called "rebel-factions" (The Crowning Day Massacre), the Antarean Empire seceded from League. This precipitated a split, and eventually dissolution of the ULP as a single entity. The Antareans see themselves as the rightful heirs to supreme galactic power and regard their former League members as guilty of the crimes commited by past administrations [by consent].
Now, the scattered remants of the ULP are now locked in bitter struggle with the Antarean Alliance, the single largest "empire" in all known space. As the massive armadas of the depleted but still sizeable United Space Navy and Antarean Allied Navy grappled at one another, the rest of the galaxy watches with alarm, praying that the winning side will not turn its gaze outward once again. However ten years of war and tragedy have begun to take their toll as new galactic powers begin to emerge along with the discovery of new technologies.
Alliances are formed and broken, conspiracies hatched and foiled, all of this in the shadow of the longest recorded battle in mankind's space-faring history. Both sides have prepared daring and desperate bids to attain victory, but the question is no longer who will come out the winner, but rather how many will die ere the last battle is fought. A famous keeper of past knowledge put it best "In a war on heaven, angels fall first".
Backstory + Technical Bible (50 pages): http://www.dendezyn.net/downloads/AFF_UDD_Tech_Bible.doc
Project Overview:
Angel’s Fall First: Planet Storm (Half-Life 2)
• AFF: PS is a project meant to explore the realm of ground-combat in the AFF universe. It is unique in the fact that it will require a different sort of investment in terms of development material (character modeling/animation, terrain/level mapping, etc). However, this particular project has the amazing potential to be a truly unique spectacle involving the player more closely with the AFF universe. Further details will come as the project is evaluated.
Further details about these projects can be found by reading AFF's Universal Design Document: http://www.dendezyn.net/downloads/AFF_UDD_Design_Doc.doc
Planet Storm Team:
[Administration]
Alex: Lead-Creator, Writer, Scripter, Webmaster
[Public Relations]
Yeyeman9: PR
[Writing]
Phifty: Fiction and Errata
[Music/Sound FX]
BurningFeetMan: Music
TheWriter2: Music
[Concept Art]
orbluvion: Concept-Artist
Daemonia: Vehicle Concept Artist
[Modeling]
Lynx: Mecha Designer and Modeler
[Texturing]
Strangelet: Modeler and Texture Artist
Collaborations:
Angels Fall First is a cooperative sci-fi universe like no other. We draw our ideas from our [small] community and welcome submissions and suggestions of all kinds. Right now we are focused on building up our community and roster with people familiar with the Source Engine.
I realize that alot of projects come along looking for folks to simply do all of the work necessary to make a project look visually stunning, this is not the case with AFF. We put our money where our mouths (collectively) are, so have a look at a smattering of the art produced by our fantastic staff below:
[pics]
Here are some drawings and renders associated with other AFF projects in progress right now.
Angels Fall First: TC
Concepts:
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/images/usn_cruiser.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/data/upimages/usnscimitar1.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/data/upimages/generalconcept3.jpg
Renders:
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/images/finishedrenders/orion_render.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/images/ships/usn_sword/swordWIP2.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/images/ships/usn_valhalla/valhallafinal1.jpg
Angels Fall First: Planet Storm
http://www.dustwars.x-net.gliwice.pl/aff/soldier_light_orboverpaint.jpg
General Art
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/data/upimages/aff_atreus_ulp_capital.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/data/upimages/generalconcept_antares_docks.jpg
Aside from the illustration of elements in our technical bible we are actively looking for folks to help out with the following:
Mel Scripting
More of a general call, though our existingstaff are gamers (and love HL2), in general we are more "art heavy" than most teams, so we really needed folks who have experience working with HL2 scripting to help us develop and evaluate gametypes and actually get things in-game. Speaking as a coder (C++) I can say that those of us familiar with code will do our best to learn our way through things (so this is not a case of a project looking for work-horses), we definately need experienced hands to guide us in the process.
So, anyone willing to help consult (or even donate a bit of time and sweat) to this project would be greatly appreciated. If anyone is interested, please visit our forums: http://www.dendezyn.net/afforum/
Graphics:
An example of our existing art can be found here: http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/media.php
Renders can be found in our moddb gallery here: http://mods.moddb.com/gallery/3009/
Player Concept Artist - The AFF project is more than just ships. For the purposes of cutscenes, fiction, and other related errata, we would like to put faces on the characters players will be confronted with in-game. Paqrt of AFF's goal is to connect players more closely with their characters and units. To this end, we are in need of of a concept artist familiar (and semi-experienced) in creating futuristic themed character art (mostly armed forces). Interested parties will have a general database of knowledge about the AFF universe to work with, and existing vehicle concept art. However, since we have no existing art of this kind, he/she will have the difficult task of defining the art style for this portion of the project.
Secondary Vehicle Concept Artist - We have several distinct playable sides in AFF with widely varying style's of ship. Our current concept artist, orbluvion, cannot possibly cope with creating the volume of craft needed from scratch. We are looking for a concept artist to takeover the design and style creation for the "Antarean Empire" faction of the project. Interested parties should note that Orbluvion has been helpful in creating a variety of AISN ships which can be used as a creative base for developing the style of the faction. As a result, anyone interested in helpng us with this quandary will not be required to come up with a completely original style should they so choose.
Terrestrial Concept Artist - The AFF project encompasses ground locations as well (for uses in fiction, cgi cutscenes, and a possible ground-based "child" project). We are looking for an artist familiar with creating terrain/urban portraits (including aerial shots, and planets). It is likely any interested Applicants would be asked to work from text based descriptions as few other precedents currently exist for such work.
Notes for prospective artists:
*a typical design requires large(r) 3/4 shot and several smaller (less detailed) isometric views. This is our standard for any new concept, in order to help the modelers do their jobs in a reasonably effective manner.
*Any folks interested in serously assisting us should either direct [me] to an example of the individual's existing body of work, and/or email such submissions to [myself] if no such online venues are available.
Modeling:
*We are looking for folks to help us fill a variety of creative and managerial positions. In general we are looking for modelers familiar with Maya and/or 3DSMax/Lightwave/XSI(preferably with texturing experience, though not required). Most of the work we aim to create (renders etc) is designed to be cross-portable between a variety of engines and promotional platforms (such as static renders, cutscenes, etc).
Player Modeler - This position can be thought of as both independant and dependant on the co-position of player artist. For the moment, we are looking for someone to creat hi-polygon renders of characters in the AFF universe. Work will be limited to perhaps 4-5 characters, mostly headshots for use in-game (HW2/Nexus). Beyond that, anyone interested in helping fill this position will [in the future] be called on to assist with whatever cgi cutscenes we include, as well help with a possible FPS portion of the project.
Vehicle Modeler - We are looking for (1-2) talented, serious modelers with some experience in creating and texturing [space] vehicles. AFF has a unique [sci-fi] visual flare (thanks to our concept artist orbluvion) that we wish to suitably capture in-game. Any individuals interested in assisting with this should be aware that they will be asked to generate relatively detailed models (between 800 and 15000 polygons) based on existing concept art. Due to a backup in our art pipeline (which are working hard to remedy), isometric shots may not be available for all vessels and vehicles. As a result, anyone seriously considering this request will be expected to be able to demonstrate a suitable amount of creativity during the modeling process.
Texture Artist - The folks previously helping the texturing side of the pipeline have fallen victim to the disease known as "real life" and are currently out of commision for the time being. We are looking for folks experienced with the UV process and hi-quality sci-fi texture creation and application to lend their help and support to the project. Anyone interested will be working hand in hand with our modelers to generate the most appropriate textures for the ships to be included in our project. In the short term (2-3 months) we hope finish texturing 4-5 of our already finished vessels.
All serious submissions should be sent to me, here is my contact information:
email: [email protected]
MSNM: [email protected]
AIM: [email protected]
Help Wanted Boards: http://www.dendezyn.net/afforum/viewforum.php?f=23
Overall it our goal to finish the project in a timely fashion and to a quality not usually seen from amateur works. Moreover, we feel that the FPS and especially RTS communities (and perhaps gaming as a whole) suffers from a lack of quality, original projects. AFF hopes to redefine what is possible to achieve with these engines while at the same time growing as a universe. We just hope people are interested in what we are trying to do and have a good time viewing, reading, and playing our creations.
Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to donate their time and energy to our lil' universe, and we really appreciate our fan's support over the last couple years of development.
Related Links:
AFF Webpage
AFF Forums
AFF ModDB Community
AFF Ship Database (with 3D previews)
Ciao for now,
Alex Drake, Creator and Lead Designer
