First tasks for the Blender/3D community are up now, really looking forward to your contributions to any of these:
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/1187
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/1188
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/1189

You can expect more tasks too in the near future, for those there won't be separate news items but I will post new announcements for new task groups. As always, you can find the 3D modeling policies here:
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/1166

The miscellaneous 3D models task is still open too, in case you've got, for example, some old models you think we might be able to use:
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/977

Happy wrecking!

Matti Delahay
Writer / Community manager
Operation Highjump

It's been a busy couple of weeks again. To be honest, I was planning on writing this status report in the end of previous week, but as it happens we had a very noisy maintenance in the neighbourhood which kind of messed up my (small scale) plans. Anyways, it now seems things have quieted down somewhat and hopefully they'll stay that way for now too.

This month, we've again worked on some pretty big things. While some time has been spent on the necessary evils of administrative tasks (roadmaps and task lists, mostly), we've also worked on rather central game aspects such as non-player characters and their behaviour, character modeling in general, user interface and promotional material designs. Some repetition in there from previous updates - many of those are things that take a lot of work and time - but we've done some new stuff too, including the 3D-modeling policies (and attached example graphics) that we finally posted last week. First 3D tasks should appear by the end of this week at latest, we'll start looking through the lists of props early tomorrow.

One more feat that deserves it's own paragraph is that one of the main storylines is finally next to finished and a second one is coming along very swiftly as well. Until now, we've had an overall idea of what would happen in them and in what order, more or less, but now they're really realizing as a neat set of manageable chunks that should cover all the branches and possible outcomes. Along with the actual world design documentation we worked on to start the production with, this should help a lot in the next stage we're moving towards - actual level implementation. Really looking forward to actually getting to see our plots and dialogues running in the game application, no matter how much work (and bugs and frustration) the process is likely to involve. :)

Thanks again to all community members for your support! Really warms my heart to have 117 people in the community already. :)

Matti Delahay
Writer / Community Manager
Operation Highjump

Our 3D-modeling policies for the upcoming 3D tasks were finally published today and can be found here:
http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/1166

You can also expect a couple of proper, detailed tasks for the 3D -modelers in the near future. We're really looking forward to getting to really work with the spectacularly talented Blender/3D-modeling community here at Wreckamovie!

The task with the policies also includes some example graphics from our core team, so it might be of interest to non-3D oriented members as well. :)

Stay tuned for a status report soon!

Matti Delahay
Writer / Community Manager
Operation Highjump

General stuff
Now that the new month has been started with a bang of some proportions (see the previous news item for our April 1st treat), now it's time to wrap up the old month on a slightly more serious note.

Some of you may have noticed that the Produced by -part of our WAM-page changed from IGIOS to SilverQuill today - that's the name under which the core team operates nowadays. No drastic changes there, this was all part of the plan from the beginning to help us handle the bureaucracy. The old company (IGIOS) continues it's focus on game porting and 3D graphics while SilverQuill specializes in game development. I'll post the SilverQuill logo here sooner or later, that's the one that will be used for posters etc. :)

Hiring Animator & Character modeler
Are you a skilled animator or character modeler? Are you also interested in a job in game industry? This is your chance to become a part of our core team!

We currently have two open spots: an animator and a character modeler. Please send applications with following information to tapio.honkonen[at]igios.com:
- Contact information
- CV & Portfolio
- Short description of yourself and your current situation

Progress report
Since the last status update, we've been working on a lot on promotional materials among the usual design and content tasks. Our website is well on it's way and we're also working on some very cool promo stuff that we'll reveal in the coming months!

On the game design & implementation front we've got the basics of NPC and player attributes, skills and skill use nailed down, we've further polished the overall plot structures (still quite a lot of work on the finer structure) and kept on tweaking the dialogue system, which is starting to look pretty fine already. We also made some plans on the GUI/inventory system, though parts of the general GUI design were pushed onto this month - we had some unexpected extra work in the last quarter of the month and we didn't want to rush anything.

We're also currently writing a good heap of NPC characters, so now's a great time to go post some stuff in the Non-player characters task: http://www.wreckamovie.com/tasks/show/803
At least Angela's Engel and Jonas' Hessler have already found their way to their own respective NPC files in my Work-In-Progress folder, and they're certainly not going to be the last ones. :)

Finally, to be expected this month, to list a few: a lot more tasks and guidelines for the 3D-modelers, some demo graphics of stuff we've got ready so far (finally!) AND naturally new and stimulating tasks whenever we find the time to detach ourselves from the workbench for a moment. :P

Wreck on!

Matti Delahay
Writer/Community manager
Operation Highjump

To start the new month with a bang, we wanted to give the community some sneak peeks into the feature list of the game:

* The game will have mini games, including "Swastika Tetris" to simulate use of the lockpick skill.
* The game will have a very simple and unintrusive DRM - when you install the game for the first time, you will be prompted to input your postal address. Your unique activation code will be sent to you printed on a special Operation Highjump post card. This only has to be repeated when the game is re-installed.
* The game will support a steering wheel controller.
* The game has a special 3D-mode that uses Wiggle Stereoscopy.
* Voiceover narration will be digitally remixed and remastered from the collected speeches of Adolf Hitler.
* Due to the popularity of Iron Sky team's War Bonds, special Iron Sky: Operation Highjump organ donor cards will be available in our upcoming webstore.
* To counter claims that we are too eager to follow popular trends, we are proud to inform you that the game will not contain most of the following: zombies, elves, vampires, pirates, ninjas, cyborgs, time travelers, espers, dragons, space monsters, wizards, organized crime, product placement, voodoo, fnords, celebrity cameos and Nazi UFO:s.
* Furthermore, to counter the counterclaims that we do not, in fact, know what intertextuality means, we will include some of the following: laser swords, WWII.
* While we do not have resources to implement a multiplayer mode, we will compensate this lack with a built-in voice chat. We believe that single player games can be social games too!
* To make our dialogue-intensive game more appealing to gamers used to endless action, we will be spicing the dialogue with our new Action-Particular Rhetorics Implementation Launcher. Using keystroke combinations (similar to special attacks and combos in beat-em-ups), the players can simulate heated arguments and defeat their enemies in a battle of wits. The niftier the combo, the more brilliant the retort.

Unfortunately, to balance these good news, we will have to cut certain features and elements that have been discussed here on Wreckamovie:
* The train robbery sidequest has to be cut because the 3D team has failed to keep to agreed polygon limits in their horse models.
* The musical number has been cut for being too silly. It will be replaced by another gratuitous sex scene to better answer popular demand.
* We have also cut some of the dialogue after an accident during preliminary tests. The rest of the dialogue is dedicated to the memory of our diligent and beloved intern Esko.
* Some of the planned 3D-models will be replaced with less expensive cardboard counterparts.

We're looking forward to getting feedback on these ideas, many of which show results of our tight collaboration with the Wreckamovie community!

Matti x 2
Writer team
Operation Highjump - "In Antarctica, no-one can hear you bleed."