One great thing about being a visible mod (with good hosting :P) is that it makes it easier to attract great dev team members. Deus Fortress has greatness, for sure, and a quick spin through their Team Roster page will bring up some names that anyone active in the editing community is sure to recognize.
Preproduction
The DXF team are approaching things in a manner very reminiscent of a retail product. Instead of just randomly creating assets, they're adhering to a schedule and what appears to be a pretty well thought out procedure. As they explain below, everything starts at the design doc, progresses through a conceptual art stage, and then moves on to the actual in-game product.
[PDX] Describe the process of a creating game element, (weapon/class/aug/etc) from conceptualization to implementation.
[G] Huh? I don't think we've done that yet ;-)
Seriously, most of the ideas for the mod started out with a design doc drafted up by Spark and some of the other team members. I wasn't even on for the first month or so, so I probably missed a lot of the really early work. That doc was about the first thing I saw, and was the product of the work done in the month or two before I joined up. After that, we basically tore apart the doc in the private forums, and using suggestions from both the public at large and the team members, we revised and revised until we thought we had a solid concept.
The 2D artists drew up some sketches, and we agreed on how stuff should look. Then, the modellers start to make models for it. That's about as far as the mod has come thus far. We've got a few 2D artists working on textures, but I don't think we have a lot of skins in the work just now. When we have the department heads all set up, that's going to go on the task list. Once we get the models passably textured, we have a finished visualization to import into the game.
Then, all (heh, "all") we have to do is write the code that applies to that particular object. We seem to be pretty far along on most of the classes -- we have concept art that the texturists can use to produce skins for the models, which are already completed. After I write the class-choosing menu system, the player will be able to choose what model/skin he wants by picking a class. The actual class skill-handling and such should require relatively little work, simply rearranging numbers and renaming a few functions. As for Weapons -- that's Ben's arena, so I don't want to talk about what I frankly don't understand. And with augs, the system currently in place for creating a new aug, or modifying an existing one, seems fairly straight-forward. We have a list of augs we want to create, and while the coders (probably Pigpen, mostly) work on describing the aug in UnrealScript, the 2D and sound artists will create any effects needed. The mappers do most of their work on their own, and when we have clearly defined exactly how to place, say, a no-sentry-gun zone, we'll fill them in and they'll put finishing touches like that on the map.
I hope this answers the question -- it's way too long already, so I'll stop here.
Art: Conceptual to Digital
I'll admit it; I'm a sucker for great conceptual art. I personally collect it (got some kickass stuff from some of history's, and even the future's!, greatest games), and feel that I'm a pretty good judge of what's good. You *HAVE* to check out the stuff that Deus Fortress's conceptual art team has been cranking out. Auriga, Charisma, and Brainfreeze must be drinking some of that 'special' water, because they are rocking like no others. Hit their sites for loads and loads of great stuff...
Doing damage is the name of, well, most games. DeusFortress plans to serve up the goods with a CRAZED loadout of weaponry. While modified versions of some existing Deus Ex weapons will appear (rocket launchers, grenades, throwing knives, and the pump action shotgun), this ambitious project looks to bring a whole new level of pain delivery. Check out the list of stuff they've announced so far and the classes that will use those devices.
Nanoknuckles (Thief)
Boomstick (Marine)
Bioweapon (Medical)
Nano-Hook (Non-Combat Classes)
Pulse Gun (Recon)
NanoAxe (Numerous)
Ranged Hacking Device (Hacker)
Hands (Thief)
Rifles (Ranger)
Flamethrowers (Pyro)
DeathBringer 500 Mk II (Weapons Expert)
Single Shotgun (Numerous)
The Killing Fields
Mapping is an interesting thing, because while many people can make maps, not many can do it well. More specialized mods require an extra amount of talent, above and beyond the standard deathmatch arenas. The DXF guys are keeping a pretty tight lid on this particular area of the project, but the screens are looking awesome.
[PDX] Judging from the size of your Team, making sure everyone has something to do and is doing it can be a bit difficult. How do you intend to handle that?
[G] Spark had been trying to get each "department" (maps, coding, modellers, etc.) to have a "head", such that he could contact all the department heads to get the scoop on what's going on. I think we've finally got that all-but-finalized, and when we do, I can just go to, say, the head mapper and say "OK, I need 4 BOS [Blood of the Savior -- check out our design documentation at the website] maps, 3 GD maps, and 3 AC maps. What do we have done, and what needs to be assigned?" Hopefully, that'll do the trick ;-)
RSS Feeds
The DXF team are approaching things in a manner very reminiscent of a retail product. Instead of just randomly creating assets, they're adhering to a schedule and what appears to be a pretty well thought out procedure. As they explain below, everything starts at the design doc, progresses through a conceptual art stage, and then moves on to the actual in-game product.
