THEMA: Squad!

Today I'd like to use this post to share a project that a number of us developers have been quietly working on the past few months. Although it had been revealed internally several months ago to the PR team, it wasn't until now that we have felt comfortable opening up our project to the public eye, starting with the PR community.

The goal of our project is to produce an Unreal Engine 4 based standalone commercial game, whose central focus is promoting teamwork and communication through gameplay mechanics and features.

This game is:
First to emphasize the seriousness of the project, I would like to highlight the list of our developers, almost all of whom are either current or former PR:BF2 developers.

• Myself - Project Manager, Programmer (PR:BF2 Coder)
• Mosquill - Programmer (PR:BF2 Coder)
• Chuc - Animator, Graphic Design (PR:BF2 Lead Animator)
• Irontaxi - Mapper (PR:BF2 Lead Level Designer);
• Ghostdance - 3D Artist (PR:BF2 3D Artist)
• Motherdear - 3D Artist (PR:BF2 3D Artist)
• Z-trooper - 3D Artist (PR:BF2 3D Artist)
• Tim270 - 3D Artist (PR:BF2 3D Artist)
• Spush - Texture Artist (PR:BF2 Texture Artist)
• Bull - Texture Artist (BSS Texture Artist)
• Anders - Sounds FX (PR:BF2 Sound FX and Effects Artist)
• Bruno - Effects (PR:BF2 Effects developer)
• Okita.Makito - Military Advisor (PR:BF2 Level Designer and Military Advisor)
• Litoralis - Lead Tester (PR:BF2 Tester and Tech Support)
• Afterdune - Media & Public Relations (PR:BF2 Lead)

The Game:

Squad will be a tactical military game built from the ground up as a cooperative shooter, where high levels of teamwork and communication are supported, encouraged, and integral to gameplay. Complementary with that focus, we are seeking to bridge the gap between arcade shooters like the Call of Duty and Battlefield series, and military simulations like ARMA.


Where we are:

Since April we have been quietly assembling the team you see above and taking the first steps towards our first public release. This will be a standalone fully functioning demo that will be free to play and fun to play, and will contain a snapshot of the all the high level features which will be the basis of the game.

To be more specific, feature wise we have already implemented the following:

• Networked Play
• Support for Teams, Squads and Rallypoints
• Basic Integrated VoIP
• Advance and Secure
• A Master Server
• An online account system
• 7 Character models composing the US and Taliban factions
• Basic weapon & equipment sets including ARs, MGs, Grenades, etc.
• A HUD system for map, compass, nametags, etc.
• Distance Sounds
• Dynamic crop & foliage generation system
• Physically Based Rendering texture pipeline
• A library of Afghan statics and accessories
• Fully functioning weapon code
• A true first-person character system

Here is a look at the current map and the AAS game mode:



The soldiers for the US Army and Taliban factions:





A Wide perspective view of the working landscape on our first map Logar Valley, which is set in Afghanistan:



Here is your whole body, as seen with with True First Person:




In addition to the above, we have many features and assets that are currently being worked on, and are soon to be included in our test builds.


We also need to address the elephant in the room.

Why are we not simply all working on PR2?

The answer to that is far from simple, but if I had to sum it up I would say it all boils down to a major difference in direction.

The biggest concrete differences are:

Squad will be commercial: Our goal from the very start has been to have a commercial game studio with both full time and freelance developers who are able to make assets and be compensated for their effort. As a part of this we will encourage talented members of the community to step up and be a part of this process. By helping to support developers financially using the game's revenue, we believe we will be able to take the scope and quality of the game to a more serious level.

Squad will be released on Epic's Unreal Engine 4: We firmly believe UE4 is the best engine for the job and it's capabilities are growing rapidly. We began laying the groundwork for this project before UE4 was released, and in all honestly lucked out with how fantastic of a deal it turned out to be for indie game studios. With a ground breaking subscription model, low royalty fee, source code access, network oriented design, and a huge base of support we really feel there will be few limits on our ability to execute the vision we have for Squad.

Squad will use crowdfunding: One major component of our development strategy is the use of a Kickstarter campaign to generate a seed fund supporting the expansion of full time development. Doing so will allow us to ramp up development prior to open alpha, and support full time developers, purchase art assets, cover our server costs, and handle the business related aspects of our game studio's creation. The more successful such a campaign is, the longer we will be able to flesh out the game without the need for revenue, and thus the longer we can build the community by keeping the game free.

The above points are critical to making the game we are aiming for, and simply would not be possible without the formation of the team we have joined together to make.


Why the name change and lack of an official connection to Project Reality?

While many of our developers have worked on PR past and present, using the PR name would present a number of complications. First and most importantly, it would cause licensing issues for PR2. PR2 is currently a strictly non-commercial endeavor, and to affiliate our game with PR officially would jeopardize their licensing status, which as it stands makes such a situation unworkable.

Additionally, while PR was originally started and evolved around the idea of making the BF2 experience more realistic, the central focus of Squad will be on establishing and encouraging the culture of teamwork that made PR the game it was.

Squad will embody that ideal through the framework we create.


So where do we go from here?

As mentioned above we will be using crowdsourcing to seed the initial development over the course of the next year.

Our current plans are to release a playable stable demo around the beginning of December to coincide with the launch of our kickstarter campaign. This demo will highlight all of the core mechanics and features that we would like to build off of.

Providing we are successful, our next stage will be to bring our core team online full time and bring the level of content and features up to a point where we have a much more comprehensive beta game that we can introduce to our community, testers and supporters.

Additionally, we will need your help and are currently looking for more developers. While we can't currently promise any immediate compensation, with the structure of our cooperative studio, we will ensure that all developers (Full time, Part time and freelance) are compensated when the business gains the ability to do so.


If you wish to follow our progress, you may do so at our:
Official Forums: Squad Forums
Facebook: facebook.com/JoinSquad
Youtube: Squad - YouTube
Twitter: twitter.com/joinsquad (@JoinSquad)
Please note that on the forum, registration emails end up in your spam filter on gmail addresses, this should be fixed shortly

We greatly appreciate your time and consideration. Share the news with your friends, and we'll meet you on the battlefield soon!


Oh and almost forgot, here's some gameplay.



Finally, As a reminder:

Please be curtious and respectful regarding this topic on the PR forum. While we do appreciate people expressing their support, please keep it on our forums.

Otherwise, thank you for taking the time to read this, and hopefully we can look forward to seeing you in Squad!
Respectfully,
The Squad Development Team

Bruno - Effects (PR:BF2 Effects developer)