Angels Fall First: Planetstorm

KrisWood · Mar 2006

Preamble:

Angels Fall First has existed for a few years now as a modification for Homeworld 2 and Nexus, and also has its own game engine in development. The end goal is to complete our own engine and publish the complete Angels Fall First game. The end product is anticipated to include both RTS and FPS elements, and to generate content for and awareness of this product we are creating modifications of existing games in the RTS and FPS genres. The purpose of this thread is to let people in the Unreal Tournament communities know that were out there, and were ramping up production of our AFF: Planetstorm mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2007 and will soon be actively seeking new talent, and actively recruiting testers. That said, read on, and enjoy.

Project Overview:

Angels Fall First: Planet Storm (UT2004 / UT2007)
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 about these projects can be found by reading AFF's Universal Design Document: http://www.dendezyn.net/downloads/AFF_UDD_Design_Doc.doc

General Story:

The United League of Planets, the greatest peaceful union mankind has ever known, lies in shambles. The once proud coalition of humanity's greatest super-powers now wage bitter war across the cosmos. A devastating 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 committed by past administrations (by consent).

Now, the scattered remnants 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

Planet Storm Team:

Management:
Alex: Team Leader (Lead-Creator, Writer, scripter, Webmaster)
Kris "DeathWish" Wood: Project Manager (Modeler, Level Designer, etc)
Strangelet: Art Director (Modeler, Texture Artist, etc)

Programmers:
Schizoslayer

Concept Artists:
Orbluvion
Daemoria
Genocidal Penguin
Meganerid
KnightWatch
Darkwolf

Modelers:
Failurecrusade
Ulyses

Story Writers:
Phifty

Angels Fall First is a cooperative sci-fi universe like no other. We draw our ideas from our 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 Unreal Engine.

We realize that a lot 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:

Images:

Concept Art:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29647887
http://www2.slothworks.com/kw/GParmour-visoroverpaint.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/1118/aisnofficerortho3ib.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MeganeR/guns-pistols.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MeganeR/guns-rifles1-11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MeganeR/guns-rifles12-20.jpg

http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/dat...ulp_capital.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affv4/cutenews/dat...tares_docks.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/darkwolfb87/AFFcityscape.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1650/docks025xj.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/darkwolfb87/AFF-City11.jpg

Models:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/29783102/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/29106115/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/28755834/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29504205/

Levels:
http://www.dendezyn.net/affu/plugins/p17_image_gallery/images/337.jpg
http://www.dendezyn.net/affu/plugins/p17_image_gallery/images/344.jpg

Eye Candy:
http://www.dendezyn.net/affu/plugins/p17_image_gallery/images/323.jpg
http://www.deviantart.com/view/29045016/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/28549291/

We Are Recruiting!

We are currently seeking talented individuals with skills and interests in the following areas:

Unreal Scripters:

More of a general call: we are more "art heavy" than most teams, so we really needed folks who have experience working with Unreal scripting to help us develop and evaluate gametypes and actually get things in-game. Speaking as a coder 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 definitely 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/

Riggers / Animators:

Rigger / Animator - We have an immediate need for a highly skilled rigger and animator. Absolutely must be able to rig and animate lifelike humans, vehicles, and weapons. Max or Maya preferred but any software package that can export to UT2k4 is acceptable.

Concept Artists:

Player Concept Artist - We could use 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 little existing art of this kind, he/she will have the difficult task of defining the art style for this portion of the project.

Notes for prospective artists:
*a typical design requires front and side orthographic views, as well as one or more dynamic 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 seriously 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.

Modelers:

*We are looking for folks to help us fill a variety of creative positions. In general we are looking for modelers familiar with Maya and/or 3DSMax/Lightwave/XSI (preferably with texturing and unwrapping experience, though not required). Most of the work we aim to create is designed to be cross-portable between a variety of engines and promotional platforms.

Player Modeler - This position can be thought of as both independent and dependant on the co-position of player artist. For the moment, we are looking for someone to create high-polygon characters in the AFF universe.

Environmental Artist We are currently seeking a talented 3d artist to create realistic environments within the AFF Universe. Qualified persons should have a demonstrated ability to create visually appealing and believably realistic environments in any 3d modeling program. Ability unwrap and texture your own models is a huge plus.

Texture Artist - 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 models to be included in the project.

Level Designers:

We have an immediate need for highly skilled level designers. Must have a demonstrated track record for creating visually stunning and addictively entertaining level deisgns either for mod teams or professional games. Must be able to at least show us screenshots of past level designs, though we highly prefer levels that we can drop straight into a current game engine and play. Must have experience with the Unreal Editor.

Submission Process:
All serious submissions should be sent to me via PM or on our IRC:

Server: irc.slothworks.com
Port: 6668
Channel: #AFF

Please include examples of past work, and/or a link to an online portfolio. You may also reach me via instant messengers or email upon request.

Conclusion:

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