The Soul Raver Dev Blog

Amongst other development happenings, I have taken it upon myself to pretty up the blog. Eventually I’ll be commissioning someone on the forums to do a blog design/forum design to match the site.

-TAC

Did I tell you EMD hates those?

Yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything in here. Just thought I’d give you a brief update on what’s going on.

Good news is that we now have three coders on the team, Satan, who has assumed the role of head coder; Fyriole who rose from the dead and is now an active devster (we hope); and newly joined Bizkut who has been a devster for little over a week, maybe two weeks.

As you can tell, chat is getting a lot of nice features added to it, satan is making sure all the bells and whistles are in working order. With the speed of three coders, or at least two and a half, things may come sooner than previously predicted. No promises though.

But what are the rest of us doing you ask. Well, I can’t give too much detail away, me, tac and emd are working on a lot of beta content. Working out how the quests will work, thinking up interesting mechanics, trying to make sure things still make marginal sense… All that wonderful stuff.

I am planning to get most of the work finished before the end of the year but as the past has taught us, anything could happen.

-Enemy Lasagna

The Meeting, 1989

The clatter of chairs was resounding as the officials sat down at the immense wooden table. After a moment of stifled coughs and shifting chairs, the room was again silent. Then came a pounding of a gavel upon the wood.
“Today we call to order PTA meeting number three hundred and ninety-eight,” said a stern looking official at the head of the table.
A wizend man to the right of the stern official continued, “We will be discussing the construction of a new college in Sweden. It has been a point of hot debate, but due to the… rather ‘illustrious’ state of the nearby colleges, we decided last meeting to provide slightly cheaper education to our high school alumni. Now, the only problem is the lack of tangible funds to construct the campus. We already have a million dollar deficit, so…”
A silence, as the attendees pondered the implied question presented by the wizened man.
“Any ideas?” he finished.
More silence. Suddenly, a hand rose from the crowd.
“Since bake sales and fund raisers are a bit too… lowbrow for this district, why not capitalize on those annoying coupons?” said a meek old woman.

The ‘coupons’ this old woman discussed were actually the remnants of a simpler time in Sweden. During the last world war, the town of Sweden used coupons to trade and buy items from each other, saving their money away in safes for harder times. This created a mini-economy amongst the citizens as they bartered off their remaining goods. The coupons eventually lost value in the community and were simply discarded. A local ecologist noted the strange behavior of Sweden’s local qwerzogs; quite frankly, they collected them in droves. Other wildlife picked up the habit and kept the multitude of coupons. These relics are highly sought after by museums and WWII enthusiasts, and if portrayed as incredibly rare, could be sold for millions of dollars.

The meek woman continued after the initial silence. “What I mean is, to make money off of those, collect them from the citizens at a coupon stand on the grounds of the campus. Since our town is big into hunting, they’d take them off the corpses of the wildlife and give them to us. We’d remove the animal problem AND build ourselves a college!”. The idea was met with a resounding applause and a general air of approval. One man’s stifled cries of “But won’t we risk the extinction of the Qwerzogs…” were ignored as the claps continued.

“We have it then! we’ll start next year after the college plans are finished. This concludes the meeting.”

The Fields, 1989

“BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR KIDS!?” The sound of several angry beekeepers rose from a crowd.

The local bee farm had decided to shut down. Sweden was already suffering financially and it didn’t need any more honey then it already had. The bee farm was one of the biggest in California, but its honey was of a lower grade then other bee farms in the country. Therefore it exported very little. Sweden’s local government also had restricted the capability of the farm’s production, and the citizens of Sweden had voted 93-7 to lower the price of the honey. Hundreds of bee keepers worked at the farm, because there was nowhere else to work in the area. In the state of economic hard times, being fired could mean losing everything.

“Please clean out your lockers and leave. I will officially declare Buzzy Bee Farms shut down. We will release the bees, and tear down the factory. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the company. Every employee will receive their last payment in the mail tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“My god, I’m gonna have to go live in the freaking woods. We can’t afford to move!” said a sobbing woman in the crowd. Others tried to comfort her, but they knew they were in the same boat.

The Beach, 1989

The cold, unforgiving waves beat down on the coast of Sweden as a boat came to rest in the docks. Several sailors leaped off onto the wooden dock and started to slowly walk back home. They seemed rather jolly, if tired. “Gee whiz, I can feed my family for a year!!” exclaimed an eager, young fishermen to his older friends. The waves continued to beat down on the barnacle encrusted boat. On the side you could barely read the faint red lettering: “U.S.S SWEETY”. The captain then stepped off the boat, brushing off his coat and putting his hat on the nearby rack. He sat down on the edge of the dock next to a nearby man. With a sigh he pulled out a large stogy and lit it up with his lighter. The captain leaned over to the man, tapping him on the shoulder. He quickly pulled out a large writing pad and a pen. The captain began to recant the last trip to the man, as if expecting him to document it.

“Write this down for me, will you? Our last trip was bountiful, but too bountiful. Us crab fishermen bring in about one hundred a day, but we easily brought in thousands! The ship nearly tipped over. Even after we had them aboard, they thrashed and even killed each other in some sort of crazed frenzy. I sense that the migration of the sea crabs has been extrapolated due to increased breeding. What could be causin’ it, you never know. I saw some suspicious corporate barges heading out to sea. Maybe they be dumping chemicals?”

The man ripped off the sheet and handed it to the captain. The captain threw his stogy into the nearby trash bin. He bought some fishing line and a candy bar from a man behind the counter of a dock general store, jumped into the boat and slowly coasted away back into the open sea.

The Mountains, 1989

An unforgiving wind sped through the rough, weathered mountains. The trees on the mountains swayed loudly, but otherwise the mountains were silent except for the occasional qwerzog call. A small river rushed on at the base of the mountains. At the top of the largest spire, a man sat alone at the edge of a dark cave.

The young ecologist pulled out a small tape recorder. “For the record,” he whispered,”Qwerzog activity is unusually quiet. I have come to investigate the activity of these strange quadrupeds. How they came to these moutains is seriously beyond my understanding. It is strange that they appear slightly before the destruction of these same mountains. Maybe they don’t realize the danger within these big yellow vehicles?”. Suddenly a clatter came from below. The ecologist stopped the tape and produced his binoculars.

Two qwerzogs were fighting below, near the stream. Strangely, due to the topography of the land, some of the ocean feeds into the stream, creating a peculiar infinite loop between the stream and the ocean. The qwerzogs fell into the water, continuing to fight. One of the qwerzogs slightly changed form, and with a burst of energy struck down the other qwerzog. He took a few sips from the stream, again changed form, and crawled back into a nearby cave.

The ecologist produced his tapes again. “Again: how the creatures came to these mountains is a mystery. Maybe by inspecting the body of a freshly slayed qwerzog I can learn the origin of these ‘freaks’ of nature.”

After quietly and surely making his way down to the base of the mountain, the man examined the body of Qwerzog. Again, he produced his tapes. He whispered to avoid detection. “This qwerzog appears to be of mountain lion origin. It also shares the skin of a snake and the horns of a goat, as well as other mixes of genes that were possessed of the previous wildlife. I wouldn’t know for sure, but I’m pretty sure that the water in the str-AAAAAAAGH!”. A qwerzog jumped from the nearby cave and struck down the ecologist. The qwerzog sunk its fangs into his back and then slowly dragged him into the cave.

-TAC

No, we don’t have a booth. But I, TAC, will be present!

My schedule for the con: see all my fave booths on Wednesday, Thursday and if I haven’t seen it all, Friday. Saturday and Sunday I’ll be around the KOL booth more.

You’ll be able to recognize me by my looks (if you saw that video), my nametag, and my one of a kind Soul Raver shirt.

Feel free to ask questions and talk to stuff Soul Raver related with me, that’s why I’ll be there.

I’ll keep some coverage of the Con here as well, just to entertain you guys and exercise my writing skills.

On Friday of the Con I’ll be recording the show along with whoever’s able to attend (The date is the 25th, I believe).
Soul Raver at Comic-Con: It’s More Awesome Then You’d Think.

-TAC

At least it’s not a Good News Week, someone’s dropped the bomb somewhere, contaminating atmosphere and blackening the sky. It’s good news week, someone’s found a way to give the rotting dead a way to live and go on and never die.

But anyway, we’re not having that kind of week. Just a quiet one with most of the SR dev team on vacation, in pain, without internet or presumed dead. Which means that I’ve had quite a bit of spare time on my hands and yeah, even if I don’t have anything official to draw, I’m still drawing. And here’s the latest:

A Goth Warrior.

Drew it for kicks and rather quickly. I think he looks a bit petulant for a goth and less aggressive then I was aiming for but I ended up liking the coloring on the face too much to change the expression. And we don’t have an axe in the game… yet, so no spoilers. So, enjoy, and have a nice weekend.

If anyone wants to know what song I was quoting: Good News Week by Hedgehoppers Anonymous. Just a little 60s protest music for flavor.

-evilmetaldork

An average workday at the satellite office.

I’m kidding, it’s horrible. I am an unmitigated mess!

Here is my desk, it’s here somewhere. Warning, ugly 70s wallpaper.

I just collect papers, so many papers. I mean, I have a countless number of sketchbooks that are empty cause I grab some computer paper and start drawing and then abandon it on my desk where it piles up.

Notable things: my tablet. The pen for my tablet is in my mug along with um… some gloves for some reason. The sketches on my desk are actually covering more sketches that you can’t see cause they’re SR maps. My monitor is blacked out cause it was open to chat where the dev team was having a very serious business discussion. Basically, this whole space is unexplainable and I am a hobo.

But! I’m going to make it up to you. Faithful blog readers, do you ever wonder what I’m doing when I’m not drawing for Soul Raver?

…I’m drawing…for Soul Raver…

I’m trying out a new style. I’m trying to use fewer lines and also to speedpaint. I’m working on some other random stuff and to get my people not look so stiff in Photoshop. We’ll see how this goes, keep watching the blog for more random art.

Today I started my first day “on the job”- working on Soul Raver for a fixed amount of time at my desk! I know it may seem strange that I treat this as a job, but it sure gives me work ethic. :

Here are some pictures of the “office”; aka my room. They’re also very large.

The first pic! This is basically the whole room, but you can’t really see the back right of the room or the closet in the far left. The centerpiece of the room is basically the desk here.

My desk. Yes, that is a monster I am drinking, and I am eating a delicious sandwich. I was also reading Mad before you barged in. (Yes, I am on the Soul Raver dev blog on the screen.)

Maybe other SR Devs will contribute their workspaces?