Abzolium out now on Xbox Live Indie Game

After a long delay (real long delay!), Abzolium has finally made its way to Xbox Live Indie Game! A big special thanks to everyone who participated and helped us create this game.

Here's link to the download page: Abzolium

Almost There...

Getting close to Gotland Game Conference, this post will probably be the last. Only a few days left and the whole team's been working their Branes out. So make sure you come to GGC and try out our game: Bane.

This Blog Should've Bane Funnier

The game is coming along nicely and taking a break from the massive update streak, I decided to show you guys other pictures of the game.

Square Eyed Jungle Vision is back, baby! Now even prettier and stealthier(is that even a word?)!

Here I accidentally set fire to the whole level.

This is how it looks when you lie on your back, watching the outer wall in your base under a ramp.

And lastly, an awesome picture made by our biggest fan AbZoLiuMfAN98 where the artist got the title offensively wrong.

Thank you so much, AbZoLiuMfAN98!

Spawn Machine

Dynamic BGM

A New Warrior Has Entered The Arena!

Last AND least! A new warrior, the last character for our demo version!

Thanks to Stina Rahm for this awesome picture.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Crystal Lights

Previously on Square Eyed Vision's blog:

[something] [something]... power-up crystals... [something] [something]

And here we have it! The power-up area on the level.

Uhh...okay, not exactly like that. I just made it extra flashy for the blog and didn't accidentally the 70's.

What happens here is the big crystal in the middle charges up and lits brighter and brighter. When it is at its brightest, the big crystal is ready and the surrounding small crystals will glow. When a character touches the big crystal after it's ready, the big crystal will explode and unleash power-ups to the surrounding players for a short period of time. And then it will go back into charging. The colors of the crystals indicates what kind of power-up it contains.

Of course, there will be traps and stealth areas for ninja haxx tactics so make sure to keep your eyes open (yes, ALL of them!) for ambush or plan an ambush to humiliate your opponents.

I've added a Facebook Like button. So make sure you like like you've never liked before! Like a Boss!

(If this blog entry seems different than before then it's because this site was under maintenance for a while and removed the original "Crystal Lights" entry. But just because I'm so nice to you fans I decided to rewrite everything (yes, EVERYTHING)) 

Extreme Makeover: Bane Edition

Much cred to Maria Norkvist for making these and showing she's having fun while working (or is extremely bored ò_Ó). I would include a makeover version of Bazooka Girl too but that would be offensive to... bazookas...

Make sure to also visit other dev blogs from the group:

Maria Norkvist:
http://marianorkvist.blogspot.com/

Elias Press:
http://eliaspress.blogspot.com/

Stina Rahm:
http://stinarahm.blogspot.com/

Square Eyed Vision's blog:
http://squareeyedvision.blogs-... oh wait...

Levelution

Now we're talkin'! The level is taking a turn for the better and shaping up. We have the three nodes ready, whereas the middle is surrounded by spikes for awesome trap setups. The lower corners are the power-up crystals that shatters from time to time. The upper corners are the spawning points for each team. The boxes surrounding the Nodes are shops where you can buy different defense towers to protect your captured Node.

As you may have noticed, the level lacks textures on some parts and there is big wide space in the lower-middle part (I know, I didn't notice it either!). These are of course going to be changed and improved, so keep your pants on.

Meet the Producer

Here he is, the last Square Eyed Visioneer: Joakim Edholm, aka Edholm.

Nah, I'm just kidding. Here is a better(?) picture of him

He is the one that started Square Eyed Vision at the beginning of the first semester last year. He has taken a lot of roles for this project. His main role is the Producer, but his roles also include 3D Artist, Level Designer, Animator, Mysfredag Organizer, Chuck Norris, Basejumping Pianist, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Fire Chair, Roof Roofer, and Backpack...Somethinger.

Ehh... That's it! You have now met Square Eyed Vision (finally!) and further updates will be more about our current game project, Bane. Speaking of which, we have a lot of content ready to be shown and I will make sure to update more frequently.

The New Title

nuff said

Meet the Artists

By request, I am forced happily willing to introduce our very skilled artists to the world. These people strive to make the game as aesthetically pleasing as possible and have done a very good job so far. Keep it up, guys (and gals)!

David Klint, 3D artist. When he's not 3D-ing he goes to war and shoots people... with airsoft guns. Don't worry, he's completely harmless and a really chill guy... when he's not in Rambo mode.

Mattias Engström, 3D artist. This dude is getting married this summer. If you see him in real life, make sure you congratulate him (or warn him, whichever you prefer. I recommend the former).

Maria Nork-... wait, wrong picture. Hold a sec...

There we go. Maria Norkvist, 2D and 3D artist. This multitasking gal loves to work and can't stop working. She also has the record of shortest lunch breaks.Yes, she is THAT determined to make this game!

Stina Rahm, 2D artist. She is responsible for the incredibly well-made concept arts of the characters you have seen. So, much cred to her. She is also the only girl in our group with a mustache (or that's what the picture depicts). How hardcore is that!

Elias Press, Lead and 2D artist. Don't let his angry look scare you, he's a very cool and calm guy that makes sure everybody is working and working right. Like a Boss. He is also half Swedish, half Norwegian, half Hungary. Whoa, that's a lot of halves!

I hope I didn't forget anyone. We have one more member and he is the most important one (well, we all are equally important, but for dramatic effect let's pretend now he is the most important). This last person has so many different roles that he requires his own blog entry.

I might as well add that our title of the game has been decided and as soon as the logo is ready, I will post it to this blog. Until then, live long and prospelium.

Meet the Characters

No, we are not dead. It's been Easter and while people might have taken breaks, we have worked extra hard these past days. A lot of technical stuff has been made and the artists are working hard to make this game look beautiful. As an apology for not updating and letting our millions of fans refreshing this page on an hourly basis, I decided to introduce you to our characters' concept arts. Mind you the characters are still being developed.

Starting with the Starving Barbarian!

Next up: B-Bob!

My favorite: the Bazooka Girl!

We have another character that is not quite done yet. But when it's ready, it will be great. No, awesome! No! Awesomely great! This awesomely great character will also be the last in the roster for the GGC version. After GGC we will add A LOT more characters. So get hype!

Meet the Programmers

Taking a break from showing our level, I decided to show you (the best) part of Square Eyed Vision: the software engineers, a.k.a. the programmers or 5qu4r3 3y3d \/1510N...yeah, you get the point.

Pelle Boström, with his trademark "O RLY?" sweater. This dude burns with passion for this game and keeps adding unnecessary, and yet very useful, features for the game during his free time. Crazy man!

Elon Mallin, our Lead Programmer. The go-to-guy whenever we have problems with programming. Here he simulates how he works...in front of a camera.

Joakim Östlund Andersson, the man who doesn't believe in sleep. You give him a one week assignment, and he takes it literally and works constantly the whole week without sleeping! He is also one of the producers, so mad props to this guy for multitasking.

Last, but not least, Sayo Nariño, a.k.a. Mr Blog Writer. I am one of the programmers and also Lead Quality Assurance. I have been known to create overly complicated algorithms for scoreboard records and also having a knack for finding bugs in games. Here I am posing as a mafia hitman... yes, "posing"...

And here comes the usual preview of what's to come: here we have a large chunk of the group, chillin in the sun and eating ice cream, looking mad because they are taking a break and not working (actually, the sun was in their eyes... but seriously, they should've been working instead >_>)

Level Fun

Before creating our awesome level, we use our prototype levels to try out environment stuff to get the right feeling whenever the final version is complete.

Here the level designer created something pretty from the finished models we had. I accidentally knocked down the lamp when I was moving around the camera. Don't tell anyone it was me!

An early view of how pleasant it's going to be to capture the Nodes. Needs more trees, perhaps...

One of the places on the level were you can be stealthy. We are going to apply similar places in case the player wants to play ninja.

Another Jungle Vision picture. 

These pictures are for testing purposes. Our level is going to be massive and it's important to try creating the right feeling in segments before we add everything and black holes of awesomeness spawns and sucks in the universe into a dimension where ca-... uhh, I mean, so we can make sure we don't have any boring parts on the battlefield.

More level stuff

Here is another picture of my programming playground.

You can see a more clearly overview of the playground level where I test new functions before implementing into the real level. Abzolium Man is there to visit and laugh at the randomness of all the objects' placements. Look at him laughing and judging my awesome Programming Art Hell... bah!

So I mentioned a real level, right? Well, hate to say it but that'll be for another time...
...
...
...Nah, just kidding! It's Friday and why shouldn't I share as much as possible to the people that are reading this!?

An overview of the REAL level. Don't worry, it's still under construction by our great level designer. By the end it'll look much better and even be fit to play Footballium!

Another bonus picture: A closer look at the level. We have Nodes, waiting to be captured, ramps to get to higher grounds and also stairs in the distance and later, Jump Pads. There's also a preview of one of our characters. But that's a feature for another time...
...
...
...No seriously, I mean it.

Test Level

So how do we work? Well, I at least, work in our prototype level. We call this level Programmer Art Hell. It looks like the Matrix, except all the robots that created it were drunk. We have a few features in this level that's worth to mention to our beloved fans.

These are walls.... That's it. Right now they are just tested on the battlefield to see how they look in the game. These lack collision so far and will probably be changed in size...and placement.

The Jump Pad! A cool feature that let's the character reach high grounds (use at own risk!).

Here's Square Eyed Jungle Vision of our prototype level.

Square Eyed Visioneers

Today you will experience some bits and pieces of the group creating this legendary game. We are all students from Gotland University and are mixed third year and second year students. We started off with 9 people and after the completion of Abzolium, we expanded the group. After Gotland Game Conference we might even expand even more and finally take over the world!

Here is our office. Well, technically it's not an office... but let's pretend it is and we feel comfortable working there. The three closest to the camera are our second year students that infiltrated Square Eyed Vision's Headquarters and are disguised as artists. I don't know what their hidden agenda is, but they sure love to work and provide amazing stuff for us.

Then we have our producer, to the right, and our lead programmer to the left. All are camera shy so this picture was very hard to get.

No, he is not a stalker...during work. He's one of the programmers taking stealthy pictures of the group for... I don't know, research?

Bonus picture: this is a failed attempt at making a panorama picture.

These pictures were taken pretty late and some of the Square Eyed Visioneers were not present at the moment. I know what you're thinking, where are the pictures of Mr Blog Writer!? I will provide better pictures of everyone in the group pretty soon. I can so far reveal that my name is Sayo.

I can also reveal that we might have the perfect name for the game, but it is still in discussion mode (on how awesome it is) and I will soon be revealing it to the world.

The Node

This entry is going to be about one of the most important mechanics in the game: Capturing a Node. I will explain the basics of how to, but beware, the game is still in its early build and things can change during the development.

Okay, here we have our prototype hero called... I don't know, Prototype Man? He belongs to Team Delta Red Force, thus the red ring of dea-... red ring around the Node. The ring indicates the area where a player has to enter in order to capture the Node. Other than standing inside of this area for a few seconds, no further actions are needed to capture. You can even leave the area and the Node will still produce Abzolium (and sometimes other helpful resources) for your team.

So you say you're from Team Epsilon Blue Force, eey!? No worries, bro, you can still capture the Node by doing the same thing as your sworn enemies Team Delta Red Force. Though, you do have to stand in it a bit longer to fully capture it, since recapturing Nodes takes longer than capturing an empty Node. But as long as you manage to eradicate those evil red people (no offense to red people) from the area, this should not be a problem.

Of course, there is much more going on with the Nodes than collecting Abzolium, but more information will be provided over time, so keep checking back on this blog.

And if you are wondering about the ring around Prototype Man, that is just a preview of our Combat System, which will also be more elaborated later on (can't give you everything at once, man!).

Peace out, and may the Abzolium be with you...

OMG PIXZX!!1!1!!

Finally! The long awaited info of our new game. Currently it goes by many names, the most famous are Pylon Runners, Node Runners, Abzolium 2 and Pylolium. What is your favorite? Give us your suggestions and you might win prizes!!!

So basically, to break it down for ya: you are two teams fighting for the valuable resource Abzolium. To get this Abzolium, you and your team have fight your opponents to capture nodes throughout the level. These nodes, not only provide Abzolium, it gives you access to elements on the battlefield to help you capture more nodes. The team that have reached the maximum amount of Abzolium wins the battle.

"But... Mr. Blog Writer, sir, this sounds like an AWESOME idea!"
i no!!1

And for giving us such a nice feedback, Timmy, I will provide you with two pix, even though I'm risking of running out of materials later ;;>_> (and to show that we are actually working)

Our level structure (environment not finalized, since it happens to take place at the backyard of Donkey Kong's).

Node, without texture (texture got stolen from Donkey Kong for messing around at his backyard).

Enter The World Of Square Eyed Vision

Hello and welcome to the fantastical world of Square Eyed Vision, the creators of the amazing game Abzolium (soon to be released on XBOX Indie Games). We are a group of students (read: warriors) from Gotland University in Sweden in a conquest to create the best games of all time. This blog will elaborate on the process of the amazing game making and we will frequently post behind the scenes footage of the (SPOILERS) best game ever.

So tl;dr: Welcome to Square Eyed Vision's blog, stay tuned for behind the scenes info and footage in the future... near you!