Hey AG fans! This month has been a mixture of level designing, giving our enemies artificial intelligence and a little bit of in game music!

Level 3, 4 and 5

We're racing ahead with level designs this month with levels 3, 4 and 5 being constructed last month.

All of our levels are designed to have their own subtly unique dynamic. Level 3 is our “industrial zone”, and contains a wide array of automated turrets firing at you as you try to make your way through the level.

Level 4 is an underwater lab. No prizes for guessing what its unique dynamic is. Dive underwater to complete this level, and, as your weapons don’t function underwater, avoid the drone enemies and try to stay alive!

Finally, level 5 is our lava level. It’s less maze like than the others and is more like an endless runner with a few nooks and crannies to explore. There are pockets of lava scattered throughout the level that you are able to explore, provided you have enough stamina to dive through the lava. Lava will deplete your health (it is lava after all), so if you’re hoping to make it to any hidden rooms in this level you’re going to need to level up, or find some shielding to get you through. One of those levels to come back to!

HUD

Those of you who follow us on Twitter will know we recently made some changes to our HUD layout. The HUD is now tucked away in the top right hand corner of the screen.

We also did this to facilitate multiplayer. As The Requiem Network supports upto 4 player co-op we needed a way to incorporate 4 separate HUDs in neat way, which works quite nicely. In multiplayer each HUD will take a seperate corner of the screen.

Artificial Intelligence

We've also been busy working on the AI that powers our enemies, which are coming along nicely. At the moment we’re working on Level 1’s enemies, the invasion force that attacks the ship as it arrives back at Earth. There are alien soldiers, drones and tanks - everything that makes up a solid sci-fi!

Along with enemy AI we've also got the AI up and running for AXIS, your companion in the Requiem Network. He now follows you around the levels, always being by your side. Doors are confusing him a little at the moment but we’ll have that sorted in no time.

Sound

A great part of this month has been given to creating the soundtracks for the game which is coming along nicely. We’ve moved this in house and have set up a bit of a sound studio. We’re aiming towards a retro/dystopian soundtrack with scores of piano added in for good measure.

The soundtrack will likely come bundled in with the game if we do a kickstarter for the Requiem Network and there will be an option to buy it on vinyl if you’re so indie you’re the kind of legend that not only buys an indie game but also the soundtrack on vinyl.

Teaser Trailer and Beta

If May’s sprint goes as planned (and things always go as planned right?) we're hoping to push out a teaser trailer towards the end of June showing off some combat and the first few levels. We’ll see what happens! We’re hoping to launch our beta around September at our first AuraCon (it’s a thing, shut up) which will give our first beta testers a chance to play the game and give us a bit of feedback.

The Origin Signal

Regular AG fans may remember we were toying with the idea of creating a comic book prequel to The Requiem Network called The Origin Signal. We’ve hit pause on the comic idea because we’re dedicating as much of our time as possible to creating the game itself. We are hoping to release the story as a short(ish) novel however, either before or shortly after we release the game. Again, it’s something we hope can come bundled as a digital copy with a Kickstarter pledge.

This Month

This month we’re building levels 6, 7 and the central ‘warp room’ level. We’ll also be working on getting speech into the game and also getting the pause screen up and running (which we know is what most people are here for updates about).

That’s all for this month, thanks for reading and we’ll be back to update you next month!