IRC channel on EF-Net - posted by Warlock @ 17:13

We just got a bot up on the EF-Net IRC network. The channel is named #bladeuniverse. I will update the IRC infopage as soon as possible. I've posted more info in our Forums.

Enemies Section Up - posted by Warlock @ 20:38

Our enemies section is up and running. Finally, all the items in the menu are filled with information on the game we're all waiting for! Think you allready know everything about the enemies? Well, maybe you do, but it's worth checking out if only for the evil family picture I put together ;-)

Visit at RAS HQ - posted by Warlock @ 19:34

Our Friends over at the Spanish Blade fan-page El Rincón de Blade, has put up an article at their site covering Volador's visit at Rebel Act in Madrid. Our team member, Spyd, has made a translation of this article in english which you'll find right here!

Tam Can-Die goes on... - posted by Warlock @ 17:40

Tam Can-Die, from our interactive story, is continuing his quest! Thanks to Trygve Rygg, Tam Can-Die has now reached the dark wood of Eviltree! Go to our interactive story and take a look at this great chapter. Remember to check back soon for an illustration by our artist Miguel!

Blade Interview and Footage - posted by Warlock @ 16:52

ya.com, have an exclusive interview with Xavier Carrillo (Project Manager) along with some RealPlayer vido clips where you get to see some really cool footage of the game in action as well as commentars by Xavier. Be aware though, the game footage seems to be filmed directly from Xavier's monitor and is not the best of quality. It's all in Spanish, but we'll have Spyd translate and post any new and interesting info later. Thanks a bunch to Sebastián Sucho for leting us know!

Friday's Screenshot - posted by Warlock @ 18:12

It's finally Friday! As we've promised we'll be posting a new screenshot every Friday until the game is released. In the first screen up we can see the Dwarf looking at a statue from the "Ice Fortress" level (the real name is yet to be revealed). As I mentioned, the winged creature is a statue. However, Juan had this to say about it: "It's a statue, but it may come to life..."

The picture can be found in the left pane as well as in our screenshots section. Enjoy!

The Developers at work - posted by Warlock @ 21:50

This time we have talked with Javier Rollón Morán, 3D Artist at Rebel Act. Javier explains in detail the tools and techniques used to make some of the best ever seen animations in a video game! To go with it, we have (of course) a picture of his desktop for your viewing pleasure. Get it all right here, right now!

New feature! - posted by Warlock @ 12:20

Every Friday, starting on the 25th of February, we will post a new screenshot of Blade until its release! You'll not see these screenshots anywhere else but here, at Blade Universe, so stay tuned!

Also, we'll update "The Developers at Work" article once a week, featuring a new developer at Rebel Act Studios, working on Blade!

You don't want to miss this :-)

Posts in our Forums - posted by Warlock @ 0:35

If you are wondering where all the old posts in our Forums have gone, then the answer is nowhere ;-)

The forum defaults to display topics from the last 30 days. You can change this from the drop down menu to your likings. If you think it looks a bit empty...then just post a few ;-)

Two new screenshots - posted by Warlock @ 0:38

I recieved a mail from danilovix telling us about two new screenshots posted at Volador's Blade site. You can view the screenshots here and here. There's some pretty interesting looking creatures in the second shot :-)

Interview with Xavier - posted by Warlock @ 1:52

Eurogamer have kicked up an interview with project manager Xavier!

This week's EuroGamer interview is "Blade Unsheathed". We talked to Xavier Carrillo of Spanish developer Rebel Act Studios about the company and their debut project, Blade, an impressive looking fantasy action game.

Here's a little snippet from the interview:

"It's a portal 3D engine with real time physics and real-time shadows", Xavier explained. "It's very powerful, and allows a lot of interactivity with the environment. Everything has been done to reinforce the feeling of reality."

Article: The Developers at Work - posted by Warlock @ 21:24

Want to know what the level designers at Rebel Act use when designing levels for Blade? Sure you do! We have put up our first exclusive article here at Blade Universe, called The Developers at work.

We have talked with Enric Álvarez (RAS level designer) about the level editor and got the scoop on how it all works. Better yet, we got a picture of it, taken directly from Enric's desktop! Get all the juicy stuff right here!

How to slay an orc! - posted by Warlock @ 20:38

Jose Raluy, programmer at RAS, posted some info about the game controls and combos at our forums today. According to his post, combat will work similar to arcade fighting games, only slightly simplified. Both keys and the previous animations are taken into account when you make an attack. The resulting attack, or combo, depends on your timing, movement and the weapon being used.

Infogrames launching new Website - posted by Warlock @ 18:02

I just noticed a little newsbit over at 3d Retreat, that might be of interest:

Infogrames North America will be opening its new “customer-focused” website tomorrow, at http://www.us.infogrames.com/. According to the company, the site will give information on the company’s products, offer a 24-hour online store, provide downloadable demos, enable users to share information with each other, give technical support and offer corporate information.

Infogrames will stand for the world-wide distribution of Blade.

Source: 3d Retreat

Tam Can-Die ready to adventure! - posted by Warlock @ 1:58

I'm finally done with replacing the script for our interactive story, featuring Tam Can-Die! I've modified a guestbook script available at SomethingsBrewing to make it suiteable for our needs. The result is perfect! :-)

You can now view Miguels illustration for the first chapter in the story! Continue the story and have it illustrated by our artist! For more info, click here.

Interactive Story Script - posted by Warlock @ 14:38

Just wanted to inform you that I will replace the current script for our Tam Can-Die story with a more suitable one. I will try get it up and ready for tonight if everything works out as planned. The current script is still up and running, but the chapter illustrations will not be up before I get the new script ready.

New Staff Member - posted by Warlock @ 21:30

Miguel Angel Castillo will now be part of the BU staff and will be working as our artist-guy. If you've been to our Fan Art section, you probably already know who Miguel is...if not, you better check it out right away!

Miguel will start his work by drawing pictures for our interactive story: Tam Can-Die. As chapters are added to the story, Miguel will visualize them!!! Maybe this will encourage you to add a few chapters? Hopefully, we'll have the first picture up tonight, so stay tuned! Meanwhile...why not add a chapter to the story? ;-)

Site restructured - posted by Warlock @ 1:08

I have restructed the site to make it easier to maintain and to make it more flexible. As a result of this, all pages have changed the file extension from .htm to .shtml. If you get a 404 error (document not found) you may need to go back to the main page (www.blade-universe.com) and refresh. If you get this error while opening one of our page from your bookmarks, please update these bookmarks. Should you find any errors or experience any problems, please contact me!

Dynamic Movement - posted by Warlock @ 13:45

Enric Álvarez (RAS level designer and multiplayer technician) said some quite interesting things yesterday, about the animations in Blade. With the new animation system they implemented, after the Blade mpeg was released a while ago, all animations and movements will now look very fluid and realistic. The most interesting part, however, was the mentioning about the variations in the animations. A lot of games suffer from a "static" feel, where the animations are exactly the same every time you do a specific movement/action. In Blade, this will be different. Enric told us that Blade will have great variations in the character movements and animations!

Levels Section up! - posted by Warlock @ 23:55

Finally, I've put up some info about the levels Blade will have to offer! You'll find a summary of what some of you may allready know from the official Blade website as well as some new tasty bits. Put on your reading glasses and have a look!

Killer Fan Art! - posted by Warlock @ 23:16

We got a new submission, from Miguel Angel Castillo, for our Fan Art section today! This time he has drawn a picture of the Amazon. With this picture, Miguel completes a collection of all four characters available in Blade! Now, stop reading and head on to the Fan Art section and take a look at this beauty! :-)

Webdog - posted by Warlock @ 16:47

I have signed Blade Universe up at Webdog. Webdog is a neat utility where you can keep yourself updated on gaming news and .plan files from sites submitted to Webdog. You'll find Blade Universe under the program's RPG category. Why not give it a try?

New Poll - posted by Warlock @ 16:41

I've put up a new question in our poll, asking which character you are most eager to try in Blade. Make sure to give us your vote!

A page for archived polls is set up, where you can view the result from the previous poll. You'll find the link to this page below the voting poll, on the left pane.

Texture Aligning - posted by Warlock @ 5:47

There have been some worries concerning the texture alignment in Blade, from looking at the screenshots. Yuio (Programmer at Rebel Act) explains that these kind of issues are taken care of at a suitable time. Spending time on adjusting textures to levels that may be changed would be a vaste of time, before everything is 100% ready. So...relax and don't worry! We've seen the same thing in other games, pre and post the release.

Source: Rebel Act's Forums

New newsscript in use - posted by Warlock @ 3:16

Wow...look at the big change! Ok, there isn't really any major differences for you as our visitors, but the new script is a whole lot better and less buggy (I hope) than the previous one.

You'll find the news from January in our archived news section. The news posted with our last script will just be displayed on an empty page, but at least it's still there :-) I re-posted Spyd's last post with this new script (look below), taking full credits for his work hehe ;-)

Sound and Music information - posted by Warlock @ 3:06

Yuio García, Technology Programmer from RAS, answered some questions that Spyd posted on the RAS forum:

Will there be EAX or A3D support in Blade?
Both of them.
Will there be quadraphonic sound?
Yes
Surround sound through decodificator?
The sound system we use supports it... but I can't say anything, because I cannot test it and it requires permissions from Dobly labs... I will clarify this. About the decodificator, I don't think that will be necessary, but the only thing that I can say is that we are investigating it...
The sounds, will they be in 8 or 16 bit? And in what resolution?
This will be decided upon the memory and processor consumption. There's nothing decided now.
Will there be high and low sound quality (for high-end and basic computers)
Yes, I guess.
In what format will the music be?
The music will be in a custom format.
Will there be interactive music?
Yes. It will have a specific behavior in each moment and place, to obtain the desired effect.