Hearts of Oak: Conquest of the Seas

Thor. · June 10, 2014

The cryengine, to this day no other engine has come close to its icandy, even when its nearly 8 years old. Its almost sad really.

I have a question for you, are you using the dev kit on steam. its almost like the cryengine went multiplatform.

Edited June 10, 2014 by Thor.

mikeydmc · June 10, 2014

Thor

I agree it really is a beautiful engine and yes we are using the dev kit on steam the top video on our most recent update talks about it and some text under it why we are using it and what that means.

Thor. · June 10, 2014

Great to hear that :thumbsup: Cryengine 3, without the drm :laugh:. At least i beleive its the version 3. I believe that sdk supports all versions :confused:

Edited June 10, 2014 by Thor.

mikeydmc · June 18, 2014

Hearts of Oak Weekly Update 4

This week we've got some new music for you to enjoy, along with a glimpse at our new-look website!

Logo_new3_half.png?psid=1

Welcome to another edition of our Hearts of Oak progress articles!

Each week*, we will bring you a summary of the latest development news, including work-in-progress screenshots and in-game footage, along with a more in-depth look at featured content.

Today we're mainly focusing on music, but we've also got news on both engine and website development.

Engine Development

- Wwise non-commercial sound license

Following the upgrade to the CryEngine Engine-as-a-Service (EaaS), it's now necessary for us to use the Wwise sound system for the game.
The free version bundled with the engine has a limit of only 200 sounds, which would quickly become a problem for our game due to the scope we're aiming for.

Therefore, Captain Murphy has been in talks with Audiokinetic to negotiate a non-commercial license for Wwise, which will lift the 200 sound limit and allow us to pursue our non-profit goals for the game.

We are pleased to report that they have now granted us this license, so the main drawback with the EaaS has been addressed!

Website Development

Brand new look for HoO site

In case you weren't aware, we have an official site for the game over at Heartsofoakgame.com which is constantly updated with the latest news, videos, images and more.

This site is meant as a companion for the PiratesAhoy! forums, and presents all the Hearts of Oak news and media in one place.
Some of you may have already visited the site, but until now it has only had a temporary design. That has now changed as we're redesigning it to look more professional and easier on the eyes.

The design is meant to be consistent with the minimalist aesthetic that we're planning to use for the game's interfaces, and which is already represented in the logo itself.

Below you can see a design concept by Ashinokami, upon which the new website is based, which demonstrates this aesthetic very well:

http://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/162/161122/auto/Website_test3.jpgpsid1

The website design is still a work in progress, so please do visit the site and let us know what you think!

Music

To give you a taste of what's to come, we're regularly showcasing an original track, produced by one of our talented composers.
This week we've got a brand new track from Flannery called "The Tale of the Gall-Gaidhel", which is a rough sketch at this stage.

You can listen to it below, and then check out his comments on the track:

The Tale of the Gall-Gaidhel sketch.mp3

Flannery wrote:

The piece is a very Gaelic inspired piece, with some elements of Norse folk music - which is intentional - hence why it is called "The Tale of the Gall-Gaidhel".
The Vikings who settled down in Dublin (and western Scotland & the Isle of Man) - and who embraced the Gaelic language and culture - essentially became known as the "Gall-Gaidhel".
Translated it means Norse-Gaels or Foreign-Gaels (but only used on Gaelic speaking Norsemen).
These people (as so many others) are seafaring ancestors to many a soul who sought fortune in the Caribbean later on.

Also, much of the more common music in America (folk music) from the colonial era has its origins in medieval Celtic music (Irish/Scottish/French).
(Not talking about the classical music here, as this was reserved only for the rich and privileged.)

There will be a "tavern" version of this as well later on, without the orchestral parts in the background.

COPYRIGHTS

This music is the property of D'laymusic - Norway, and Christian "Flannery" Tornholm-Lehn. It is protected under copyright law, which if violated might lead to legal persecutions.

Stay tuned for more original music soon!

Vacancies

We still have a few high-priority vacancies that need to be filled to help us make further progress on the game:

- Character modellers (we still don't have any!)

- Other 3D artists

- User Interface artists

- Texture/shader artists

- Engine programmers/scripters

To apply to join the team, please head over to our Recruitment Forum and introduce yourself.
No formal qualifications are needed; you just need some free time and enthusiasm, though experience is helpful.
Please note: this project is non-commercial and so we are not offering payment to team members.

If you know someone else that might be able to help, please point them in our direction!
Remember, we're a volunteer community and we can't make this game happen without your help!

That's it for this week's progress; we'll have more updates for you soon!
Don't know what the Hearts of Oak project is? Take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

*Please note that while we're aiming to post a new article each week, we can't always manage this, but we will post articles as regularly as we can!

Thor. · June 18, 2014

I like the way you keep updating this thread, i think games like this deserve as much publicity as they can get. This forum is a good start, but i would suggest try expanding to other means for advertising like steam green light Its fantastic opportunity to get yourself heard.

Believe it or not there is lots, and lots of conceptual games still on paper there, or just starting development.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Thor.

mikeydmc · June 18, 2014

Thor

Glad to see your interest. We are trying to advertise on a lot of sites actually though it's a completely free game we still want people to know about it, I am taking charge of advertising on this site because I was the one familiar with it, though I just edit these updates to better fit on Nexus forum someone else is writing them in our community the originals can be found: http://www.indiedb.com/games/hearts-of-oak/news

I think their is plans to try to do steam green light when the game is more progressed

mikeydmc · June 25, 2014

Hearts of Oak Weekly Update 5

See new models, hear more music and find out why we're one step closer to the first playable release in this week's article...

Welcome to another edition of our Hearts of Oak progress articles!

Each week*, we will bring you a summary of the latest development news, including work-in-progress screenshots and in-game footage, along with a more in-depth look at featured content.

It's back to 3D modelling news this week, with more music and some great progress towards the first playable release...

Engine Development

- CryEngine Packager; Captain Murphy

No in-game footage in this video, but Captain Murphy explains the details of his new utility that will allow us to easily package the game files for release.
This brings us one step closer to the first public tech demo release, of which you'll hear more details soon!

3D Models

There are several sub-categories of 3D assets to cover here, so below we'll list various types of assets, what they're called and who made them.

Terrain

- Test Island; RobinPC

Here are some new shots of a test island that RobinPC is working on, and some comments to explain them:

RobinPC wrote: So I'm expanding the test island from Wedori and making the shores look a lot more realistic...

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/TestIsland1.jpg

RobinPC wrote: But I also wanted to include a very thick scary jungle pathway all across the island for the player to explore in. In the picture you can see a part of that stuff happening...
So it's basically a work in progress jungle.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/TestIsland2.jpg

Ships

- HMS Shannon progress; Alex Connor

Alex has rebuilt this ship from the ground up, vastly increasing the amount of detail.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Leda14.jpg

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Leda16.jpg

Edited June 25, 2014 by mikeydmc

mikeydmc · June 25, 2014

Hearts of Oak Weekly Update 5

Part 2

Weapons

- Axe concept art and models; SuperDurnius

This is a fantastic piece of concept art for various types of axes for the game:

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Concept_WorkingAxe.jpg

And here's a work-in-progress model, featuring different handles and a holster:

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Capture.JPG

Music

To give you a taste of what's to come, we're regularly showcasing an original track, produced by one of our talented composers.

This week we have a folk song produced by J. Cava, which could be played in taverns in the game.

Below is a link to the track, along with some comments from the composer.

Pirate Tavern

J.Cava wrote:

I began to think about pirates in the tavern drinking rum, playing, betting, fighting. Explaining cursed treasure stories and music playing underneath. I also looked for some pictures in Google to inspire.

I'm a musician who likes adventure stories, sword fights and the music of other eras. I like to collect instruments and use them in my recordings.So in this piece I mix traditional/folk instruments and their corresponding midi. Such as mandolin, guitar, whistle, tabor, spoons(and drunken pirates chanting "Hey!!").

Stay tuned for more original music soon!

Vacancies

We still have a few high-priority vacancies that need to be filled to help us make further progress on the game:

- Character modellers (we still don't have any!)

- Other 3D artists

- User Interface artists

- Texture/shader artists

- Engine programmers/scripters

To apply to join the team, please head over to our Recruitment Forum and introduce yourself.
No formal qualifications are needed; you just need some free time and enthusiasm, though experience is helpful.
Please note: this project is non-commercial and so we are not offering payment to team members.

If you know someone else that might be able to help, please point them in our direction!
Remember, we're a volunteer community and we can't make this game happen without your help!

That's it for this week's progress; we'll have more updates for you soon!
Don't know what the Hearts of Oak project is? Take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

*Please note that while we're aiming to post a new article each week, we can't always manage this, but we will post articles as regularly as we can!

Edited June 25, 2014 by mikeydmc

mikeydmc · July 6, 2014

Hearts of Oak Weekly Update 6

In this week's article we have a multitude of new buildings, ships, weapons and more... including a t-shirt!

Welcome to another edition of our Hearts of Oak progress articles!

Each week*, we will bring you a summary of the latest development news, including work-in-progress screenshots and in-game footage, along with a more in-depth look at featured content.

We have a shipload of new content to share with you today (be careful how you say that), including more fantastic models of all varieties.

Engine Development

- Launcher App; Captain Murphy

This is a sneak preview of the interface that will greet you in our upcoming playable tech demo.
We hope to share more details about the tech demo very soon, but in the meantime, here's what Captain Murphy said about this launcher:

Captain wrote:It will work hand-in-hand with the coming features of the packager to be able to adjust the startup settings of the game by adjusting the *.cfg files before it fires the executable.

This gives us a nice clean startup appearance without making people click the sdk launcher icon.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/LauncherPreview1.png

3D Models

There are several sub-categories of 3D assets to cover here, so below we'll list various types of assets, what they're called and who made them.

Architecture

- New Buildings; Wedori

Here are two new high-detail buildings, both will full interiors and interactive doors.
Blacksmith's house:

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Blacksmith1.jpg

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Blacksmith2.jpg

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Blacksmith3.jpg

Farmhouse:

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Farmhouse1.jpg

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Farmhouse2.jpg

Terrain

- Test Island progress; RobinPC

Here's a new shot of the test island, showing a natural barrier that will keep the player from straying too far from the main playable areas.
Each rock you see has been carefully placed by hand to make the formation look organic and non-repetitive.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/TestIsland1.1.jpg

If you're worried that barriers like this will restrict your freedom to explore the game's islands, rest assured that there will still be huge, interesting areas of land to traverse!

Robin has even hinted at the inclusion of Easter eggs on this island, so curious players will be rewarded...

mikeydmc · July 6, 2014

Hearts of Oak Weekly Update 6

Part 2

Ships

- HMS Southampton progress; Captain Armstrong

This ship is drawing ever-closer to completion with the addition of chainplates, shrouds and deadeyes, which form part of the masts' climbable rigging.
Other new details added include the capstan, stove, gratings, wheel, and pinrails.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Southampton1.JPG

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Southampton2.JPG

Weapons

- WIP Axe render; SuperDurnius

This is a render of the axe model we showcased last week, which shows off the range of materials used on both the axe and its holster.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Axe_Galva02-Rankena02.JPG

- Rapier concept art and models; SuperDurnius

As with last week's axe concept art, SuperDurnius has now drawn up some concepts of rapiers for the game:

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Concept_Rapier.jpg

Below are some work-in-progress rapier models, demonstrating how some of the concepts are being brought to life.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Rapier1.JPG

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/Rapier2.JPG

Scenery

- Market Stall; Chas

Here's a simple market stall in its early modelling stages. You'll probably see variations of the completed model scattered throughout the game's islands.

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19616/MarketStall1.png

Vacancies

We still have a few high-priority vacancies that need to be filled to help us make further progress on the game.
Since several of these roles remain largely empty or in need of more hands on deck, we're now including more details about each role and how it fits into the big picture.

As a reminder, all of these developer roles are NON-PAID positions.

Character Modellers
We need people capable of modelling and animating character models for use in the latest CryEngine build.
Currently we have no dedicated artists in this role, yet it's probably the most crucial one to fill at this point.

You will be expected to carry out the engine export process yourself, or to learn how to do it yourself.
Familiarity with the engine is desirable, but not necessary if you're willing to learn your way around it.
You will not be expected to produce concept art for these characters, but you are welcome to do so.

If you're not a character modeller but know someone who is, please do tell them about our project!

Other 3D Artists
As well as the above, we need artists capable of creating a wide range of other assets for the game.
Such assets include, but are not limited to:

- Ships (these are highly complex models that require skill and dedication to make)

- Buildings (including full interior)

- Weapons (such as melee weapons, pistols, and cannons)

- Scenery props (smaller assets that are easier to make and will help populate the game world)

You will be expected to produce the 3D models and UV maps only, and use textures provided by the team.
If relevant textures do not exist, you may make them yourself or ask a 2D artist to do it for you.
It is highly desirable for you to handle the export process yourself, or to learn how to do it yourself.
We can offer help and advice concerning your chosen asset(s), as well as written tutorials on proper model set-up for engine export.

User Interface Developers

We need artists willing to help design and produce a working GUI and HUD for the game.

You will be expected to know how to design a working interface with a suitable program, and it is desirable for you to be capable of importing it into the engine.
You will not be expected to produce concept art for the interfaces, but you are welcome to do so.

Texture/Shader Artists

We need artists willing to support our 3D modellers by producing high-quality textures and/or materials for their assets.

You will be expected to know what kinds of textures to produce (including diffuse, specular, normal map etc.) and/or how to create realistic materials in the engine.
You will not be expected to produce UV maps for the 3D assets, as they should be provided by the modeller (unless you choose to make them in cooperation with a modeller).

Engine Programmers/Scripters

We need people capable of working with our development team to help produce core game systems.

You will be expected to have a knowledge of the relevant programming languages, and preferably an understanding of how to work with the engine.
If you are unfamiliar with the engine, you must be willing to learn how to work with it yourself.
You will not be expected to design the game systems yourself. We will provide details of what needs doing and when it needs doing.

To apply to join the team, please head over to our Recruitment Forum and introduce yourself.
No formal qualifications are needed; you just need some free time and enthusiasm, though experience is desirable.
If you know someone else that might be able to help, please point them in our direction!

In Other News...

T-shirts

Do you wish you had an awesome Hearts of Oak t-shirt? Of course you do!

http://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/163/162451/auto/08ATtpd.jpg

Unfortunately, this shirt designed by Thagarr is currently a one-off, so you can't have one.
It is, however, extremely cool. If you happen to see Thagarr wearing this shirt out in the wild, be sure to give him a high-five!

- Happy Independence Day to our American devs and fans!

That's it for this week's progress; we'll have more updates for you soon!
Don't know what the Hearts of Oak project is? Take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

*Please note that while we're aiming to post a new article each week, we can't always manage this, but we will post articles as regularly as we can!

Hearts of Oak: Conquest of the Seas

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