Hey everyone,
Just dropping by to let you know that we've nominated Ion Fury in the "Labor of Love" category for the Steam Awards 2023. So if you liked Aftershock, please consider voting for us.
That's all. Thanks for playing!
- Buy Ion Fury Aftershock here.
- Follow Voidpoint on Twitter.
- Follow 3D Realms on Twitter.
- Join the 3D Realms Discord.
- Join the 3D Realms Subreddit.
- Check out the 3D Realms Website here.
[ 2023-11-21 18:01:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
IT'S HERE!
With another delay fit for a king, you can now pre-order the Ion Fury "Hail to the Queen" BIG BOX - but be quick; there's only 500 copies!
Get it here: https://3drealms.com/product/ion-fury-hail-to-the-queen-big-box/
Whats in the box?
- Shelly Gold Figurine
- Double Sided Poster
- Alloy USB Key Card
- Sticker Sheet
- Artbook
- Metal Pin
- Thank you letter from the dev team
- Post Card
- Ion Fury and Ion Fury: Aftershock
[ 2023-10-13 18:35:25 CET ] [ Original post ]
[previewyoutube=c49Zj6E_u98;full][/previewyoutube] The day is upon us. After a delay fit a for a King, you can experience Ion Fury: Aftershock! - More than half the content featured in the original game - New Weapons - New Enemies - New Zones - Arrange Mode - A Hoverbike complete with homing plasma missiles And it's OUT RIGHT NOW on Steam! Better yet, for the first week of the launch there's a 10% discount on Steam! Pick it up here: 3drealms.live/IonFuryAftershock Product description: Ion Fury: Aftershock is a massive expansion featuring more than half of the content included in the original game. Aftershock doubles down on the old-school FPS action with challenging new bosses, a wealth of powerups and secrets to uncover, and an expanded arsenal introducing three new weapons.
[ 2023-10-02 16:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
[previewyoutube=c49Zj6E_u98;full][/previewyoutube] After a delay fit for a King, the wait is almost over. October 2nd, 2023. Yes: just 2 more days left until you can finally experience Ion Fury: Aftershock. If you didn't see the showcase, make sure you check out the trailer above.
- Buy Ion Fury Aftershock here.
- Follow Voidpoint on Twitter.
- Follow 3D Realms on Twitter.
- Join the 3D Realms Discord.
- Join the 3D Realms Subreddit.
- Check out the 3D Realms Website here.
[ 2023-09-30 21:40:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Boost your screenshot game with Photo Mode!
Im Katie, community hype machine for Voidpoint and Ion Fury, and Im here to tell you a little bit about my favorite new feature in Ion Fury: Aftershock Photo Mode!
Photo Mode began as a wish. I adore the recent shift in games to facilitate taking screenshotsits gone beyond the shortcut keybind to dump a HUD-covered JPEG into a subfolder. Now weve got in-game camera tools that make taking dramatic shots incredibly easy. Players and creators have the opportunity to bring their creativity to a lot of games and communities using virtual photography. Ion Fury is a beautiful game, and I mentioned to the team how it would be helpful for generating screens and media to have an in-game photo mode. I wanted to capture how great it looks, but I was frustrated by having to work around the console. Having easy, accessible photo capture tools in a game encourages players to share their content, either through Steam or through social media channels. Imagine my excitement when Jonathan Strander, lead designer on Ion Fury: Aftershock, surprised me with a complete photo mode to try. If youve enjoyed the videos, gifs, and screenshots Voidpoint has shared over the summer, you have Strander to thank for it. Let me walk you through the basics of Ion Furys newest community tool. In order to access Photo Mode, youll hit the [BACKSPACE] key and the controls will appear on the top of the screen.
This automatically pauses the action and lets you freely fly to the perfect picture spot, but its got some other features that will help you capture what you want, like some toggle options for the HUD, and individual screen elements, like the weapon hands and crosshair. Movement is WASD, but you can move up using [SPACE] and down with [CTRL]. You can go high up and capture a wide cityscape, or crouch down to get some low-angle drama.
My favorite options control the enemy AI. By default, enemies are dumb to your presence in photo mode. But if you want your screenshot or video to contain some action, you can wake them up and let them move on patrol by choosing [4] Awake AI. If you want them to follow and shoot you (dont worryyou cant be killed while in this mode), choose [5] Aware AI. Watch Heskels scumbags fire at nothing.
You can also show Shellys sprite in third-person. Pair that with the modes ability to slow down time by toggling [7], and you can recreate your favorite John Woo movies right in Ion Fury. When youve set up your scene and youre ready to snap a photo, hide the mode overlay with [0] and hit your screenshot key. If youre finished with it, you can exit Photo Mode and youll go back to where you left off. Its so exciting to see the retro tech of Build incorporate a modern virtual photography mode. I cant wait to see what the community captures with this new tool. Be sure to share all your beautiful new shots with us! ---------------------
- Have you wishlisted Ion Fury Aftershock? You can do so here.
- Follow Voidpoint on Twitter here.
- Join the 3D Realms Discord here.
- Find 3D Realms on Social Media here.
[ 2023-09-11 19:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]
You've been asking to see some gameplay from Ion Fury: Aftershock and Phantom Fury for a long time. Well, it's finally here. Tonight, Jared is going to check out the demos from gamescom for
And as a chaser, he'll be playing our complete demo for Tempest Rising, which is actually available now. Our interview today: Max of Voidpoint and lead level designer for Ion Fury. Gonna be a kickass time. See you on Twitch. at 14 EST/20 CEST OBLIGATORY SOCIALS PLUG:- Follow 3D Realms on Twitter
- Follow Voidpoint on Twitter
- Follow Phantom Fury on Twitter
- Follow Slipgate Ironworks on Twitter
- Join the 3D Realms Discord
[ 2023-09-01 10:07:10 CET ] [ Original post ]
Are you going to Gamescom? Stop by the 3D Realms booth to check out our Aftershock demo. Until then, our family over at Voidpoint have blessed us with another kickass special tracker edition from the soundtrack. Presenting: Nu-Life by Jarkko Rotsten. Listen here [previewyoutube=2YTAQI8hnC0;full][/previewyoutube] Be sure to wishlist Aftershock if you haven't, and follow Voidpoint on twitter at the link above.
[ 2023-08-21 19:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
3D Realmsreturns to Gamescom, bringing hands-on demos of the upcoming titles Phantom Fury, RIPOUT and Ion Fury: Aftershock to the show from 24-27 August. Find us at the Indie Arena Booth, Hall 10.2, booth F010g - E019g. See you there! [previewyoutube=ImEo-zsxrzw;full][/previewyoutube]
- Follow 3D Realms on Twitter Here.
- Follow Slipgate Ironworks on Twitter Here.
- Join the 3D Realms Discord Here.
[ 2023-08-16 13:00:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
[previewyoutube=M82cCqf-pn4;full][/previewyoutube] Realms Deep is back, baby! On September 30th, you are cordially invited to a late-night talk show event featuring our beloved host, Jared R Bair. 3D Realms brings updates from numerous titles under their diverse portfolio, including Its highly anticipated classic RTS Tempest Rising, action-adventure FPS Phantom Fury, immersive sim Core Decay, sci-fi horror FPS RIPOUT, dark-fantasy FPS GRAVEN, dieselpunk action-rpg Combustion, Ion Furys Aftershock expansion, and maybe even an exciting surprise or two. Other developers and partners at this years Realms Deep include the return of New Blood Interactive, Running With Scissors, Slipgate Ironworks, HYPERSTRANGE, Dread XP, Hellforge Studios, Fulqrum, and Retrovibe, as well as THQ Nordic, Prismatika Games and many more, making their debut into the show! And who knows, maybe there will be a few interviews? Maybe a bit of the ol ultraviolence. WHERE: http://twitch.tv/3DRealms WHEN: 8 PM CEST / 2 PM ET
[ 2023-07-06 14:30:58 CET ] [ Original post ]
Our friends over at Voidpoint have provided us with a new soundtrack visualizer. And it's another tracker, because Voidpoint loves you and so do we. Listen below. [previewyoutube=csXuLhOrCUE;full][/previewyoutube] Have you wishlisted Ion Fury Aftershock yet? If not, do that here. And make sure to follow us on twitter for the latest updates on our games.
[ 2023-07-03 19:00:35 CET ] [ Original post ]
The greatest time of the year has arrived - The Steam Summer Sale! From now and until July 13th, Ion Fury is 60% off. But if you are looking for something even greater than this, you can get yourself the whole bundle that includes Ion Fury, GRAVEN and WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, and save even more on all titles! WRATH AEON OF RUIN + ION FURY + GRAVEN COMPLETE YOUR SET BUNDLE https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12693/WRATH_Aeon_of_Ruin__Ion_Fury__GRAVEN_Complete_Your_Set/
[ 2023-06-30 08:13:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey everyone, its Jonathan Mblackwell again and I am back with Part 2 of our Game Design dev diary. This time we are going to talk about Ion Furys design rules, and as a special treat, well also be talking about the expansion Aftershock, including how our goals changed from the first campaign, and some of the new things youll get to experience. If you haven't ready Part 1, you can do so here.
Closing the Loop
In Part 1 I talked about how different gameplay elements were made with rules for consistency, but no one wants to experience it without engaging environments that feel cohesive, learnable, and fun to explore. Designers also need some freedom in order to express their creativity. To make both ideas possible, levels had a framework for style, structure, scale and more.
Color and Lighting
Besides the overall theming, each area of a zone had to decide on a general color palette. The mapper could decide which color should be most prominent/a base, then use different contrasting and complimentary colors in important areas. The only exception to this was space around keycard doors being colored like the key they require. Keeping this basic color structure lets places be more distinct, and visually clear. Mappers were able to easily pick out colors in a scene that would subconsciously draw attention. These cues quickly create a mental map for players.
Lighting a scene requires some forethought: in BUILD its all done by splitting up sectors into the right shapes with more and more walls, shading each surface by hand! We kept it high contrast, which meant it was easier to make out the critical path and also kept down the number of wall splits the level designers would have to create.
(Left: Regular high contrast. Right: Smooth shadows that take up lots of walls and time.) Bright lights draw the eyes attention and players will move toward them, so bright points of light and highlights were used to signal where to go next. Background objects and details were kept dim by comparison.
Doors and Windows
Presenting the Ion Fury Door Bible! Yes, its true - theyve got their own guide courtesy of Max. Doors were an important early decision, as they cause changes to the environment when opening and closing. Things might get stuck on them or between them. Inconsistent door designs create confusion and frustration for the player, and frequently in the Build Engine also cause death! To paraphrase a bit, doors need to be lit if theyre usable, including lighting up important doors as they unlock. No fake/false doors except if absolutely necessary for a convincing environment. Those doors must be dimly shaded and have a perma-locked sound effect trigger added. A sound effect when moving is a must - the sound tells you when something has happened, including an enemy coming in the room!
Keycard doors should be seen before the matching key (otherwise - did you really need a key instead of a puzzle/switch?), and as mentioned above are required to have a nearby color match to the key that unlocked them. If a door is activated by a switch or puzzle, the switch should be next to the door or connected to it visually; whether by cables, pipes, lights, or otherwise. This connects them logically and mentally for the player as well, helping them feel less lost. In the few exceptions distant doors could be opened by an unconnected switch when there is a security monitor nearby to see what changed.
We were less strict with consistent window appearances, but because we had both breakable and unbreakable glass, plus some glass that enemies couldnt see through, we still had to establish a few rules. Darker or more opaque glass blocks enemy line-of-sight and doesnt break when hit, while clear/thin looking glass is something flimsy that could be smashed to pieces.
Objects
It was important to maintain consistency in all of the levels. I worked closely with Max and others to decide on things as mundane as general door size (576-1536 Build units), average hallway width (1024-2048), and the size and placement of objects. Sometimes as simple as all electrical sockets should be 2048 above the floor or counter, or as complicated as fire extinguisher explosions should always leave wall damage. These kinds of decisions not only make the levels feel more coherent and connected, they also affect the believability of the game environments and the gameplay itself. An example of this is that switches and buttons for normal progression were placed at eye level, the height of a centered view, so they could be easily pressed without having to do small up and down micro-actions. While already frustrating with mouse input, its even more awkward when youre using a gamepad or keyboard-only controls (which the game also technically supports). Rooms couldnt be random collections of objects. A bar should have bottles and glasses, an office should have desks and chairs, and so on. This gives a sense of place, and the impression that its truly lived in and not just an empty shell. And even though they look cool as extra detailing decals, since we had breakable walls the designers had to be careful not to use large Wall Crack sprites and suggest to players that a wall can be destroyed.
And since this game featured movable props we encouraged their use in little easter eggs and secrets, particularly our old friend The Chair:
Chairs were an early physics test object and became a running gag. Eventually it was decided that level designers should have at least one Chair Secret in their zone, sometimes more than one!
Secrets
Speaking of secrets! The usual rule of thumb was 5 per area, with some simple/obvious and a few more difficult. Though since secrets allowed a large element of freedom, the level designers had lots of fun and went nuts with them! Ion Fury has 3 kinds of secrets:
- Unmarked/Easter Eggs. Sometimes these are things just off the beaten path, but they can also include fun extra hidden easter eggs that are hard to find or difficult to execute and dont count toward your total percentage.
- Regular secrets. A Secret Stash! These are the five expected secrets, and can be of any style as long as enough normal experimentation would find it. Not everyone likes every type of secret, but every secret was tested with and without a hint guide to double check that it could be reasonably completed by someone really going for it! These are the only secrets that count toward your secret percentage.
- Mega Secrets. Extremely challenging secrets that every player might not find - only one allowed per zone!
(Left: A secret item! Right: A Point Of No Return!) It was also important to us not to have you locked out of backtracking to get 100%. Each area was marked with Points of No Return to warn you when you were about to pass the threshold to an area you cant get back from, and to tell you how much progress youve made. As an extra visual cue a graffiti skull (the logo painted on GDF weapons) was always placed near the exits.
Whats in an Aftershock?
We had such a solid and balanced base from Ion Fury that for Aftershock we could be more playful. Players are expected to have already played the main campaign and so-- We thought cmon, lets get nuts.
Level Up
The long story arc in Ion Furys main campaign often left the player stuck in underground areas. This time we wanted to focus on more varied environments with lots of outdoor locations. One important early decision to help with this was to go with a more theme heavy approach that makes each map something you can describe in a few words. Here are some of the thematic elements from our art gallery map.
One longtime dream of Build mapping was to have sloped sprites in the engine. This is now a reality. It does this by clever re-use of existing sloping code in the engine to pull this off and in a way that does it very faithfully as per Build standards (quirks, jank and limitations but it looks cool!) Level designers are now using that to build unique areas and objects, even custom physics props. Even simple visuals like lasers and bullet trails benefit from this technology. Theyve also got a suite of new effects like being able to flood areas by setting the water level, bunch of new palettes to work with and loads of tweaks to the existing roster of effects.
Get Messy
The pacing of combat difficulty in Ion Fury helped ease you into encounters with each enemy, but for Aftershock, players know whats up! So the pacing was sped up, with more challenging enemies from Ion Fury appearing much sooner. New and alternate enemies have their own attacks and movements for players to learn, and most of them have quicker reaction times than the original ones.
We also added a new, and harder, fifth difficulty mode. This mode makes encounters even more intense, and creates a new layer of strategy as undestroyed enemy corpses will come back to life! Using the right moves and making enemies gib into pieces from your attacks becomes even more critical. Skill 5 is something we will also be including in the vanilla game as a bonus!
New boss encounters were a must, with distinct and interesting battles. In Ion Fury bosses could be hordes or puzzle-like, in addition to the occasional boss fight. We werent able to have as many of those boss fights as we, or players, wanted so for Aftershock we made it a must. Expanding the game gave us the time to create memorable encounters so bosses took a big step up with some cool surprises.
Maximum Power
Shelly has some really powerful attacks in Ion Fury, but most are balanced in some way to not be completely overpowering. However, since the bad guys up the ante in Aftershock, Shelly gets to respond in kind. There are a few new instant Items, but we used the new pocket we introduced in Ion Fury 2.0 to introduce more PowerUps. Now Shelly can incinerate her enemies with flame traps, give every gun a spectacular boost with new attack modes, and slow things down to look cool while doing it. We also upgraded the regular arsenal! Theres some new ammo types for the Disperser, and also a new much fan-requested weapon that will really wreck Heskels day.
Highway Star
A key feature for Aftershock has been the bike. Its something weve wanted since the early days of Ion Fury itself, and here we finally got to do it! It was one of the earliest things prototyped and done as a proof-of-concept for an expansion. It had to be fast, agile, weighty, and easy to handle with different inputs. It had to feel good to actually use, not the clunky mess people know from some other Build Engine games. So we settled on a quad-copter hover bike with beefy armor and infinite rockets to pummel enemies with. Even some of the toughest dudes are no match for Shellys blistering power when she revs up that motor.
Keep Watching the Skiiiis. Skies.
Of course this is just a taste of what you can expect from Aftershock. What started as a simple map pack ended up adding a ton of new things to the game. Parts of Aftershock were already started soon after the release of 1.0, and parts of its development have already seen their way into the base game. Improved performance, minor game play tweaks such as the pocket inventory, and even some undocumented effects ;) Its been a long road and were really excited we can show everyone more of the expansion! Theres more reveals coming soon, so remember to follow us on social media to get the latest, and if you haven't done already, add Ion Fury: Aftershock to you Steam Wishlist! Thanks for reading and stay tuned! Ill see ya next time, Jonathan Mblackwell Strander
[ 2023-06-20 21:00:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Our friends over at Voidpoint have provided us with a new soundtrack visualizer, but this time: it's the tracker. And the track is a banger. Listen below. [previewyoutube=xIRVUTn3A7A;full][/previewyoutube] Have you wishlisted Ion Fury Aftershock yet? If not, do that here. And make sure to follow us on twitter for the latest updates on our games.
[ 2023-06-12 18:56:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
Attention Ion Fury/Aftershock fans! Recently, we had Jonathan "Mblackwell" Strander on our weekly livestream (every Friday at 2pm EST over on Twitch) talking about Ion Fury Aftershock! Watch below for insights into Aftershock's development. [previewyoutube=k4Fz0S8-vgQ;full][/previewyoutube] Don't forget to wishlist Ion Fury Aftershock!
[ 2023-06-02 00:46:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey everyone! Jonathan Mblackwell Strander here with Part One of a two part article on the core game design principles behind Ion Fury. For Fury I acted as the primary programmer, the Lead Gameplay Engineer, and the Designer who compiled everyones ideas into something cohesive. I really wanted to share with everyone some of the behind-the-scenes decisions we made along the way. We had to come up with a lot of rules and guidelines to make the game we wanted, and I hope you all have fun learning about it! For now were going to deal mostly with the most obvious thing: How levels were designed for the games layered Combat Loop.
First Ideas
Bombshells world consisted of alien landscapes, and we had been tasked with providing something much more real world and grounded. In 2016 3D Realms gave the team permission to reconceptualize the game world and character for the Ion Fury version of the universe, barring a few key appearance markers for Shelly.
In our concepts Shelly would be not-too-young to be believable (around age 27), and grounded but snarky. Someone who may like to go out for a drink, but can get down to business with a get shit done attitude. She would be a reminder of the female protagonists we had grown up with like Ellen Ripley, Anne Lewis, Sarah Connor, Judge Hershey and countless others from action and science fiction.
The world would be Neo D.C.: a near-future dystopian cityscape with the world divided by financial and military strata. The player would travel from poorer districts to wealthier ones, climbing to different heights and construction quality. The background of how the world functioned wouldnt be explicitly told in story, but instead experienced by the player through the broader design.
Game Loops Cereal
We worked tightly as a team to come up with the right balance of game systems. When designing the gameplay I placed a focus on consistency, believability, and multiple interacting learnable systems. This made things natural, flexible and fun for players, and gave mappers a clear way to communicate their intent.
Bullet Ballet
Since its a large part of the gameplay, first we had to determine the flow of combat. This went through tons of iterations. Originally enemies had more health, and more smart tactics (like flanking and circle strafing), and combat was closer to a game like F.E.A.R. After lots of testing and experimentation we settled on a different goal: Shelly would be a glass cannon. Incredibly agile and powerful, but unable to take much direct damage. Players would need to actively avoid taking hits in order to win. To accommodate this, enemies were given distinct styles, attacks, sounds, and animation tells that make it easy to see a threat in advance. Each distinct cue gives a different warning, letting you know what kind of attack is coming to plan ahead for. Projectiles of all types could then be dodged and hits maneuvered around.
Instead of a few very tough and smart enemies we landed on large groups of trash enemies mingled with other types in order to turn combat into a dance of constantly shifting priorities. Mappers were directed to place enemies in groups with mixed types. Their differing weaknesses, movement patterns, and projectiles created the rock-paper-scissors-like ballet of picking targets and avoiding incoming fire.
Lots of testing was done to balance Time to Kill and Time to Death that being how long it took the player to kill an enemy and vice versa. Each enemy was repeatedly timed to see how long it would take before Shelly was dead starting from full health, and had their attacks tweaked to hit specific time targets. Each enemy also had an encounter stop-watched in order to see how many times you would have to hit them to kill them measured in seconds with both their health and Shellys weapons adjusted accordingly.
Of course, we knew you cant always avoid every hit so theres
Health Booster Boogie
To balance health we decided to have both instant use Medpaks and carriable Medkits. Mappers were told to restock the player in the next area after major combat (or long string of fights), and sparsely around the edges of those combat areas. Shellys health declines rapidly when not successfully dodging hits, so the combination makes players feel like they are living on a knifes edge but still able to recover from mistakes. A late game addition was the occasionally spawning Emergency Syringe to help stay alive, as some players felt slightly too punished in close fights. To keep balance theres an actual check for your current health, and the number and frequency spawned depends on difficulty.
As a bit of a boost to players and to build some lore, edible food pickups (Shellys fav is Pizza) were added after initial testing as a way for players to restore themselves and even gain more than 100% health! Similar to arcade games of old, we decided that such a small object should give a small but important temporary effect with a touch of additional ridiculousness. Not only do you get more health, but the more you eat the faster all of your movement gets. Even with all of that help, Shelly is made of glass so youll still die quickly unless you have
Shards, Shards Everywhere!
Armor became integral to balancing the gameplay. Keeping up your armor keeps you alive twice as long, so from the early days we included three sizes of armor suit (Light, Medium, Heavy). To make things feel more predictable, unlike games such as Duke Nukem 3D, there was no randomizer on armors usefulness the same size hit will always give the same size protection letting you soak damage and survive impossible feats. The Hazard Suit was planned early on not just to give protection from environmental damage but against all kinds of acid, gas, or nuke attacks that enemies might fire your way, giving you a hidden advantage.
To keep a constant forward momentum we added Small Armor Shards to replenish your supply in small numbers along the way. Us designers especially pushed for them for dual purposes: First, they would rain from enemies during big hits that caused gibs, encouraging you to keep the combat flowing and take risks.
Second, since Armor Shards make players feel safer they would be used as breadcrumbs to guide you through the level. With a small nod to the designs from classic games like Super Mario Bros., major path points or important areas had them placed in distinct lines in order to push you in the next direction subconsciously. The more suggestions we made with shards, the more players were able to find the critical path without even trying.
Ammo/Weapon Placement
Weapons arent just for making things go boom. Where, when, and how you actually receive weapons is an important step in the games overarching design. Your arsenal is spread out over the entire game in stages to bring a stronger feeling of accomplishment, and to give the player time to become experienced with the new weapon theyve just been given. The early zones feature Disperser (Shotgun) and Bowling Bombs alongside the occasional SMG. By the midpoint you start to see the Minigun and Ion Bow, and late-game focuses on giving a twist and a refresh to the game with things such as the Disperser Grenades. By this point youve also seen the Cluster Puck sprinkled throughout the entire campaign, meaning that the levels can act more as a test of the skills youve mastered.
Weapons which were meant as critical to progression were to be placed in obvious, well lit locations and positioned in a way that best attracts attention. Ammo for that weapon would appear near it so you could start to associate the two. Then a scenario where that weapon is useful would appear after, and players could learn a bit about how it works. Slightly more than the bare minimum amount of ammo was placed along the main paths in order to balance the number of ammo restocks, with extra ammo placed off to the side and in secret areas. Secret areas could also be used to give the player less important weapons, and even the chance of seeing powerful weapons early on. Having the reward of extra bullets encourages players to explore the entire level, and gives less experienced players a chance to keep their weapons from being empty since being able to shoot with less accuracy means youll run out of bullets faster! When level designers wanted to require a certain weapon such as explosives, or highlight a certain style of combat, they were asked to place the weapon and some ammunition for it beforehand. They were also asked to restock the player after every autosave point, in order to refresh themselves from the hard work of getting there. Level Designers were otherwise discouraged from forcing players to stick to only one weapon by not giving enough ammo variety. Every weapon is useful, with a unique set of advantages and disadvantages that can be twisted to fit different combat situations. Even the starting pistol, the Loverboy, and your batonthe Electrifryercan be used with great effect throughout the entire game (fun fact: big enemies are weak to it!).
All of this subliminally tells the player to keep pushing through, and they feel a strong sense of accomplishment just from the act of getting and using the games weapons.
PowerUps
PowerUps were added as a fun extra. Max and I, especially, are huge arcade fans and wanted to bring in that sense of something over-the-top into the combat loop. These were left as timed abilities to create small Superhero moments. Its a way to shift things to the players advantage for a moment without seriously affecting the wider game balance. The Hazard Suit can do extra duty as a breathing tank also getting you through toxic sludge and protecting you from toxic attacks, Super Damage doubles your attack power, Blast Accelerator gives you infinite instant-Homing Bowling Bombs, and so on. Having the Jump Boots, which gives you a Double-Jump, meant the mappers could include new kinds of hard-to-get-to areas and secrets, as well as spice up the combat in open rooms. Honestly, this also was the most difficult one for development; particularly after we added the Pocket Inventory it meant players could (and did) potentially get to all kinds of crazy places!
It Isnt the End After All
Dont worry, well come back in Part 2 and talk about Secret Areas, Sounds, and much more! Oh, and dont forget Aftershock its an expansion after all so were expanding with new elements, and Ill be able to talk more about them next time! In the meantime dont forget to Wishlist Aftershock, and follow Ion Fury on social media for more updates. Happy trails, Jonathan Mblackwell Strander
[ 2023-02-10 20:25:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello gamers, its Max oasiz Ylitalo on the keys once again and last I wrote about 3D in Build Engine and Ion Fury some years back.
This time Ill be writing a few more entries focusing on level design and some other bits related to it, starting with Arrange mode. While I started off as a mapper, I quickly found myself as the lead level designer on the project around 2016, doing a bit of everything on the side.
As a mapper, Im the effects guy. Coming from Duke3D mapping Ive always had the interest on trying to push maps to do cool things and create unique game play scenarios. Its not that different with Fury where I always try to think on how the mechanics can be pushed a little further with the existing tools available. Experimentation with these resulted in things like Bombardier challenge and Queen of the hill.
This time I wanted to go back to something I already planned to include all the way in 2017 for the preview campaign, then called B mode.
When designing a game, it's always about finding a right balance between skill, enemy introduction pacing and other gameplay beats.
Even with the hardest skills intended for veteran players, you cant just go full blast with all of the enemies, items and traps as you will want to gradually build up the intensity and roughly match the pacing of easier skills in terms of new elements. With Fury, on hardest skill you will get more enemies, more aggressive A.I. and a few key enemies get trickled in slightly earlier than the usual first encounters. However its all still designed to give you a mostly similar experience.
While I believe we struck a nice balance overall with the main campaign, in some cases we had few spots where we had to look back and agree that some puzzles might confuse new players. With puzzles, any neat world hazard/puzzle you add will exist as a shared level script/geometry bit, affecting ALL skill levels. Outside of puzzles, there were also some enemies we didnt want to introduce very early on regardless of skill, resulting in some enemy types getting barely any proper screen time.
Many of these would work better during a replay.
Early z1a4: generator puzzle used to be harder with underwater areas
How to tell a replay apart? We at one point thought about having higher skills locked behind a beat the game wall but its not really nice for replays. Not only that but it would limit us mostly to enemy placement changes and we wanted more.
It was time to dig up that B mode mentioned earlier
Our inspiration comes from older games where youd finally beat the game (God gamer you!) and be getting ready to enjoy the ending... However instead of a conclusive end, you mightve even got a very blunt and rewarding Try again with a harder game! message and it would usually just kick you back to a title screen with perhaps some secret code. Undeterred, you start the game again and all of a sudden youd notice that the game would have changes to make it harder, different and sometimes going as far as modifying actual levels of the game to essentially give you a whole new second quest. This was often known with names such as B game Hard mode or Second quest and can be seen as a natural evolution of even older arcade games where youd typically have 3-5 stage layouts that would keep repeating with a few tweaks to increase the difficulty each loop, designed to make you lose eventually.
(Left) Legend of Zelda NES (Right) Kirbys Dream Land GB
Back when planning started, we dubbed ours "B-mode" and the game was to ship with just two skill levels and this alternate mode that was intended for replays, acting as a "medium+ & hard".
As the game's development was pretty turbulent back in 2016-2017, we didn't even know if the preview campaign would be our swansong. But when we finally went with the EA model and decided to push with the full game, we focused our efforts on making the existing stuff work as well as possible and revisit this idea for the full game... That didn't really happen either :)
I found some early planning sheets for the end of level screen that still included the 2 skills and A/B mode distinction. You can still recognize a few of these messages.
Now, B mode, let's try again..
The term Arrange mode was picked since it has a nice ring to it, playing homage to older Japanese games from the 80s and 90s where youd often have arcade home ports that would try to replicate a vanilla experience but youd in often have ARRANGE in the main menu that was essentially an added bonus mode could introduce changes to game play, graphics, music, stages and even story.
All of this could be minor game play rule tweaks to full on second quest type experiences.
These still spiritually live on in the form of DLCs and as various unlockable extras.
In this context, our goal set out to be to provide a second quest type of experience that lets the player re-experience the vanilla campaign with new unexpected twists and also adding new game play elements to the mix.
Four key points ended up being
- Increase challenge by remixing maps
- Mirror flip the maps (the slow way)
- Collectibles
- Spice things up with Aftershock content for extra variety
INCREASE CHALLENGE BY REMIXING MAPS
One great thing about a replay run is that we can expect the player to be familiar with some basic concepts like baton operated switches.
We can assume that once a player reaches an area, the player already mostly knows what to search for and we can already have an "increased difficulty" version of a puzzle or an area without having to teach the mechanic exactly.
Expect to see a few tweaks to puzzles or some key card locations and some new hazards like purple goo taking over familiar areas, requiring new ways to think! :)
Hmmm someone has been moving generators again Wait! what is this purple goo!?
MIRROR FLIP MAPS (the slow way)
All of the maps have been mirror flipped!
Now you'd think the process is just "translate X for map" and you'd be right, but I didn't want to just have everything 100% mirrored, I wanted the signs, text, etc.. to read properly as if the maps were always like this. This poses a few annoyances as build engine is rather primitive with walls/sprites store a simple "Flip X, Flip Y, Flip both" flag. Here are a few examples of manual fixes from the editor side:
A lot of the text actually consists of separate letter by letter sprites that are now all in wrong order. The solution was to code a custom script where I can pick a group of sprites and "de-flip" these with some rotate functions and math. After this you'd have to re-align sprite group that could get stuck inside walls due to Z fighting hacks or rounding errors.
Surprisingly, Build has no way of selecting multiple sprites in 3D so I ended up adding that as well.
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A de-flip script is applied against the selection which rotates it against an axis and flips the sprites cstat bit that controls if the texture is mirrored or not. However in many cases sprites are not 100% flat against the wall, any sprites sticking out will now end up inside so it needs careful repositioning to restore it
Floor and ceiling texture alignment can either be world or sector relative. This means that when you move/rotate stuff around, the origin of texture panning will be bound to one edge (wall) of a sector. If sector aligned, it will always be parallel to the "first wall" of a sector. This is where things get a bit more complicated...
Walls in Build are actually points in the 2D map and don't contain the expected x1,y1 - x2,y2 references, instead a wall is considered a single point in 2D space and it stores the next point's ID based on clockwise direction of the sector's shape. Flipping the sectors will generally work but as the alignment has to be redone internally to be clockwise again (Reverse order), it might result in misalignments that need manual fixing and can't be automated or detected. These were fixed manually. Huge thanks to our testers for helping catch so many more of these!
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A Few of the many examples where manual fixing is required
However toilets were done fully in code, with hardcoded alignments for any necessary texture swaps. Solution? Create more editor code and fix every single toilet in the game manually one by one by flipping the first wall to be one wall towards the other side... I had a day where I was literally inspecting all the toilets in the game. [table noborder=1] [tr] [th]
[/th] [th]
[/th] [/tr] [/table] Flipping the wall order changes the alignment of the floor texture. Fixed on the right one. COLLECTIBLES Something scrapped from the original game was a concept where you'd find bombs around the world that you'd defuse and gain a reward for. This was rather quickly scrapped but we always kind of liked the idea of having other "hidden in plain sight" stuff to find besides secrets. Perhaps inspired by MGS2 Fatman defusal stuff and a bit of NOLF, you can now find collectible bomb pickups scattered around the world in challenging places, ticking away, waiting to be defused. On 1.0 you had limited use for jump boots but expect to require them for some of the new stuff! Areas which were previously unreachable might now have stuff to look out for, and you'll get to trade some for powerups/items between zones. SPICE THINGS UP WITH AFTERSHOCK And finally we have the whole library of new enemies, powerups, items and weapons from Aftershock. You will have access to a ton of stuff from the get go but also expect a pushback from the enemies! Action will be much more hectic due to the new tools we have at our disposal. I wont be spoiling the whole roster here but we do have a bunch more variety, including a rather ridiculous powerup.
While a lot of this could be done with run-time scripts, we wanted to make the experience feel more like a real game mode and also doing something cool for the fans to play around with. It was an opportunity to make a few of the fanmade unreachable area rumors a reality ;) Expect to see maps include a few of the new effects weve developed for aftershock. I hope you got some idea on how arrange mode is shaping up and next time Ill be shedding some light on how the zone3 boss ship was done.
[ 2022-12-30 16:20:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
[previewyoutube=K37l3-La-Go;full][/previewyoutube] We are happy to announce Phantom Fury, a road movie-inspired first-person shooter starring Ion Furys Shelly Bombshell Harrison developed by Slipgate Ironworks and published by 3D Realms! Shelly embarks on her next action-packed adventure on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC in 2023. Years after Shellys fight against Jadus Heskel, an old colleague rouses her from a coma. She awakens with a bionic arm capable of incredible feats and a new mission: track down the dangerous Demon Core, an artifact capable of unprecedented destruction before villains get their hands on it. WISHLIST PHANTOM FURY NOW! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1733240/Phantom_Fury/
[ 2022-09-16 19:10:15 CET ] [ Original post ]
Realms Deep 2022, the annual digital showcase organized by 3D Realms and friends packed with world premieres and special guests, kicks off today at 12:00 PM PST / 09:00 PM CEST and continues over the weekend.
Watch it live on 3D Realms' official Twitch and YouTube channels!
And don't forget to check out the Realms Deep Steam Sale for exclusive discounts, demos, and just announced games!
[ 2022-09-16 14:56:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
Steam Summer Sale has just begun and Ion Fury is 65% off - the highest discount so far! You don't want to miss this opportunity! The offer ends on July 7th
And if this is not enough, Ion Fury is part of the Bloody Nostalgia bundle that includes Project Warlock, Forgive Me Father and Hedon Bloodrite, where you can get these awesome old-school FPS games with an extra discount!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26867/Bloody_Nostalgia/
[ 2022-06-24 12:49:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
It's time for a developer Q&A! On Saturday April 9th at 3pm EDT / 9pm CEST, FitterSpace will host as lead gameplay designer Jonathan Strander plays Ion Fury and chats about all things IF and Aftershock! The livestream will take place on the 3D Realms Twitch channel. Be sure to follow!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1588720/Ion_Fury_Aftershock/
[ 2022-04-06 10:24:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings, Fury fans!
We're hard at work on the Aftershock expansion pack for Ion Fury, and we wanted to give you a little update on what's going on. Unfortunately, unforeseen delays have pushed back the release beyond our initial projections, but we're committed to not sacrificing quality in order to hit any specific deadline. Additional development time is needed to polish the new content and make sure it meets the high standards set by the base game. We know how much everyone is looking forward to Aftershock and we appreciate your patience as we work to make the expansion another memorable experience. In the meantime, continue to enjoy Ion Fury and keep an eye out here for more information about Aftershock in the coming months. For now, we can reveal that Aftershock will feature 13 all-new levels, one entirely new weapon, new inventory items, and several new enemy and ammo types. There's also Arrange Mode, an amped-up remix of the entire original campaign with mirrored levels and modified enemy and item placement that introduce the enhanced loadout and enemy variety into the base game. And finally, by popular request, we're adding a brand-new skill level 5 to ramp up the difficulty level even further for the most hardcore players. For now, here are some screenshots of Aftershock in development!
Thank you all for your support of Ion Fury we hope you've enjoyed playing it as much as we enjoyed making it and we can't wait for everyone to experience everything that Ion Fury: Aftershock has to offer!
[ 2022-03-16 18:37:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Ion Fury, the old-school first-person shooter developed by Voidpoint and published by 3D Realms and 1C Entertainment, unleashes a 2.0 patch full of improvements on PC to ready up for the Ion Fury: Aftershock expansion launching early next year on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Whether a returning player or new to the retro FPS genre, community-requested features in the 2.0 patch make this the perfect time to start a fresh run through Ion Fury. Grab power-ups on the go and deploy them on command with a new pocket inventory system, adding a tactical layer to each gunfight. Run and gun on a gamepad with ease with revamped controller support. Massive performance upgrades make Ion Fury even smoother than before. Shellys arsenal tears through cyborgs better than ever with clever weapon rebalancing. The Chain Gun now has a higher maximum ammo count and pushes users back with concussive force, creating new movement strategies. The Ion Bow now rewards advanced techniques like swap-canceling while charging. Quality-of-life changes refine Ion Furys campaign. Map bug fixes make levels more pleasurable to navigate. Sleuths can utilize the radar to track down hidden secrets. Each weapons ammo reserves now fill up the cross-hair for enhanced battle awareness and an increased focus on staying alive. Players will also be able to earn Ion Fury trading cards on Steam at last, as well as collect items like profile backgrounds and emoticons from the Steam Points Shop. Creating new playgrounds of destruction is more fun with some new map features, such as new rotating sprite structures and remotely controlled viewscreens, added in anticipation of Aftershock. The creatively inclined can look forward to updated examples and scripts for Mapster32 in the near future. Please note that scripts and documentation are released separately and not included in Steam/GOG updates. Early next year, Aftershock continues the events of Ion Fury with a new action-packed adventure. Pursue the maniacal Dr. Jadus Heskel and stop him from re-sculpting the flesh of humanity with his mechanical designs. Slay new enemies and bosses atop Shellys Hover Bike with fresh weaponry. Revisit Ion Furys original campaign with Arrange mode, adding the expansions foes, armaments, and more. Ion Fury: Aftershock keeps growing in scope and looks more impressive every day, said Frederik Schreiber, CEO of 3D Realms. While you wait for the expansion, we wanted to make the original game better than ever with 2.0.
What's New in 2.0?
[table noborder=1] [tr] [td]ENGINE[/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Optimizations to improve overall game performance[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Improved frame pacing and overall framerate[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Upgraded and improved controller support[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Improved support for multiple displays[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Window is freely resizable by the user and no longer locks the cursor unless needed[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed sprites being pushed outside of the map by the clipping system[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed deletion of existing savegames in the base folder on startup on Linux[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GAME[/td] [td]NEW[/td] [td]Player now has an inventory slot to store an item like double damage or jump boots for later use[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]NEW[/td] [td]For reloadable weapons, shading of crosshair now indicates weapon's remaining magazine contents[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]NEW[/td] [td]Radar now displays hidden secrets[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]NEW[/td] [td]Enemies now take damage when underwater. Heskel forgot to make them waterproof![/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Improved enemy AI responsiveness[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Improved timing and aiming on Loverboy alternate fire for snappier feedback and quicker executions[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Electrifryer now has a 2-hit strike when holding primary fire, and continued light attacks when holding alternate fire[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]The Penetrator and Minigun have a higher max ammo count[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Minigun push-back has increased force for higher player speeds[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Tweaks to improve Bowling Bomb primary fire and HUD display feedback[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Ion Bow now allows you to swap weapons in order to cancel your current charge[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Reworked Penetrator reload animation[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Player landing from great falls does not lock the player's view anymore[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Improved and finalized the appearance of some enemy sprites[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]General improvements and fixes to enemy aiming behavior[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed enemies not playing sound when recognizing the player[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed enemies recognizing the player through solid walls[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed Priest (crossbow cultist) being able to instantly kill the player[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed issues with weapons sometimes automatically switching when they shouldn't and not switching when they should[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed Loverboy altfire targeting issues[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed crossbow not firing the correct number of shots at low ammo[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed shocked enemies appearing the wrong color[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Improved spider collision[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Fixed lighting effector skipping some objects it shouldn't[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]LEVELS[/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Z4A1: Tweaks to improve the player experience on train cars[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Z4A3: Improved train crash sequence[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]Z4, Z5, Z6: Improve the visibility/hints of some secrets[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]UPGRADE[/td] [td]ALL: Various soft-lock potentials either blocked out or fixed in anticipation of jump boots[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z1A2: Fixed a bottomless pit that left the player alive[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z1A3: Fixed a soft-lock where players could get stuck during a fall[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z1A4: Fixed areas where players could beaccidentally squished[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z2A4: Fixed a soft-lock when using boots[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z3A1: Fixed soft-lock due to premature lockdown activation[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z3A4: Fixed a soft-lock during level transition[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z5A1: Fixed a broken sector effect[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z5A3: Fixed overlapping pickup spawns[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z6A1: Fixed sector placement to prevent a door glitch[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z6A2: Fixed a soft-lock caused by not triggering an event[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z6A2: Added a switch to make sure the player is able to backtrack[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z6A2: Fixed a missing blocking bit that could break a secret[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z7A1: Widened an exploding ceiling to prevent enemies getting stuck[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]Z7A1: Fixed skybox triggers[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]BUG FIX[/td] [td]ALL: Fixed misaligned or missing textures[/td] [/tr] [/table]
[ 2021-10-07 11:38:07 CET ] [ Original post ]
The Ion Fury: Aftershock expansion pack for Ion Fury comes this summer for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
Aftershock continues Shellys story in the best way possible: with rockets and high-speed chases, said 3D Realms CEO Mike Nielsen in a press release. We love seeing the Build engine continue to grow and Ion Fury: Aftershock does some awesome things that we cant wait to share with you.
After defeating Heskel in her previous adventure, Shelly Harrison decides to celebrate at a local bar. When explosions interrupt her tasty beverage, she rushes out to find Heskel in a monstrous flying machine, cackling madly as he rockets away toward a mushroom cloud on the horizon.
[previewyoutube=ql74lAptPi8;full][/previewyoutube]
Instinctively, she reaches for her Loverboy revolver, cocks it, and searches for the fastest transportation she can finda sleek and powerful high-speed Hover Bike, armed with Drunken Homing Plasma Missiles. Shellys fight against Heskel continues with multiple brand-new zones to explore, new dangerous enemies, new armaments to destroy them with, and some amazing high-speed vehicle combat.
Like classic expansions, Aftershock offers a brand new Arrange mode. Whether playing for the first time or revisiting Ion Fury, choose Arrange mode to experience the original game but now enhanced with new enemies, weapons and more.
Rendered in the very same Build Engine that powered beloved titles like Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, Ion Fury takes the classic shooter framework and injects a bit of modern mayhem with features like headshots. Voidpoint didnt just make a game inspired by ;90s shooters: they practically time-travelled and created their own 90s shooter!
[ 2021-03-25 22:26:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey fans! We hope your Holidays have been bright! We wanted to close out 2020 with important news you may have missed: Patch 1.1 Changelog. and our Expansion Pack announcement and trailer. Patch 1.1 Changelog Released in September this included a ton of fixes, improvements, and optimizations. ENGINE - Improvement - Input is now tied to frame rate instead of the tickrate, Game play should be much smoother - Changes to text/font handling to allow additional locales - Hundreds of various improvements and bugfixes GAME CODE - Improvement - Various objects include additional interpolation to increase smoothness - Rain code refactored to improve performance - Few additional textures added to "triggerable gradient" list for mapping purposes - Tighten the feel for Bowling Bomb "Homing" activation - Slight tweaks to Cultist AI - Very minor tweaks to A.I. pathfinding GAME CODE - Performance - Fixes issues where heavy sound calls would tank the frame rate, especially z3a4 battle - Optimized frequent movement calls by enemies to reduce load - Optimized physics code on moveable props - Optimized some particle effects to reduce overdraw GAME CODE - Bugfixes - Workaround for invalid RETURN from nextsectorneighborz to avoid console spam - Fixes an edge case which lead to the fans not preventing player fall damage sometimes - Fixes an error that could lead to false positives in line-of-sight checks from enemies - Tweaks to reduce odd baton switching when pressing 1 and firing certain weapons - Fixes an edge case that could lead to the baton doing less damage than intended for one hit - Fixes an edge case that would lead to gibs not being generated from specific map effects - Fixes a math error that could mess up aiming the loverboy from certain angles - Mech fights will no longer cause issues with jumping - Fixes an issue where secret level would not appear in results - Fixes an issue where some enemy types would not count for bowling Strikes. - Fixes an issue where explosions on flying enemies might not count for achievements - Achievement for T-Shirt would not trigger - Adds more checks for "fryall" event to account for additional enemy types ART - Improvement - Shelly overpaint - Centipede overpaint - Wendigo overpaint - Brute overpaint - Skinjob overpaint ART - Bugfix - Sky texture seams fixed when playing at high FOV MAPS - Improvement - z1,2,3 Skybox textures have been adjusted - z3a1 Platform trigger optimized to account for sequence breaking - z1a3-5, Tiny tweaks to keypad & switch heights to align with keyboard & controller players better (level view) MAPS - Bugfix - z3a4, Bathroom secret optimized, should trigger more reliably - z6a2, locker blocking has been adjusted - z3a1, Specific movement could cause a softlock in map scripting - z6a1, fixed 2 blocking underwater sprites - z7a2, Tweaks to outer ring ceiling to prevent squishing - z2a1, Fixes small texture misalignment in a tank - z1a1, Enemy patrol far away would wake enemies too early - z1a2, Few unintended wall sprites were climbable - z3a4, Extra failsafe on the final elevator to prevent softlock The team has taken your feedback and continued interacting with our social communities, and are preparing future patches to fix issues and continue to polish the experience even more. Expansion Pack Coming 2021 During Realms Deep we announced we are all hard at work on an Expansion Pack coming in 2021. While the exact details and release period have yet to be announced we hope you will enjoy this Teaser Trailer, and look forward to more news very soon! [previewyoutube=fLDfHQk0IkM;full]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLDfHQk0IkM[/previewyoutube]
[ 2020-12-28 20:40:43 CET ] [ Original post ]
Fans can now enjoy a remastered edition of Ion Fury's hit soundtrack! This version has more than two hours of award-winning tracker music, composed by demoscene legend, Jarkko "Roz" Rotstn! "Outstanding achievement in old school composing techniques" Game Audio Awards 2020 "Most Impressive Soundtrack in a 2019 release" 2nd place @ Linux GOTY Award 2019 Composed, arranged and mixed by Jarkko Rotstn Mastered by Jyk Ahola @ Dreamhouse Studio. Soundtrack also available here.
[ 2020-09-08 21:18:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
We just won IndieDBs Indie Game of the Year award, with Ion Fury! We couldnt be more proud of the incredibly passionate development team at Voidpoint!
Our recently announced title WRATH: Aeon of Ruin (now in Early Access!) also got a honorable 7th place!
Ion Fury was a big bet for us. A brand new FPS in the original BUILD Engine, known from our classic shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.
If you havent tried it yet, its currently 20% off!
[ 2019-12-28 09:03:12 CET ] [ Original post ]
Ion Fury made it among the top 100 indie games of 2019 at IndieDB and was nominated for "Indie game of the Year" award!
Enjoyed Ion Fury? Just enter this link or click on the IndieDB event image and vote for it!
https://www.indiedb.com/games/ion-fury
[url=https://www.indiedb.com/groups/2019-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100#vote66271]
Thanks for your support!
[ 2019-12-12 00:29:32 CET ] [ Original post ]
You heard me right!
Ion Fury is now 20% off during the Steam Autumn sale!
If you haven't taken one of the best First Person Shooters of 2019 for a spin yet, now's your chance!
[ 2019-11-26 21:02:18 CET ] [ Original post ]
The Ion Fury Mapping and Modding scene is already sprawling with content, and for those of you interested in diving a bit deeper, we're launching a LIVE Developer Class series. In this first Livestream, Game Programmer Jonathan "MBlackwell" Strander, will take you through the creation of a basic enemy in Ion Fury. If you want to take your Map or Mod creation for Ion Fury to the next level, this is a Livestream you don't want to miss! The stream will start tomorrow, September 21 at 10am PST. Jonathan will also be able to answer questions during the Livestream. See you all there!
[ 2019-09-20 09:11:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
Finally! Yes it took some time, but we're FINALLY ready with the eagerly awaited 1.02 update for Ion Fury. You read that right. Not 1.01, but 1.02! We jam packed so many goodies into this patch (Achievements everyone!), that patch 1.01 (Boxed copies), simply wasn't enough for this release. Alongside the Patch, we're also doing a SALE of Ion Fury on 10%! So if you didn't manage to grab the game at launch, NOW is the time! Last but not least, here's a big change-log for you all to dive into. Enjoy! v1.02 changelog New/changed: - Steam achievements are here! When you launch version 1.02, saved gameplay stats from version 1.0 will be evaluated and any achievement already completed will be unlocked automatically. For those who would prefer to start from scratch, a menu option is available to clear all stats and achievement data from the game and from Steam. - Added borderless windowed mode options - Reworked the implementation of crouch toggle to behave in a more logical way - Boosted visibility of enemies in dark environments - Reworked both Clusterpuck fire modes - Increased max Clusterpuck carry amount - Decreased Bowling Bomb homing mode delay - Added flight sound for homing missiles fired from enemies - Added extra sound effects for flying skull drones - Decreased max medkit carry amount - Large medkit now only gives +20 HP on Maximum Fury skill - Garbage cans and trash bags now sometimes spawn health syringes - Health syringe can now boost health past 100 - Moved zone 3 boss fight ammo crates to more obvious locations and reworked their pickup mechanics - Moved a few unfavorably positioned save checkpoints - Improved pacing of final boss battle - Increased radar duration - Increased radar range - Decreased radar refresh delay - Decreased max radar carry amount - Beefed up Disperser and Penetrator firing sound effects - Tweaked Penetrator reload sound effect Fixes: - Performance, timing, and frame pacing improvements - Fixed mouse buttons 4 and 5 not working on Linux - Fixed setting windowed mode at the same resolution as the desktop just giving you regular fullscreen mode instead - Fixed game sometimes fullscreening to the wrong monitor in multi-monitor setups - Fixed possible crash or degraded performance after shooting mirrors repeatedly - Fixed degraded performance after firing thousands of shots in a single map - Fixed counting enemy deaths from the environment that could prevent reaching 100% kills - Fixed Bowling Bombs sometimes failing to properly indicate that they were in homing mode - Fixed being able to activate radar on the stats screen at the end of a zone - Fixed the weapon display sometimes getting "stuck" when opening grates with the use key - Fixed internal effect sprites sometimes showing up in map mode - Fixed the player's portrait on the difficulty select screen sometimes only displaying static - Fixed fall damage being applied even after a fan pushed the player upward - Fixed the wrong weapon sometimes being shown on screen - Fixed Ion Bow projectile not respecting the player's autoaim setting - Fixed grenadier enemies being invulnerable to burning damage - Fixed player sometimes dying after the end credits - Fixed various possible progression blockers and unintended environmental deaths throughout the game - Fixed a few secret areas that either didn't trigger properly or could trigger more than once - Fixed maps sometimes getting their states reset when backtracking in zones 5 and 6 - Fixed end screen transition after final boss - Fixed far away explosion sounds sometimes being too quiet - Fixed weapon reload animation canceling - Fixed linked up "HeskelCast" screens sometimes going out of sync from one another - Fixed Bowling Bomb pickup always switching away from the Electrifryer, even if automatic switching was disabled - Fixed audio clipping when killing many sections of a centipede enemy at once - Fixed other misc map issues: texture misalignments, effect glitches, etc
[ 2019-09-18 17:00:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
First, the good news - The Founders Edition boxes are currently being shipped to two distribution warehouses (one in the US, and one in EU), from where each copy will be sent out. Another few weeks and hopefully you'll have a juicy Founders Edition in your hands. You'll get an email notification once your copy has shipped from the distribution warehouse!
Second, less good news - The custom-designed Bowling Bomb USB drive for the Regular Edition Box, has been delayed a few weeks, The mold is complete (It looks kickass!), but due to production difficulties which have now been resolved, it's unfortunately been delayed.
All other items are packed. Latest news from the manufacturer is that the disks will be shipped to us within 4 weeks.
We will keep you guys updated once we have more news to share!
[ 2019-09-09 12:07:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
Joint statement from Voidpoint and 3D Realms: Weve caused a recent controversy suggesting Ion Fury game content was to be censored. We will absolutely NOT be censoring Ion Fury or any of our other games, now or in the future, including but not limited to by removing gags such as gamings most controversial facial wash. We do not support censorship of creative works of any kind and regret our initial decision to alter a sprite in the game instead of trusting our instincts. 3D Realms and Voidpoint stand together on this matter. Last but not least, please respect our need to keep our community forums clean from hateful messages, spam, or off-topic threads. We recognize our mistake and have received your message loud and clear!
[ 2019-08-26 11:25:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
ION FURY IS AVAILABLE NOW! https://youtu.be/ncC9jrCqgG8 "One of the best first-person shooters we've ever played!" - Digital Foundry A fantastic, timeless, FPS experience 9/10 - Game Informer Probably the best BUILD Engine game ever 9/10 - PCGamesN Classic Run and Gun FPS Action at its purest 9.5/10 - Gaming Nexus
[ 2019-08-15 13:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
JOIN THE ION FURY DIGITAL LAUNCH PARTY ON DISCORD
(discord gg slash 3drealms)
August 15, 10am PST, we're launching the official Digital ION FURY Launch Party!
Join us for the first 2 hours of LIVE gameplay on Twitch (twitch slash 3drealms), hang with 3D Realms and Voidpoint, followed by a Discord Party in the 3D Realms Voice Channel!
You don't want to miss this!
[ 2019-08-14 15:55:46 CET ] [ Original post ]
5 DAYS LEFT!
Shelly is locked, loaded and ready for action!
ION FURY is near! AUGUST 15!
[ 2019-08-10 19:03:49 CET ] [ Original post ]
6 DAYS LEFT!
The day of reckoning is near!
Prepare yourself for ION FURY - AUGUST 15!
[ 2019-08-09 19:07:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
ONE WEEK LEFT!
Ion Fury is almost here! Get your Bowling Bombs and Loverboys ready.
Shelly's about to wreck havoc!
[ 2019-08-08 08:10:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
This is the last chance guys!!! if you want it before the price change.
Grab ION FURY now at its original lower price ($19.99), before the price increase ($24.99) tomorrow on July 18th.
"TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"
[ 2019-07-17 09:49:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
We only have 3 days left till the price increase!!!
Grab ION FURY now at its original lower price ($19.99), before the price increase ($24.99) on July 18th.
GRAB IT WHILE ITS HOT!!!
[ 2019-07-15 11:14:30 CET ] [ Original post ]
ION MAIDEN will release under a new title to avoid legal issues with a certain popular heavy metal band. ION FURY fires out of Early Access and 1.0 bursts onto PC August 15, with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One coming later. To celebrate, PC Big Box-style physical copies are now available for pre-order!
RELEASE DATE TRAILER:
https://youtu.be/zjnhRz_GP3c After careful consideration, weve decided to rename our first-person-shooter Ion Maiden to Ion Fury, said Mike Nielsen, CEO of 3D Realms. A lot of thought went into this, but most importantly it would be a disservice to our loyal fanbase and the fantastic developers, to drag out a long lawsuit. The amazing gameplay, interactivity and pure fun, is what makes Ion Fury a great game. Not the title.
NEW PHYSICAL EDITION:
To celebrate the sheer madness of a modern shooter made in the Build engine, Shellys getting a brand new big box. This edition includes a Bowling Bomb-shaped USB Drive loaded with a DRM-Free version of the game and Soundtrack, a poster, a keycard based on the ones Shelly finds in-game, a making-of booklet, a Bowling Bomb sticker set, and of course Ion Fury, all for $59.99. GET IT HERE
Shelly Bombshell Harrison finally has a deadly date on her calendar with Dr. Jadus Heskel and his army of cyber-cultists. With signature weapons including her Loverboy revolver and Bowling Bombs, every cyborg she sees is about four seconds away from being nothing but gibs n gore.
Lovingly crafted in the Build engine which powered 90s classics such as Duke Nukem 3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior, Ion Fury fuses nostalgic looks with todays technology to create the ultimate shooter. Modern features like auto-saves, improved physics and map interactivity, headshots, and widescreen functionality simply werent possible back then, but Ion Fury brings the best of both worlds.
NEW PRICE!
Havent played yet, and find that trigger finger is getting itchy? The Digital edition of Ion Fury is available now on Steam Early Access in English, for$19.99. As the game has doubled in planned scope since its unveiling, the price will rise to $24.99 one week from today on July 18. Nows the perfect time to pick it up and start blasting.
[ 2019-07-11 13:36:23 CET ] [ Original post ]
Weve recently heard about a lawsuit filed in California by the band Iron Maiden, claiming our old-school first-person shooter Ion Maiden is infringing on their trademark. From what weve heard, the suit claims our main character, Shelly Harrison, originally debuting in 2016s Bombshell, is based on their musician Steve Harris; our skull bomb icon found in-game is based on their skeleton mascot Eddie; our logo in itself is based on theirs; and other frivolous claims anyone who has played Ion Maiden would find more over the top than Shellys Loverboy, her signature 18-round triple-barreled revolver. We at 3D Realms, our co-publishers 1C Entertainment, and developer Voidpoint will review our options once we receive official notice of the lawsuit and will make any necessary decisions at the appropriate time. Regardless, everyone continues to work diligently on Ion Maiden to deliver the best possible experience later this year.
[ 2019-05-30 09:32:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
We had a fantastic trip to the PAX East gaming convention in Boston, with thousands of people attending, seeing old friends and making new ones! It was great to see long lines of people wanting to try out both Ion Maiden and WRATH, for 4 days straight!
We're heading back to the studio with tons of positive feedback and an outstanding reception from the press.
You can check out the full 3D Realms at PAX Album on IMGUR here!
https://imgur.com/a/sfEllC4
See you next year!
[ 2019-04-01 15:49:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Ion Maiden will be playable at PAX East 2019!
Come pick Voidpoint Programmer Evan "Hendricks266" Ramos' brain for all the juicy details, and check out the life-size Ion Bow Prop!
We'll be at the 3D REALMS BOOTH # 19115
[ 2019-03-22 09:22:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
The 4'th Dev. Blog from Ion Maiden is up!
Join Jarkko Rotstn aka Roz / Fit ^ Byterapers, as he talks about how the Music in Ion Maiden was made, and his passion for old-school tracker based music for the Amiga.
Check it out!
https://t.co/4GGYuH3ZSA
[ 2019-03-14 08:59:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi Guys!
Voidpoint is very close to wrapping up Ion Maiden, which looks, sounds and plays fantastic! We're almost there, so hang in tight! It's going to be quite a ride!
Meanwhile, an internal team at 3D Realms in collaboration with developer KillPixel, has been working on our next shooter, which we revealed just a few days ago.
If you like Ion Maiden, you'll definitely be interested in WRATH as well.
Enjoy the trailer below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgrLN9Wl4xU
WISHLIST NOW: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000410/WRATH_Aeon_of_Ruin/
JOIN THE 3D REALMS DISCORD: http://www.discord.gg/3drealms
[ 2019-03-10 09:38:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
Some of you might have spotted it at PAX South.
If not, here's the Glorious Life-Size prop of the Ion Bow!
[ 2019-01-26 09:17:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
Missed the brand new playable Ion Maiden level at PAX South?
Fear not! We got you covered:
https://youtu.be/OYmMPo6ckqY
Ion Maiden "Heskel's House of Horrors" update is available on Steam NOW!
Now go play with your new toys!
NOTE: This new update includes tons of new features and additions.
One of these is a new Secondary Firemode! If it's not already bound, PLEASE bind your Right Mouse Button to "Alt Weapon Mode".
[ 2019-01-23 02:04:52 CET ] [ Original post ]
WE HAVE A WINNER (+ TOP 5!) OF THE FAN ART CONTEST!
Thank you all so much for participating (and voting) in this contest.
We've received fantastic submissions all around, and every one of you deserve a HUGE round of applause!
Now, down to business.
We've combined the votes for the top 5 from both Facebook and Discord.
The Top 5 will ALL receive a physical Poster of their submitted artwork, signed by the 3D Realms founder, Scott Miller.
The Winner will also receive a signed Poster, included in the extremely rare "Ion Maiden Founders Edition" big-box.
5th Place with a total of 105 votes goes to @Bunticus ! Congratulations!
4th Place with a total of 108 votes goes to @The_Individualist ! Congratulations!
3rd Place with a total of 122 votes goes to @BlurrySquids ! Congratulations!
2nd Place with a total of 158 votes goes to @Ardat Lilitu ! Congratulations!
And the WINNER with a total of 161 votes goes to @Szary ! Congratulations!
[ 2019-01-12 11:50:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
ITS A WRAP! Thank you so much for the incredible Ion Maiden Fan Art submissions. You guys are incredible! Today we start the public voting, where all of you will be able to vote for your favorite piece of Fan Art. You can vote for your favorite on Facebook by using the <3 reaction, https://www.facebook.com/official3dr/posts/2180595488861059 - OR in the Fan-Art channel on our Discord channel http://www.discord.gg/3drealms On January 12, we will pick a winner among the Top 3. The winner will receive a Founders Edition with his/her very own artwork included as an A3 poster, signed by the 3D Realms Founder, Scott Miller. The second and third place winners will also receive their respective submissions as A3 posters, also signed by Scott Miller. Let the voting begin
[ 2019-01-08 13:51:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
ION MAIDEN FAN ART CONTEST!
It's the Holiday season and the creative juices are flowing! We thought we wanted to do something really special for the Holidays - We just happen to have an extra SOLD OUT Ion Maiden Founders Edition laying around. And it could be yours! But Fred, how do I win this magnificent glorious box? Simple! Show us your best piece of artwork, featuring our heroine, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison. Hand-drawn, photoshopped, illustrated, modeled... You choose! The only rule is that we want to keep this relatively SFW (safe for work = no nudity). Participate in the contest by posting your (or your friends') piece of Fan-Art in the "Fan Art" channel on the 3D Realms Discord Server (Psssst... Join here! https://discord.gg/3drealms). OR send it directly to us on good'ol fashion e-mail by using fanart@3drealms.com (we'll post it on Discord for you). The finalists will be chosen by YOU! The Deadline for submitting your Artwork is:
January 7!
On that date, you'll be able to jump into the Fan Art Channel on our Discord server, and vote for your favorite piece of Fan Art by using the :bombshell: emoji. You are welcome to post your piece of Fan Art any time you'd like, but voting will be disabled until January 7.
On January 12, we'll pick a winner amongst the 5 higest rated pieces of Fan Art. So what are you waiting for? Christmas?!
[ 2018-12-20 11:50:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
Be there..... <3 We have some stuff we'd like to show you
[ 2018-12-18 10:37:19 CET ] [ Original post ]
Big Day today! We just announced the Radical Edition of Rad Rodgers! We're bringing Duke Nukem, Lo Wang and Bombshell together for the first time EVER, in early 2019! Check out the announcement trailer below! HAIL TO THE KING, THE QUEEN.... AND THE WANG! https://youtu.be/ydBlVH8M4k4
[ 2018-12-17 18:01:46 CET ] [ Original post ]
For Ion Maiden, we're using BUILD. The old-school engine which powered games like Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood back in the mid '90s.
Working with legacy technology has been quite a challenge. If you're curious, we just released a new developer blog called "Teaching an old engine some new tricks", where we dive into some of the challenges and solutions we came up with, while working on Ion Maiden. Check it out!
https://3drealms.com/devblog/dev-blog-3-teaching-old-engine-some-new-tricks/
[ 2018-12-07 11:36:25 CET ] [ Original post ]
The lobby of Dr. Jadus Heskels lair!
#screenshotsaturday
[ 2018-11-24 20:52:23 CET ] [ Original post ]
How is the art for the 20+ year old BUILD Engine produced? It's time to find out!
Today we're releasing the second entry in our Dev Blog series called "The Art of Ion Maiden" Check it out below!
https://3drealms.com/devblog/dev-blog-2-art-ion-maiden/
[ 2018-11-20 11:32:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
Check out this Sneak Peek of the track "Rewarded" from the Ion Maiden Soundtrack, composed by Jarkko "Roz / Fit ^ Byterapers" Rotstn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWR309WeHow
[ 2018-11-08 12:33:53 CET ] [ Original post ]
Interested in how Ion Maiden is built using over 20-year old technology?
Today we're releasing the first entry in our Dev. Blog series. (And a new website!).
Check it out below!
https://3drealms.com/devblog/dev-blog-1-3d-build-engine-and-ion-maiden/
[ 2018-11-01 09:57:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
You wanted it, we're bringing it!
Introducing next-generation 3D technology in Ion Maiden ..... VOXELS!
[ 2018-10-30 09:45:29 CET ] [ Original post ]
Once a leading mind in the field of technological augmentation and prosthetics, transhumanist researcher Dr. Jadus Heskel turned to evil after controversial side effects associated with his treatment resulted in his program losing funding and his life's work being outlawed altogether. Vowing vengeance against the GDF and anyone else who stands in his way, Dr. Heskel will stop at nothing to achieve his vision of rebuilding humanity in his twisted image.
Likes: cyborg armies, software piracy
Dislikes: fleshy limbs, small animals
[ 2018-10-25 19:30:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Big news today!
First things first - I want to address the lack of communication over the past few months. The team has been knee deep into development and I'm happy to announce that we're entering the final stretch! Today, we have some very good news. We're happy to announce that we've partnered with 1C Publishing. In addition to the PC version, we're also happy to announce that Ion Maiden is going multi-platform! Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch! 1C will co-publish Ion Maiden and bring a physical console copy of the game to retail worldwide. We're getting very close and we have a lot of crazy cool things up our sleeves which we can't wait to share with you guys. (Pssssst.. PAX South!) We also have a final release window, which has been moved ahead a few months, to Q2, 2019 1C Entertainment is responsible for the popular RTS series Men of War, the fantasy tactical role-playing games Kings Bounty, and World War II flight simulator series IL-2 Sturmovik. Collaborating with 3D Realms promises to bring both teams creative powers together and deliver the high-quality content gamers know both companies for. "Presenting games like Ion Maiden to all of 3D Realms' fans is our number one priority," said Mike Nielsen, CEO of 3D Realms. "Partnering with 1C Entertainment means we can make our dedicated community happier by bringing Shelly to consoles." "I was always a fan of the old-school classic FPS titles Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Max Payne and Shadow Warrior, so I am super thrilled to partner with a legendary studio such as 3D Realms," said Nikolay Baryshnikov, CEO of 1C Entertainment. "As a global publisher, our goal is to bring top-quality titles to all the gamers around the world, and our cooperation with 3D Realms is a great addition to our portfolio. For me personally, its a kids dream come true."
PAX SOUTH 2019!
From January 18 - 20, we'll attend PAX South in San Antonio, where participants will we able to try a brand new level in Ion Maiden! Make sure to mark the date and come say hi to the team!
New Screenshots!
To celebrate the new collaboration and the console ports announcement, we've also released a new batch of screenshots! You can find them all below. ENJOY!
[ 2018-10-23 14:00:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
You want Ion Maiden news? We got it! First, you can now pre-order an EXCLUSIVE big box of Ion Maiden filled with goodies! Only 500 copies of the Founders Edition will be produced, so HURRY before it's too late.. and YES, it comes on a floppy! But wait - that's not all! We're also announcing multiplayer, new merch, & fresh screenshots! Get it all at http://www.ionmaiden.com
[ 2018-07-17 15:11:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
Want to join the 3D Realms Crew showcasing games like Ion Maiden at places like Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston? We're looking for additional crew-members to help 3D Realms at select Tradeshows, specifically in the Seattle, Los Angeles and Boston area.
Are you a fan of 3D Realms and have interest participating in exciting tradeshow events?
Then this is for you!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0XpDFztVLCPyGTJYDky0Op70agQhaaoOOH_7UhLaNJn9FwA/viewform?usp=sf_link
[ 2018-05-25 18:10:35 CET ] [ Original post ]
At PAX East 2018, we hosted a panel called "The Golden Era of Retro Gaming", featuring Pat Contri, Chris King, Robert Workman, Frederik Schreiber and Scott Miller. Check it out below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4T-GdVxfNc
[ 2018-04-18 15:16:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Update 2 incoming!
A new update for Ion Maiden is here and with a brand new game mode! We've been hard at work on the main game, doing a major performance overhaul and creating a new game mode for our players to enjoy while they wait for the full game to arrive. Queen of the Hill is our new survival mode, focused on killing wave after wave of ruthless cyborg cultists with nothing but a gigantic chaingun at your disposal (Yes! You can finally use it!) before time runs out or you die a horrible death. We hope you love it! As a side note, the game recently reached more than 500 positive reviews at a 97% Steam rating, giving us an Overwhelmingly Positive review status. We have no words to describe how happy we are for the reception of the game and to know people are loving it! Please take your time to read the changelog for Update 2. Bear in mind this will make your old saves unusable, so if you are currently pretty far in the preview campaign, you might want to finish it first. Enjoy! Ion Maiden Preview Campaign Update 2 Changelog: Important Notes: The save format version number has been bumped, meaning your old saves will no longer work. This may happen repeatedly during the Early Access period. Texture filtering options have been temporarily disabled as we continue to make improvements to the renderer. "Filtered" texture mode will return in the next patch alongside further optimizations. Changelog: +Added Queen of the Hill arcade mode. Note: Your possible score will increase on higher difficulty settings! +More scripting optimizations to improve overall framerate and reduce hitching +Fixed OpenGL renderer performance hiccups by optimizing and eliminating mid-game texture streaming and generation +Implemented precaching of sound files to further eliminate hitching +Improved OpenGL renderer performance +Improved save performance and space efficiency +Temporarily disable texture filtering options. These will return in the next patch alongside more optimization work +Tweaked enemy behavior to improve balance, and increased challenge on Ultra Viscera +Added a pulsing sound effect to attract you to the minigun after the Warmech dies +Increased visibility of keycard pickups +Fixed issues with reaching some secrets in Bombardier mode +Misc bug fixes +Misc level fixes
[ 2018-04-13 04:10:21 CET ] [ Original post ]
The first day of PAX is wrapped up!
Here's a bunch of photos from the event.
If you're in the Boston area, make sure to drop by PAX East, check out Ion Maiden and have a chat with us!
[ 2018-04-07 14:47:18 CET ] [ Original post ]
3D Realms have successfully arrived in Boston, and spent yesterday getting ready for PAX East!
The show will last from Thursday to Sunday, so make sure to drop by and check out the 3D Realms booth where we'll be showcasing Ion Maiden and a brand new Game-Mode called "Queen of the Hill"
If you're visiting the show, make sure to drop by our booth (#23120), and catch some exclusive Ion Maiden swag!
We'll also update you guys daily with photos from the event!
[ 2018-04-06 00:04:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Today at PAX East we’re announcing a brand new game-mode: Queen of the Hill! Defend your honor (and hill) using the Warmech Minigun in a hardcore survival mode! The mode is available for all Ion Maiden owners on April 12, and playable at PAX East 2018 at the 3D Realms Booth! https://youtu.be/bmKSvotF1GM
[ 2018-04-05 14:38:26 CET ] [ Original post ]
It's official!
As part of the upcoming big-box physical release of Ion Maiden, the game will be released on physical media... On real modified floppies!
Here's a sneak peek;
https://youtu.be/f72fc4hBrrs
[ 2018-03-27 11:28:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
As many of you know, Bombshell is not a new character.
She was originally concieved back in the mid '90s, before the development of Duke Nukem Forever began. Back then, she started her journey towards a character as fan fiction in the Command & Conquer universe.
Not quickly thereafter, she developed into a new character for Duke Nukem Forever, but never made it into the final game.
Originally, she was going to be based off Pamela Anderson, from the movie "Barb Wire". A counterpart to Duke Nukem, with a heavy emphasis on her attitude towards Duke.
1997
The first concepts of Shelly were drawn in 1997, and had a heavy emphasis on sexualization, which was not uncomon the mid-nineties, although a bit embarrasing looking back with 2018 glasses;
1998
In 1998 Bombshell was re-drawn again, this time by Dan Panosian. The design was slightly more stylized, but still with a heavy emphasis on sexualization.
1999 - 2001
In 1999 - 2001, she got another range of designs by Paul Richards, with some having a closer resembelance to the current version of Shelly. For instance, in one instance she had a bionic arm, while in another she was a bomb defusal expert. This was still the late '90s, with an over-the-top emphasis on sexualization (How far we've come!).
2000
Paul Richards also did a few colorized version of his Bombshell artwork in 2000:
2003
In 2003 we hired the legendary artist Feng Zhu to design a new interpretation of Bombshell. This iteration was way less sexualized, with a more tactical look:
2009
2009 marked the final appearance of Bombshell in a game related to Duke Nukem. At this point she was still meant to be included in Duke Nukem Forever, but was shortly scrapped afterwards. In this interation, Bombshell, was simply an EDF Soldier:
2015
2015 marked the year of the return of Bombshell - This time in her very first appearance in a game. In terms of her design, we had decided to take her in a completely new direction. We wanted to scrap the emphasis on sexualization, and instead create something brand new. We kept some old ideas, like her bionic arm, and her background as a bomb defusal expert:
2018
And here we are! In 2018, Bombshell returned to her FPS roots, starring in her very own First Person Shooter - Ion Maiden. As a prequel to Bombshell, before she lost her arm in the Washington Incident, we wanted to focus more on a different set or armor for the character. At this point, Bombshell is still working for the GDF, which we wanted to emphasize in her new look:
Someone asked a question in the comments, and 3DR Founder Scott Miller gave this reply: >>> Any information on the standalone Bombshell game 3D Realms was working on in the 90s? <<< Sure. We had a small internal team, lead by engine coder, Billy Zelsnack and his brother, Jason, who were working on a fully 3D game in 1997, starring a female hero. It was going to be a war game, and your female character was a bit of a female Rambo. The two Zelsnack's had the idea of calling the game Bitch, and I put thought into coming up with a better name. A month or two later, while watching the film, Barbwire, the ending credits had a generic "bombshell" character, and it immediately clicked that Bombshell could be a very cool name for the game, in place of Bitch. The Zelsnack brothers left 3D Realms soon after, though, to start their own studio, and that's when I convinced my partner George that Bombshell should have a role in Duke Nukem Forever, with the idea of establishing her in that game, then giving her a spin-off game of her own.
[ 2018-03-22 15:30:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Whoa!
What a great few weeks. The entire team has been absolutely stoked by all the great feedback on the reveal and launch of the Ion Maiden Preview Campaign. The game is currently at a 97% Steam rating, which completely blew us away! We knew we had something great on our hands, but we were completely taken by surprise with all the positive feedback we've gotten so far. The team is hard at work on the full version of Ion Maiden, and while that's still some months ahead of us, we've also been working hard on the first official update to the Ion Maiden Preview Campaign, which is available NOW! It's based on a lot of feedback we've gathered from you guys over the last few weeks. Enjoy! Ion Maiden Preview Campaign Update 1 Changelog: Important Notes: User data is now stored in "%USERPROFILE%AppDataRoamingIon Maiden Preview Campaign" on Windows and "~/.config/maiden" on Linux. The save format version number has been bumped, meaning your old saves will no longer work. This may happen repeatedly during the Early Access period. Changelog:
- Overall Performance Boosts!
- An occasional crash when performing random actions, including flipping lightswitches, has been fixed.
- A bug that would cause the player to sometimes switch to the wrong game mode when loading a game has been fixed.
- Optimizations to the game world logic have been made to improve performance in some circumstances and shrink savegame file sizes.
- Mouse aiming has been reworked to allow much greater precision of movement.
- The mouse axis scale sliders can now go all the way to zero.
- New "save setup" menu, allowing autosaves to be disabled and a limit to be set on the maximum number of autosaves to keep at any one time.
- Savegames can now be deleted with the Delete key.
- Keyboard bindings for aiming up, down, and returning the view to the center can now be configured.
- A key or button can now be assigned to switch to the player's previously selected weapon.
- The sizes and brightness of certain pickup items have been increased Armor fragments are now more visible.
- Awkward delay after SMG reload has been fixed.
- The easiest skill level should now be easier, and the hardest should now be harder
- Volume slider no longer treats 50% as 0%
[ 2018-03-12 11:20:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
It all started late in 1993, several months after Apogee and Id Software released Wolfenstein 3D to the world. Id's 3D engine was groundbreaking, and showed the gaming world that fast real-time 3D games were possible.
Ken Silverman was one of the lone coders inspired by Id's game, and at 17 years of age he set about to creative similar technology, and in 1992 he released a game called Ken's Labyrinth. It was less a game, and more of a demo, showing that it wasn't just the geniuses at Id who could pull off fast 3D gaming technology.
Ken contacted us and we discussed working on a project together. I mentioned that I could put together a team to use his engine. But a few months went on and Ken then presented us with a demo of his Build engine, which was would be similar to the engine he knew that Id was creating for their coming game, Doom. He didn't really have a name for the engine, but his execution file was called, build.exe. And somehow this stuck as the name for his engine.
So, in August 1993 we had an employment agreement with Ken, and an exclusive license to use his Build engine on numerous projects.
John Carmack was interviewed and asked back in the 90's, who he thought were the best 3D coders other than himself. He said, "If I had to pick who I think is just the most talented, it would probably be Ken Silverman, the guy that did the Build engine. He does engines and tools. He writes all the code for everything, and he's just extremely talented."
3D Realms knew we had an amazing partnership with Ken, and we did all we could to maximize the use of the Build engine, creating Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior internally, co-funding and co-designing Blood, and licensing the engine to several other studios to make games. I think some 8-10 Build engine games came out all told.
The Build engine was truly the pinnacle of the 2.5D game engine period, which was kicked off with Id's Doom engine. Build went well beyond the features of Doom, with sloping features, partial looking up & down, rooms above rooms, and several other innovations.
Now, 20+ years later, we're super excited to be go back to our roots and use this incredible landmark of engine technology again. The Build engine, while not the most graphically gorgeous, is fast and allows for a gameplay style that hardly seen this century, with gun-blazing gameplay in wide-open multi-path levels that seem to go on forever. On today's tech, we can push the Build engine in ways that just weren't doable in the 90's, and so we're finding refreshing ways that this engine actually outperforms some modern engines, and bring back a style a gameplay that many gamers have long missed.
What's old becomes new again, and the early success of Ion Maiden seems to show we struck the right cord. It's like the 90's are back!
[ 2018-03-07 13:06:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
We're happy to announce that Ion Maiden will be playable on the showfloor at PAX EAST 2018 taking place in Boston, Massachusetts.
At the 3D Realms Booth (Booth #23120) you'll be able to play brand new content, get your hands on EXCLUSIVE Ion Maiden swag, and hang out with the 3D Realms crew!
We'll also host a special "Retro PC Gaming" panel, which includes 3D Realms VP / Executive Producer and Slipgate Managing Director, Frederik Schreiber, 3D Realms Founder and Industry Legend, Scott Miller, Pat the NES Punk, and others.
Let us know if you'll attend below!
[ 2018-03-02 11:39:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
Destructoid: "... These little interactive details and the gorgeus hand-crafted pixel art are a fine example of how the Build Engine can still look so distinct and beautiful in its own right. It's special in an industry striving for photo-realism. Throw all of this in with an ass-kicking midi soundtrack and Ion Maiden has the potential of becoming another instant classic and a fine addition to the Build Engine library of games" Rock Paper Shotgun: "Ion Maiden may just be the second coming of Duke 3D" Kotaku: "... in terms of speed and tone it’s absolutely nailing it" Shacknews: "3D Realms is reviving the engine that Duke Nukem 3D was built on. What a time to be alive!" GameInformer: ".. I liked what I played so far! If you're into retro shooters, it's pretty good!" GGGmanlives: "It like going from eating a crappy minute-steak you bought a service station (Hunt Down The Freeman), to eating a Wagyu Beef cooked by a 3-star Chef. We might never get a new Duke Nukem... but Ion Maiden does a good job of stacking up with the Build Engine Bad Boys yesteryear" @DUSKdev: "Hey guys, Ion Maiden is legit af." Eurogamer: "Ion Maiden looks quite good." "[Vitz!]" on Youtube with a consequent response from "Dat Boi" : "I FUCKING CAME" ... "same"
[ 2018-03-01 08:54:15 CET ] [ Original post ]
3D Realms is proud to bring back the Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, in all of its hand-crafted pixelated glory. We’ve spent a lot of time tinkering under the hood to take advantage of new technology and techniques. Bigger levels, hundreds of new colors, and morphing maps that transform mid-level are all just a few of the advancements made to the engine. Today we're releasing the ION MAIDEN in Early Access! Early Access owners will be granted immediate access to an exclusive multi-hour preview campaign, which you can play RIGHT NOW! This is a big moment for us - The first official 3D Realms IP to launch as a Build Engine FPS since Shadow Warrior. We hope you'll join us on this journey forward!
[ 2018-02-28 14:00:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
- Ion Maiden (Linux) [16.39 M]
- Ion Fury: Aftershock
3D Realms (Duke Nukem 3D, ROTT, Prey, Max Payne) is excited to bring back our famous Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior and other 90's hits. Of old-school throwback games, ION MAIDEN is the real deal, using our original tech from that famous era that launched the FPS genre.
Welcome to ION MAIDEN!
Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison earned her codename as a bomb disposal expert for the Global Defense Force.
When transhumanist cult mastermind Dr. Jadus Heskel unleashes a cybernetic army on Neo DC, Shelly decides it’s time to start chucking bombs rather than defusing them.
Her journey will leave trails of blood and gore in huge, multi-path levels filled with those famous colorful keycards and plenty of secrets and Easter Eggs to discover behind every corner.
Shelly’s quest to take down Dr. Heskel’s army will see her use an arsenal of weapons, all with alternate fire modes or different ammo types. Her signature revolver, Loverboy, brings enemies pain and players pleasure with single shots, or Shelly can fan the hammer Old West style. Shotguns are fun, but tossing grenades down their barrels and firing explosive rounds is even better. Bowling Bombs are just as violent and over-the- top as one would hope.
Ion Maiden laughs at the idea of constant checkpoints and straight paths through shooting galleries. But just because this is a true old-school first-person shooter doesn’t mean there won’t be all the good new stuff the last two decades have brought.
The full ION MAIDEN experience will includes the following features;
- The true successor to classic shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood.
- Built using the original "Build" engine, with additional enhancements to further improve the technology.
- Beautiful hand-crafted artwork, built using original old-school tools and methodologies.
- 7 exciting Zones, each spanning multiple maps.
- Tons of enemies, weapons and carnage!
- Best of both worlds! ION MAIDEN brings back the classic '90s FPS action you love, with modern additions such as physics and checkpoints.
- Classic level design, no procedural generation! Expect multiple paths, cool effects, and complex set pieces!
- True tracked module music!
- Incredible weapons with alternate firemodes!
- Easy access to development tools and modding (Steam Workshop) on day one!
- ... And about Multiplayer... Stay tuned!
- OS: Ubuntu 14.04 or Steam OS 2.0
- Processor: Any 64-bit Intel or AMD CPUMemory: 1024 MB RAM
- Memory: 1024 MB RAM
- Graphics: 512 MB video memory. Intel integrated graphics supported.
- Storage: 100 MB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 14.04 or Steam OS 2.0
- Processor: Intel Core i5. AMD Ryzen or equivalentMemory: 2048 MB RAM
- Memory: 2048 MB RAM
- Graphics: 1024 MB or more dedicated video memory. NVIDIA or AMD preferred.
- Storage: 100 MB available space