Announcement, and first dev screenshot!

Hello, folks!  I'm very happy to announce the CAVE team have recruited our lead programmer for the project: Mr. Alec Lanter!

Alec's profile entry has been added to the blog.  Alec comes to us from the Volunteer State, and brings with him a whole host of ideas around AI, procedural cave generation, and skyrocketing our replay value.  We're very excited to have him on the team.

In other news, we have our first development screenshot!  Still in a very early alpha, here's a shot of the sign welcoming visitors to Mammoth Cave National Park.

Our first development screenshot!

Team Profile: Alec Lanter

Member Name: Alec Lanter

Position: Lead Programmer (Dear gods, what have you fools done!?)

A digital wunderkind since the days of the 8088, Alec Lanter has been programming from the tender age of eight, when he designed a TRON-style lightcycle game on his Tandy 1000. Having grown up a proud geek, Alec graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and now enjoys a position as a professional

software architect and developer gripped by a strange fascination with weasels.  He has over fifteen years' experience in professional software development, in virtually every language there is.

"I’ve been programming basically since I could read, and I somehow tricked someone into letting me do it for a living once so it stuck as a career."

Alec's background includes research into AI systems for personal projects, from state-machine based behavior coordinators to self-organizing maps and neural networks, and he has experience working in the Unity engine.  Further, he has designed algorithms for procedural cave generation that should serve to be immensely useful in the project. Alec is a fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and other masters of the macabre.  His interests in the supernatural and spooky are shared by members of his family, including his brother-in-law.

Dev Team Update, 1 July

Hi there, folks!

Things have been really busy around here.  The team's slowly growing, which is outstanding, and progress is slowly being made.

First bit of good news:  Our script for the title sequence and tutorial level is complete.  We've also got the opening scenes storyboarded (Dan's hasty stick-figures for the most part).  We'll start working on an animatic soon.

This also means we've got some lines for our actors to read during auditions, and we have an upcoming audition for the lead role.  If all goes well, we may be able to introduce you all to the face of Paul Carter, soon.

In other news, our 3D scanning rig is nearing completion.  Once it's built (and once Carter is cast), look for stills from our test scans on this blog.

Finally, some fantastic news: We have our soundtrack!  Well, most of it.  You can look forward to some dark, twisted ambiance as you try to creep through labyrinthine tunnels to escape the horror that hunts you there.  We're hoping to reach out to a publisher soon regarding licensing a commercially successful rock tune to add to the eerie, haunted tracks we've accumulated so far.

The field trip to Mammoth Cave has been scheduled.  Not sure who is going just yet, aside from Dan, but it looks like the trip will be Saturday, the 2nd of August.  We'll be taking plenty of reference video and stills, and will post a few on this blog.  Keep an eye out.

Speaking of images, we've finished the game's first wallpaper.  See below for the link.

We'll check in with you later.  Have a great one, everybody!

CAVE wallpaper, 1280x720

CAVE wallpaper, 1920x1080

Team Profile: Dan Purdy

Member Name:    Dan Purdy

Position:                Lead Designer

Dan was born in the mythical land of Canada, in the forgotten, long-ago era of the 1980s.  He was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and later in the great state of Kentucky, which he now calls home.

Dan has been a gamer since his family bought their first Nintendo NES system in '85.  As a gamer, he prefers adventure (traditional point-and-click, classic Sierra titles, and modern epics like The Longest Journey, Uncharted, or anything by Quantic Dream), thinking-man's shooters (basically anything Tom Clancy), and Japanese RPGs.

Dan is a professional data analyst.

Dan's favorite author is Stephen King.  By far, the Dark Tower series is the best he's ever read.  And as King is the master of the modern creepy tale, so too was Lovecraft just after the turn of the century.  No stranger to Lovecraft's works, Dan chose the story, The Beast in the Cave, as the inspiration for his first ever full-length adventure, CAVE.

Side note: The short story mentioned above contains MAJOR SPOILERS.  We don't recommend reading it until after you've played CAVE.

Dan's introduction to Lovecraft's works came at the hands of another team member: Paul Shamhart, our creative consultant.  Dan:

"Lovecraft wasn’t really on my radar until [Paul] introduced me to his works.  We started playing the Call of Cthulhu D20 game shortly thereafter and I was hooked.  It was, I think, particularly due to Paul’s storytelling style and the way he wove many different Lovecraftian themes into each adventure that hooked me; to this day, I get nervous around 4:30 every afternoon."

Dan has a strong background in computer graphic design, with areas of focus in 3d modelling, animation, and 2d raster art with software tools like Autodesk 3DS Max, Adobe Photoshop, and The GIMP.  Borrowing from his professional experience, his skill set also includes project planning and execution, team leadership, cycle testing, and project support.

What does Dan want most to see in CAVE?

"The biggest thing I’d like to see is a polished, finished work.  I’m not speaking of the graphics, though they will go a long way toward player immersion.  Rather, I’m speaking of playability, enjoyability, and replay value.  I want people to really enjoy this experience.  Game element-wise, I’d love to see some first-person platforming; I’ve had this vision of Carter dangling by his fingertips on a darkened precipice overlooking a stygian abyss."


Look out for more team profiles, coming soon!