The Ball - Indie FPS Action/Puzzle Game

My pc is also not strong enough to do AA even if it were possible:)

We released Hueca - Fileplanet Exclusive for monday - tomorrow the rest is coming along with website updates and everything else!

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/mod/the-ball.aspx

Full Release:

Hueca takes place in a gigantic cavern with three large pyramids. Each pyramid contains several puzzles and challenges. The player travels from pyramid to pyramid using a large and ancient vehicle.

Features

# Solve the pyramids in any order and freely roam the desert.

# The introduction of a vehicle!

# Three new enemies: A giant bomb dropping bird, a cannonfodder beetle, and a big sandworm.

# Introduction of ball modifications. The ball will acts as a local low gravity field or as flashlight in certain areas of Hueca.

# The introduction of a brand new environment theme.

# A new Survival level and further improvements done to the gametype in general.

# A range of changes including new voice acting, more parts of the menu replaced, a stats system, and you are even able to save your game now!

DOWNLOAD - 395 MB

http://%7boption%7d

http://%7boption%7d

This installer also includes all previous episodes!

Check out ModDB's Preview special! - http://%7boption%7d

Lets start the fun

Much more to follow in the coming days!

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The Ball's Grand Finals submission for the Make Something Unreal contest is set for release on November the 10th. We are well on track, and have entered beta 1 a few days ago. Beta 2 set for thursday or friday.

This will be the final mod release of The Ball, and features two new levels. One new survival level, and one new campaign level. The campaign level offers about half an hour of gameplay in an all new environment, with an all new enemy, and a new approach on combat.

In order to start building out a community, we have also created a facebook page!

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http://%7boption%7d

And since pictures say more than a thousand words...Our team is proud to present you what we have been working on the past 2 months! Enjoy!

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A stand alone demo build of The Ball is now available, operating on the very latest version of the Unreal Engine.

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Over the past few months we had been working with Epic Games on porting The Ball to the brand new UDK. That got released today. The Ball UDK Demo is one of the example games that showcase this new engine license from Epic Games.

http://udk.com/showcase-the-ball.html

The demo consists of two levels. One brand new survival level. And one 40 minutes long singleplay level. The singleplay level is basically a compilation level made from parts of Pehua, Oztoc, and Hueca.

http://download.udk.com/UDKInstall-TheBallDemo.exe

We hereby also announce that we will turn this project into a full and stand alone indie game, with an expectant release in spring 2010.

Interview about our plans, the UDK, and The Ball in general: http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/11/05/ ... f-the-bal/

Join us on Facebook! - http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ball/151208229313

We are making good progress on the full stand alone game and we recently released a new screenshot, displaying the Oztoc Mine that is currently being build. The player will travel through these mines using a small train. The Ball is transported in the back on the train, the player takes position in front of it. The ride starts easy, and then picks up the speed. Think Indiana Jones II. Along the way the player will come across a rural village, and a pyramid that never got completed.

[Blocked Image: http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/media/trainball.jpg]

Another thing we are currently working on is the "Tractor Ball". The Ball is able to attach itself to certain objects, and pull those around. Practical example: to gain entrance to a building you use the Tractor Ball and hook it up to big tree trunks blocking the entrance, and slowly pull those away. This feature also allows us to explain how the buildings in the world have been constructed, the Ball being their tool to move these massive blocks and trunks around. For example the under-construction pyramid mentioned above, is added exactly for that reason. We are working on adding extra depth and logic to our world.

Also we have been nominated for Fileplanet Best of 2009 - Best Mod - Please vote for us if you enjoyed our work so far! - http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/be ... /mods.aspx

And ModDB are holding their annual MOTY awards, voting is open for that as well! - http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-ball

Next up a new trailer, and we are of course also still eagerly awaiting the MSU results of both Phase 4 and the Grand Finals.

Thanks people

We reached the ModDB Top 100 of the 2009 MOTY awards - please vote for us if you enjoyed it

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-ball

The Ball Hueca has won Best FPS Mod in Phase 4 of Makesomething Unreal. We also won 4th place Best Art in Mod.

We now hold 9 top-5 places, and 5 first places. We won Best Mod in 3 out of the 4 phases.

Furthermore we have half a page large screenshot in the latest edition of Game Developer Magazine, as part of an article on Unreal Engine 3 - http://www.gdmag.com/

And the Swedish PC Gamer has given us a page in their latest edition as well - http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/ne ... weden1.jpg

Newspost on our website - http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/20 ... f-msu.html

More news soon! Two more interviews scheduled, grand finals results set for mid February, and trailer coming up.

You can still vote for us over at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ball/ ... 313?ref=ts

The Haunted owned it too, we are head to head with them. So it is going to be a very exciting grand final...

June is the target date for the full game, but first the grand finals, announced mid next month, at the DICE convention.

We have two all new screenshots of Oztoc for you. These show the little train station where you begin your journey by train, and "the village". A big cavern with an abandoned (or is it?) village, surrounded by grain fields. A big unfinished pyramid looms in the distance. That pyramid is the entrance to Oztoc II.

[Blocked Image: http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/media/oztocmines2.jpg][Blocked Image: http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/media/oztocmines4.jpg]

We also released a Press Kit. The Press Kit contains three high resolution logos, and a presentation that is meant to introduce the game to the reader in under two minutes. This will allow us to contact magazines and websites, and quickly explain them what our game is about. It is basically about making it as easy as possible for the press to talk about us.

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http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/th ... esskit.zip

Also on our schedule are some wallpapers, a community kit with some images that can be used for forum signatures and such, and we still have a trailer coming up. We decided to push back the trailer a little, so we can get some new footage of for example Cahua II in. The trailer should be out somewhere in February. February in general is going to be a very exciting month for us. We are awaiting the outcome of the MSU Grand Finals, the ModDB MOTY 2009 awards, and soon after those two we will begin pitching the game to distributors.

http://www.toltecstudios.com/theball/20 ... s-kit.html

Those areas are being added into existing levels and have to fit that level's style and color. The environment changes every two levels on average. The color pallet has to be specific and recognizable so the game gets a stronger identity. Of course it is risky to go too far with this and push it into "boring", but I think we are doing OK with our current balance.