Posts by Mocherad

May 2025 Update – Vertical Slice Achieved & Next Steps

Quick update from the Polystrike team:

1. We’ve hit a major milestone we now have a stable multiplayer build with a working lobby system. 2. We've tested different UI directions, reworked the projectile system, tweaked camera zoom and angles, and implemented our core mechanics. 3. Competed Microsoft Xbox Camp What we have now is a solid vertical slice, and we're proud of how far we’ve come.

Our focus remains fully on game development, but now it’s also time to start growing our community. We’ve launched:

• Reddit
  
• Bluesky
  

💡 We’ve applied to the Epic MegaGrants, and we’re also planning a Kickstarter to help support the team.

⚠️ Note: Development has slowed recently. Over 70% of our team is in Ukraine, and the recent attacks and power outages have directly affected work schedules. Despite this, we’re still moving forward — carefully, but with purpose.

Thanks to everyone supporting us so far more updates coming soon. Mocherad & the Polystrike Team

To everyone supporting us, thank you. This project was born from love for games, built during war, and fueled by a belief that small teams can create something great.

Friends, as we reach the 10th month of development, I’d like to share some good news with you. Our team has grown to 30 enthusiastic people from all over the world, and we’ve also welcomed back a member from Kazakhstan who had previously left. It’s amazing that we’re building our ‘castle’ together as one inseparable family. People have even more belief and hope in the project, and no one wants to leave – a huge plus for both me and all team members.

We hold regular weekly meetings where we share our progress and tackle any blockers. Of course, we use Miro, Jira, Trello, Notion, and other tools for effective collaboration. We’ve also created our first build, set up our own server, and tested a 4v4 multiplayer match. As a first multiplayer build, it was a good start, though I’ll admit it looked a bit rough – that was about a month ago. Now, we’re on our 3rd or 4th build, and it’s already looking quite impressive.

We’ve also created a page where you can check out our work. I want to be as transparent as possible with our audience and let everyone know that everything you see in the game is unique, created by me and the team that conceptualized the idea. We’re not using AI. So, that’s where we’re at for now – looking forward to your thoughts and impressions here!

POLYSTRIKE on X: "How does one protect themselves in the future? With activating sci-fi energy shields of course! Nothing will hurt you with these bad boys on in #Polystrike! #UnrealEngine #indiegames https://t.co/AZHOSo87md" / X

https://youtu.be/VLNiJ8b8jK0

ArtStation - Robin Entertainment

Quote from FMPONE

On 5/30/2024 at 4:28 AM, FMPONE said: Damn, blast from the past! Love everything you've got here.

Hey there! It’s awesome to hear from you. Your CS map creations are seriously impressive! All the hard work you’ve put into them over the years is truly inspiring. You were a big motivation for me a few years back – thanks for that!

A lot has changed in the past six months! We've made incredible progress in every aspect of the project, and I'll share more details with you later. But because I value transparency, I want to be honest with you about the challenges we've faced. It's been incredibly demanding and stressful, and I've been sleeping less. Even though I've worked on various projects in well-known studios and led teams before, I've never experienced leadership on this scale. Previously, I managed teams of about 16 people, but now we have over 20 active members and a few more who have expressed interest but are not fully involved. It's a complex situation that requires a lot of time and energy, but it's worth it because I've met amazing people who are passionate about the project and dedicated a lot of their time to it. Some of them are even working on it full-time.

Everyone who started with us from the beginning is still here, so I invited them to join the core team. They've brought so much value to the project, and it's impressive. However, we did lose four people, three of whom were from Kazakhstan. We also made a lot of mistakes when creating the concepts for characters, weapons, and the world. When we started modeling them, we realized that they weren't what we were looking for. They lacked novelty and originality, and the art didn't translate well into the top-down camera view. There were too many unnecessary details that created visual noise and obscured the silhouette and key features, which are crucial for our game. As a result, we had to scrap almost few months of work (30% of what we had from 100% assets), including all the modeled and textured weapons and environments (Characters, sword weapons, and armor have been preserved.) It was a tough decision, but the right one. We were still in the pre-production phase, experimenting and testing different ideas. It turned out that our desired style and mechanics were more complex than we initially thought to achieve the effect I envisioned for my ideal project, POLYSTRIKE.

But we did it! We're now in full production, and things are looking really great. Our team has grown significantly, with more senior-level artists joining us. It's incredible to see how much we've accomplished. If we continue on this path, POLYSTRIKE will be a groundbreaking phenomenon in the gaming industry, driven by the passion and dedication of a large, international team of like-minded individuals

Thanks dude!

Back from the shadows after 4 years in the dark. We're here to reignite the fire. Welcome back, old friend. Let's play POLYSTRIKE STANDALONE

The story of how it all began:

2016-2018 It all started with the fact that around 2016-17 I created de dust 2 in DOTA 2, and it caused a great response in the DOTA 2 community. I was thinking about the idea of how to make a cool mod and whether it is possible to make a shooter there, because there were many technical limits and other problems on Source 2 and new hammer for DOTA 2. From the end of 2017 to the middle of 2018, there was a break due to the fact that I broke my arm at work and was in a cast for 3 and a half months and several months of rehabilitation, so I was out for about a year. And only at the end of 2018, I started developing PolyStrike almost every day.

2019 That year, the map, gameplay elements, store, menu, interface and settings were already ready in PolyStrike. We recreated everything even more, we had a lot that was not even in the original Counter-Strike as skins, and female skins for characters. Even then, many well-known streamers, professional CS and Dota players started writing to me. And also many interviews for well-known mass media in different countries from Europe to Latin America and Asia.

2020-2022 - Exactly 4 years ago, PolyStrike was released on Steam on the 8 April and updated 30th April! I'm adding some statistics from steam, because I haven't supported the game for several years and it's not working, the rating has dropped accordingly and the number of subscribers has also dropped. But 200 thousand was not bad for just fashion. Later, I received several messages from various studios from Canada, Korea and the USA that they want to buy the rights or jointly create with me Polystrike as standalone game on mobile and on PC. At the end of 2021, I had 6 rounds of negotiations with potential investors and a large fund that initiated it and even wanted to make a company in the USA and attract investors, invest myself and have the right to buy the option. Also, I had negotiations with e-sports organizations such as Gfinity. It was all just incredible. But at the beginning of the year, unfortunately, russia attacked my country. I lost my best friends whom I had known since I was 6 years old, we went to sports together, went for walks, had many common hobbies and I did not understand what was being done and it was very difficult for me psychologically and I just started volunteering for a while, driving people who lost their homes , wearing body armor, doing a lot of things, and visiting the wounded and buying them everything they needed, I was living the war at that time. I will not tell in detail everything that happened later and what I faced, but I moved to Europe where I started treatment in Munich, and I live in Poland right now.

What do we have now?

2023-Now All you need to know is that I am successfully continuing my treatment and have successfully started development at the end of 2023 POLYSTRIKE Standalone on UE 5.4

After correspondence with a lawyer from Valve, I decided to make absolutely everything from scratch, and not use Valve's IP. So the story, lore, maps, weapons, characters, sounds and all 2D, 3D content will be our own.

High-level Details Brief Story:

In the near future, artificial intelligence revolutionized the world, rendering most professions obsolete and ushering in an era of automation. With the AI's strict control, life became a struggle for survival, devoid of indulgences like smoking, drinking, and leisure. People were compelled to dedicate themselves to constant learning, their education compressed into a mere fraction of what once constituted university study. Nations and laws faded into obscurity as AI dominance solidified, dividing humanity into two opposing factions: the Iron Will, who embraced AI control for its efficiency and order, and the Vanguard freedom-seekers, who rebelled against the constraints of AI rule, yearning for autonomy and the right to express themselves. Now, amidst this turbulent divide, a fierce battle ensues for the future of humanity, as each side fights to impose its vision upon a world torn between progress and liberty.

Main Objective: The main objective of POLYSTRIKE is to lead your faction to victory by dominating the battlefield and securing control over critical objectives.

Gameplay Pillars: Dynamic Combat: The game offers fast-paced, action-packed combat where players must adapt quickly to changing situations and utilize a diverse arsenal of weapons and abilities.

Tactical Strategy: Players must employ strategic thinking and teamwork to outmaneuver opponents and control key objectives on the battlefield.

Competitive Skill: Skillful play is rewarded as players master the nuances of movement, aiming, and timing to gain the upper hand in battles and contribute to their team's success.

Interactive Environment: Polystrike offers a dynamic and immersive world where the environment is not just a backdrop but a crucial aspect of gameplay. Players can interact with their surroundings, breaking walls for strategic advantages, destroying objects to create cover or obstruct pathways, and utilizing environmental elements to gain the upper hand in battles. The sounds of the environment are not just background noise but integral cues that players can use to their advantage, enhancing situational awareness and strategic decision-making. This integration of the environment into gameplay adds an extra layer of depth and realism, allowing for emergent tactics and memorable moments in every match.

POLYSTRIKE TEAM:

We have a powerful team of 16 people at the moment, 5 UE devs, the main dev has experience working at Intel. We also have an artist who currently works for at Valve, a very talented character designer who created characters for famous games such as Mafia, Starfield etc. Technical director and visual effects artist worked on few known titles at Activision, Valorant, and many other people who also not new in the industry. You will be surprised, but most of them work for the idea and with faith in the project. Some have signed a contract with me and I pay them, and all these things are generally available in the team and everyone knows how the team is doing, who else we need, and understand that this is a startup and I finance the entire budget from my own pocket. We may be able to launch the game without a publisher and an investor, because we will develop the game until the end, we do not have goals to earn millions from the game, we have a goal to create a really high-quality and cool product with a fantastic team. Some things still need raised capital, so far I got over 100k a few weeks ago, but I think that after a while the number can double, so I'm thinking about the idea of creating a Patreon. Or searching for grants, for example from Epic Games (15-150k).

Exclusive content for Mapcore *You won't find it anywhere else but here

Updated

Updated my portfolio 🍟

https://www.artstation.com/mocherad

Quote from Vaya

23 hours ago, Vaya said: very cute assets. do you have a designed workflow for these?

yes, I'm using asets from syntystore and trying replace them with origina csgo assets, missed assets I'm making from scretch or editing props from syntystudios https://syntystore.com/

Sadly project is paused

Quote from ┌HP┘

12 hours ago, ┌HP┘ said: This is awesome!

thanks man!

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last post this year

thanks, first player camera [Blocked Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ep_iFuZXIAANGJQ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

any feedback?

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Quote from Squad

11 hours ago, Squad said: Sure this ain't Inferno?

Looks very cool!

Damn, you are right! Haha just named it as inferno

Quote from JorisCeoen

3 hours ago, JorisCeoen said: This is Inferno...?

yes this is Inferno .....................

Source 2 - de_italy level created for PolyStrike

I want to report that in this video you can see my progress in 30 days of development. Also, I shoot everything as it really is, I do not hide anything and do not show only the best moments.

I like this stuff, gl to everyone!!