Our Ghosts of War - A 400km2 World War 2 Sandbox Survival Game Developed in UE4

Apr 18, 2016
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Hi Guys,

We're developing Our Ghosts of War, an open-world survival game in the vein of projects like Ark: Survival Evolved, Rust, and DayZ, but with a World War 2 spin on the genre. As a heads up there is no crowd funding campaign, or a storefront yet, as all we're looking to do at the moment is get the word out about our game and get your feedback on what exactly you would like for this game to be. We've already received permission from the moderation staff about being able to post about our game as long as we add no referral links.



Our Ghosts of War is being developed by Pixel Perfect Polygons. We're a 3D artdev company that has primarily operated out of the Unreal Engine 4 forums for the better part of the last 2 years doing freelance and contract work for a number of indie and AAA companies. Eventually we finally got it in our minds to begin work on our game and after laying down the groundwork for what we wanted to dedicate our time towards, production began on Our Ghosts of War.

Currently there are 20 individuals involved and working on a host of development assets consisting of art and code. We'll have more about each of these individuals shortly just so you have a clear idea of who exactly is doing what on the project. We'll also be posting regular progress reports from each of these individuals so there is a transparent display of what exactly the development team is up to.



Our plan right now is to apply to Steam Greenlight later this year. When it comes to Early Access games some are some are definitely more complete than others. Others are never completed at all. For Our Ghosts of War we have decided to focus on creating a little of everything when it comes to weapons, vehicles, and characters, and put most of our efforts on creating our the most authentic depiction of Normandy, France in the history of video games heading into release.

What does this mean for the average player? Well it means that due to having a relatively low starting budget we are forced to make some very hard choices about the content that we intend to launch Our Ghosts of War with. Trust me when we say we're proud of how far we've managed to stretch every single last dollar but even so there are limits to what we can achieve with our current budget. The money we make from our sales will then be invested back into the game to create weapons, vehicles, and other props that we unfortunately didn't have the budget to create at the moment.

That said this is what we do intend to launch with:

- The most authentic depiction of Normandy, France in the history of video games. We've already incorporated Satellite DEM data to launch the game with 78km2 worth of authentic Normandy terrain. It looks good. It feels real. As we move further into development we will work to increase our map size to an eventual 400km2 replica of Normandy, France. There's never been anything done on this level of scale in videogames.



- The most authentic placement of Normandy homes, farms, and roads in the history of video games. We've done a lot of homework already and have managed to track down aerial spy photographs that cover a large portion of the Normandy hills and roads. Using these spy pictures and cross referencing them against Google Maps we can accurately place homes and roads precisely where they were in 1944. The same goes for the roads as will make them 100% accurate to where they would have been during the war. There is no other game that seeks to achieve this level of authenticity.



- The most authentic depiction of the Omaha Beach D-Day invasion ever. So this was hard but we've managed to secure official documents of the Germans with the blueprints of every single one of their defensive fortifications and measurements. This means that every anti-tank wall, anti-tank ditch, trench, concertina wire, and more will be created to the official specs of the German army. Furthermore we've painstakingly tracked down the blueprints of every single last bunker that was built on Omaha Beach and are working to create and place them exactly where they would have been in 1944 as the Allied forces invaded France in the largest invasion in history. Research matters.



- Twenty launch weapons consisting of handguns, rifles, machine guns, and shotguns. As we earn more from the release of the game we will work to create additional weapons. The currently completed weapons are:

01. 1911
02. Luger
03. Thompson
04. MP40
05. K98
06. M1 Garand
07. Colt Official Police
08. Colt Commando
09. Springfield
10. Mauser C96
11. MG-08

The current weapons being modeled are:

12. MG42
13. Winchester M12 Trench Gun
14. FG42

We should have renders for all these weapons added to this thread sometime this week but this should do as a start.



That's all for now. We should have daily updates for you guys starting tomorrow. We're ecstatic about the work we're doing and feel that's among the best of our lives. If you have any questions or feedback please don't hesitate to post and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks for reading!
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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Well you don't have a single screen shot or gameplay or anything. Just an absurd idea, and lots of Google images.

And don't we already have a class based WW2 game? Battlefield 1942, and it was great!
 

tippy2k2

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Yeah, not to be a Debbie Downer but I'm going to have to agree with Silentpony on this. You have absolutely nothing to actually show us except promises that you did a whole lot of homework on stuff in the area. It's a nice little idea but ideas are a dime a dozen (and frankly, so are survival sandbox games in the indie market) so until you actually have some pudding that you can put the proof into, there's not really all that much to discuss.

Although to have at least some positive for you guys to throw back, can you expand upon what you mean by a "Sandbox survival" like Rust or DayZ? Like...are the enemies going to be Nazis that we're going to be hiding from as civilians? Are you an Allied soldier dropped behind the lines to wreak havoc? If there are Nazis, are the Nazis zombified in any way as that seems to be the default sandbox survival enemy? Is it just a super authentic place in history and you're just going to drop players into it to see what happens?
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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tippy2k2 said:
Yeah, not to be a Debbie Downer but I'm going to have to agree with Silentpony on this.
I am seriously considering making that my slogan, or maybe getting a gold plated desk plate.

Also @pixelperfectpolygons, trust me it takes a lot for Tippy and I to agree. Or, in this case, a distinct lack of a lot.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
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You need to show us something concrete.


And for future reference, announcing your plans makes you less likely to accomplish them. Our stupid human brains work like that. Psychologists called that premature sense of completeness. Telling someone what we're planning drains our motivation to then continue with the plan. It sounds absurd and counter-productive but it's true.
 

FirstNameLastName

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Nov 6, 2014
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Yeah, not to add to the cynicism here, but as nice as historical accuracy is it would be more useful to know something about what the planned gameplay is going to be rather than how accurately you've recreated the countryside. Also, it should be noted that unless the game is going to be filled with AI controlled NPCs, it's not going to feel much like a war. There's a reason why so many online sandbox survival games are set in some kind of apocalyptic or primitive settings, and that's because it gives a reason for the world to be so empty. Even if the game gets absolutely, massively popular you'll still need large numbers of NPCs in the game, other wise all that historical research will be a waste of time when the place is deserted.

Still, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor.
 
Apr 18, 2016
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Hi guys. Plenty of feedback for us so far.

Our intentions with this thread were less to be an announcement and more the start of a developer journal. The truth is that this there isn't quite as much to show as what you'd like. But on the other hand bringing you into the fold this early has some very real benefits.

Typically when there are criticisms for developers, production is too far along for those criticisms to be implemented. Instead players wait 2-3 years before the next game in that particular series gets released to see their criticisms incorporated, if at all. With a developer journal like this your feedback can be implemented on the ground floor so that if there's something in particular you don't like we can implement it right away.

Are the enemies going to be Nazis that we're going to be hiding from as civilians?

Players can play as both Nazis and Allied forces. Nazi symbols will not be included in the digital retail release in countries where they are banned. What we will do is develop and setup a free download that will allow players to add these insignia to their games if they so choose. The bottom line is that if we don't do it the community will anyway. Might as well make it easy for them.

Are you an Allied soldier dropped behind the lines to wreak havoc?

We're planning one such class, yes.

If there are Nazis, are the Nazis zombified in any way as that seems to be the default sandbox survival enemy?

No zombies.

Is it just a super authentic place in history and you're just going to drop players into it to see what happens?

On one hand, yes. Our first goal is to authentically replicate Normandy as best we can. We're pretty close already. I'm personally working on getting the roads and intersections into place right now. There is a wonderful plug-in released the other day that definite makes our lives easier. We're also developing a workflow that ditches normal maps in favor of tileable textures in order to keep things optimized so that you don't need a minimum of a GTX 1080 to get the game to run. Alien: Isolation is a good example of this workflow.

On the other hand there's more to it. We've already got a 85 page design document written up that is nothing but unique gameplay systems. But our coders are busy working primarily on getting our vertical slice up and running and that includes, for example, getting networking up and running and randomizing spawn points. I'll post weekly updates on Monday on what they've accomplished for that given week. Usually they send invoices Sunday evening along with the tasks they completed. I'll have an update for you tomorrow based off what's included in the invoices I receive tonight.

Once we're able to test what gameplay systems work and seems fun we would then announce those gameplay systems for you guys to offer crits on in order to further refine and improve.


Also, it should be noted that unless the game is going to be filled with AI controlled NPCs, it's not going to feel much like a war.

NPC AI is being worked on.
 

pookie101

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Jul 5, 2015
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while im curious about the game, even if it doesnt work i hope you will release the research you did, its invaluable and hard to come by
 
Apr 18, 2016
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pookie101 said:
while im curious about the game, even if it doesnt work i hope you will release the research you did, its invaluable and hard to come by


We're planning an in-game "Militarypedia" for Our Ghosts of War that would include the blueprints and all other technical information of all in-game military content. Kind of like a model viewer mixed with more historical information. A lot of the bunkers would be buried underground but we're making sure they look great outside of the ground specifically because of the "Militarypedia".
 

JUMBO PALACE

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Well, this seems nifty I suppose. I don't go in for the survival genre but I love WWII. I'll stick around at least for the trivia.
 
Apr 18, 2016
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Started stitching together aerial spy shot references for the roads and buildings inside Unreal Engine 4. This is 3km. This is also going to take some time to finish. :(

 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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You probably picked just about the most difficult combination of things to make work, and if I'm reading it correctly this is a rag tag team of novice developers. Usually these things end up with lots of ambition stuck in purgatory, because actually making all of what you promised will be nigh impossible in a reasonable time.

None the less I wish to some day see this getting played.
 
Apr 18, 2016
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Smooth Operator said:
You probably picked just about the most difficult combination of things to make work, and if I'm reading it correctly this is a rag tag team of novice developers. Usually these things end up with lots of ambition stuck in purgatory, because actually making all of what you promised will be nigh impossible in a reasonable time.

None the less I wish to some day see this getting played.
Not as rag tag as you might think. We have some AAA talent helping out. This is moreso on the coding side rather than the art side. But we have artists from Yager and Codermasters contributing as well. They're not getting paid much but they're in it for long haul as they feel the project has a lot of upside to it.

M12 Trench Gun

 

tippy2k2

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fisheries said:
So, you're just going to ignore everyone who actually posted, and answer some FAQs that nobody asked in the thread, that you've copy pasted?

Because that's super insulting, and nobody will follow your "dev journal" thread if you're just spamming advertising and ignoring folks.
Uh....those are all questions I asked.
 

MysticSlayer

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fisheries said:
So, you're just going to ignore everyone who actually posted, and answer some FAQs that nobody asked in the thread, that you've copy pasted?

Because that's super insulting, and nobody will follow your "dev journal" thread if you're just spamming advertising and ignoring folks.
From what I can tell, pixelperfectpolygons has addressed almost all, if not all, questions brought up in this thread. It's just that not a lot have been asked, meaning that most posts are part of the dev journal that they got permission to keep. And the fact that you're getting multiple responses from people other than the devs shows that at least some of us are coming in here to see what's going on.
 
Apr 18, 2016
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Hi guys. So every week our coders turn in the work they've done for that week when they invoice me. Because of our limited budget we get about 30 hours of coding in every week split between two coders. Keep in mind that just because you see us working on something here doesn't mean it's actually going to implemented for Early Access.

For example, we mention menu flows for deathmatch below but that isn't an announcement of any kind. In that specific case we are setting up a UI flow in case we ever get around to adding a deathmatch style mode. We could then come back to it later if we develop anything worth revisiting. Honestly it would less complicated to not mention things like that that but for the sake of transparency I'm happy letting you guys get insight into our development.

Regarding fisheries' post, I thought it would be easier for everyone if I framed the questions everyone asked me in a FAQ style format. I apologize if this made it come across that I was ignoring anyone but that has definitely not been the case. If anyone has questions feel free to ask. There will be things I'll try not to spoil, but in general I'm more than happy to intimately discuss our development, ambitions, and goals.

Change Log - Alpha 0.5.12.1502

- Added initial classes for structural changes to UI framework.
- Deprecated old Framework 1.0 code.
- Worked on adding in functionality for going through Survival->Host/Join functionality.
- Cleaned up use overuse of delegates.
- Created menu flows for survival, exploration, deathmatch, and settings options
- Base transitions to but not from implemented.
- Deprecated more old UI Framework 1 code. Removal of Framework 1 code will begin soon.
- Minor UI bug fixes and stability improvements.
- Updating codebase to run UE4.12 with VXGI support.
- Removed old Normandy map content and VSMap_01 content in order to clean up the content directory.
- Fixed up loading editor errors from old removed referenced content.
- Added hooks for Health, temperature, stamina, and leveling components to the BP Function Library.
- Removed old wallpaper for welcome screen.
- Added ambient audio to welcome screen/main menu.
- Added title and press any key text to welcome screen.
- Setup new map with 2 crosses as the new main menu map.
- Setup spawn camera position to match Alireza's adjusted camera location Known Bugs/Issues
- Iteration on our basic AI enemy. More ways to pathfind / use the navmesh have been hooked up. First pass at "Pawn Sensing", which is a pre-existing tech from UE4.7 that helps do the baseline tech for AI sensing enemies (other AI, players, whatever) via sight OR hearing (sounds at a location, i.e. footsteps, explosions, whatever).
- Day/Night Cycle is implemented. It's off by default, but once you're running the sample map we test things on, hit "End" on your keyboard to start it. 24 seconds = 24 hours.
- Placeholder UI art assets for Health, Stamina, and Experience appear on the right side of the screen, currently. These are beginning to be hooked up with the back-end data from the game's systems.

Now for those of you that don't know the big thing for our project is that Nvidia finally updated their GIT (it's a way of sharing projects with other people aka version control) with a version of VXGI compatible with Unreal Engine 4. We've been waiting on this for the past two months and it looks like Nvidia completed skipped Unreal Engine 4.11 and went straight to Unreal Engine 4.12 Preview 5. Learning that Nvidia had finally uploaded a new build of Unreal VXGI, we immediately went and spent the weekend getting that added into our own project.

So what is VXGI? More or less it's a global illumination (realtime lighting) solution. UE4 doesn't really do global illumination so you have to do things like bake shadows and what not. Generally the image quality doesn't look as nice but your project doesn't require nearly as performance hungry either. Well there are now two solutions for global illumination available for UE4. The first is VXGI by Nvidia (https://developer.nvidia.com/vxgi) and the second is Enlighten by Geomerics (http://www.geomerics.com/enlighten/). Here is an example of VXGI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqvDdBbvoFk. Here is an example of Enlighten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fs-4Kvp2nM. Neither of these is by us.

The simple reason that we have gone with VXGI is that it's free. Enlighten requires getting in contact with Geomerics and applying for a license. Because we're still so early in development it's simply less trouble to incorporate VXGI. If down the line Enlighten ends up becoming a more viable solution to our global illumination needs we would definitely consider it. And again if you anyone has any questions. Feel free to ask.