We have started in on the core gameplay coding of the final boss. The goal is to have this chapter design locked in the next few days so that level designers and artists can start in on detailing it. This chapter is design complete, but needs refinement to lock the chapter. There are also half the maps (3) in Gonarch as in Xen, so we got that going for us. We learned a lot arting Xen and refined our pipeline to be more efficient going forward. The goal is to be mostly art completed, and start in on its many animated scripted sequences in January. These maps are design locked and are going through the art process. Left on the to-do list is merging art, polishing art, unifying skyboxes and effects across all 6 maps, optimizing maps, and finally a clipping pass. This chapter is completely design locked, most of the art is done, and we are polishing the levels to be release ready.

While building momentum toward release, our goal is to lock down the chapters in order so that we don’t have to dedicate resources to them, and so all the subsequent chapters go faster and smoother. In addition to the improvements above, we have been grinding away at locking the final bits of design and arting for all our Xen levels. We don't want to spoil everything about their new abilities - but mind-control, telekinesis, and crystal-powered shields are just a taste of what players can expect. For Xen, we drastically expanded their abilities, turning them into a kind of overlord or mini-boss. They were a good, if a bit simple, final enemy type for the Earth bound levels. The player only encounters Controllers once in the released game. As a much-needed balance, the bees from them no longer home in on you, and individual bee damage has been lowered. They'll leap onto different platforms, find a way to outflank you, get in your face, and unleash a devastating secondary 'hornet hurricane' attack. The new Agrunt is the most mobile, unpredictable enemy in the whole game besides our assassins. In the vast, wide open spaces of Xen however, they became extremely frustrating to fight.

They fit relatively well into the tough, cover-laden final levels of Earth. Our original Alien Grunts were tank enemies that shot ridiculously powerful homing bees.

Black mesa content file locked