August 26, 2006, 10:04 pm
After enjoying a playable version of PubCrawl for a little over 2 weeks, we’re finally comfortable in our new headquarters and are ready to release. The goal for this playable milestone was to create a simple environment which would test our new Maya driven script node system. The system has proven itself to be extremely powerful and extensible. We ended up being able to achieve far more complexity than initially expected.
While the world of PubCrawl is a first step toward what Outland Inc will become, we hope you will find the gameplay to be fondly inspired by DOS era adventure games.
Try it out and let us know what you think.
Download PubCrawl Now!
A video of PubCrawl is avaialble here.
View the PubCrawl gallery
August 9, 2006, 7:50 am
Pub Crawl was feature complete Sunday. However, it was decided to delay it’s release. This weekend Stolen Notebook will relocate to it’s new penthouse apartment/offices at 210 N Charter. There will be some down time while we move in. We decided to spend our remaining time expanding Pub Crawl instead of starting a new milestone as we pack up and move in.
EDIT:
Check out the most recent pictures in the SN Gallery!
July 31, 2006, 6:52 am
The next milestone is scheduled for completion Sunday. This milestone will focus on scripting. The goal is to allow users to define script information in Maya and have it export to the game. The result of this milestone will be a pub with many scripted events and interactive objects.
July 20, 2006, 9:14 pm
In just over 24 hours we have taken a game from whiteboard to computer screen. Our goal was to test the usability of our in-development engine and tools. The result is CrossBlast: Struggle of a Lifetime, a fast paced and deadly futuristic game of high-stakes goal making. Included in the release are the tools used to create the game. A theme song, created by Matt Hammer, is also available (play it on loop in your favorite media player). Try out the game and tools and let us know what you think.
Download CrossBlast and Tools (Endurance Edition)
Download CrossBlast Theme Song
Download SNtools
Check out each team members’ thoughts on this release.
Chris — Engine / Tools
Denrei — Art
Gavin — Business
Tony — Game Code
View CrossBlast Gallery
| The Final Hours of CrossBlast |
 |
 |
 |
July 18, 2006, 8:46 am
Like any game development company our deadline has slipped. But we are not dragging our feet! At our release meeting we decided to spend a few extra days to develop a small, simple game using the features we have completed. It will certainly be more interesting and entertaining than our previous plan: a number of spheres and boxes that can be pushed around.
So, what is this game? It’s a secret. You’ll have to wait until it is released later this week. For now, here’s a photo of it in development.
July 10, 2006, 9:07 am
We are gearing up to finish our first public milestone of Outland Inc! This milestone, titled Lord of Collisions, will be completed over the weekend and made available. This release includes the current game and tools. Keep in mind that this is not a finished game. We are releasing our work in progress as we complete each feature set. Hopefully, you will be able to see a game as it comes together after each milestone, while we are able to get some feedback.
Stay tuned for the imminent release!
June 30, 2006, 7:25 am
Stolen Notebook got together last night for a meeting that ended up taking two and a half hours. Approximately 5 minutes of that time was spent recapitalizing the company. The remaining time was spent coming up with a name for our first game. A lot of awful names were discovered and thrown out. We finally settled on a great name that fits our game quite well. Outland Inc.
Now we have to make a logo.
June 29, 2006, 9:04 am
Stolen Notebook has got itself a website. Hopefully we’ll put it to good use.
Who is Stolen Notebook?
We are a small independent game development company based in Madison, WI. Our team consists of 4 people with a variety of talents. We are all current students or recent graduates of UW-Madison.
Denrei — the artist
Chris — the engine/tools programmer
Tony — the game programmer
Gavin — the business manager
Open Development
One of our goals is to share our experiences of independent game development. We want to be as open and accessible as possible. To this end each team member has a blog where they can write about our collective progress from their unique perspective (art, engine, game, business). Further, after each milestone we will post a mini-postmortem describing the problems encountered and the solutions we found. Discussions are geared towards independent developers and others interested in the specifics of making a game.
