Now that the game is done and out and people have had a chance to play it, I wanted to show the very earliest beginnings of the game.  It’s a good feeling to go back and watch these, see how far we’ve come, while still seeing the seeds of what would eventually become the game.  There’s also a few directions we didn’t go in that are interesting as well.  You also get a glimpse of how the tech for the Fluros works, in its early form.

Here’s a video from the very start of Vessel’s development, creating the liquid physics engine. As you can see it’s made up of a bunch of particles which exhibit pressure on each other, surface tension, and viscosity among other forces.

Above is what will become ‘Fluros’ in the final game – attractive structures that have a pull on liquid.

Here’s a demo of our tech combining AI and liquid physics, allowing our creatures in the game to influence the liquid in the world. The grid that appears at the end is the sorting algorithm we use to speed up liquid processing.

An early protoype of Vessel, pre-art. You can see this video shows a different direction than the final game went, we eventually focused it on the Fluro creatures in the game, creating and destroying them, as we felt they were the most interesting. But this video is fun.

Kubiro-Shoe Mario was our character for many months before we designed the game, and he served us well.

Here’s an example of the Fluros starting to reach their potential, folding out of a puddle and forming a bridge. Not a creature we used in the final game but he does have some flair.

Demo of the tech we used for making liquids glow. We use a clustering algorithm to identify key points to put point-lights which vary in brightness depending how dense the cluster is. Works pretty well even for shapes that don’t cluster well like linear lengths of sprayed liquid.

The liquid seen in these old demos now runs much faster in the final game, even after adding all the art and rendering that we did we were able to optimize an overall improvement over the years.  There’s a lot of ideas and directions in these old videos that I still think would make great mechanics once fully fleshed out, we just might have to do that in the next game.

With Vessel finished we’ve got a wide open path before us of where to go next, and as part of deciding what we want to do I’ve created a new blog about the future of gameplay:

http://throughtheloop.strangeloopgames.com/

The focus of this blog is the same as the focus of our company – understanding how games can use modern technology in ways beyond just improved graphics.  If you’re interested in the subject do stop by and leave a comment.  More articles to come.

It’s been a crazy couple weeks – we released Vessel on Steam then immediately went to San Francisco for a non-stop week at GDC.  Finally we’ve had some time to sit back and take a breather, and it feels great to be done.  We’re really pleased to see peoples’ reactions to the game, here’s a few choice reviews that made our day:

9/10 on Machinima:  “Just like Portal 2, Vessel is about as universally recommended a game as can exist.”

9/10 on Game Spy:  ”Vessel is around a quarter of the price of a AAA game, but it contains more flair and ingenuity than most blockbuster games can muster. ”

5/5 perfect score on Piki Geek! “…one of the best puzzle games since LittleBigPlanet or Portal. Yeah, it’s that good.”

It’s very satisfying to see people are having as much fun playing this game as we did making it.  As we work on the console versions and start thinking about what we want to do next we’re driven by the support we’ve received from our players.   Rest assured you’ll see it all here as soon as we have something to show.   Here’s to our players.

After more than 3 long years, our journey in creating Vessel has today reached it’s conclusion – or rather, it’s beginning. Vessel is officially launched!

The best way to get Vessel is to buy it directly from our website (go to the landing page here http://www.strangeloopgames.com/), you’ll get a DRM-free download of the game, PLUS a key to unlock on Steam. We also have a store on Steam you can use too.

We’ve been trying to figure out how long Vessel is, and determined it really varies. We’re guessing it’s going to be about 10 solid hours of gameplay, all challenging puzzles and no filler or repeated sequences. Definitely a bargain for the asking price. Also, we’re on sale for 10% off this first week! There’s a demo available on Steam as well (link here for Steam store)

It’s been an incredible experience quitting our day jobs and building this vision together, and working with these team has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in my career and life. We’re very proud of the result and we hope people will really attach to the unique things we’re doing with this game.

So give it a play and let us know what you think.

It starts in the rain….