Demigod Takes Hollywood by Storm

Hi.  Nate here.

As many of you may already know, our first trailer hit the internet yesterday at Gamespot.  It's hard to overstate how eager we were to get this footage out into the world -- at 2pm yesterday Gas Powered Games resounded with the sound of "refresh" buttons being repeatedly clicked as we waited for Gamespot to update.  Not only was this Demigod's first serious public outing, it was our first chance to show our friends and families what we'd been working on.  My wife says it's cool, so it's officially, objectively cool.

We have been enjoying the ongoing debate about the authenticity of the trailer.  Yes, every shot in the trailer was taken in-game.  We made no custom animations for the trailer.  The footage was run through After Effects to apply certain atmospheric effects and film grain, but by and large, what you see is what you'll get.  Steve Thompson, our lead animator, sat down with Jessica Snook, one of our designers, and the two of them camped out inside the game like wildlife photographers.  Steve managed to capture some great moments at some very beautiful angles, and then Howard Mostrom composed some gorgeous music to go with it.  If you still doubt that it's actual in-game footage, look closely at some of the shots late in the trailer: we managed to immortalize a bug that was generating persistent splats in midair when angels got shot down by towers of light.  That bug has been fixed, so if you could all kindly return the video to us, we'll go ahead and fix that.

Anyway, I'm glad the animators finally got to share their work, because they've been doing some spectacular stuff.  I know that superlatives are suspect in an officially-sanctioned developer journal, but Steve and Aung Oo have accomplished something that hasn't been done before in this type of game.  These characters feel alive, and I think that pays off in the gameplay.

Finally, Matt Vainio deserves a big wet kiss for designing our new logo.  It says everything it needs to say: a little mythological, a little future-y, and more than just a pinch of heavy metal.  It's amazing how having a logo makes you feel like you're working on a real, big-league game.

I can't wait to show you guys the stuff that'll be in the next trailer.  We definitely still have some eye-poppers waiting in the wings.

Nate Simpson, Lead Artist - Demigod