Topic: Descent to UDK December 24th first build release announced on facebook

[PyroJockey]

From Sol Contingency: Descent to UDK facebook page:

Hello Descent fans!

Reserve some room under your virtual Christmas tree because the first build of our game that YOU can play will be available on December 24.

“Proving Grounds” will not be a single-player experience, but an exclusive preview of the multiplayer component of our game. We have decided to release this special build ahead of episode 1 (of the single-player campaign) because we promised you that you would play our game in 2013, and you will. The episode however will not be ready in time as we now estimate a proper release date of summer 2014. This is mostly related to initial birthing pains of forming our team, structuring development and finding good artists to provide concepts to build the game off from.

Please remember that everyone who works on this game is doing so on their free time and purely voluntarily, so setbacks such as this are bound to happen, unfortunately. We will not promise an actual date for episode 1, but it *will* come out in 2014. We have made good progress which, in turn, allows us to provide you the multiplayer build called “Proving Grounds”, giving you something to play with friends, absolutely for free. We hope you will enjoy it!

The build will feature authentic Descent-style flying mechanics, support for mouse, keyboard and joystick inputs, deathmatch and team deathmatch game types as well as five to six weapons in total. We are working on two separate maps at the moment to play in and will focus on making these maps as good as they can be.
As this build will be a preview of the full game, do expect a few things to not be there – the cockpit, for instance, will most likely be a HUD-only version. To show you what the full cockpit is supposed to look like in episode 1, we have uploaded two concept images to the new gallery. A shot of the WIP Class 2 Drone model can be found there too.

There is also a small FAQ section up on our website that will answer the most common inquiries about this build and the state of the game in general.

We look forward to Christmas and to see you on the servers!

[-<WillyP>-]

Looks very interesting!

[PyroJockey]

Update:

Release pushed back to February-March 2014 

http://preparefordescent.com/

[PyroJockey]

Teaser trailer released.



Looks like you can dive into/under lava, ouch.

[-<WillyP>-]

Looks pretty cool!

[Scyphi]

Ditto that. Am curious now, though...any word on what the system specs are going to be? I'm sure a lot of people are going to want to know pretty soon if this thing will even run on their systems. 

[PyroJockey]

Ditto that. Am curious now, though...any word on what the system specs are going to be? I'm sure a lot of people are going to want to know pretty soon if this thing will even run on their systems. 

The system requirements are those of the Unreal Developer Kit.

I didn't see anything on cost. I don't think they can charge for anything with the "Descent" name attached to it. I don't know if you would have to pay for the Unreal Engine.

[Kaiaatzl]

Nope, you don't need to pay for the Unreal Engine unless you're actually charging money for the game.

[Scyphi]

The system requirements are those of the Unreal Developer Kit.

Well, if that's all, then that's actually not as processing intense as I had been picturing from the trailer.

That's a good thing, because the game looks (from the trailer) REALLY good, yet you don't need too advanced a system to run it all, it seems.

The important thing I got from this in the end: my laptop will probably run it just fine. 

[PyroJockey]

Interplay served the Sol Contingency with a cease and desist order for their Descent to UDK project.

http://preparefordescent.com/

Guess I'll just keep waiting for the Descent for wiiware.

[Kaiaatzl]

To be clear, we're still making the game.  We have to make it a spiritual successor instead of a direct one.
And even as the doors to making a new Descent are closed, that might open other doors.

Sry I'm being so vague; I think we'll have an announcement with more specifics of our new direction in a few days but until then I have to keep my big snout *mostly* shut beyond what's already been said.  When it does come to the new "cosmetics" lots of that's going to be on me as the lead writer... make of that what you will, but I'll be in a good position to fill you guys in as much as I can if you're still interested.

[Sapphirus]

Guess I'll just keep waiting for the Descent for wiiware.

Or they'll port it to Wii U instead

[Scyphi]

To be perfectly honest, I'm actually not at all surprised this happened. While I was quite interested in what Sol Contingency had planned for Descent since the beginning, I kind of figured it could only end in one way, with Interplay issuing the infamous cease and desist. What does surprise me is that Interplay took this long to do it, but at least we now know why; seems Interplay did make a attempt to officially adopt the project. So somebody over there actually has half a brain. Pity it didn't work out, but that's Interplay for you. Sadly, this incident also proves something else I was hoping against; Interplay is NOT currently working on their own new Descent game (otherwise, why would they be interested in adopting Sol Contingency?), which leaves me wondering what Interplay IS doing with their time...they haven't really managed to do much of anything since their revival and it's been, what, about six years now? 

Good to hear Sol Contingency will still live on through other means, though, and maybe that's for the best right now anyway. Curious to see where you guys take it now. 

When it does come to the new "cosmetics" lots of that's going to be on me as the lead writer...

I was already jealous of your role as writer in that project Kai, but now that it's going to be working itself more or less from scratch, I'm especially jealous. I'll try not to let it get to me.

[Kaiaatzl]

Lol, once the project reaches a stage where we need more than one writer you're invited.
Most of the plot and characters we have are so much more in depth than Descent I was already worried it would feel like a completely different story... I don't think we'll have to do too much reworking on that front.  And once we have a working plot and character outlines, I'll be looking for two or three extra writers to help with the actual script.  After we release Proving Grounds it shouldn't take too long to get to that point.

[Scyphi]

Well, I'll keep an eye out then, because yes, I most certainly am interested.