Blog Discussion| Ask the Team

[Mystique]

Ever wanted to learn how your characters get their moves? This week, Lead Animator Ben Hopper gives us a sneak peek on Ascend: New Gods and explains the process of creating an animation.

Check out the video here:

http://www.signalstudios.net/blog/ask-the-team-lead-animator-ben-hopper-answers/

Want to know more? Feel free to post your questions here!

[Mystique]

Here is the transcribed version of our video, enjoy!

Jason Ilano (Game Director):



(leans into camera)

"This is me leaning into the camera. I'm Jason Ilano...I am a Vice President, Game Director...bartender...psychoanalysis-s-s-s-sit..(laughs)

Um...what does that mean? I don't know really, honestly...I oversee a bunch of **** and then I keep people sane...hopefully...try to keep things moving, that kinda thing.

(jokes) Oh bartender? Well, that chair you're sitting in, that's the chair-time-chair (points towards camera)

I've been doing this since 1998, so that's a pretty long time. So when we started Signal Studios, I did all the animation for the first Toy Soldiers game. I still do animation strangely enough and fix stuff...and some scripting and some various...I don't know. I do a lot of different things here as many of us do wear a lot of hats at Signal.

So Mumbles74 asks us about the future of the Toy Soldiers franchise and how hard it was to turn away from it to do Ascend: New Gods.

That's a good question, we haven't turned away from the Toy Soldiers franchise, we would love to keep making Toy Soldiers games for as long as people want to play them. We just released Toy Soldiers: Cold War touch edition for Windows 8, we're also going to be doing a TS:CW for Steam.

So we haven't forgotten about Toy Solders, and there might be more stuff coming up that we can't talk about but you know it's the franchise that sorta built this place and it's very near and dear to our hearts, so we probably won't get rid of it anytime soon.

As far as, you know...how difficult it was to get going on a new project, ya know it's quite a bit different than Toy Soldiers, so there's that but we always have a lot of great ideas here. You know, we would love to implement them all and doing Ascend was a great choice to explore a new genre. It's been challenging to have multiple projects going on here, with ya' know with still a relatively small team but everyone is stepping up to the challenge.

So I think it will be great, it's all gonna work out great." (fades out to Signal logo)

[Reckless_tortuga]

Sence it has been a hot topic, I would like to know what both of your New Years resolutions are. And also, When could we expect Ascend?

Ian - What kind of mood are you guys creating in Ascend? What can you honestly say will stand out the most?

Albright III - Serious question, What did you do during Christmas?(or Hanukkah)

[Inquisitor40k]

Hi there, I would like to know how to get into the business of being one of the guys who is in the game making progress such as you, someone who does not just develop the graphics or an artist, but someone who decides on weaponary, armour etc, like a historical liaison who tells you what is right and wrong about the content, what you should include, researches etc, if such a thing exists of course!
My thanks

[XShadowStormX]

As a note to this - it will be my birthday on the 19th
-Logan

[killerklown420]

i was just wondering if the DLC that you guys have planned to release after the game would be free or if we would have to pay for that?

[Bturn]

What type of weapons do we expect to loot/find when we start playing Ascend: New Gods?

[XShadowStormX]

Make sure to ask specific questions for Ben - our lead animator or myself if you can
Best,Logan

[TheRallykiller]

What do a Lead Animator and QA/Community Manager do? I really don't know. What schooling/background do you folks have? Thanks in advance!

[chipgm]

The multiplayer aspect of this game is confusing. Can people actually play together or is it just a server based thing keeping track of others progress that changes your game?

Will there be any type of PVP?

Will the mico transactions be limited to just gear and weapons, and can you still get same weapons and armor if you put in the game time?