We have been working very hard to bring you something to look at. And today, we have done just that. The video below showcases a few cool features of the game, and essentially the building blocks for the rest of the game. I hope you enjoy it!

As previously mentioned, we now have two amazing artists on the team, Chris and Markel. They’ve been hard at work doing art for Grey: The Lost Technology. Before we get started, I’d like to say that the art direction we are going for with the game is pixel art. BEAUTIFUL PIXEL ART!! Chris and Markel have done just that! But it’s often hard to make some pixel art without first having done some concept art. So, checkout some art for Grey: The Lost Technology:

In other news, we are going to PAX East! If you find one of us (we’ll be wearing black Team Aurora t-shirts) say hey! We are hijacking part of the Champlain College table (table 158, by Rooster Teeth) and will have some cool Team Aurora and Grey: The Lost Technology stuff on display. We are also planning on reporting back here with anything we find/like at PAX, so check back here for some updates (possibly videos)!

We also have a Kickstarter page up, which can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2084358841/grey-the-lost-technology

Spread the word to anyone/everyone because Grey: The Lost Technology is going to be awesome. And not just ’cause we’re biased either (well, maybe a little bit).

As always, thanks for your support and continue to follow us here, at our twitter (@TeamAuroraGames) and facebook (teamauroragames) page.

Have a good one guys and see you on the other side of PAX!

~Ross Derham

Since this is my first post, I will introduce myself a little bit. My name is Jon Buresh. I find space weather (and well most space things in general) to be incredibly fascinating. I’ve always wanted to see the auroras. I came up with the idea to make a screensaver that will display some aurora activity level information (connected to the web) in addition to some general Team Aurora stuffs. I’ve been working on this for the past couple weeks.

Here is a screenshot of current progress:

You will notice some auroras up top there. Those will only show up in the finalized screensaver when there is actual aurora activity. Different levels of activity will also result in different auroras. This screensaver will be released as a free download for Windows platforms soon so be on the lookout!

~Jon

Jake “Tall-Kid” Jackson (Programmer):
Since the idea was first presented to me, I have been excited about being a part of an indie game development team. I never liked the idea of sitting in a cubicle for 50 hours a week while working on a game that I had no interest in at all. I always dreamed of being able to create games that weren’t quick releases designed to make the most money possible, but games that were actually new and fun to play. A game is a work of art and it should be treated as such. That’s why I was so excited when we decided to put our skills together to make a game that we actually wanted to spend time on. I knew that it would not only be a great learning experience, but also a fun and exciting project. I look forward to continuing this experience throughout the development process and to providing gamers with a game that was created with passion rather than greed.

 
Tom (Programmer):
I joined Team Aurora because I wanted more team experience creating games. For a while now I’ve been creating games by myself, usually doing the art, and on occasion I would hire an artist. That was the extent of my team experience. However, the real test for me was “Would I be able to work with other programmers who have different programming styles and experience than I?” Aside from the numerous team benefits, the project had a large enough scope as to where the Team could just pick it up and run with it, and all in all, have a great time! I wanted to see each and every one of us on Team Aurora prosper and achieve new levels in our skills, we are creating art, and are not main stream, and we make what we want because we want a game that’s fun and awesome!

 
Jesse (Programmer):
When the idea was first proposed to me to join a team of friends to make an independent game, I couldn’t have been more excited. I had always had an interest in making independent games and not adhering to the world of AAA titles. It seems that these days the big games are usually the least creative and are only developed to make as much money as possible, with as little risk as possible. It is the games that do something new and exciting that really grab my interest; the games that take the risk of being different from all the rest and not knowing whether gamers will like them or not. These inspire me to do the same – to take risks and do what is fun, not what is going to be the safest bet and produce the most money. With Team Aurora, everything is a learning experience. Even if our game does not become as successful as we want it to be, at least we all got a better understanding of what goes into creating an entire game – and that’s what really matters.

 
Bryan (Designer):
I thoroughly enjoy games. However, that is not all the drive needed to become a game developer. One needs to love games and everything that makes them what they are in order to enjoy making them. This is why I joined Team Aurora. I love everything about games. Much more to that, I enjoy developing games with a small group of my friends and making the games that we want to make. The experience of making a game like this is not just enjoyable, but is essential in stepping forward in the career of a game developer, not only for a AAA studio, but if we succeed with this team as well. Experience is a building block necessary to set a stable foundation for your abilities in the field. With a small team of my friends, rather than a large group of people I have just met, I can freely ask any, or all, of them what they think of my work and suggestions to make it better. With such a relatively small group there is a good amount of individuality. I enjoy developing games with my friends. I enjoy the experience. I enjoy being part of Team Aurora.

 
Jack (Community Manager / Programmer):
Indie game studios are our generation’s pirate radio stations. The classic triple-A companies that we have grown up with and that have imparted such a love for games in us have begun to grow stale, re-using old mechanics and concepts in order to appeal to the safe, predictable demographic. A formula for mainstream video game success has been determined, and as long as new games adapt that formula, they will never cease to make amazing profit. However, people who truly see games as an art form are dissatisfied with the current state of the game industry, and the desire for fresh content has catalyzed the independent games movement. Indie games provide the opportunity for truly passionate game developers to spread their ideas and create a new paradigm of creativity in the gaming medium, so that they can inspire further generations to love games the way they do instead of becoming disillusioned with generic war game after generic war game. In short, that is why I joined Team Aurora. The opportunity to do earnest work with my close friends in hopes of spreading our message and creating something truly unique is more than I could ever ask of a college degree, and so while I pursue my education at Champlain College, I’m honored to also be able to say that I’m part of an indie game team.

 
Jon (Designer):
Back when I was a small child, I would love to create my own card and board games. They were silly and rather simple but the process of taking my ideas and implementing them into a form people can play with and enjoy was what drove me to do it. In later years I got interested in computer animation. I eventually got into Blender, seeing as it was free. After playing around with that for a bit I found out that Blender had a game engine built into it. That’s what really sparked my interest in game design.

I joined Team Aurora because In my personal experience, good things usually come from innovation. Team Aurora exists because we think innovation is becoming scarce in the game industry. We would all like to work in an environment where we can throw our ideas at each other and create fun, innovative games. The people in Team Aurora feel the same way. Working like that is definitely where I want to be.

Ross (Designer):

Over the summer (summer of 2011) I had been talking to my friend Mony, who has been working with Island Officials doing sound work for their Nintendo DS games. We had been talking about how great it would be to start a game studio/company and make games the way we want to make them. At first it started as a “what if” and eventually turned into a “let’s do it!” I went off to college with the intentions of talking to my roommate and Team Aurora programmer Tom. In early October, Brett approached me and a couple of others with the idea of starting a game studio to create games that we would want to make/play. I instantly agreed and went about to ensure that this would take place. We had a meeting a week or so later and this is how Team Aurora formed. It has always been one of my dreams to start a game studio and become part of it. The fact that we can make whatever games we want, in as much or as little time as we want is amazing. I know that out of college within a large company I will not have nearly the amount of creative freedom that I do at Team Aurora. For this reason, I would like to see Team Aurora rise above just a college team and become an actual game studio that can contend with the likes of Team Meat or perhaps even greater! It would be a dream come true to realize Team Aurora as a major game studio in the future. Joining Team Aurora has been fun and challenging all at the same time, and I definitely want to stick with this team as long as possible. I have high hopes and high expectations for Team Aurora, but that is only because I know that we can accomplish them and become a force to be reckoned with!

Thanks guys for helping one of my dreams to come true! And thank you, readers and followers for sticking with Team Aurora!

~Ross Derham

When you put the decisions in the hands of the gamers, they are going to make the games that people want to play that haven’t already been done. Take Minecraft, a game of building, destruction, and survival. While it is simple on the surface, the game was exactly what gamers wanted, and that is why it made it big. It wasn’t the marketing or the exploitation of an already built fan base that made the sales; it was the innovation of the game. Notch, the creator, made a game that really hadn’t been made before, but everyone had always wanted to play. It was his drive and passion that made Minecraft big. While Minecraft is obviously a best case scenario example, it is not the only example of an independent game selling millions of copies.

With the ability to release games on digital platforms, such as the App Store or Steam, independent games can reach a larger market and have a better chance of getting recognized by their target gamer. This new digital platform greatly lowers the risk of making independent games. Obviously, there are still risks in not being able to make enough sales in the game to make it profitable, but the risk is a lot lower than before these markets existed. With a lowered risk of being able to reach the target market, the ability to make an innovative game increases. Developers do not have to rely on “safe bets” or games that they already know people like, such as sequels. The main risk with a “new” idea or game is the lack of an existing market. This scares developers from making the games that they may truly want to and instead making the games that they know will sell. With the ability to reach the entire internet, this fear diminishes.

The cost of making independent games is also fairly low in terms of money – the real price is time. This creates a larger profit on sales that may seem nominal to larger companies. If a large game company releases a game for $60 and sells 500,000 units, they could still have lost money due to the large cost of creating the game. If an independent company releases a game at $10 and sells 500,000 units, they just made over a million dollars. While these numbers are only hypothetical, and obviously do not apply to all situations, it is evident that there is generally a lower cost risk associated with creating independent games.

With all of these elements combined, the ability to make a profitable game at such a low price point has helped make games more affordable to the gamers. In the state of the economy, it’s hard to spend $60 on the newest releases, especially for games that can be beaten in only a week’s time. So it’s your decision, the gamer. Do you want to continue to spend $60 a week playing the same game over and over again? Or, would you like to pay only a fraction of that price for innovative games and knowing that you are supporting the people with the passion to make games.

~Jesse Ferland

jesse@teamaurora.net

Problem 1: Scheduling – Needless to say, as college students everyone on our team is extremely busy without the goings on of Team Aurora as it is. Everyone has their own schedules for classes as well as extra-curricular activities and then we threw team meetings into the mix. What we found was that we all needed to work around our schedules in order to meet as a team, because these meetings really helped to invigorate us and keep our sights on the goal. Meetings are great tools to keep everyone on the team up to date and on track as well as going over what we all did individually, but scheduling those meetings is a pretty big pain in the ass. We currently have a pretty solid meeting schedule that seems to work for everyone, but I’m sure this will need to be changed again as time roles on. A few tips on avoiding scheduling problems would be to lay all of your schedules out in front of your team and all see when you are free. This may avoid the hassle of scheduling a first meeting etc.

Problem 2: Communication – Well, this issue wasn’t truly a huge one, but it is still worth mentioning here. At first we were somewhat disorganized and lacking in communication. Our team didn’t know who was doing what and when it was getting done. The solution was pretty simple and I would highly recommend it to all other teams or readers: technology. Through the uses of Github, a version control tool, Gmail and Google documents, and Facebook (yes, that’s right, Facebook) our team has been able to organize and communicate very effectively.

Problem 3: Motivation – Ah, motivation. This was probably my biggest “pet peeve” so far. During the first two or so months of production, it seemed as if work was sluggish and lacking from everyone. The reason we later found was due to a lack of motivation. This was due to everyone having different values and goals invested into the team. The way we worked through this was in a very constructive way; we simply held a meeting and said, “Hey, if you want to be part of this team, let’s get pumped for it. If you want to work on your own stuff, that’s fine, but just let us know now so we aren’t relying on you for everything in the future.” This caught some people’s attention and the workflow increased tenfold. We altered our meeting schedule to a true “agile” schedule where we set our own milestones. Since this, we have noticed a much more productive team and are moving forward quite excitedly. The best part is that we are all motivated and excited about the project now. Keep morale up, because that can single-handedly make or break a team!

Problem 4: Disagreements – This one is kind of a given, but it is likely to happen when working with other people no matter what your team is working on. As we are all friends first and foremost, we at Team Aurora try to keep it this way when we disagree. So far, there haven’t been any major issues revolving around this topic. We offer each other constructive criticism and move on. Being able to accept this constructive criticism is a key part to being on a team.

There are probably a good amount of problems and obstacles that our team hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface, but this is a solid preliminary list of what to expect going forward with a team on an indie game. I will try to update or someone else will post new issues as they arise so that you, the reader, can gain from our mistakes.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you learned at least a bit from this. We hope you look forward to playing Grey and are just as excited about it as we are! Keep it chill, and above all, have fun with what you are doing and the people you are doing it with!

~Ross Derham

ross@teamaurora.net

Do not let others diminish your ability to learn and gain knowledge.

~Team Aurora

A starry Team Aurora wallpaper – Blast.

http://teamaurora.net/media