PUNT: Rebirth Progress, Future, and More

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything on this blog. I think it may have even been a year or so, considering PUNT: Rebirth has been in development for over a year now, which is probably the longest I've ever worked on a project. Even more surprising, PUNT as a whole, including the original, has been in development for 5 years now. That aside though, there's been quite a lot of progress in PUNT: Rebirth's development over the past 2 months, and due to how I don't always post everything on Moddb, the extent of the changes which have occurred may not be the most obvious. So today, I'll run through everything that's been going on with PUNT, and detail where we plan on going with it in the future.

For starters, we've dropped the retro-futuristic art style in favor of a tiled, portal-esque, art style. This was primarily due to a lack of modular textures which fit with the art style, as well as the overall time consuming mapping process. The new style is the one which was used in PUNT's 2012 demonstration video, and solved all of our issues with the retro-futuristic style, proving not only to be extremely modular, but quick and easy to map with as well. It also looks a lot better, which doesn't hurt.

A new art style is nice and all, but without features, there would be no point. Due to this, after the switch in art style, I decided to tackle the multitude of code changes needed for the game. I took up programming for the mod due to the fact that Hogsy, the previous head programmer, has left the project.  Included in these code changes was finalized flip cubes, sounds for all cubes, overhauled func_puntblockers, and multiple edits to fix the various physics bugs which were present, mostly due to the implementation of the flip cubes. Within a week of starting, all code needed for PUNT was completed, and we began mapping as much as possible afterwards. In order to display the progress that has been within the past few months, I've started to map a short demo of 3 maps with two puzzles a piece for the internal development team. The following are a few screenshots from this build.

While PUNT's progress so far is definitely significant, its future contains much more. For starters, we plan on posting PUNT: Rebirth to Steam Greenlight fairly soon (within a month or so). While I have discussed this in the past, I figured it's best to re-confirm this. Next, we plan on having Steam Workshop custom map support for PUNT upon release. I've discussed this in the past as well, but I figured I'd go more in depth with how it's going to work. No, this will not function like the Portal 2 PTI tools. This is primarily due to the complete recreation of a system such as that being too ambitious for our current abilities as a team. Instead of this, we plan on releasing PUNT with a specialized set of hammer tools which the community can use to make maps. These maps will then be able to be uploaded to the Steam Workshop and downloaded via is as well. They will then be able to be played from the in game bonus maps menu.

Next on the agenda is story. While the original PUNT was great, it was entirely lacking a story, characters, or any narrative at all. While this was intentional, we plan on implementing an in depth story to PUNT; one which the player will be directly involved in, rather than just a back story. While this may not be shown in the screenshots above, if you take a look at some of the images available on Moddb, Harmonics Laboratories employees are visible through some observatory windows, which is the start of the story's implementation into the game itself. As of now, I'm not going to reveal all too much regarding it, as I don't want to spoil the story, but it's still best to acknowledge its existence once again.

Regarding the length and focus of the game, I feel as if it's time to once again address it. The game will primarily focus on puzzles, but will deviate at multiple sections of the game to present plot points. The game will most likely consist of 7 to 8 chapters with 7-8 maps per chapter. Each puzzle map typically contains 2 puzzles, but can have 1 to 3 puzzles as well. While we can't yet confirm how many puzzles will be in game, we are doing our best for there to be 30+ at least, not including early levels or tutorials. However, any of these estimates are just that, estimates, and may be subject to change in the future. 

I'm also considering holding a small contest on our official Steam group, in which members can submit their ideas for a in game map (sketches, mock-ups, etc.), and we'll make the best one into a legitimate level in the final game. At the current time, this is only an idea and isn't exactly set in stone just yet, but I would like to hear any reader's opinion on it. In the meantime, you can join the Steam group at: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OPRG

While I'm writing this fairly large post, I'd like to address the topic of the price of the game, seeing as we've had individuals express their willingness to pay for it or ask about the subject. After thorough research into the subject, I've personally deemed making PUNT: Rebirth cost money to be too much of a hassle and not entirely viable. Therefore, until further notice, PUNT: Rebirth will release on Steam for free. We'd like to have it be standalone, seeing as we're running the game off of Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer, but the worst case scenario is you'll have to own Half-Life 2 before downloading the game.

To finish off this article, I'd like to ask the community what they'd like to see included in PUNT: Rebirth's final release, be it new features, plot points, or something else entirely. Thank you all for your positive feedback lately, and I hope that the final game lives up to your expectations.

Until next time, 

Tristan / BoxandRocks