Senior 3D-Artist at Pirates Ahoy! - community´s indie game development "Hearts Of Oak"
In
May
2014,
I
decided
to
close
my
„Crysis©”
modification
„Drake´s
Legacy”
and
started
a
cooperation
with
the
community
„
Pirates
Ahoy!
”
(short
„PA!”).
The
timing
was
chosen
on
purpose.
„PA!”
had
the
idea
to
develop
their
own
game,
named
„Hearts
Of
Oak”
and
discussed
in
their
open
forums
about
this
theme
and
a
possible
engine.
Their
former
main
projects
were
mainly
the
modding
of
all
„Akella´s”
Pirate
Games.
The
community
there
seems
very
well
organized
and
after
my
registration
I
found
a
lot
of
helpful
information
about
the
great
age
of
sail.
And
of
course
a
very
friendly
team!
On
basis
of
my
experience
I
was
able
to
convince
the
staff
about
the
„CryEngine©
Free
SDK”,
although
they
had
started
their
own
research
into
the
„Unity©”
game
engine
before.
Based
on
my
written
tutorials
and
presentations
of
my
already
finished
content,
could
we
convince
the
programmer
„Jehremie
Woods” as Senior Developer for „Hearts Of Oak”.
In
August
2014,
just
3
months
after
starting
the
development
in
the
„CryEngine©
Free
SDK”,
the
whole
team
had
to
make
the
decision
to
switch
the
development
to
the
new
„Unity©
5”
game
engine.
In
August
2014
„Jehremie
Woods”
had
tried
all
possible
options
to
realize
the
game
in
the
„CryEngine©”
but
too
many
blockers
prevented
this.
The
change
of
the
engine
was
needed.
For
many
features,
we
had
needed
full
access
to
the
source
code,
but
the
Free
SDK
didn´t
have
it.
After
switching
the
engine,
I
left
the
active
part
of
engine
work
and
focused
my
power
on
asset
development.
„Jehremie”
got
new
support
by
the
other
Unity
programmer
„Justin
Howell”
and
both
moved the coding forward.
In
July
2015,
„Jehremie”
decided
to
leave
his
position
as
Senior
Developer
and
switched
his
focus
to
his
own
„Unity©”
engine
based
game
„Letters
Of
Marque”
.
In
2016
he
expanded
his
efforts
and
renamed
the
game
to
„Tides
Of
War
-Letters
Of
Marque-“
and
started
(besides
its
development)
official
projects
for
historical
customers.
„Justin”
and
„Christian
Tornholm-Lehn“
followed
him into this two-sided development.
After
„Jehremie´s”
decision,
I
decided
for
myself
to
leave
my
position
as
Senior
3D-Artist
too.
Not
only
because
„Jehremie´s”
decision.
My
high
level
of
detail
and
quality
provided
a
very
high
polycount.
A
circumstance
no
game
engine
can
handle
easily.
Please
do
not
understand this statement wrong.
The
technical
evolution
goes
forward
and
with
the
right
setup
those
models
are
sure
usable,
but
I
have
found
my
major
interest
in
the
creation
of
content
„without“
borders.
And
please
note,
this
method is my best compromise between result and available time.
Whenever
developers
talk,
the
next
question
is
predictable.
„What
engine
is
better”
can´t
be
answered
simply
and
is
no
part
of
my
website!
I
work
in
more
than
one
Engine
and
love
their
different
advantages.
When
you
are
looking
for
a
game
engine,
please
test
them.
In
the
meantime
many
of
them are available for free, so you can find out what fits best for you.
Long
story
short:
When
you
work
as
small
entrepreneur
besides
your
real
life
job
and
family,
you
don’t have much time. The only correct solution was to limit my engine work.
Despite
the
separation
of
active
paths
and
development
chains,
all
involved
people
are
still
members
in the “PA!” community, maintain a good connection and help each other.
Below a few impressions of the time we worked together in „Hearts Of Oak“.
Our
Senior
Programmer
„Jehremie
Woods“
released
many
movies
on
youtube,
about
the
development progress. Here is one of them:
The
community
„Pirates
Ahoy!“
publish
regular
updates
too
and
spread
the
word
in
all
common
social
plattforms, like
Twitter
,
facebook
and a
youtube-channel
.
Like
I
have
written
in
the
text
above,
„Jehremie
Woods“
founded
„Wolf
Pack
Games“
together
with
„Justin
Howell“
and
„Christian
Tornholm-Lehn“
and
started
the
development
of
their
own
game
„Tides
Of
War
-Letters
Of
Marque-“
.
Although
all
information
will
shared
between
us
all,
I
have
linked
the
relevant pages in this text.
Here the link to
„Wolf Pack Games“ youtube channel
.
And
„Jehremie Wood´s“ youtube channel
.
New
cooperations
will
bring
us
regularly
together
again.
To
convince
customers
about
new
techniques
(especially
„Virtual
Reality“
(short
„VR“)),
„Wolf
Pack
Games“
started
some
reference
projects
for
historical
exhibitons
besides
its
game
development.
The
first
outstanding
work
you
will
find
is
the
„HMS-
Unicorn“ project
.
To
expand
the
possible
options
for
the
future,
we
will
add
maybe
my
researched
gun
patterns
(Albert
Borgard, 1716 and John Armstrong, 1722).
In
this
period
of
my
references
I
won’t
add
much
more
media
because
most
of
my
assets
correlates
with
the
ones
I
used
in
my
former
„Drake´s
Legacy”
modification
of
„Crysis©”.
Additionally,
the
official
regular
news
of
the
development
of
„Hearts
Of
Oak“
contains
all
work
I
have
done
for
the
game.
Many
people
work
and
worked
for
this
project
and
I
won’t
miss
any
copyrights.
When
you
are
interested
to
read
more
about
the
Indie-developments
please
browse
its
homepages
or
social
media
resources, I have linked in the text above.
© The official logo of „Pirates Ahoy! Chasing booty since´03“ & the game "Hearts of Oak"
are copyrighted by "Pirates Ahoy!"
© The official logo of „Wolf Pack Games“ & the game "Tides of War"
are copyrighted by "Wolf Pack Games"