Game Over [Literally]

I know I said this game was postponed for a while but eventually after the director and I talked about it and we decided it was finally time to pull the plug for good or dare I quote a term from our former PR manager “let the old beast die“. Alas, a proper post-mortem can’t go without it’s backstory right?

Army Men Extended was supposed to start off as a fun and enjoyable singleplayer mod I’d make for Freedom Force as a tribute to the Army Men series when 3DO filed for Chapter 11 in 2004. I really wanted to keep the spirit of Army Men alive even if its just through a short singleplayer adventure.

After I’ve suffered through hard drive failures four times in my life (and researched many games to find what will work best for AMX), and a failure with running a team for the first time, I was about ready to give up. Story writer then later came along offered a story plot that was not only great but it actually gave me a chance to start fresh again with a new slate and for a while, things were actually doing well for a change.

As soon as our PR manager came in that’s when things begun to go south. They did not see eye-to-eye and tensions risen, being the newbie I was to game dev, I struggled to keep the team together, then again, I’m never was cut out for leadership. Naturally, I’m a lone-wolf so people were just not something I could handle very well. I only took the leap of faith because I felt I had no choice if I wanted my project to get anywhere.

The second team I had finally collapsed and dev-wise, I was once again on my own, but of all who once worked with me, only the story director remained. In the end, it was him who was loyal with me and managed to hold on for 7 full years. He was never the best to work with and I already was aware of it day 1 since like myself, he too was a newcomer to game dev, only difference is at least I had a fair amount of mod dev experience to guide me, but even so, I was nearly as clueless in the indie scene as he was and that’s why I defended him more against the team’s wishes where they never even trusted him. I wish I had the backbone and just stomped my feet and reminded them of the project, maybe then AMX would have completed entirely by now and perhaps even The Mean Greens would not have been able to taken the lead.

Funny enough it was when I finally decided to go solo that Army Men III finally managed to get somewhere and it did last long enough for a Beta release on the series’ 15th Anniversary no less. For the first time, I truly felt like our game has gotten somewhere and it actually did to an extent. I managed to prove wrong most of the other indie devs who doubted me and tried to convince me to kill the project and work on my own IP instead. In the end, only my story writer trusted me the most where most did not even cared to understand the backstory behind my personal attachment to the project.

I am no where near innocent in all this. I was too weak, naive, and cautious to take proper action that could have saved the life of this project and surpass it’s goal. I missed my key chance to make a mark in the gaming industry through a fan-game.

In the end, I’ve ultimately failed. Within the last few years, along with other life factors, I witnessed my health begin to decline and ironically my own project contributed to it. This year, I finally realized it was already too late yet I still wanted to hold on to faith and postpone the game instead and work on a new project of my own IP and see how well that goes before giving Army Men Extended and more specifically, Army Men III another go.

Unfortunately now I know its no longer possible at this point. I often hated being right on certain things and this is one of them.

Army Men III is truly dead…

This website and the IndieDB page as well as all of it’s social media will stay up for a year before I archive them.

I have realized everything from Army Men Extended is not entirely a lost cause. I still intend to carry on the plan with Army Men Online as that will give me a fresh new slate and another chance to redeem myself. I’ve even created a new GDD for it which has a scope that might even blow TMG out of the ocean, but that time will not come at least until 2018-2019.

Meanwhile, my sole focus right now is our own IP.

Army Men III Postponed for the Time Being

I made an article on the main site stating the true status of this game and the plans for Neotl Empire but I feel I need to reiterate it here.

Army Men Online will still be worked on meanwhile, despite what the video or others suggests, but we want to get the IP situation settled before AMO’s release. The last thing NE wants is to waste time on a game that has little to no player-base and empty servers.

Army Men III will resume production after AMO reaches it’s open-beta phase.

Don’t forget to follow us via our icons below, This game really needs more publicity.

Establish, Explore, Expand.
Neotl Empire

MISSION FAILED! (April Fools)

It pains us to say this but AM3 took some heavy hits during it’s lifetime and after so many years taking care of it, I finally made the hardest decision I’ve done in my entire life. I took it out the back…. and put it down with my M14 Sniper Rifle. Those days we’ve spent shedding tears for our child and the days we cherished it shall never fall in vain. Further more, I am quitting game dev. It used to be my life long hobby I always enjoyed and used to cope with my depression from the bullying and violence I’ve faced when I was young but now… The industry today is not what it used to have been, for better AND worse, and I do not like what it has come anymore. Abuse of Early-Access, MT frenzy, Disrespect of crowdfunding backers, pushing extremist agendas instead of gameplay value, the list goes on.

My apologies folks but the gaming industry at least on the social and commercial aspect is either becoming a sinking ship or taking a dangerous route straight to Hell.

Lord Iheanacho signing off…

Rest In Peace – Army Men III (2004 – 2016)

April Fools

Army Men III Beta Version 1.2 Update Released!

After 2 years, Beta 1.2 is finally released! Because Unreal Engine 4 is now free (and the anti-mod support barrier is removed), this will be the last release using UDK as we are currently migrating to Unreal Engine 4. UE4 provided much better opportunities that are otherwise impossible or very hard to achieve in UDK (unless I buy the UE3 license and get the full source code).

System Requirements

Minimum Specs:

Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHz processor
2GB system RAM
SM3-compatible video card
5GB Free hard drive space

Recommended:

Windows 7 64-bit
2.0+ GHz multi-core processor
4GB System RAM
NVIDIA 200 series or higher graphics card
Plenty of HDD space

Minimum for DirectX11:

Windows Vista
2.0+ GHz processor
2GB system RAM
DX11 Graphics Card: Nvidia: 400 series or above ATI: 5000 series or above
5GB Free hard drive space

Known Bugs/Issues/Fixes

New Update Improvements.

IK Bones were partially fixed (including the dual-wield issue
Sprinting stamina has been doubled.
The vehicle physics are no longer wacky.
Most NPCs now respond better to Line-of-Sight and Hearing threshold (can see and hear targets more effectively) also seemed to fix or crippled the lagging issue from the sight counter timer.
The simple command system is fully functional – By default, press C to order your allies to follow, C again to order them to stop. (NOTE – only some allied soldiers will follow you)
Added an additional command to order them to move to location (press V).
The grenade now only detonates when it touches a target or
Save system features for Mission 05 has been improved.
Resolved saving glitches in skirmish mission “Plastic Dinner Special”.
Dual wielding system now requires the player to pickup another weapon of the same type to dual-wield it.

Army Men Specific – Bugs/Issues still remaining.

We are still struggling with fixing the IK Bone solvers (although we somehow fixed the glitched issue with dual wielding).
Some NPCs (e.g. Zombies) may still have their target stuck at enemies far away from them, thus not responding to sight and hearing targets (actually have to shoot them for them to attack ya)
Some missions may lag at the beginning due to loading the AI and scripted events.
Some NPCs would turn to ‘Idle’ state after performing a melee or special attack (e.g. Berserker).
The grenade may sometimes get stuck and will not detonate.
Save system is sometimes flawed.
Sometimes dead NPC physics may become wacky (due to collision of certain static meshes).
Pressing Middle Mouse on a dual-wieldable weapon or switching a new weapon after dual-wielding your previous weapon may sometimes prevent the player from throwing grenades. To resolve, return to that dual-wielded weapon and disable dual-wielding (by default, ‘Middle Mouse’).
There is a glitch with FP Arms appear after the player dies. This usually happens when you enter first person mode on any vehicles that allow the player to be visible (e.g. Mounted HMG emplacements).

UDK Specific – Bugs/Issues we CAN NOT fix on our own (Epic Games will have to do that instead).

Sometimes, the terrain collision for some reason started becoming rather bizarre after changing resolution or “Alt-Tabing” out of the game for whatever reason.
The game may sometimes freeze and crash during gameplay.
The game would sometimes crash when selecting a mission (Campaign or Skirmish) or exiting the game.
Some of the AI objectives may not become invincible when scripted to do so, since the game was cooked and packaged (e.g. Flak Gun in Mission 05: Demolitian)

If you find any additional bugs and/or other issues, post them in the forums via the Bugs and Support section.

If anyone could also provide additional download links to the updated game, we would really appreciate it.

Don’t forget to follow us via our icons below, This game really needs more publicity.

Establish, Explore, Expand.
Neotl Empire

Army Men III Deluxe Edition (April Fool’s 2015)

We’ve totally gone commercial!

That’s right folks! Take-Two Interactive contacted us and they wanted to make our game commercial. Because they are the higher up companies and they own the IP, we can’t really say no. We gotta do it or we’ll get canned. We will also have commercial DLC releases, scripted interactive movie experience that feels like a disney tour ride, limited restrictive content, and Army Men: Online will have a monthly subscription service. Money, Money, Money! Just another typical Sarge’s Heroes clone. Going back to 3DO Company’s old ways and rush games like no tomorrow for a quick buck. Yep, we are absolutely going FULL Activision on yo asses brah!

Video says it all folks. Screw you, give me money! $$$

If you find a problem with this decision or you just want to rage and bomb the living sh*t out of us about how horrible greedy sellout developers we are, you can file your complaints here.

Meanwhile subscribe to us like y’all do with them monthly Call of Duty releases!

April Fools!
Neotl Empire.

Rise from the Absence – Happy New Years Day 2015!

Wow…It’s been literally a year since we’ve posted anything on this page and today’s the day I explain why. Before you ask, no the project isn’t dead but we have some roadblocks in the way.

99 Problems (Thankfully a broken computer is no longer one of em)

For those that don’t know, there aren’t many of the us left on the team. In fact, there’s only two of us still truly dedicated to the game; The storywriter and myself, the lead developer. Unfortunately with college hogging more and more of my time ever since the Beta release, my time grows ever more scarce as each college term passes.

Beta 1.2 was supposed to be released in September 2013 but financial problems within my family as well as events that happened throughout my college campus forced a change of plans. That and my last computer decided to rage quit on me in May 2014 and it took a few months to get a new one. I was lucky enough to backup the data of the game but without a computer, development was effectively brought to a screeching halt. Luckily, a family friend saved us by helping me buy a new computer.

Help Wanted

Self-explanatory. We need artists. Modelers primarily but anyone good at making textures too would be a great help. Preferably ones who are familiar with the UDK.

One thing: There’s no money involved. The only thing I can pay you with is your name listed in the credits. I’m very sorry but this is after all a non-commercial game and I barely have any money myself. Don’t know what else to tell you…

Also, thank you to everyone who have patiently waited for this game over the years. Rest assured, it’s not dead but if you guys wanna see this game anytime soon, we need help. Badly. The game itself is more or less functional by now but we need artists to put the final touches on it.

Finally, I know it’s not much but here’s some latest screenshots of the progress we made and a taste of what’s to come in the final version, courtesy of Alfie Feltham (for the BSP geometry work).

Don’t forget to follow us via our icons below, This game really needs more publicity.

Thanks!
Neotl Empire.

Work In Progress (1/1/14) – Happy New Years Day!

We’ve been M.I.A. during the past months (again…), so to make it up, we have uploaded a video celebrating the brand new year of 2014!

“Secrets vs Difficulty”

Unfortunately we do not have much content to share at this point since we are pretty much wrapping up on the beta release (mostly polishing tasks), however we will post three images of the few secret missions you may be lucky enough to come across (depending on game difficulty).

Please note that as of now in this upcoming Beta update release, there are only a few secret missions and areas in this release and there will be more towards the final release (along with a VERY special surprise on the story and gameplay).

So to summarize this: The higher the difficulty, the more secrets will be revealed.

That’s all for now folks! If you have not tried the Beta, be sure to do so here.

Don’t forget to follow us via our icons below, This game really needs more publicity.

Thanks!
Neotl Empire.