Spiral Game Studios

‘ORION: Dino Beatdown’ Announced!

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:05:49 -0600

“REPORT IN, TEAM!” … “REPORTING IN!”

It’s been rather quiet these past few months due to us being busier than one could ever manifest. We are only poking our heads out now because today is a very special day. Today we are thrilled to announce a brand new game - ORION: Dino Beatdown.

GLOBAL, ALL-STAR EFFORT

‘ORION: Dino Beatdown’ is the result of a global effort and an incredible collaboration of an all-star assortment of developers that helped bring you games like BioShock, Ghost Recon, Unreal Tournament, Forza Motorsport, Jade Empire, Halo, Borderlands and Mortal Kombat.

CHANGE IN THE INDUSTRY

Spiral was formed under one shared idea - change. We believed that games were becoming too “safe” and even more importantly over priced. We here at Spiral are here to reward YOU, the people that wait for the games, buy the games and play them for hundreds of hours on end.

We are proud to announce that we are releasing ‘ORION: Dino Beatdown’ for only $9.99 USD and a wealth of post-release support and content.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

GAME NAME: ORION: DINO BEATDOWN
PLATFORMS: Steam, OnLive
SELLING PRICE: $9.99 USD

‘ORION: Dino Beatdown’ is an Open World, Class-Based Cooperative Survival Sci-Fi FPS. The game puts five (5) players together in huge, endless environments in which they must work together to accomplish objectives and survive the devastating Dinosaur horde.

Players earn in-game credits which can be used to upgrade their abilities, purchase new weapons, unlock weapon upgrades and call in vehicles in order to ensure survival.

Experience the future as never before. Make use of Jetpacks, Medic Guns, Cloaking Devices and equip yourself with state-of-the-art weapons ranging from Shotguns, Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, Laser Rifles. If that isn’t enough then simply tear up the environments in a number of vehicles ranging from Hover Bikes, Buggies, Mechs, Tanks and VTOL’s.

KEY FEATURES:

5-PLAYER, OPEN-WORLD CO-OP
Varying Objectives, Multiple Bases A.I systems populate the worlds.
3 MASSIVE WORLDS
Covan (Desert), Depth (Night Forest), Eden (Grasslands)
IN-GAME SHOPS & STORES
Three types of stores - Barracks (Player), Armory (Weapons), Garage (Vehicles)
CLASS-BASED GAMEPLAY
Three player classes - Assault (Jetpack), Support (Medic), Recon (Cloak)
PERKS & UPGRADES
Class Abilities, Player Upgrades, Weapon Upgrades and more.
CREDIT SYSTEM
Earn and Spend credits from completing objectives and progression.
15 WEAPONS, ITEMS & GRENADES
Magnums, Shotguns, Machine Guns, Laser Rifles, Rocket Launchers and more.
4 VEHICLES
Hover-bikes, Buggies, Tanks / Mechs & VTOL’s.
3 UNIQUE DINOSAURS (@LAUNCH)
T-Rex, Raptor, Rham-Phorynchus.
50 STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS
Gotta catch them all!

KICKSTARTER LOVE

We will never forget those who supported us early on. You’ve helped shape everything that is now forming around us and we are here to thank you for your kindness and support.

For ANYONE that donated to our Kickstarter Campaign back in February of 2011 - you get the game for free. Whether you donated $1 or $1,000 we will see you on the battlefield and be fighting alongside you on day 1. We will be distributing Steam CD keys to your registered KickStarter email. More details as release draws closer.

PRESS INQUIRIES & GDC 2012

If you would like to see or learn more about ‘ORION: Dino Beatdown’, please feel free to send all press inquiries to press@spiralgamestudios.com.

If you would like to set up a meeting at GDC 2012 with Spiral, send an email to gdc2012@spiralgamestudios.com.

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‘Follow Us’ on Twitter
‘Join Us’ at the Spiral Community

Spiral @ GDC 2012

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:50:00 -0600

We have been quiet these last few months - but only for good reason. We have been busier than ever and have the scars and wounds to show for it. However, we are now ready to talk and are gearing up for what will be one of our largest showings at any conference to date.

TWO MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS

We will be making two huge announcements at this years Game Developers Conference. We cannot wait to reveal what we have been working on and how it’s going to be super awesome for all of you and affect you rather soon. Try and guess our magical secrets in the community thread below:
http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=2142

WANT TO MEET WITH US?

If you are attending the Game Developers Conference 2012 and would like to meet with us we will have a variety of demos and videos for show behind private doors. Send any inquiry emails to: gdc2012@spiralgamestudios.com

ORION Featured in Official Xbox Magazine

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:16:03 -0600

We’ve made our first official debut in the Official Xbox Magazine. We are featured in the January 2012 issue and are located on Page 17 (my favorite number).

Get to your local news stands right this minute and read all about it!

Jungle Wreckage

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 18:32:40 -0500

We have just finished coming out of a massive internal deadline which we are very proud of. We have compiled some footage of the recent internal pre-alpha multiplayer game build of ‘ORION: Prelude’ and wanted to share some if it’s awesomeness with you.

DISCLAIMER:
It is important to note that this is still significantly early in the game’s life. The footage here reflects only 24 weeks of development and is still very much a “Pre-Alpha”.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:
This footage is showcasing many new elements including one of our newer internal maps called “Oasis”. We are also showcasing an updated Dinosaur Behavior and Artificial Intelligence System. While this system is also very infant in terms of what it will be, you will see T-Rex’s flipping jeeps and chomping people. We are also showing more footage of the raptors, jetpacking action and the combat of what will be contingent in an every-day ‘ORION: Prelude’ game match.

HAVE SOME IMAGES WITH THAT VIDEO

We are also publishing 5 brand new images to celebrate in this joyous occassion.

Let us know your thoughts both here and at the Spiral Community where we are constantly interacting and listening to our fans: http://spiralforums.com/

You may also sign up for the private, PC Multiplayer Beta of ‘ORION: Prelude’ at www.orionprelude.com

Spiral @ Eurogamer 2011

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:19:36 -0500

London’s largest gaming event, Eurogamer, took place over this weekend. We had a presence there to experience all the craziness and take photographs as evidence. Tons of new games were on show and plenty of new technology to see.

GAME OF THE SHOW:

There were way too many amazing games on the show floor. All of the block busters about to release during Fall and some that are coming out next year. Top (biased) pick was CS:GO.

OTHER GAMES:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
RAGE
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Batman: Akrham City
Uncharted 3
Star Wars: The Old Republic
SSX
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Zelda: Skyward Sword & 25th Anniversary

OnLive - UK Debut

OnLive, an extremely exciting and newer gaming service made its official debut in the UK during Eurogamer. It featured the largest booth in the entire convention and showcased what it is bringing to the table - which is a lot!

WHAT DOES ONLIVE BRING TO THE TABLE?

Social Gaming - Brag clips, Spectator viewing
Free Trials - Try any game
Cloud-Based Gaming - Pick up and play where you left off from on ANY platform
Multiple Platforms - Mac, iOS, PC, TV
Play games like Crysis 1, Borderlands, Batman: Arkham Asylum and more on your iPad and iPhones

Learn more about OnLive at:
http://www.onlive.com/

Read our full, detailed impressions from Eurogamer featuring more pictures at:
http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1990

Playable Dinosaurs - Coming to ORION: Prelude!

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:00:00 -0500

So the curtains are pulled back and our large announcement is finally revealed! We are extremely pleased to announce Playable Dinosaurs are coming to ORION: Prelude!

(^CLICK IMAGE FOR HD) We have heard the question “Will the dinosaurs be playable?“ time and time again and now we can officially say “Yes.”.

I was looking at how our A.I dinosaurs were setup and the systems already in place and noticed it wouldn’t be much extra work at all to effectively achieve super polished and super fun playable dinosaurs. I talked it over with our Technical Artist, Scott and our Head Honcho Programmer, Chris and they green lighted everything in terms of work load. The best part it is it will in no way affect our current deadlines or milestones and we are very much on track with development.

We will be premiering a new mode under our ‘Cooperative’ game mode branch currently being labeled as “Dino Attack”. We will be revealing more information on this game mode in the near future but right now we can share the following with you:

FACT 001 - Each Dinosaur will have it’s own “archetype” and abilities. Our Dinosaurs both in the A.I modes and playable modes all have their own personality traits and behavior styles.

FACT 002 - These are very akin to Left 4 Dead zombies in the sense that we have multiple roles such as the T-Rex being similar to the “Tank”, the Raptor being similar to the “Hunter” and the Triceratops being similar to the “Charger”.

FACT 003 - Each playable Dinosaur will have it’s own attacks and special attacks.

FACT 004 - All of our dinosaurs will be playable except for the Argentinosaurus. He will be present in these modes as an A.I piece.

We are still currently in “Pre-Alpha” and this announcement marks the game as feature-locked. We are right around the corner from hitting “Alpha” status and are on track with our internal “Beta” milestone.

GAMESCOM / PAX 2011 PRE-ALPHA GAME FOOTAGE

BRAGGING RIGHTS:

So what do you officially have to look forward to from ‘ORION: Prelude’?

Best Dinosaur A.I - ever!
Playable Dinosaurs
Jetpacks
8 vehicles spanning Buggies, Hovercrafts, Aircrafts, Tanks & Mechs
Destruction
Bots
Single-Player
Cooperative (Multiple modes)
Competitive Multiplayer (Multiple modes)
30 Weapons, Items & Grenades
32 Player Count confirmed for PC
Dedicated Servers
Tons of FREE DLC
and much, much more!

SPIRAL COMMUNITY

Come interact with the developers and share your thoughts and opinions over in the Spiral Community:

REGISTER FOR THE ‘ORION: PRELUDE’ MULTIPLAYER BETA

We are still taking Multiplayer Beta applicants for the ORION: Prelude Multiplayer Beta. This will be made available on Steam and we will be discussing more details about it in the near future as we are still in heavy development. Simply visit orionprelude.com and create an account.

A Spiral August

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:22:00 -0500

We are back with another update. We are so pleased that August is now behind us. It wasn’t that it was a bad month - not by any stretch. But it was an insanely busy one. GamesCom 2011, PAX Dev 2011, PAX Prime 2011 and internal milestones all landing in the same month? Absolutely crazy!

We have been all over the globe and we are now here to share it all with you. We have a lot to talk about so brace yourselves.

GERMANY

We kicked off August with our premiere in Germany for GamesCom. I had arrived in Frankfurt and took a bullet train straight to Cologne where the conference was being held. I had stayed in a hotel literally right outside the famous Catherdral. An absolutely beautiful city and luckily had perfect weather the entire time.

GAMESCOM 2011

This was easily the most insane conference that I have ever attended. The complex it took place in was absolutely massive - an entire city complex. There were multiple main halls split into two sections - one for developers and trade visitors and another for the entertainment expo where fans could play games and sweat profusely in sea of people. GamesCom broke a record this year with the highest level of attendees reaching a whopping 271,000 visitors. They actually had to lock the complex down due to hitting capacity on Saturday at around 2:00pm.

ORION: PRELUDE - NEW FOOTAGE!

(CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY) We didn’t come empty handed to GamesCom - not one bit. We were bunkered down for the weeks leading up to GamesCom developing a significantly updated Pre-Alpha game build. We have just published the HD Direct-Feed video footage to our Spiral YouTube and we hope you enjoy.

VIEW TRAILER

*NOTE - This is a pre-alpha game build that was developed in only 20 weeks. We ask that you keep that in mind and understand that much of what you see is either going to change or be improved.

SEATTLE, WA

Literally two days after getting back from Germany and GamesCom I was on yet another flight to head out to Seattle, WA - the best place in the world. It was a celebration of sorts as I was attending the very first PAX Dev - ever. It consisted of a variety of developer interactions and many industry folk residing under one roof. I had the absolute fortune of having one of the coolest lunches in my life.

PAX DEV 2011

I ran into a fellow developer friend out (Keith) who invited me to a lunch with some of the people I was originally inspired to get into the video games industry. This included Jaime Griesemer, the game designer for Halo 1-3 and 13 year Bungie Veteran. Also present was Keith, producer on games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Jedi Knight: Outcast / Academy, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and also Dennis, Producer at Blizzard for games like StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3. They were all super awesome and the food was nice too.

MY VISIT TO VALVE

So I had a days worth of time to kill. I shot an email over to our partners at Valve and told them exactly that and that I would love to come and see the studios. They replied “Be here at 10:00am tomorrow”. I did exactly that.

I was fortunate enough to see literally everything. This included all stories of development, the meeting room, tester room, the 3D modeling machines, Gabe’s office and his sweet knife collection and plenty more. I also had the great opportunity of having a 40-minute cigarette with both Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton, the brilliant writers behind Portal 2.

I will be doing a full write-up on ”My Visit To Valve” over in the Spiral community which will include plenty of more pictures, videos and information. Stay tuned.

PAX PRIME 2011

This was the craziest PAX even that I’ve been to yet. I wasn’t even able to stay for the whole thing but the amount of people inside the place was overwhelming to say the least. Plenty of awesome games were up for play including the new SSX, FireFall, the new Tribes and my personal favorite - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The place was a mad house but I highly recommend any gamer that has the chance of going to PAX to do so. Very fun.

So that is a quick update with what has been going on around here. Over the next week or two we will be putting out a new video that shows plenty of footage and images taken over the course of August 2011.

Don’t forget. Large announcement is coming on Monday, September 5th, 2011.

GamesCom / PAX Prime 2011 - Direct-Feed Gameplay

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:21:00 -0500

We previously reported that you would not be seeing any gameplay of ‘ORION: Prelude’ for roughly another 3-4 months. We are here today to mark ourselves as false preachers and have some direct-feed gameplay to share with all of you!

ORION: PRELUDE @ MACHINIMA

We have been extremely busy with GamesCom 2011 and PAX Prime 2011 where we were carrying a significantly updated Pre-Alpha game build of ORION: Prelude with us and we figured that so many people have seen it live that it is time to share it with all of you. In fact, you may already have seen a snippet of it from Machinima:

50 SECONDS OF GAMEPLAY

Well now you can enjoy the full 50 seconds of uninterrupted gameplay. Please keep in mind this was taken from a Pre-Alpha Multiplayer Game Build that was developed in only 20 weeks. Be gentle ;)

Make sure to let us know what you think below:

http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1899

P.S - We have an incredibly large and amazing announcement coming on Monday, September 5th, 2011. Get ready.

Spiral @ PAX Prime 2011

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:26:00 -0500

We will also be attending this years PAX Prime ^ PAX Dev 2011 in Seattle, WA. We will be bringing the GamesCom ORION: Prelude game build and will be more than happy to show anyone with interest.

We will also not be exhibiting or having a booth as like GamesCom 2011, this was all decided literally last minute. Also in the same vein GamesCom, we will not be releasing any direct-feed footage of this game build so if you want to see all we have been up to this is the way to do it.

WANT TO MEET WITH US?

If you are in the industry (publisher, developer, press) and are intersted in seeing what we are up to simply let us know. We will be scheduling meetings through out all that week. Contact us directly by firing off an email to:
pax2011@spiralgamestudios.com

WANT TO PLAY ‘ORION: PRELUDE’?

If you are absolutely anyone (fan, publisher, developer, press) and are attending GamesCom 2011 and would like to have the opportunity to play a pre-alpha version of ORION: Prelude then simply fire off an email and let us know:
pax2011@spiralgamestudios.com

You can view our impressions from last years PAX Prime (2010) event here:
http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=944

Spiral @ GamesCom 2011

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:41:00 -0500

GAMESCOM 2011

We are coming to Germany! We will be attending this years Gamescom 2011 event and we are going to be arriving in style - with Dinosaurs.

We will not be exhibiting or having a booth or anything like that as this was all literally last minute and is only happening due to an excess of meetings.

That being said, we have been extremely busy these last few months and the game build we are bringing with will reflect this.

We will not be releasing footage of this build but we can guarantee you it’s seen a great deal of improvements. While footage is off-limits we have prepared two beauty shots showing some of the friends that we will be arriving with. These are 100% in-game and in real-time.

WANT TO MEET WITH US?

If you are in the industry (publisher, developer, press) and are interested in seeing what we are up to simply let us know. We will be more than happy to meet with you and give you a technology demonstration as well as a gameplay demonstration including hands on time. Just send off an email to: gamescom@spiralgamestudios.com

WANT TO PLAY ‘ORION: PRELUDE’?

If you are absolutely anyone (fan, publisher, developer, press) and are attending GamesCom 2011 and would like to have the opportunity to play an alpha version of ORION: Prelude then simply fire off an email and let us know that you are attending the show and your preferred method of contact. The email address for that is the same as above:
gamescom@spiralgamestudios.com

Talk about this and interact with us @ the Spiral Community: http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1860&p=17581#p17581

Up, Up and Away!

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:41:19 -0500

UP, UP AND AWAY

It is official! All KickStarter gifts have officially been shipped out! Well, almost all. We are unfortunately currently unable to ship gifts to Canada as the post office up there is on strike. What this means is what would normally cost $3.24 USD per package is currently costing $50.00+ USD per package.

The minute the strike is over they will be sent out. They are already fully boxed, packaged and ready to go.

You can view gift receiving discussion at the Spiral Community here:
http://spiralforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=1756&start=20

DIGITAL PACKAGES & EMAILS

We have also sent out all KickStater thank you emails. These emails are especially awesome as one of our awesome conceptual artists, Joel Pigou, created a brand new illustration for these digital “thank yous”.

These KickStarter emails also include information about exclusive features and perks in the Spiral Community and information regarding the PC Multiplayer Beta.

We have also sent out an email regarding the “Digital Packages” for all the folk that requested that.

Upgrade... Complete!

Sun, 29 May 2011 22:55:00 -0500

Sit down. We have some rather large announcements to thrust upon you. ORION: Prelude just got that much crazier.

When working with dinosaurs it is one of your most important priorities to ensure that they are happy at all times. Well, they had a few demands - and we’ve granted them. This includes bigger worlds, destructible elements, a larger player-count, bots AND flyable vehicles. Now let’s take a deeper look.

BIGGER WORLDS

We’re not kidding. Some of the largest levels in ORION: Prelude are now… well, larger. Not only are the actual playing areas significantly larger, but so are the landscapes in the distance. We’ve put together a comparison at one of the more famous internal maps - Incursion.

DESTRUCTION

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. Destruction - like Battlefield. We are going to be utilizing NVIDIA’s APEX Destruction technology. Want to see rock chunks get obliterated? Want to see tree parts shake and even fall off when a T-Rex smashes a player or vehicle into it? Then ORION: Prelude is the place to witness all of it.

Destruction, much like most features in the game, will be allowed to be turned both on and off. We will be displaying our use of this technology later this year.

LARGER PLAYER-COUNT

While we never formally announced an “official” player count previous to this post, our previous internal goal was 24 players. We have now since then upgraded that number to 32 players.

BOTS

“Will it have bots?” - This is always a concern for any game, especially a multiplayer-focused shooter. We are proud to say that yes, ORION: Prelude will be shipping with bots. Our lead programmer actually focuses in Artificial Intelligence and we are going to deliver worth-while opponents for you to destroy both offline and online.

FLYABLE VEHICLES

Yes, you read that correctly. We are officially announcing the inclusion of flyable vehicles. With the larger map additions it only made sense for us to allow fans to recreate their favorite Top Gun dogfighting moments in a universe filled with Dinosaurs and dudes with Jetpacks. Each team will feature one distinctive flyable vehicle addition to their arsenal. We will be showcasing footage of them in-game later this year.

INTERACT WITH US

Want to ask us a question? Want to demand a feature? Want to tell us your favorite dinosaur? Then do it! Join us in the Spiral Community and interact with us. Not only do we listen to what you want to have in the game - but it’s also a great way to get into the PC Multiplayer Beta. Join now:
http://www.spiralforums.com

The Babes of ORION

Tue, 24 May 2011 18:45:22 -0500

We are back with yet another round of updates this week. We have many secrets, but only few of which you get to know. This week involves the Babes of ORION.

While we initially announced ORION: Prelude to only launch with 3 dinosaurs, we just had to up it. The game will now officially launch with a whopping 6 dinosaurs. Just enough for you to shake your stick at. The confirmed roster follows:

T-Rex
Raptor
Rham-Phorynchus
Stegosaurus
Argentinosaurus
Triceratops

Just to prove it, we’ve put together the following digital pixels together:

"The Flag Runner" & Multiplayer Beta

Mon, 23 May 2011 10:21:07 -0500

“THE FLAG RUNNER”

OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY VIDEO
Just to prove how busy we have been, we have broken our pact. While you are not supposed to see ORION: Prelude for at least another 4 months we just had to make a new video montage of a recent internal pre-alpha game build to celebrate this news. Enjoy what we are calling “The Flag Runner” video.

This video depicts roughly 90 seconds of gameplay from an internal match. It showcases the Carrier Marines (humans) going towards the Altair Warriors (aliens) base and attempting to grab the flag. The action that follows is extremely typical in an ORION: Prelude match. We have also prepared 3 new screen shots to reflect the more recent game build:

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?

As I am sure you all have noticed we have been rather quiet lately. We’ve been over our heads busy with internal deadlines as well as constantly improving the game build.

On top of this we are still doing plenty of work relating to our prescences at both GDC 2011 and PAX East 2011. We also recently announced that the KickStarter gifts (for all of you fancy contributors) will (finally) be shipping soon! Things are hectic to say the least - but in a very, very good way.

KickStarter Gifts - Important Update

Wed, 11 May 2011 15:54:21 -0500

Whoops! We seemed to have a mistake. Due to a few complaints regarding the foriegn gifts announcement - we are happily retracting it. We announced a “Digital” package in our most recent update stating new rewards that we had hoped would compensate for the originals.

We are now offering both. By default, we will be shipping the original gifts (T-Shirt and physical poster). However, the is still available to anyone that prefers those gifts or simply doesn’t care and wants to help us save a few bucks to throw towards the game.

PHYSICAL PACKAGE

ORION: Prelude T-Shirt.

One (1) Physical 11x17 Poster.

DIGITAL PACKAGE

Custom In-Game Vehicle Skins (for every vehicle / both teams).
Three (3) Digital Artworks / Posters.

If you would like to obtain the Digital Package instead please email kickstarter@spiralgamestudios.com and simply demand it. Otherwise, our dear foreign friends - expect your physical packages to be shipped out in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us directly at:
info@spiralgamestudios.com

KickStarter gifts (finally) being sent out!

Mon, 09 May 2011 17:33:00 -0500

It is with great pleasure to announce that the KickStarter gifts will (finally) start being sent out over the course of late this week and carrying over into next week.

We apologize for this taking so long but we were infinitely busy with a handful of things including GDC, PAX, internal deadlines we can’t even talk about and some upcoming news headed your way in the next week or two (keep your eyes peeled).

T-SHIRTS & ARTWORK

The shirts have finally arrived! This is what was largely holding up the gifts. We will be obtaining the packaging materials in the next few days and putting together all of the gifts and sending out. To make the wait a bit easier we have taken photographic evidence of both the signed artwork and the printed T-Shirts:

CUSTOM CONTENT

We are pleased to also showcase some of the content created exclusively for the KickStarter event. This first reveal is for all of the $1,000 contributors who will have access to the super exclusive White & Black Multiplayer Armors:

MULTIPLAYER BETA

For all contributors that donated at least $10.00 you can expect some upcoming details regarding the ORION: Prelude PC Multiplayer Beta. Look for this in the next few weeks.

OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS

We are sadly unable to ship materialistic gifts to our friends across the seas. This includes the T-Shirts and artwork. We’ve developed other prizes to fill in the lack of these gifts. This includes digital copies of these artworks as well as exclusive in-game skins for ALL vehicles and for BOTH teams.

There are three confirmed vehicles for each team which brings it to a grand total of 6. You will have the option of using either the retail skin or switching it up to the “We are sorry skin” which will be even cooler and allows you to say that you are cooler than all of your state-side friends.

If you are a friend outside of the United States please email ( info@spiralgamestudios.com ) to get more details. Again, we apologize.

ORION Spreads Her Legs

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:24:00 -0500

And opens up! We are pleased to announce that ORION: Source Beta is officially Open-Source! We have been talking about this behind doors for a little bit now and it is finally time. We are extremely humbled to how far we have come and without Valve, Source, the Source SDK and the release of the ORION: Source Multiplayer Beta - it wouldn’t have been possible.

We would like to give back to the Source Modding Community. You may have noticed our Firearm’s acquisition April Fools joke where they featured some of our old dinosaur content in the media - well now you can do the same.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

Game Models
Game Materials
Source Code (05/2009)

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ASSETS?

Take a look below:

ORION: SOURCE MULTIPLAYER BETA TRAILER

DOWNLOAD NOW (1.4GB)

ModDB:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/orion/downloads/orion-open-source

Parker’s Global Downloads:
(Global, 1,000mbit, automatically uses closet server)
http://parkersamp.com/2011/04/orion-source-open-source-multiplayer-beta-v1-0/

ABOUT THE SOURCE CODE:
Sadly, we need to make a few disclaimers. First and most importantly - the Source Code. I unfortunately had a hard drive crap out in late 2009. This means that the Source Code included is the source code from roughly 5-6 months before the first public release. So much of it is dated and will probably appear broken, however, after much discussion we figured that someone out there may find some use from it - so we included it anyways.

GENERAL DISCLAIMER:
There is of course bound to be a few glitches here and there. There also may be some missing content. If we stumble upon any additional assets or materials or source code elements, we will make an update and release it. Let us know any problems you may encounter.

This is a (for the most part) un-organized collection of the files. You talented folk will be responsible for decompiling and reconstruction of the files. This is simply our permission to use it in your mods and products - those of which have no financial gain.

HAVE QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions or need help with any of the content, we ask that you refer all questions to:

USE RIGHTS:
This content is made available for free to all fellow Modders. We hope you enjoy!

Be The Voice - Competition has ended!

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:23:29 -0500

After a long 45 day event, the NVIDIA “Be The Voice” competition has come to an end. We had received an insane amount of submissions and it was a blast going through them all. We want to thank everyone that has participated and we hope you had fun with it.

As previously mentioned, we were going to pick 5 winners. The grand prize winner will be taking home all of the mentioned prizes as well as a brand new NVIDIA GTX 480 Video Card. The list of prizes includes:

01 - Voice set included as a selectable “Game Announcer”.
02 - Free copy of ‘ORION: Prelude’ (platform of choice / upon release).
03 - Spiral Game Studios T-Shirt.
04 - Access to Digital Soundtrack.
05 - Access to ‘ORION: Prelude’ PC Multiplayer Beta.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

GOGETA

4 FINALISTS:

James A.
Angus M.
AJ H.
David D.

We want to thank everyone for participating and we cannot wait to do more competitions in the near future that allow us to include you in the game and its development. If you are interested in gaining access to the upcoming PC Multiplayer Beta, we encourage you to come and say hello in the Spiral Community:
http://www.spiralforums.com

Spiral Game Studios Acquires Firearms

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:59:00 -0500

CHICAGO, IL, April 1, 2011 — Spiral Game Studios, Inc today announced it acquired remote-based Firearms Source Development Team, a leading independent developer of action oriented computer and video games. As a result of this acquisition, Spiral Game Studios gains exclusive publishing and distribution rights to all FAS-developed titles, including the highly acclaimed source engine product, “Firearms: Source”.

“People were wondering where all the KickStarter money went - now they know.” said David Prassel, CEO and Creative Director at Spiral Game Studios. “The developers at FAS are a highly talented and highly motivated bunch and we think this is a perfect game to add dinosaurs to. We are on this sort of “Dinosaur Crusade” you could say.”

The FAS development staff will remain independent and are allowed to remain where they currently are located. Spiral Game Studios will simply be acting as the umbrella towards all of their current and future releases. We have started integrating there products into our company projection and look forward to all the magic they will bring to the table.

“This 20k is exactly the motivation we needed to add dinosaurs to our game. Firearms was revolutionary… Firearms: Source was evolutionary and ORION: Firearms: Source will be Jurrassic” said Daniel Miede, Founder and Game Director for FAS. “Spiral Game Studios will provide us with the resources, the dinosaurs and the money we need to continue to build great products and to fill them with dinosaurs.”

About FAS

Announced in July 2006, Firearms: Source began production to resurrect the good name of Firearms and bring a whole new meaning to modern shooters through ultra realistic weapon handling, quasi-realistic environments, and pure arcade shooter carnage. From developers spanning the entire world, we have received the top talent from nation to nation in order to ensure only the finest quality of work is presented in our high adrenaline first person shooter. For more information, visit http://www.Firearms-Source.com

About Spiral Game Studios

Founded in 2010, Spiral Game Studios has been one of the most exciting up-and-coming independent developers showcasing fan interaction, community inclusion and some of the most inspiring and rich game designs. While new, they are compromised largely of industry and underground independent developer talent. The largest priority for Spiral is to simply infuse more dinosaurs into more games. For more information, surf to http://www.spiralgamestudios.com/

Spiral Game Studios, “ORION”, and “Prelude’ are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Spiral Game Studios, Inc in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Indie March Madness 2011

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:40:00 -0500

March 2011 was a crazy month for everyone over at Spiral. We had two big conferences, lots of travel, tons of meeting and of course development towards the actual game build.

We put together a very cool video that we plan on doing every once in a while. Consider it a “video documentary” that we are dubbing as “Indie March Madness 2011”.

BE THE VOICE

Our insanely awesome ‘Be The Voice’ competition is coming towards it’s completion (April 1st, 2011). We have already received plenty of applications and encourage everyone to get their submission in.

***ALL APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BEFORE APRIL 1ST, 2011 @ 11:59pm US CENTRAL.***

The top 5 winners will receive:

Voice set included as a selectable “Game Announcer” - Set will be named after you.
Free copy of ‘ORION: Prelude’ (platform of choice / upon release)
Spiral Game Studios T-Shirt (exclusive)
Digital Soundtrack
Access to ‘ORION: Prelude PC Multiplayer Beta’

The number one finalist will receive not only all of that - but also a brand new NVIDIA GTX 480 video card!

Email all submissions to:
announcer@spiralgamestudios.com

KICKSTARTER GIFT PRODUCTION

We are pleased to announce that the KickStarter gift production is underway. It’s been a long time coming largely due to the craziness that was March. We have gathered all contributor data and are starting the process now.

If you have any questions regarding the status of anything or just simply want to talk, please email:
kickstarter@spiralgamestudios.com