WOW! That’s the only word that I can form in my head after being featured on the prestigious LEVELSKIP.com website! (Part of the Kikizo Network, formerly known as Video Games Daily)
This is truly an honor for me and I want to thank Ed and Dan for making this happen!
You can visit the post here at:
http://levelskip.com/gaming-mods/200911/unreal-engine-2-mod-out-of-hell-hits-web/
Wow, OoH is far from perfect but I can’t believe that a lot of you hold it in such high regard! 9.4 out of 39 votes! I hope that it doesn’t dwindle when it gets more votes! If you enjoyed it, why not head over to moddb.com and give it a rate? 🙂
Thanks Everyone!
Wow, the day actually came! After 7 years of work, Out Of Hell has finally been released upon the masses! What can I say? I feel…weird!…and floaty! I always thought about this day, but now that it’s here, it feels as though I’ve been sleepwalking for the last 7 years and am now just waking up!
I’d like to start by giving out special thanks to:
Justin Lassen for composing a beautiful soundtrack for Out Of Hell. Justin came to me years ago when Out Of Hell was only starting to grow. He said that my artwork inspired him and he would be more than happy to create a custom soundtrack for me! At the time, I had some music loops that I was already going to use for Out Of Hell and declined his offer. 3 years later, I ran across his blog and read that his hard drive had crashed and that he lost a lot of work and data. I felt terrible reading this because I personally know the pain of losing hard work due to equipment failure. (Over the years, I’ve had 3 hard drives die, 2 powers supplies go, all during critical times in the project’s life) I emailed him to offer my condolences and we began talking again. To my surprise, he was still interested in doing music for the game! So I asked if he would like to come onboard, he agreed and the rest is history!
In 2008 Justin flew over for almost a week and we finally met in person. It was awesome, we totally hit it off, there was no internet-person-awkwardness, and we talked about a ton of stuff and I showed him the sights.
Your faith in the project (and in me) was more important than you could possibly know. Thanks for helping me out, for always pimping me in the press and thanks for sticking by me. I hope that we can work together on future projects and make more awesome stuff!
Derek Solarino of BP6.net for helping me out with years of hosting! A funny but true story, we met while playing Counterstrike back in the 90’s. We were in the same clan until the clan disbanded and everyone went their separate ways. Fast forward something like a year later, and I was playing UT. I was searching for a server and joined one randomly and guess what? It was run by Derek! After playing some DM, I thought to myself, “This guy has the same name as someone I used to know.” so we chatted, and it turns out to be him! How weird is that? Not only that, he lived one city next to mine! I told him about a new project I was working on, and he selflessly offered to host the mod site for free, never once asking for anything in return. Thanks so much Derek, I’m happy that we became friends like this and thank you for all that you’ve done to help me on my way.
This list could go on because there were so many great people who helped me along the way in some capacity, I couldn’t possibly thank every single one but THANK YOU for your support throughout this entire endevour, you know who you are!
To the Out Of Hell community, the Unreal gaming community, Epic for a seriously kickass engine and their support for the indie/mod dev scene, gaming sites and magazines who were willing to interview me, all of those who sent emails and messages to motivate over the years, THANK YOU. You have put up with some serious delays and bullshit over the years and yet are still here to welcome my baby into the world.
So this is it. This is my life in 7 years, compressed into 1 GB and ready for you to download! I hope that you all download it and give it a try. Play through it all if possible as I’ve worked hard on establishing a unique story, setting and atmosphere. It is my vision, the fruits of my long labor and my first triumph. I hope that it meets your expectations and you can find something worthwhile in Out Of Hell!
SO WHAT NOW?
It’s time to wait. I want to see how Out Of Hell does. For some reason, I’m not burnt out so I’ll stick to the forums to answer any questions, help with any bug fixes and so on for the foreseeable future. If Out Of Hell does well and there is a demand for it, I will work on the official expansion. I have story (takes place right after the ending) and more game ideas (co-op mp, offline npc co-op) to expand upon the Out Of Hell universe but it’s all dependent on whether people like it.
I’ve got a couple of other projects in mind and will be toying with some ideas over the next while. I’ve got plans drawn up for a medieval-themed game but I also want to do something with mechs or ninjas and samurai! (Perhaps a first-person shooter where the main character is a whip wielding mech with a wise-cracking effeminate samurai who travel back in time to exterminate ninjas and their knight allies!) I am now a free agent, no longer limited to one project.
So being as how I haven’t slept for more than 4 hours over the last 50 hours, I will bid you goodnight!
I’m back with an important chunk of news! I previously announced that Out Of Hell would be taking the standalone route through a publisher, however, this will no longer be happening.
Though it is inappropriate to go into the details of why I arrived at this decision, one of the main factors was time and you would have been expected to wait at least another half-year before you would ever see it. This was something that didn’t sit well with me nor would it with you I’d imagine! This could be seen as disappointing news but it’s all in how you look at it. There are pro’s and con’s to everything and sometimes things work out, other times not. When I originally started work on this project, money was never a motivation. It was a labor of love because I love creating, I love horror and I love games. I believe that this was the right thing to do.
So then, what now?
Well, I know I say this every year but Out Of Hell’s Official Release Date will be on Hallow’s Eve, October 31, 2009. (What’s this, the 12th release announcement by now?) Quite fitting a date, don’t you think? I know what must inevitably be going through your minds right now. “But Chicken, how do we know this is the real release date? How do we know you’ll keep your word on this one?” and to that I say “I guess you don’t!” 😉
So there it is. I have decided to return to my original plan of releasing Out Of Hell as a completely free Total Conversion for everyone…the way nature intended!
I mentioned back near the end of April that something great was going to happen with this project and have kept the news under wraps until now. Out Of Hell will be released as a published, standalone game! This is the dream, one of the best things that could ever happen to a hobby modder!
How did this happen? A few years ago when I met Justin Lassen, he selflessly offered to help produce a custom soundtrack for Out Of Hell. As we worked together, our friendship grew and he eventually introduced me to one of his close friends, “Dave”. What I didn’t know at the time, was that “Dave” was none other than “Dave Taylor”, one of the biggest and most well-known names in the gaming industry. If you told me back when I was still playing every single Doom available, that I would one day meet one of the people responsible for it, I would have called you crazy.
Because of these two, I have received opportunities that regularly would not have been available. Because of these two, Out Of Hell has broken the mod barrier. To both Justin and Dave, my debt is boundless.
So who will be publishing this? When will it be available? How much will it cost? We are looking at several options at the moment so I can’t give a concrete answer right now. We are, however, hoping to make it available sometime between August and October.
For those of you who have followed this project from the beginning, who have stuck with me through the missed release dates, the constant delays, and yet still somehow managed to smile and support me, I have not forgotten about you. Out Of Hell will be released in two versions, the standalone and mod version. This was the best that I could push for, so that those who have stuck with me and have kept their copies of Unreal Tournament 2004 on hand will still get this for free! For the newcomers or those that don’t own UT2004, you will still be able to play this game! Exposure is no longer limited.
So thanks for your continued support and patience guys! Check back here often for developments on the matter.
I read through some of the old interviews as I was reposting them and man, has this come a long way! I mentioned I was 24 in one of them and now I’m 30. Time really flies doesn’t it? I’m just so focused on the future that I lose sight of how far I’ve actually walked sometimes.
I remember when Out Of Hell was nothing more than a spark of motivation after playing Silent Hill. I thought to myself 6 years ago that hey, wouldn’t it be cool to make some sort of videogame? I wonder if it’s possible? Nah, probably not, but it would be cool!
Now it’s 2009 and I look back, back at that naive little guy whose excitement and enthusiasm overshadowed what little ability he thought he had. Did I really know what I was getting into? Sometimes you just look back, smile and shake your head.
What a roller-coaster ride it’s been. I’ve experienced so many things because of this project over the years. The highs and adrenaline rushes after implementing a new feature or fixing a bug, the depression phases and dry spells where the motivation just wasn’t there no matter how hard I tried.
At times, I would look up at the mountain that I was climbing, become invigorated and keep on climbing. Sometimes I would look up at it again and really fall into despair…the despair of knowing that you have an impossibly long fucking way to go and it’s just way too late to turn back. Those are brutal and dangerous times for creative-minded individuals.
It became even tougher when people started coming out of the woodwork. Some came into my life abruptly and left the same way, some treaded water with me until eventually they too let go. Some came under the guise of noble intentions but wanted nothing more than to snake what they could for their own ego-boosting purposes.
It surprises me to this day how quickly people show you their true selves when certain factors are involved. So many times I was down because of these issues and though the thought of giving up never crossed my mind, it was impossible for me to stay focused.
Man, just thinking and remembering those highs and lows…sometimes you just look back, smile and shake your head.
January 22/2008
Just a bit of news! The gallery has finally been updated with some screens so be sure to check those out! On a seperate note, I will be unavailable for the next two weeks, so if you post in the forums, I may not be able to answer until then! I was also going to upload a gameplay video of the first area to photobucket but I didn’t realize that the limit was 100 mb (the video is about 275 mb). I’ll find another place to upload it when I get back and post the link then!
LONG NGUYEN | Digital Artist & Game Designer 