It’s been a while since there's been any news on the progress of Aftermath. That’s because there hasn’t been any. Over the last six months our work has been at a standstill. Most of us have either lacked the time, motivation, or in some cases the necessary software to complete the project we started. These problems are not new and have become obstacles that we cannot remedy at this point. Development on Aftermath has stopped and our project is now vaporware. I’m very sorry, I know that many were looking forward to seeing Aftermath reach fruition and play it for Nova. However, not all is lost. We will be making most of our work public in the distant future (end of the summer/beginning of fall) for other projects to use. Our forums will also be made public at some point too. Thank you very much for your support in what we did accomplish and again, I’m sorry we couldn’t come through for you.

Very sorry to hear that Nick. But sometimes I guess real life calls and you have to put all the fun aside. Probably why I haven't touched photoshop or made any planets and stuff either. No problem though, I'm just happy to see what you developed even if it never did get finished.

That's really unfortunate, but I can understand why this has happened. I'm glad you've opted to make it public, as I know all too well how awesome the stuff was. At least this way it'll get some use.

I've loved working on Aftermath, I've loved the community we've had - in it's many shapes and sizes, I've loved direction it took and the way it developed. So I'm as sorry as the next man that it is no longer. For my part, I went self-employed two years ago with a number of things in mind; one being the hope that doing so would afford me more free time to work on projects such as AM. Unfortunately this simply hasn't been the case.

I'd like to thank Nick for his leadership, and his vision which formed the foundation on which Aftermath was built. I've enjoyed working with you and am only sorry that we couldn't make more of our ideas.

Anyway, I'm keen to share the resources I've produced, as Nick says, those will be made available in the not too distant future. I have however pulled together a cross-section of the visuals I worked on. I hope you like what you see, and get a sense for the direction things were heading...

Hudson, those ships and things are beautiful.

Wow.... Wow. Holy Jebus Hudson, those ships are amazing.

I think motivation is the biggest issue with large projects. You go in all hyped up, but it doesn't last. You want to get to the finish product immediately without going through the vast amount of tedious work they require. Same problem struck my TC, thus chopping it down to 1/3 size.

Though I'm certain people will enjoy what you did complete, even if it's not the finished thing. And maybe someone with the time and ability might come along and offer to finish it?

And Hudson, saying "nice ships" is quite a bit of an understatement.

Aftermath was indeed a wonderful project, it just ran into too many problems ranging from engine limitations to real life. But I enjoyed working with all of those in the Aftermath team a great deal.

I've complied a little website with my contributions to Aftermath. You can find it here

can you release what you have done so far so others can pick it up and implement it?

Like Nick said, most of our work will be made public in the future for public use. But in the mean time, like Raga and Hud, I think I'll be putting together a website to display what few things I've worked on for AM for the enjoyment of the public.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank the entire AM team for bringing me onto the project. It was fun while it lasted, and it was great to see you guys at work. Heh, while things were happening at least

While my contributions to the project were minimal, I had a great time watching this project expand, like a tree that keeps growing branches off its main trunk, and twigs off those branches. Eventually, I think, the complexity of Aftermath overwhelmed us. What wasn't fun was keeping all of our ideas secret. What Hudson and Raga have shown so far isn't half what was created. Just you wait.

I was added to the team not to long ago, to do the polaris. Which including redoing the old ships, and then working of the great sketches Hudson made. I am planning on finishing this Manta, and the new Striker for release sometime.

This is modeled and rendered by me, and textured by Hudson and me. It's not the finished version, but it's the render I have at hand.

It was a pleasure working with you guys, and I grew a lot as an artist working with you.

This post has been edited by Modesty Blaise : 04 July 2007 - 05:28 AM

Looks over carefully

Loves the Thrusters(?) at the base of the tail

Is very impressed

Having realized that i haven't posted in this topic yet, i'd like to say that i loved this idea since i first heard about it, and while i'm sorry to hear it's dead, i understand why, and am vastly enjoying what i've seen of what's been done already.

Also, Hudson's massive collection of pics has given me several new desktop backgrounds to choose from...

@pisketch, on Jul 2 2007, 07:42 PM, said in The Fate of Aftermath:

Also, Hudson's massive collection of pics has given me several new desktop backgrounds to choose from...

Interestingly enough, the starfield version desktop just got randomly cycled to a moment ago. You can thank me for the 1680x1050 version I begged him do :).

Despite the fact that Aftermath has ended as a plug-in, I'd still love to see Hudson and the other artists keep at it. Some of those Atlantian or human ships would make great desktop scenes and there was quite a bit of other cool stuff too.

Rag, do you mind if I use some of your landing pics? They'll be in another nova TC, assuming the storywriter finishes writing the story.

It's good to know that you guys learned a lot. That's really what counts, isn't it? It's not so much the destination as it is the journey, regardless of whether or not you release material to the public. I'm really glad you are though, because you know how hard it is to match Nova's graphics and I think it's caused a a problem when it comes to plugs. Most of the ones I see on the addons page now don't add much to the universe, as in, it's story. Aftermath's resources are obviously in a prime position to help people do that.

Thanks a lot!

This post has been edited by Phyvo : 05 July 2007 - 10:57 AM

I'm really, really sorry to hear about this :(. I hope you guys will try game development again in the future sometime...I'd love to think of what you could come up with, Nick.

Figured I'd stick this here for now. This is my only completed work for AM, the Hydra, successor to the Phoenix. I had 2 other ships in the pipeline before AM shut down; the Auroran carrier and Firebird successors. Bryce 5.5 has been released for free and now works on Intel Macs, so I'm back in business, and I may end up finishing the Harpy/Firebird-replacement. In the mean time, I'll figure out a way to get the WIP's available for public viewing.

I'd also like to offer thanks to Hudson, Weep, Zombat, and everyone who gave critiques and comments on my work. I was just rendering this baby right now and remembered the glut of advice/reading material on graphics you guys provided. Simply put, you guys rawk.

@lnsu, on Jul 3 2007, 06:47 PM, said in The Fate of Aftermath:

Rag, do you mind if I use some of your landing pics? They'll be in another nova TC, assuming the storywriter finishes writing the story.

By all mean go ahead. I'd love to see them be put to good use

How close was it to completion, anyway?