Are you located in Northern Germany and interested in game development with Unity3D? We’ve organized a workshop in cooperation with Indiepixel, Gamecity and other studios located in Hamburg. It’s going to take place on May 15th and feature presentations by Unity3D employees and developers. Would you like to join or even show your project? Sign up at:www.indiepixel.de and talk to us about making games!

I was taking a stroll through our Carnival level (work-in-progress), when suddenly…mosquito riding robot parrot:

Ahoy sky bandits!

Let me begin by giving out a big thank-you to everyone who has pre-ordered the game and supports us in our endeavour to bring you the best Indie 3D Action Platformer in this galaxy and beyond. A special tip of the hat goes out to those who spread the word about the game. We’re continuously developing and promoting the game, but we’re just a small team, so any help from the community is appreciated. We took one step today to get more people to try the game and we hope that we won’t anger any of you who have already pre-ordered the game: we have released the downloadable application of the Preview build. Players will still need to pre-order the game to get access to Volcano Island, but gaming sites can host the files now, people can play it locally and share it with friends. This is something that – let’s face it – is already happening to some extent, but we communicated this as a perk for users who pre-order. Therefore we hope that we don’t disappoint anyone with this move, but we also need to use the few tools we have for promotion to maximum effect. We figured that the main incentive to pre-order is access to Volcano Island and the other perks that come with the Captain Edition – this will not be changed.

I didn’t come to apologise completely empty handed though. I brought a new screenshot from the deeps of the second dungeon, enjoy:

(click to enlarge)

Pirates are not the only ones who are after the treasures of New Horizons. Greedy corporations invade holy alien sites on their search for gold and more of the dark matter that allows objects to float in space. The dirty work is done by their sentry bots - robots that can walk on walls and shoot at anyone who offers resistance. As if aliens weren’t enough trouble…

More media of new content that is in the works is coming soon!

Ahoy mateys!

We did some tinkering over the weekend and started to convert the blank walls in our hallway into the “Hall of Captains”.

Remember that everyone who pre-orders the Captain Edition of the game is eligible to submit their picture to us. We’re going to print your handsome mug or avatar picture and post it on this wall:

A BIG thanks to everyone who goes the extra-mile to support us. Check out this forum thread to see more pictures and submit your own! We broke the barrier of 100 pre-orders last week so we know there are LOTS OF Captains out there who haven’t submitted their picture yet. Don’t be shy and join our ranks, we’re happy and proud to have your pictures displayed in our humble studio!

Avast!

- Cap’n Frie

Hey Unity developers!

We added our ESE Toolbox to the Unity Asset Store Madness Sale! That means for a limited amount of time the toolbox is 40% off ($25 -> $15)!

The ESE Toolbox lets you:

• See debug logs in game via a console
• Search for scripts, tags, layers etc in the editor across scenes.
• See who references the currently selected object.
• Use our custom Transform Inspector that you can edit and add to yourself.
• Rearrange script order.
• Change scenes or place prefabs more quickly via scene view toolbars.
• Place prefabs on colliders without having to drag them first. (just select a prefab and shift click anywhere, or right click to clone the prefab).
• Change the behaviour of almost every feature in the Unity Preferences window.

Skjalg frequently updates the box with new useful additions, which should make this a smart and affordable investment for anybody working with Unity3D. The sale ends on April 8th!

Get your copy: ESE Toolbox on the Unity3D Assetstore

Hey skylubbers! I’ve created a new video that explains what this lovely game of ours is all about. Pirates D’OH! OK, that one’s bloody obvious, but what exactly do you do in the game? Most of you who frequent this blog have already tried our Preview Version, but there might be a few things even you don’t know about the game just yet! For example did you know that when you time your “block” right, you can perform a counter-attack? Watch this video to see me playing while listening to my annoying voice and if somebody asks you: “what do you do in Pirates of New Horizons?” You can point them to this video right here :

Avast!

/Frie

How do you like the music in the game? We’re always listening to feedback! If you enjoy it, we highly recommend to check out the YouTube channel by Blake Robinson & The Synthetic Orchestra. Blake composes original music but also covers many classic videogame tunes. Browse his library and tell us your favourite tracks!

Ahoy scallywags! It’s been 3 crazy exciting days for us and to hear all you guys loving the game and pre-ordering truly warms our frozen space pirate hearts! The release went pretty smooth thus far, except for a small annoyance with the payment system: our payment provider chose a really bad time for us to restructure the way they handle payments via credit card. They are working on making this available for us as quickly as possible again, but in the meantime you can try the following solution: Select “PayPal” as a payment method and in step 3 choose to pay as a guest. You can use your creditcard and do not require a PayPal account, savvy?

Thanks again to everyone who already pre-ordered! Keep sharing the word about the game via Twitter, Facebook and we’re especially happy to see “Let’s play…”-style videos and artworks. For example here’s a video by Jamie, showing the first level and parts of Hubington – this guy really loves collecting treasure, we can’t wait for part 2 :

There are also articles by game journalists popping up:

• Rock Paper Shotgun checked out the Preview Version and was happy to find the Jetpack they ordered: “Gaming Piracy: Try Pirates of New Horizons”
• The Indie Game Magazine spotted our game from the crow’s nest
• Unity-Insider: “Pirates of New Horizons vorbestellbar” (German)

If you have written an article about Pirates of New Horizons and would like to see it added – feel free to mention it in the comments!

Last but not least there are a lot of Captains out there who haven’t posted their picture in the ‘Hall of Captains’ forum thread yet! We know you’re out there and we’d love to plaster our hall with your mugs! So don’t be scared and join the ranks of other scurvy dogs such as ourselves!

That’s all for now! Personally I’ll let myself rest this weekend and then get right back to finishing this game with the others! Problems and support inquiries will still be responded to by Michael or myself, of course. Stay tuned for more news from New Horizons, me hearties!

- Cap’n Frie

It’s a happy day for us at Exit Strategy and we hope that you’ll get similarly excited as you’re reading this: we have just launched the new Pirates of New Horizons website, where you can play two levels of the game for free in your browser and pre-order the game! This is the first public release since the release of the prototype and by the powers it includes so many new features and fixes. If you decide to pre-order the game, you will not only save money and support the development, but also gain instant access to a third level (Volcano Island), more gadgets, a downloadable version of the build and other pre-order perks (we can’t wait to put your pictures on the wall of our hallway)! Head on over to www.piratesofnewhorizons.com to play and purchase your copy now! Have I mentioned that the new video trailer is online, too?

ENJOY!

- Frie on behalf of Exit Srategy Entertainment

Uhoh. You might have heard the news already: Unity 3.5 is out. I guess that means we don’t have an excuse anymore not to release the Pirates of New Horizons “Preview” and launch our new website. JUST ONE MORE FEATURE!

OK, OK, … here’s how it’s “gonna go down”: we’re going to complete the current tasks  on our plate and prepare the final build. We plan to release it next week or the week afterwards at the latest (the latest build looks pretty good, fingers crossed that nothing is going to block our way).

Along with the build we’re going to open up for pre-orders. There are going to be two different editions of the game to buy: the Buccaneer & Captain Edition. Both come at a pre-order discount (14.99 € /24.99 €) and with a different amount of perks. Everybody will be able to play two levels of the game for free on our new website. Those who pre-order the game will unlock a third level (we have implemented a user database into the website and a log-in system into Annha’s ship) and get a downloadable version of the build of course. A new trailer is going to be released as well. This is going to be a very important step for us and we’re excited. Are you excited?

P.S. Our incredibly interesting and handsome Danish coder with karate skills “Michael” has finally also joined Twittarrr! Follow him and give him a hearty welcome here!