OpenKatana

[hogsy]

Hello everyone! OpenKatana is our upcoming project based on the Quake engine that hopes to be our own rethinking on the infamous Daikatana that not only aims to recreate the game as it was in 1997 but to improve on whatever we can.
Currently we do not have a planned release date due to the fact that a lot of work still needs to be done and there is much much more planned though we're certain at least episode one and the multi-player component of the game will at-least be released sometime before December this year. When we're certain we'll let you guys know. We also will not begin private testing until later on in the year.

Game
What makes OpenKatana unique is that we have access to everything from Daikatana's development to help ensure OpenKatana is both true to the original design but also features never before seen features. We're not just recreating content here but we're also heavily revising everything to ensure that OpenKatana doesn't make the same mistakes as the original.
We're also putting a lot of focus into the AI for the game, enemies thoughts are not only state-based but we're also emulating enemy emotions so that they'll get bored, angry or even scared depending on the situation which will in turn modify their behaviour towards certain situations and on top of that we have an advanced waypoint system with each waypoint almost acting like an entity itself checking if it's occupied or in view between other waypoints. This also means we have bots for multi-player.

Engine
Our engine for OpenKatana, named Katana, is based on the popular FitzQuake engine and adds plenty of features to make development easier such as md2 support, support for rotating brush models, user-specific configurations, an improved particle system, positional based shadows and "blob" shadows, fixes to improve support of older hardware, support for our own BSP3 format which is designed to be both smaller and easier to manage, and many more additions. The entire game-logic has been rewritten in C thanks to our own module system which has been written so code is both easier to read and new features are easier to implement

If you want to support us then feel free to track us on our IndieDB page and help spread the word
IndieDB

Or if you'd like to offer a hand then feel free to contact me at...
[email protected]

[golden_boy]

Awesome project. Good luck guys.

[Phenom]

I'm still dreaming!

[Seven]

I'm still dreaming!

+1

What a great celebration this would be.
I wish you all the best and good luck for this project.

[gdiddy62]

Yes, the best of luck on a great project.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

I always saw the ad's for it but never could be bothered to stop playing Quake :F Maybe that changes soon?

[Baker]

Sounds like the rare non-Quake news item for the front page here ;-).

I didn't know if the project was stalled or really going forward.

I hope this project goes well and that it reaches completion.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Sounds like the rare non-Quake news item for the front page here ;-).

I didn't know if the project was stalled or really going forward.

I hope this project goes well and that it reaches completion.

Without 'Alien Quake' big corporation douchery interference!!

[hogsy]

Thanks everyone for your support! I expected quite a few groans over what we're doing here but it's great to know we actually have an audience out there.

@Baker
There's probably never been a day when there hasn't been any work done on it other than the days we might spend either playing Daikatana for inspiration or discussing ideas between each other. I must admit though it's been quite difficult publicising our work and keeping people informed on progress mainly because we've spent most of our time working through the code but now that we have a dedicated level designer on board with us we should finally be able to show far more in the future.
Also thanks Baker

[Baker]

@Baker
I must admit though it's been quite difficult publicising our work and keeping people informed on progress mainly because we've spent most of our time working through the code

I get that dilemma

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Thanks everyone for your support! I expected quite a few groans over what we're doing here but it's great to know we actually have an audience out there.

@Baker
There's probably never been a day when there hasn't been any work done on it other than the days we might spend either playing Daikatana for inspiration or discussing ideas between each other. I must admit though it's been quite difficult publicising our work and keeping people informed on progress mainly because we've spent most of our time working through the code but now that we have a dedicated level designer on board with us we should finally be able to show far more in the future.
Also thanks Baker

With your hard work I'll finally let "John Romero make me his bitch" , as according to the AD's back in the day that caught my eye but never budged me from Q1 gaming

[Seven]

... we've spent most of our time working through the code...

Has the source of Daikatana been released ?
Do you have a link ?

[hogsy]

@Seven
Haha when I said working through the code I mostly meant our code
But that said we do have various copies of the source-code for Daikatana but currently won't be releasing any of those. Romero is actually really interested in getting Daikatana open-source and there's plenty of good stuff in there such as procedural textures but a lot of it needs to be cleaned up before it goes out and there's a lot that needs to be fixed too, and then we'd need to wait for Romero to get permission.
When OpenKatana gets released we will certainly be releasing some other bits we have however

[golden_boy]

Niiice about Romero involvement.

[lohphat]

Never got around to playing the original, and really looking forward to this. Thanks.