Auto Assault Developer Diary

IGN PC has published a two-page developer diary for Auto Assault, in which NetDevil sound effects artist Brian Bearly discusses their decision to make the game’s lanscape more inviting. Check it out:

As we began to implement the new code and play with the possibilities it afforded, each zone became its own little world with a lot of unique character; an overall map could hold to a general environmental theme while its sections could vary widely. Instead of subtly-changing sky color and a choice of light, heavy, or no haze, our horizons were expanded, and the game came alive with all kinds of weather and environmental effects – there could now be low-hanging smog in cities, shimmering heat waves in painted deserts, and curtains of freezing drizzle slowly falling in sheets from the sky. In one zone, a huge pile of burning garbage smolders away, and high winds whip black smoke, hot streaking embers, and blowing trash across the land in a torrent of soot and filth. In another, yellow radioactive haze from heavy nuclear fallout is alive with the subtle crackle of electrical discharges. Areas steeped in alien contamination are awash in floating green spores that seemingly defy both gravity and wind, spreading to cover the Earth, and blinding sandstorms sweep across barren wastelands dotted with slowly moving dust devils. Especially fun are the areas controlled by the TemperNet, whose ubiquitous red glows now underlight the clouds above and cast an eerie, sullen red over all the land.