Descent’s SIX DEGREES OF AWESOME returns! Blast enemies, collect loot, and level up through pulse-pounding combat inside asteroids!

Descent’s fast-paced, six-degrees-of-freedom combat made addicts of us all!  Descent’s frenetic and pulse-pounding action were light-years ahead of its 1995 release date.  Like us, many of you still share war stories of your epic network battles.  You remember your heroic shots, your death-defying maneuvers, and matches ending with a narrow escape as the tunnel collapsed behind you.

Sadly, as consoles took over and PC games were pushed aside by publishers, great games like Descent were left to languish in obscurity.  A whole generation of gamers grew up without Descent’s heart-pounding, non-stop action, robbed of the true 6DoF space adventure that is their birthright!

We’re bringing back 6DoF by blasting Descent into the 21st Century with current-generation gaming technology.  Descent: Underground is more than a graphics upgrade. Get ready for multiple types of customizable ships!  Prepare for upgradable weapons and sensors with richly-detailed tech trees.  Brace yourself for destructible voxel maps with new power-ups and mod tools to make your own maps and more!

YOU are the last hope of humanity!

Earth is overcrowded, dying of thirst, ravaged by war and disasters – both natural and man-made.  As a hotshot pilot, the resources you harvest mean the difference between life and death for countless millions.  On your wings rest the fates of vast corporate empires fighting over the despoiled carcasses of once-great nations.

Water, ore, precious metals – tear them from the rock or pry them from your enemies’ clutches. Use the profits to crush your competition.  Only your dog fighting skills and teamwork can master the hazardous terrain, using it against your foes to gain the upper hand in uncontrolled space.  A fortune awaits you.  But first, you must destroy the opposition and carry your prize back to your harvester ship.

CHOOSE your role.
Fight from a distance, slug it out up close and personal, provide repair and logistical support, or harvest and haul critical resources. Build and upgrade your drones. Set traps. Secure critical passages. Defend your team. Win the day!

Six-Degrees-Of-Freedom Action – fly and fry foes while zipping in and out of the dizzying confines of asteroids

Balanced First-Person Ship Combat and Resource Gathering – choose from eight unique ship types, each one showcasing a different play style

A Twenty-First Century Update – Unreal Engine 4 , top-flight graphics, rich design, and a modern twist on Descent’s classic multiplayer modes

Go Home a Hero – annihilate your opponents, gather desperately needed resources, bring home the bacon

Amazing!
We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to each and every one of our community members who backed, helped spread the word, offered ideas and feedback, and just MADE THIS HAPPEN!
You are incredible, and we are humbled by your support, your passion, and your trust in us.
DESCENT IS BACK!
Now the real work begins! We're diving directly into a fast, tight production cycle (after a much-needed weekend of rest), and moving ahead with building this awesome game. Of course, you will all be along for the ride every step of the way.

If you made it too late and didn't get a chance to back the Kickstarter, don't fear: we're moving the fundraising to our web site, with all of the base packages, add-ons, and maybe some new stuff, too. We're also going to continue to push towards the stretch goals with the pledges raised on our store. That means you can still get your Torch KS! The free Torch KS applies to all game packages - including add-ons - when our total funding hits $650K!

Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times!

The Descendent Studios Team

Lots happened this week:

The first Advisory Board meeting. Lots of great discussion about control schemes for various input systems. The Advisory Board also had some excellent insight regarding new player outreach. 
The last of our ship concepts (Warlock and Auger) have been approved. More shots of them next week.
A great meeting on the map construction process. There's lots of moving parts involved in map construction, so we spent some time fine tuning the process.
The first round of missile concepts are in and ready for review. You can see those below.
We've revised the Panzer special move a bit. More on that next week.
We also have a new Drone Bay UI pass to show.
Last, but not least, a new programmer started this week -- Tyler Pixley. Tyler will bring his talents to bear on game systems
Beyond the bits and pieces of everyday life, we also spend time thinking through longer term plans. Although we can't cover all of it in this blog, I can tell you we've nailed down a big milestone. Our goal is to have a vertical slice of the game by the end of June. The VS will have art that is very close to final -- in some cases final for sure. We should also have most of the core game-play systems in by then -- at least in a playable state.

Our VS plan:
3 ships and one special for each ship. The ships: Panzer, Typhoon, and Wasp
Introductory mining Our first map. This map is designed for 4 v 4.
Ship HUD will be complete (with the exception of a VR version)
One match type. The match, which we are temporarily calling "Blow the Core", will be a team based match type. The goal for each team will be number of kills and a team can end the match by destroying the Reactor.
SFX for everything in the VS
Probably a first listen at some music
Some first pass weapons: Lasers (with multiple levels), Missiles (homing and concussion), gadgets (laser grid)
VFX. Lots of hits and explosions
We will, of course, show you guys the gameplay as it comes online. We are also planning on inviting people into the office to playtest with us -- more on that later. 
As I mentioned above, we've started building the art for the various missiles in the game. Below are some early concepts. Let us know which you like.

There's quite a bit of UI for the Drone Bay. Below is a view of the main UI. All is in-progress and nothing is final, so let us know what you think.