SENTRY News

As the end to 2022 rapidly approaches it's a natural moment to reflect on progress: when we released our announcement trailer earlier this year we were super-happy with the response, and since then we've had continued excitement from the community. Thank-you for that, it is much appreciated!

We're very happy with how SENTRY is shaping up. As we develop the game we make a lot of awesome content, so next year I'm planning on posting more frequent updates here to show off some of that cool stuff :)

One area where we often debut new features is our TikTok, so make sure to follow us there for some sneak peeks, and you can always chat to us directly on any of our platforms, including the Steam forums or our Discord.

We can't wait to get SENTRY in your hands in 2023, both in terms of demos and release :)

So however you celebrate, everyone at Fireblade Software (me, Adam, Alex, Sean, Barry & Mark) wish you
a happy and fantastic end to 2022!

We're very happy to be hosting the third iteration of the Guildford Games Festival on Steam, which runs from December 1st through to the 5th.

All of the games on Steam developed in the GU postcode area can be found on this page, many with discounts so it's a great opportunity to pick up some deals!

Click on the image below to be taken to it:



Just like in the 2020 and 2021 versions, the page artwork contains nods to local landmarks (this time the castle and statue on top of the cathedral feature heavily) as well as plenty of references to the games made in Guildford.

Here's the artwork from previous years:

[h3]2020:[/h3]


[h3]2021:[/h3]


There's an unusually high concentration of games studios in Guildford and it has a rich gaming history, so it's awesome to be able to showcase these all in one place.

If you'd like to find out more, you can visit the guildford.games website.

Realms Deep 2022, the annual digital showcase organized by 3D Realms and friends was packed with all the coolest indie FPS gems:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
You can see SENTRY at around 1hr and 28mins, but if you're into similar games there's tons more worth checking out :)

It's been on my to-do list for aaaaaages, but we've finally got a Newsletter Signup sorted, which you can find here:

https://sentrygame.com/newsletter

Why do you want to sign up for our newsletter? Firstly, we get a lot of requests for people who want to be first in line for any demo-testing, and a Newsletter will be one of the first places we announce it.

Secondly, it'll be an awesome source of SENTRY knowledge delivered direct to your inbox. We only send emails infrequently and when we've got a lot to talk about, so it's not one of those spammy newsletters we all hate.

And perhaps saving the best till last, anybody who signs up to the Newsletter gets their name in the game!.

We did this with our previous title Abandon Ship, where newsletter names were used for randomly generated crewmembers. You can read about the details of how it was used by clicking on the image below:



How does it work?

Each SENTRY is responsible for repelling alien invaders, drawn from ship crew who are kept in stasis until your vessel is boarded. Should your SENTRY perish in battle, another crew member will be activated until the threat is eliminated. The name of each SENTRY is pulled at random from a database, and being subscribed to the newsletter means your name is added to that database. So anyone who plays the game will potentially see you pop up :)

TLDR; if you're interested in SENTRY, sign up now!

https://sentrygame.com/newsletter

Our composer Barry Topping has been busy recently, so we've compiled some of his recent work into this post :)

First up, here is a snippet of combat music from the game:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
SENTRY uses a dynamic music system, which adjusts according to the events in-game. In order to reach this point however, Barry will create a fixed piece of music that he'll then create variations of, chop it into pieces and make stings to ensure a smooth transition between pieces.

If you'd like to hear him talk about this in more detail, there was a recent music-based event on Steam called "Save & Sound" that SENTRY participated in. During the event Barry and Design Lead Sean Noonan chatted with one another about their ambitions for the music, as well as how we approached the composition in the Announcement Trailer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
If you're interested in music and sound design in games, Save & Sound is an annual event you should definitely look out for in future.

Finally, the games section of music-themed Magnetic Magazine interviewed Barry, covering other aspects of being a composer in games, which you can read about here:

https://www.magneticmag.com/2022/08/barry-topping-interview-sentry-game/



We hope you enjoyed this dive into the music of SENTRY, we'll share more of this sort of thing in future!

Thanks,

Gary

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1252680/SENTRY/