Broken Roads News

We're kicking off a new mini-series of trailers for the playable origin stories, starting with Hired Gun!

Broken Roads features four origin stories each with their own unique attributes, starting skills, and reputation around the world which changes how certain characters interact with you.

Check out our first Origin Story trailer here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Expect more trailers coming soon!

And if you’re wondering ‘hey Drop Bear Bytes, where’s your October update?', we’ve been non-stop busy making the game, adding polish, fixing bugs, closing out quests, wrapping up loose ends, recording videos, conducting media interviews, playtesting the game, and so on. There’s your update - now let us get back to it!

- The Drop Bear Bytes team

The Ardath Pub is a characterful establishment where a motley crew of artists, thieves, and thugs congregate to drink, play darts and get up to mayhem. To bring this place to life, Sara Laubscher, Lead Environment Concept Artist, worked closely with our Narrative Director, Leanne Taylor-Giles, in order to maintain an authentic ‘Aussie vibe’. Through pokie machines and a pool-table-turned-impromptu music stage around the back, we aimed to demonstrate the rowdy charm of the Ardath way of life.



We heavily referenced the real-life Ardath Hotel pub, which Leanne had personally visited. Sara created the concept that served as our blueprint, using isometric illustration techniques and photobashing renders of props we had already made for the game, in order to get the main ideas, mood and structure of the environment across as efficiently as possible.

Here are some images of the real Ardath pub:





Art Lead Bianca Roux expertly translated this room’s design into a 3D model using Maya and ZBrush to add the sculpted details:



Following this, Sara textured the scene in Adobe Substance Painter, maintaining the game's painterly style by applying gestural paint strokes in the grotty corners of the room, peeling paint and some graffiti on the walls for added authenticity.



Finally, Ryan Gee brought it all together in Unity, meticulously set dressing the scene to match the concept art and infusing it with additional environmental storytelling and mood-enhancing lighting. This collaborative process ensured that our interior scene not only remained true to the unique charm of the game’s narrative but also added depth to our post-apocalyptic Australian world as a whole.



We’ll have more to show soon in the September 2023 Update. You can also catch the Drop Bear Bytes art team on a live stream as part of the Melbourne International Games Week Steam Event live at the following times on Wednesday, 27 September :

5:00pm (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane)
3:00pm (Perth)
9:00am (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Barcelona, Warsaw)
8:00am (London)
3:00am (New York)
12:00am midnight (Los Angeles, San Francisco)

Thanks for reading. We hope to catch you on the live stream and answer any questions you may have!

- The Drop Bear Bytes team

Hey folks, we're doing a couple livestreams next week for Melbourne International Games Week and would love it if you joined us! Meet the dev team, the art team, ask us questions, and more!

Our first livestream will be the dev teams live AMA on Wednesday, September 27th at 9am AEST!

After that, our art team will be doing a live stream at 5pm AEST the same day!

For our North American friends, those dates are:

Live AMA: September 26th, 4pm PDT
Art Stream: September 27th, Midnight PDT

We're excited to announce that we're taking part in MIGW again this year!

MIGW is hosting its third annual Steam festival to highlight the broad range of video games developed in Victoria, Australia! Join us for a celebration of videogames and the people who make them from September 21 - 28, here on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/migw2023

The event will be featuring demos, sales & live streams so be sure to check it out!

The Broken Roads team will be hosting their own live stream next week for the event, details coming soon!