Spring:1944 - Contact

About The Game

Spring: 1944 is a game that is well aware of the saturation of the WWII RTS genre, and strives to create something unique and worth playing in the face of that. Our goal as developers is to create a game for all brands of RTS players to enjoy, from hardcore WWII wargamers to more casual players just looking for a fun, free RTS. For us, realism is a tool to help define unit interactions, not a 'written in stone' set of rules that lock down our design and game play. After all - who really wants to have a tank break down in the midst of battle because of foreign mud in the petrol? We aim to abstract away from the aspects of the war that would lead to a frustrating and unfun game, while retaining those that have drawn players and wargamers to the WWII setting for years.

Contact

Press & Media

We're always excited to help magazines, websites and other media outlets who wish to explore and write about S:44, so contact us at spring1944 (at) gmail.com for exclusive screenshots, statements and other information! The tag of "[Press]" or "[Media]" in your email will help us address it as priority.

Contributors

We're also always on the hunt for more people to help with this immense project. If you would like to help and are skilled in 2d game art (skinning/texturing), Lua coding, sound effects, voice acting, music, UVMapping, or creating 3d models, please let us know! An email to spring1944 (at) gmail.com with a subject tag with the area of your expertise ("[Music]", "[Skins]", "[Sound FX]" ect) with some examples of previous work and a good way to get in touch with you is the best way to get our attention and a quick response.

Others

The same address as above - spring1944 (at) gmail.com -- can be used by anyone to get in touch with the team for any purpose. Alternatively, the S:44 forums are a great place to find us.

The Team

M_26_7 aka SpikedHelmet -- Co-lead, Skinner, Modeler
Spiked was one of the primary developers in the days of AATA, and has spent (not wasted!) many hundreds (perhaps thousands) of hours working on the various incarnations of the game. Currently his main roles are those of skinner and modeler, as well as team co-lead. Very nearly every unit you see in a screenshot of S:44 was textured by Spiked, and a good portion of them modeled by him as well. When he is not working on or playing dev builds of S44, Spiked plays tabletop Warhammer:40k and works towards the glorious workers' revolution in Canada.

FLOZi -- Co-lead, UVmapper, Modeler, Engine coder
FLOZi also hails from the dark days of AATA, and created the initial port of AATA to the Spring engine that got this whole S44 business started. Coder extraordinaire, FLOZi is the mastermind behind our armored unit scripts, various improvements to the Spring engine, and many excellent 3d models. These days he UVMaps models in preparation for Spiked's skinning work, and models units as his fancy takes him (see the Tiger, Tiger II, T-70 and the Marder for some highlights of his work). Outside of S44, FLOZi entertains wild dreams of a Cold War RTS, and defends Trotsky in endless debate with Spiked.

Nemo -- Co-lead, Game designer, Animator, Text monkey
Boo! I joined up with the project not long after FLOZi's first post about porting AATA to Spring, after I volunteered to spend a few hours doing dredge-work adding track decals to the wake of vehicles. These days I walk the fine line between insanity and ... more insanity in striving to balance and guide the design of this enormous game, write (and re-write, and re-write) animations for infantry, and generally muck around in the game's innards causing mayhem. Unlike FLOZi and Spiked, I am not a raving commie. Besides S44, I dabble in old games like Star Control 2, and flesh out wacky ideas for future games whenever I'm not buried under coursework.

Yuritch -- Lead modeler
Yuritch's productivity and talent in 3d modeling is truly a thing of wonder. With his help, nearly every non-naval unit from the planned unit list has been modeled in the last few months. He is, as we say, a machine. Proficient in most other aspects of building games on the Spring engine, Yuritch has at least one other project of his own, making the rest of us wonder where he keeps his time-travel device.

Felix the Cat -- "sponsor," 3d modeler, general hanger-on
In addition to generously paying for this domain and website hosting, Felix modeled several units now in-game, such as the ISU-152. Felix is currently working towards a place in the game industry as a freelance game programmer.

Other contributors, in no particular order
Neddiedrow: game testing and feedback, marketing, some icons
PressureLine: game testing & feedback, FX
Bobthedinosaur: infantry model
Dash_Riprock: several models
Hootie: a few models and skins
Neuralize: Daimler skin
Rattle: buildpics, general technical advice

History

Spring: 1944 is a game with a rather long history, as computer games go. Originally begun in 2002 as a single-unit modification for Total Annihilation called Axis & Allies TA, the game has since grown well beyond its original plans. The mod was completed in August of 2005, with the main dev at that point (M_26_7 / SpikedHelmet) deciding it was time to move on. Not long after, an early version of the Spring engine was released -- an engine designed to run content from Total Annihilation, and Axis & Allies TA was soon ported by a fan, and then by FLOZi in November of 2005. The port was then released in December 2006 with a few bits of new content (mostly infantry models) and updated game play elements.

Since that release, we have been rebuilding the game from scratch with new content and a new design philosophy. Our first release of the new build was the Lite Beta 0.2, which was unfortunately pulled back after discovering a crash bug that popped up with large team games. However, we are hard at work on the next version and hope to release a new (hopefully less crash-prone) build in the coming few months with lots of new features and units. Some of the things to look forward to include:

A fully implemented ammo system! Designed to create important, game-shifting targets on the battlefield, units now have a limited supply of ammo which must be replenished in order for them to fire. This refilling is accomplished by simply parking them within the radius of a supply depot, eliminating annoying micromanagement while maintaining the tactical importance and engaging game mechanics of limited ammo.
Heavy tanks! At long last we have Tigers, Tiger IIs, Churchills and IS-2s cruising our battlefields.
New explosion FX! Spiked managed to create some nifty new explosion effects, ranging from the small dirt-spray of a grenade or mortar, to the massive impact of a 132mm rocket.
Other nifty things which may be on the way (depending on how quickly things are completed: aircraft, new infantry animations, new infantry models, heavy tank destroyers, self-propelled guns, and more!