Hi Bob

I can't remember if I saw it on your blog or not. Is Space Command One going to be free or will this be commercial?

And a little off topic question for SCO, I noticed I have to install the Unity plugin to play (which is fine). But was wondering how is this game hosted? Did you just install this on a webserver and people just play by going to the link? Or do you have a dedicated server to host everything for you?

And will people be able to create their own servers and host games for people to play?

All good questions 🙂

Space Command One is going to be released for free, playable online. As the Alpha, it will use the Unity engine and be playable online either on my site, or through game portals such as Kongregate. Eventually, I will be making a new version of the game that will be a commercial release that will have more features and be more RTS oriented. That is far in the future though, for now, free releases all around. Think of Super Meat Boy - released free as Meat Boy online, eventually a new version Super Meat Boy was released commercially.

The unity file (in this case SCOAlpha.Unity3d) is hosted on my site, and the plug-in allows you to play it through your browser. I might give a standalone Mac or PC version in the future for the online release, but for now I figured letting people play directly in the browser is the best way to let people see it. Since its just a plug-in thats accessed through Javascript, the actual game page is made by Unity and it links to the Unity file. So its not really installed per se, but its all done through the website.

Since this is not an online game, though I haven't ruled out a competitive multiplayer for the eventual commercial release, people will not be able to or need to create their own servers and / or host. Everything is instanced per game session.

Cheers,

Marcin

Gave the game a whirl last night and overall the gameplay is solid and a good test. I will list some pros/cons I observed while playing:

Pros:

- Missile weapons seemed to track perfectly even after the target was destroyed they moved to a new one.

- The machine guns tracked targets good as well.

- Buying and upgrading weapon mounts was simple and straight forward.

- The holding ctrl and LMB was a nice touch to see the battle from different angles.

- Liked the explosions, especially when playing with the camera angles.

Cons:

- Right around wave 35 you should be maxed out on all weapon mounts and I generally spread weapon type distribution equally. Now that weapons are maxed you just sit back and watch you get overwhelmed with no way to destroy a weapon mount and create a different type.

- The blocks (after wave 39) really swarm the ship and actually don't do as much damage as they should

- Be able to start next wave as soon as your ready and not wait for the timer

- Probably don't have control over this. But I noticed that when I was maxed on weapons and waves were coming I would switch to a different tab in the browser. The game would go into a paused state instead of continuing in the background can that be changed?

Recommendations for the alpha demo:

- Make weapon mounts destroyable (recoup cost)

- Maybe add a flak gun for upclose to the battleship

- Lots of targets and explosions scream sound effects 🙂

- Ability to manually start next wave

- Added difficulty in a way that when you start getting hit by the targets that some of the gun turrets get damaged

Overall a solid first effort and the Unity plugin worked like a charm and didn't observe any lag during game play.

W00t, glad you enjoyed what is out there!

I'd love to address some of your points, if I could 🙂

Pros -

- Missile tracking is one of my proudest things, I love the way it works. I think I got a good balance of big wavy curves and good tracking

- Machine guns work well, but only when enemies are on a regular course. If its irregular, they won't be as effective in the future. They're definitely not guaranteed hits!

-Simply upgrading was the goal, glad it worked for you!

- Moving the camera is definitely useful. I added the CTRL / LMB combo so you wouldn't click and accidentally move the camera.

- Explosions are awesome 🙂

Cons -

- The wave / upgrade ratio is off, I didn't get a chance to play test it. I should have made it only 25 waves, since by wave 30 I am always maxed out. In the future I'm going to add a sell button as well as re-work the wave / upgrade system so its not so easy to max out and you have to make choices.

- Yeah, damage doesn't go as high as it needs to. It'll be taken care of in the future when I remove the health, make it just a 20 hits you're dead kinda situation. Plus I'll lower the amount of enemies to make them more of a threat.

- I put in the timer so people had time to upgrade, but I agree, I need a "send next wave" button for the future.

- I noticed that too, about the pausing when you switch windows. I didn't know it would do that, but I gotta figure out how it works so I can add a pause button. Then I can try to figure out how to stop it happening automatically.

As for your suggestions :

- Flak guns are in my plan, but the explosions cost a lot of system resources so they are a low priority until I know how to make them look good and be cheaper on the system.

- I have some sound effects made, I just ran out of time before the Alpha release to put it in. I got a friend working on music for the future, but for now I also have filler music I will put in soon.

Other news :

I am hoping to finish a further along alpha / beta build by the 15th of February to submit to the Kongregate Unity Game contest. The primary gameplay is going to stay the same, but there are going to be huge changes such as :

-3 Different turret types, each with its own purpose / enemy it is good against. They will be sellable, and have options such as their preferred target, targeting parameters, etc.

- Enemies will be revamped. Cubes will stay in as "kamikaze" enemies for pure damage, but will be spawned from enemy "motherships." Other enemies will include enemy fightercraft that attack your ship, and enemy missiles you must destroy.

- Upgrade system will be revamped from a money based system to a "token" based system, making upgrades more important and giving more choice about how to proceed.

- Minor story line in addition to survival mode.

Otherwise, I am glad you enjoyed the Alpha and I can't wait to get more stuff out there!

Cheers,

Marcin

Hey all!

Sorry I have not been as active, but I have been busy! New stuff coming out for SCO very soon, with actual update blog posts resuming today. Check it out! Sneak preview about the new SCO Variant 1 game for you SpaceSimCentral folk. Its to feature local two player vs mode and MAYBE an online versus mode.

Cheers,

Marcin

If I remember the first beta correctly this had blocks coming at you which were waves of ships. Now that there is some ships, will be nice to see if obstacles do cause some problems and on occasion a fighter should be taken out by moving debris. I take it that the shield rating will be a bit lower since there is a recharge for it? In your comments it sounds like your ship will have fighters as well?

Yes, you are correct that in the first beta just blocks were coming at you. For this new variant, both you and the enemy will have a stationary point (in SCO it was the main ship, for the Variant it will be a space station) that both launch fighters that can fight it out in the middle of an asteroid field. This will be explained in more detail in a new blog post come tomorrow.

The shields, which are awesome!, are going to be reworked a bit. They will regenerate, but to save system resources and allow better fighting scenes, I'm going to put them on a one hit kill system. That will allow things like fighterships to sustain two hits (shields then hull) before being destroyed. In addition, if the 2nd killing shot doesn't come quickly enough then the shields will recharge and will have to be destroyed again before another shot can kill the fighter. Bombers will be able to sustain more damage to shields (2 hits) and the shields protecting your base will be able to sustain even more (something like 20 hits, I imagine).

Cheers,

Marcin

WOW man this game is great and it's barely an alpha ?! It's almost as addictive as "Towers" but with updated graphics, sounds and just a few gameplay enhancements it could be much, much better. Very nice job !

Congratz

The only thing that actually bothers me at this time is the huge lag, to the point where the game actually freezes for a second or two and it plays again a second and so on. My PC specs are:

CPU - P4 3Ghz

RAM - 3gb

Video - 512mb

Edit: at wave 22 I was maxed hehe, after that point I started watching a movie and let the game play by itself in the background 🙂

Hey SolCommand -

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! It's only an Alpha, and a lot of stuff has changed behind the scenes since it was posted. Its kind of out of date, but, no better version yet available. Don't worry, there will be better graphics, sounds, and gameplay enhancements in the future.

I am sorry that there was a huge lag for you! I don't know if its because it was made on an old version of Unity, or what. I'm not experiencing it, however, I believe your processor may be the bottleneck here. Lots of physics calculations and though your video card and RAM are good, the old processor (if it really is a P4. Really?) is probably limiting it. For future releases, I'm going to get some quality sliders in the game to let people turn down the game if they so desire.

Also, for everyone, there is a new post on the blog talking about SCO Variant 1. Its coming, and it will be sweet. Stay tuned, and thanks for playing!

Cheers.

Marcin