Hey there and welcome. Great game you guys are working on, really cool !

Hi

Welcome to the SSC 🙂

Welcome to the forum Pixelmonkey and congratulations on finishing the game. 😎 😀

Thanks for that Sol. Ya'know, I spent a good bit of time trolling your site and models when we were in pre-production for Exodus. What a cool project you've got going on there. Glad to see that there are people using your models, as you've got some really cool designs. Part of me can't believe that you're just giving that up for free, but most of me thinks that's just about the coolest idea ever. It's obvious that you love it, but do you have a day job in the industry? I mean your stuff is professional quality and you've got an understanding of game assets obviously. I too love modeling spacecraft. I'd love to hear more about your process (I love process), do you start out with concept drawings (pencil and paper, digital illustrations), or do you prefer to just start modeling off some basic shapes and sort of free-form it from there? Got any weapons of choice? I use 3dsMax almost exclusively, but have been ramp-ing up Mudbox skills, trying to find a good workflow for doing hard-surface modeling with a sculpting tool. 😐 I also discovered the joys of working with CrazyBump, while developing Sol:Exodus, to create a lot of the normal maps that we use. I see you've got a Show Off thread in here. I'll have to check that out some more.

Thanks Pinback and Geraldine! It feels great to be at this finishing line. I'm taking a couple weeks to re-fresh and then it's back to the Sol universe and get cracking on some new assets for a couple DLC packages we have in mind. I would love to hear your feedback on the game once it's 'out there'. We've got big plans for the game and Exodus is just our initial offering for the genre. I know that Sol Exodus is not going to satisfy everyone's space cravings and wants, but we're not done with it, by a long shot!

Welcome PixelMonkey.

I know personally I cannot wait to see Sol Exodus come to the PS3 because it will be the first real space combat game on the platform. i remember you saying PC and Console for release would/could there be a port to tablets as well in the future? And even though it is just a small factor of the game itself, having spoken dialog for everything is great.

Being on the PS3 would be great! It's definitely a goal for us. We've as yet been unable to attract Sony's attention. Again, I put this up to a bias against the genre, but my question is 'how successful does Sol Exodus have to be for them to reply to our emails?' We spoke to them at E3 in March and they liked the concept and out pitch. They even talked to us about signing an exclusive (which they provide incentives for), but we haven't been able to get through since.

Now tablet... that is a real challenge! It's not so much the engine or maintaining the graphics, but a question of the controls. It would be beyond cool to play a game like Sol on a tablet, but where to put all the controls? We've got your Roll, Pitch and Yaw. Throttle, match-speed, plus guns, missiles, mag cannon, not to mention our Slide flight mechanic. 😀 I think we'd have to get into the UI.

I did but not any more. I actually took a very long break recently from anything 3D related and I'm ashamed to say but I forgot a lot of things (tips/tricks) related to making models and especially to making textures. I'll probably need to start learning these things again at some point cause I want to start making some cooler models for people to use.

Hehe, spaceships and stations are my number one thing, I really enjoy making this kind of models, so much that I barely make anything else. Like in 95% of the cases I usually make the models by starting with a box shape and going from there wherever inspiration takes me. I find the experience to be more rewarding this way cause I don't really know how the model will look until it's actually finished. About the software, I've tried lots and lots of them (probably all) but ultimately I stayed with Max, it really looks like it's the best for my needs. As for the texture, now I use something called "Fireworks", mostly because I forgot everything related to Photoshop as I haven't used it in years.

The art you guys have in your game really gets me jealous and makes me wanna get back on my feet.

Can't wait for Sol Exodus to be released, speaking of which, do you guys have a demo yet ?

No demo yet. It's in the works, but most likely won't be available for the first couple weeks after launch. It all depends on how well the game is selling.