I'm making a space game called Liberation. I really loved the original Elite (1984) on PC and classic uk scifi such as Blake's 7 (found it during covid) and Red Dwarf.
I don't have huge amounts to show just yet, an announcement trailer and a "first look".
I have a vision for the game but I'd love to hear what features others imagine a game like this should have.
Sharing the Steam page and/or wishlisting is really appreciated too!
Support for higher resolutions!! I love the art direction, but I would like everything rendered in 1440p!!!! ? ? ?
Think I might agree 😉 I just bought this 4k monitor .... but art style is nice and definitely brings me back 25 years playing on that Amiga. Is the music in your videos music from the game @classyk?
Jumpgates! I wanted to have a jump drive as a ship upgrade but I think it would unbalance the missions at the moment.
On the system map have the sun in the centre and the planets, moons and stations going out in their orbits, even if it just a 2D map of the system.
I guess this might be the first disappointment for some ... I've made some "brutal" design decisions with Liberation. I really didn't want to do newtonian physics or realistic space. There's one planet per system but hopefully each world is interesting and necessary to the story. As a kid I loved imagining the differences between Lave, Leesti, Diso and Ridequat. So that's what I want to capture. I just want to do a kind of "all killer no filler" space game. Like, get people to the meat as quickly as possible.
Request for docking or landing on a planet ie you have to press a key to dock and not just space bar to auto dock.
At the moment you have to guide the ship into the docking ring. How important is that "request docking permission" thing? I wouldn't mind that...
Coms chatters in the background, just adds atmosphere to the game world.
I love this idea a lot and have been adding a rudimentary version today. I think it really works well on the plague world where the civilian ships are trying to flee but the GalFed cruiser is shooting them down. "We're just civilians!" "We're clean! Don't shoot".
Radar in the centre of the hud.
Ok, I'm trying to do this without the classic spacesim radar. I'm struggling a lot but I'm desperate to have as little clutter on the screen as possible. A lot of the radar benefits I have worked into the UI in other ways (for example the other ships have labels that show the distance and direction). But I think if players tell me the game needs it I will add it.
Match target speed key, makes combat more fun and it's amazing how many of these sorts game miss that out.
I like this and will try and do it.
Blake 7 a classic ? and not many people have seen Star Cops.
I mean, Star Cops is sensational. It's maybe the "hardest" scifi show made, even more so than The Expanse. The planetary shuttles in Liberation are a homage to Star Cops.
Something I "got" from Star Cops that's not entirely visible in the game is the kind of "harder scifi" aspect of the ships. I've tried generally to make them without an "up or down" and composed of modules (eg trusses, pods, reactors) that are shared across designs to give it a kind of an engineer-y vibe. Like the Eagles from Space:1999.
Support for higher resolutions!! I love the art direction, but I would like everything rendered in 1440p!!!! ? ? ?
Think I might agree 😉 I just bought this 4k monitor .... but art style is nice and definitely brings me back 25 years playing on that Amiga. Is the music in your videos music from the game @classyk?
I'm going for an Amiga feel! The in-universe explanation is that thinking machines are banned and computers are limited to roughly the speed on a 1990s Amiga but they've had a century to really really optimise for the hardware and they do stuff with it we never imagined.
The low resolution is only one aspect of the visuals ... it is a really modern engine under the hood (Godot 4.1). As well as particles and 3D physics the game uses a lot of cutting edge stuff like signed distance field global illumination, volumetric fog and screen-space indirect lighting.
I have a 4k screen too and the game is developed for 1920x1080 screens. I consider the low res/low poly stuff is the "art direction" on the game. All the models are designed for low res. I know it'll lose some people for sure but I think it looks awesome.
[Five minutes later] So I just went and ran the game with the resolution rules relaxed. I don't mind it. It doesn't feel as "warm" to me. But I will add it to my task board to make a menu setting. So the default will be the beautiful low res but people have the option.
it is a really modern engine under the hood (Godot 4.1)
This is a really interesting game engine. And since I 've found mysellf with a lot of free time with my hands lately, I got into C++, and I am thinking of trying also Godot also!!
I mean, Star Cops is sensational. It's maybe the "hardest" scifi show made, even more so than The Expanse. The planetary shuttles in Liberation are a homage to Star Cops.
Something I "got" from Star Cops that's not entirely visible in the game is the kind of "harder scifi" aspect of the ships. I've tried generally to make them without an "up or down" and composed of modules (eg trusses, pods, reactors) that are shared across designs to give it a kind of an engineer-y vibe. Like the Eagles from Space:1999.
Nice ? and I'm sure I seen a ship which looks like the one from Silent Running, have always found it a bit disappointing that game devs do not put in more nods or homages to classic sci-fi films, just small things like naming a station B5 or K7 ect.
Are you going from a variable speed control?.
Hope it not the W,A,S,D control where you have to keep your finger on the W key to go forward. It been a complete disaster in the more open world game like Star Point gemini 3. Only works in Everspace because of the tiny densely populated playing arear.
Will the jump gates have a number of different destinations or will it just to the next system?.
Stay away from the space cadet story line, who go's on an intergalactic quest to track down some aliens that killed his parent or dog or something as it's done far too many times. in fact looking at the video I got the impression that you maybe thinking about a Blake 7 sort of story.
Did I see a Professor Quatermatter in there? Nice! The Professor Quatermass serials were classic sci-fi from the fifties.
I have a knack for doing callbacks to british scifi. It's a skill. But for the life of me I haven't been able to find a way to reference "Watt on Earth". I think maybe it just has no redeeming features at all?
Are you going from a variable speed control?. Hope it not the W,A,S,D control where you have to keep your finger on the W key to go forward.
That does sound awkward. I'm literally taking inspiration from the original Elite. W-S for pitch, A-D for roll. <-> for speed. (So no yaw?). But it is also playable on a controller. I'm trying to add remapping but it's tough for me technically. One of the reasons I came here was to get more oversight on what a space game needs, you know? I have a vision for the game but I feel like it's building a bridge and want ideas on how to fill that middle gap.
It been a complete disaster in the more open world game like Star Point gemini 3. Only works in Everspace because of the tiny densely populated playing arear.
Will the jump gates have a number of different destinations or will it just to the next system?.
Jumpgates have a 1:1 link. It's a smaller game for sure, I just want people to get in, have a good time, and reach the end. I would be more likely to add jump drives than multi-destination gates.
Stay away from the space cadet story line, who go's on an intergalactic quest to track down some aliens that killed his parent or dog or something as it's done far too many times. in fact looking at the video I got the impression that you maybe thinking about a Blake 7 sort of story.
There's one scene from a later episode of Blake's 7 that I really appreciated. It was smuggled security footage from a planet where the population are riding escalators blissfully drugged and the federation guards are shooting them down solely for fun and the civilians don't even react, they just step over the dead.
I really liked it because it showed WHY Blake and Avon were fighting the Federation. It was chilling. So in Liberation you've escaped from prison and you want to bring down this kind of government. Although it is meant to be darkly comedic.
There IS a space cadet in the game but she keeps getting promoted until she's Supreme Fleet Admiral...
This post was modified 1 year ago 2 times by classyk
I have two of the running!!! Make a pistorm32 lite version!!!! ? And I really liked the hi res image!!!
OK I have added the hi res option to the menu for the philistines 😀 I had an amiga (2nd hand, long after their hey day) and I loved having something different. Computers are very-samey-samey now. Amiga had a different OS, a different way of doing hardware, different colours/modes, different software (Deluxe Paint). My memory is a bit hazy but I don't think they should've added a PCI port. It became so ... common... after that.
EDIT: I just checked out the PiStorm32 lite -- that is so unbelievably cool (the concept and the shape). I checked, Godot hasn't been ported to OS4... people have looked into but there are a lot of blockers unfortunately. I guess we have to stick with the original Elite and Elite II, although I have gut feeling oolite would run on OS4. I'm SURE there's a port of SDL (def for OS4 and maybe OS3.x) and my guess is that would be the biggest stumbling block (one of MANY though).
Ah wow! I LOVE IT. This idea of "Simulation elements are added to the game in service of creating engaging and deep gameplay, never just for the sake of realism." is exactly what I've been aiming for. I see what you mean about higher res but still stylized.
it is a really modern engine under the hood (Godot 4.1)
This is a really interesting game engine. And since I 've found mysellf with a lot of free time with my hands lately, I got into C++, and I am thinking of trying also Godot also!!
Yeah, I used to roll my own engines but Godot is the real deal imo.
I notice Tiny Combat Arena went Early Access. I like the idea of working with the players to guide development but it's also a big commitment. I don't want a 100 devlog situation developing...
I bought a PiStorm32 lite, to install it in a A1200 or CD32, for fun!! But that's it!! I never bothered with OS4 or PPC Amigas, and I prefer running my games in emulators!!
I think you should downloads and try FFED3D and FFED3DAJ patches from this site.
Ah wow! I LOVE IT. This idea of "Simulation elements are added to the game in service of creating engaging and deep gameplay, never just for the sake of realism." is exactly what I've been aiming for. I see what you mean about higher res but still stylized.
That's why I still play 90's , early 00's sims (and Strike Fighters 2)!! Playing DCS or Microsoft Flightsim, feels like real work!!
I notice Tiny Combat Arena went Early Access. I like the idea of working with the players to guide development but it's also a big commitment. I don't want a 100 devlog situation developing...
Can't argue with that!! Even though I buy Early Access games, I don't play them untill they leave EA. But sometimes they stay there forever:
Are you going from a variable speed control?. Hope it not the W,A,S,D control where you have to keep your finger on the W key to go forward.
That does sound awkward. I'm literally taking inspiration from the original Elite. W-S for pitch, A-D for roll. <-> for speed. (So no yaw?). But it is also playable on a controller. I'm trying to add remapping but it's tough for me technically. One of the reasons I came here was to get more oversight on what a space game needs, you know? I have a vision for the game but I feel like it's building a bridge and want ideas on how to fill that middle gap.
The Elite flight model is fine. ?
Steams early access is a bit of a double edged sword although you would probably get some good feed back from it, far too many people seem to forget that the devs making the game have day jobs and are not able to work on the their game full time.
@pinback Having been working on it a bit more, I don't think I will go early access. It's not the type of game that can sit in development for a year. I want to "get in and get out"... make a tight game that doesn't outstay its welcome. All killer no filler, etc.
I look at it a bit like painting, I want to paint Liberation with big brush strokes that are a little bit loosely applied. Here ends my Saturday morning ramble.
@pinback Having been working on it a bit more, I don't think I will go early access. It's not the type of game that can sit in development for a year. I want to "get in and get out"... make a tight game that doesn't outstay its welcome. All killer no filler, etc.
I look at it a bit like painting, I want to paint Liberation with big brush strokes that are a little bit loosely applied. Here ends my Saturday morning ramble.
It also avoids the update whiners who seem to think updates should be every week and multi-player taliban.
@pinback Having been working on it a bit more, I don't think I will go early access. It's not the type of game that can sit in development for a year. I want to "get in and get out"... make a tight game that doesn't outstay its welcome. All killer no filler, etc.
I look at it a bit like painting, I want to paint Liberation with big brush strokes that are a little bit loosely applied. Here ends my Saturday morning ramble.
It also avoids the update whiners who seem to think updates should be every week and multi-player taliban.
I don't mind a bit of passion... too much feedback is better than too little hah
