Stellar Flux - Firefly/Battlestar inspired space game

[DroneLocker]

Hello. So thx to Pinback's and DarkOne's kind words and the huge support from the members of Space[/url] Game Junkie I am once again developing a space game. Without giving out too much info - lemme drop some game art over here and see does it sparks any interest. (click to enlarge) [/url] [/url] ...sooo.... Whatcha think?

[sscadmin]

Art assets looking good, least one of us is good at art :)I was trying to look close at the ships and I didn't see any weapons?

[DroneLocker]

Art assets looking good, least one of us is good at art :)I was trying to look close at the ships and I didn't see any weapons? Turrets my friend. Turrets.Between you and me (and eventual millions who might come here ROTFL) I always thought that a 100-10000 meters long chunk of metal that has to turn itself to shot his moving enemy with his UNmoving cannons... Is the most absurd idea/design that Space Games has ever came up with. And is present in practically EVERY space game.One might imagine that if there is a civilization capable of spaceflight and shooting god damn lasers THEY REALLY SUPPOSE to figure out an auto-targeting, rotating gun stations. Even a freaking military jeep has a mounted M60 that can rotate and turn 360 degrees in all directions.And so is it here. Every spaceship from smallest to biggest has and use turrets. How many of them can be/is mounted depends on the ship class, size and technology. And turrets are of course separate sprites.

[McAule]

Any demo available? Looks nice. Reminds me of some other game ...

[DroneLocker]

Any demo available? Looks nice. Reminds me of some other game ...not really at this point. I started developing about 7 days ago lol.

[McAule]

Ok, fair enough. What type is it going to be? RTS? Or something else? I kinda hope it's going to be like X3 or Unending galaxy I just love space empire building games

[McAule]

I found those pics in my pc from like 10 years ago when I was doing some personal 3D moddeling... Some of them are crappy and unfinished, but still remembering good old times when I had time for my hobby  So go for some 3D as well mate, but, maybe, later after you finish this project and make a new one a sequel, but in 3D

[DroneLocker]

Ok, fair enough. What type is it going to be? RTS? Or something else? I kinda hope it's going to be like X3 or Unending galaxy I just love space empire building games  Its a very odd mix of genres. Ever seen Battle Star: Galactica? One whop-ass ship with the whole humanity remains on board, looking for a new home. That's what this is all about. So you have one huge mothership that you can upgrade. You mine asteroids, gas clouds and crystals for resources to upgrade everything or/and buy new type of weapons and gear. At the same time you have planets which you scan and investigate to gain "Data". Data is used to research new techs before you can build them. Most of those resources are being guarded by enemy ships which makes you unable to put your hands on the goodies. At least not until you turn them into scrap. Upon enemy death there is a chance that the enemy ship will not blow up as usual but will turn into a derelict - which you can then investigate to - by sending space marine teams on board to scavenge all resources and data that are left intact (and fight the enemy soldiers still alive on board of derelict). What else?Randomly generated game sectors. Being able to replay the game from the start but with the same captain (which levels and gains expirience as you play).I want to mix two powerful vibes from two classics: Star Trek meets Battlestar Galactica meets Firefly. So you have a lot of random adventures, missions, quests, exploration, treasure hunting, space battles. All in a nice retro-arcade-casual format. Casual because I am not lying here - I am not building an Indie Mass Effect. The goal is to keep the game casual but with optional deep. So you can hop on board in your coffee break, play the game for 10 minutes and still get some entertainment. Then you come back home and you can play it longer and explore more serious parts and elements which requires more time and focus. Beta version will be free to play in browsers, but the final version is only paid on Steam, Itch.io, Humble Bundle and others.Not to jinx it but you never seen something like this before. I cannot give more details because obviously I am too early in development and I am afraid that someone with more manpower and time might grab by idea and make it into their own game before I'll be able to. But let me repeat myself - I am 31 years old, I am playing videos for past 24 years. I've played and seen thousands of games. And a game like this had never before been created. Not this way. Not in such package. There are not many absolutely NEW elements, but the mixture of them is brand new. And I should have a working beta by the new year. I found those pics in my pc from like 10 years ago when I was doing some personal 3D moddeling... Some of them are crappy and unfinished, but still remembering good old times when I had time for my hobby  So go for some 3D as well mate, but, maybe, later after you finish this project and make a new one a sequel, but in 3D [PICS] Actually they are damn rad! I love them! They have this awesome retro vibe but with a modern touch. I dare you to reignite that hobby of yours. Its a waste seeing someone capable of creating such a nice models and NOT making them.As for my game - 3D is out of question. Because of countless reasons. 2D are sprites. And some 2D effects and shaders. 3D? models, mashes, diffuse textures, heightmaps, normals... And that's only a tip of the iceberg. Plus - I actually prefer 2D. If you go with 3d - it has to be a DAMN GOOD 3d. Otherwise it looks crap. In 2d - a lot of stuff can go under the radar and still get acceptance from the players (e.g. SPAZ). Plus, of course - 2D is just lighter for the game station. A well coded 2D game, with wise and professionally packed and reused gfx assets can run on practically any computer. So my audience is wider.

[McAule]

I'm 30 and I've been playing games, doing some coding, some 3d, some editing etc etc for like 25 years... (yeah I started early, my father was a fan of technologies especially pc's) I had commodore, atari, 286, 386, 486, first pentiums and so on. Battle Star: Galactica, Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Gate etc. etc. I've seen all good sci-fi movies and tv series. I'm a huge sci-fi fan mate. The concept reminds me a little of a recent Into the Void game and a bit of Starfarer. But with more elements. I like it. Don't forget to add player fleets, and player stations as well :)Nah, I don't have time for my hobby anymore. I've got 4 kids, so I barely have some free time for my leasure to play some games. But, maybe someday I'll get back to it, because this is my only hobby that I really like :)I agree though 2D is a good choice for it can be easier to implement things and less of a headache than with 3D. I like some 2D's like SPAZ, FTL, Starfarer, Escape Velocity etc etc. But You could also look into Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation game, with unity engine. It's very similar to EVE online. Graphics are not really a problem there it looks ok-ish, I loved it and finished the game with pleasure.So good luck to you mate on your project, I hope It's going to be a great game and a good beginning in your gaming career ;)Cheers mate. P.S. Pardon my english, it's not my native language

[DroneLocker]

I'm 30 and I've been playing games, doing some coding, some 3d, some editing etc etc for like 25 years... (yeah I started early, my father was a fan of technologies especially pc's) I had commodore, atari, 286, 386, 486, first pentiums and so on. Battle Star: Galactica, Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Gate etc. etc. I've seen all good sci-fi movies and tv series. I'm a huge sci-fi fan mate. The concept reminds me a little of a recent Into the Void game and a bit of Starfarer. But with more elements. I like it. Don't forget to add player fleets, and player stations as well :)Nah, I don't have time for my hobby anymore. I've got 4 kids, so I barely have some free time for my leasure to play some games. But, maybe someday I'll get back to it, because this is my only hobby that I really like :)I agree though 2D is a good choice for it can be easier to implement things and less of a headache than with 3D. I like some 2D's like SPAZ, FTL, Starfarer, Escape Velocity etc etc. But You could also look into Astrox: Hostile Space Excavation game, with unity engine. It's very similar to EVE online. Graphics are not really a problem there it looks ok-ish, I loved it and finished the game with pleasure.So good luck to you mate on your project, I hope It's going to be a great game and a good beginning in your gaming career ;)Cheers mate. P.S. Pardon my english, it's not my native language  Hah! High Five! :thankyou: 4 kids are a lot but I have one son 4yo too. Trust me. Its doable. Hard but still. Remember that we are not getting younger McAule. With each year you will "give a damn" less and less. Its now or never. Think about it.As for the game - a huge NO to player fleet. You got your mothership and that's mostly it. I want the player to really feel attached to the ship he rule. Kind a like with Enterprise. I want that feeling of isolation, hopelessness, that the ship you command is kind of a like Noah Ark.As for Unity - I freaking hate Unity. Its like with Windows - its a piece of shit that became the standard. If anything - I would go with newest Unreal Engine which I fallen in love with from the first moments I've opened the SDK.I have to check that Astrox thing, for inspiration. Thank you kindly! I was not aware of such game. Oh and sadly this won't be my first game. My mistake for not mentioning this sooner but I have four "more or less" commercial games published already. So I am not yet another "I wanna make my own mass effect!" sort of dev hah. I've even been a part of Witcher 1 writer team at some point, eons ago.Back to my game again for a moment - I aim for adventure. Literally. I think there is not enough "adventure" in most of modern space games. There's combat. Holy shit how "all over the place" the combat is. Or strategy. Or strategy and combat. Or some sandboxy grinding.McAule - remember Star Control? The storytelling, the quests, the adventure element. Or maybe in Faster Then Light the adventure/dialog module where you are given a description of the situation and choices how to go with it? Or Deathwar 3000? That's what I want to bring back and saturate. I want depth. I want players to be roleplaying without even them noticing.To be honest? Any more or less trained monkey can spew a 2D top down space game. Really, there are even "go-ready" templates just for that. But putting some juicy meat on the bones? That needs some skills. And I dare to claim I have what it takes.Oh and don't worry about the English. I am from Poland. I have never received any form of English language education. All I know comes directly from TV, anime, games and cartoons. So you will never hear a bad word from me in regards to "English" as I am more then aware how much my own vocabulary sucks. UPDATE:I would really want you to follow my little project Aule. I have re-read your post like 4th time already, about your playing games and movie tastes and bloody damn - you are like a brother from another mother to me =)

[McAule]

Single mothership, like in Battlestar Galactica and more or less in Homeworld? Like the idea.Best part of unity is it can run on toasters UE is for more modern pc's I'd say, but yeah UE is way better in terms of quality. Yeah, Astrox is kinda cool, I had to rip it to pc from a website as I dont like playing in browsers. Now it's on steam, check it out mate. Check "Into the Stars" on steam too mate. Well worth it!I thought you're from Poland once you mentioned Witcher I'm originally from Lithuania mate, but living in UK atm. So we were basically neighbours And my english came from same things as yours  I like adventuring-exploring in space games, that's why SC, FTL, freelancer, freespace where nice in terms of story, but I loved X series more because of empire building, a bit of strategy + combat and fleets Oh and Deathwar I loved it too. Nice little game. P.S.I'll follow your project till the end as it got my attention. Nice to find a person with similar tastes

[DroneLocker]

Single mothership, like in Battlestar Galactica and more or less in Homeworld? Like the idea.Best part of unity is it can run on toasters UE is for more modern pc's I'd say, but yeah UE is way better in terms of quality. Yeah, Astrox is kinda cool, I had to rip it to pc from a website as I dont like playing in browsers. Now it's on steam, check it out mate. Check "Into the Stars" on steam too mate. Well worth it!I thought you're from Poland once you mentioned Witcher I'm originally from Lithuania mate, but living in UK atm. So we were basically neighbours And my english came from same things as yours  I like adventuring-exploring in space games, that's why SC, FTL, freelancer, freespace where nice in terms of story, but I loved X series more because of empire building, a bit of strategy + combat and fleets Oh and Deathwar I loved it too. Nice little game. P.S.I'll follow your project till the end as it got my attention. Nice to find a person with similar tastes ;)To be honest Unity is just damn expensive in the long run. Sure you get the basics for free. But anything more and you have to pay, and pay annually. Want a iTunes exporter? Pay hundred bucks. And then again after a month. If you want to use the full power of Unity you will make your wallet dry. When with UE you get whole package right off the bat. Plus - I have a very bad opinion about Unity developers. They were one of the first to come up with this caliber engine on the scene. But after initial hype and hypewagon - they've became lazy. Patching and updates once every 4 months? That's how it was. Then Epic came with their newest Unreal Engine and Unity like pooped their pants. Because their monopoly just broke. If Epic would not show up - they would never release Unity5 but just sit on their butts, all to busy counting cash. Oh and Unity web-plugin got blacklisted by Chrome couple of months ago.The more you say about yourself the more similarities I discover hehe. I'll be honored to have you around.

[DroneLocker]

So I got something nice and damn colorful :)BETTER QUALITY HERE>>>[/url] 

[DroneLocker]

Had to remade the suns. Whatcha think?BETTER QUALITY: [/url]

[DroneLocker]

UPDATE 3: Planets and their shadows.So yeah. Added planets. But just planets felt kind a lame. So I've made a dynamic shadow casting to all of them. Dynamic because their length depends on the distance between the planet and the sun. Additionally all planets are slightly tinted by the color of the sun. "Wow! Just like in real life!!!!" :DDDD(click to enlarge)[/url] STOP: Asteroids/Gas Clouds/Crystals aka all the goodies you can milk for minerals.

[DroneLocker]

Some more spaceporn =)

[McAule]

Any black holes? Neutron stars, quasars, pulsars?  Edit: Nice pics

[DroneLocker]

Any black holes? Neutron stars, quasars, pulsars?  Edit: Nice pics ;)Christmas came and christmas went. Sorry for the delay. Soooooooo...~ Lets see.Black Holes? Checked! Neutron stars eh? Coming right up! Quasars? Nah. Quasars are attached to hyper black holes, that are the center of galaxies. Quasars in game would be bigger then the whole game map. Plus it would outshine everything and anything. They are the most luminous known space objects. What was next? Ahhhh, yes. Pulsars. Need anything else? :3

[McAule]

Bloody nice pictures mate Loving them Add some moons to the planets, comets, asteroids, nebulas, gas clouds, planets with asteroid belts and binary stars too :)Resize some planets, from small to huge, same should apply to suns aswell. P.s.I'd exclude torus and shell type planets, they seem unnatural to me, but that's just my two cents

[DroneLocker]

Bloody nice pictures mate Loving them Add some moons to the planets, comets, asteroids, nebulas, gas clouds, planets with asteroid belts and binary stars too :)Resize some planets, from small to huge, same should apply to suns aswell. P.s.I'd exclude torus and shell type planets, they seem unnatural to me, but that's just my two cents :)You have no idea how happy I am to read this :)I've been playing with the idea of moons but they would only make a mess out of the gameplay in my case. Comets are on the way. Flying asteroids - just finished them. Mineable asteroids - soon. Nebulas - plenty of those in the background. Gas clouds - as with mineable asteroids. Asteroid Belts - soon... :3. I've also played with the idea of dual star systems but as with moons - when being for the sake of realism and diversity - they would only complicate the gameplay. As for planets and suns sizes - they are all random, in reasonable range of course. Also... UPDATE! :DSo I've added stray asteroids that fly here and there. But they are not just static decoration, oh no! They are quite interactive (I mean, for a fat chunks of space rocks. Its not like they talk or camp at Starbucks) which stands for hitting each other, colliding with suns, planets, being sucked into Black Holes if too close, or even your and enemy ships! That's right folks, better install couple of those Point Defense stations. Just in case. Otherwise you might find your hull covered with holes like a Swiss cheese. Not to spoil the fun but... With the right but quite rare tools - you might find a way to actually use those stray asteroids to your advantage... (wink wink)Now, time for some long promised - MOVING PICTURES!!! :DSadly... I could not just record a video. The game is light-weight and nicely optimized but still... My workstation PC is around 7 years old with a lot of its hardware at the edge of expiration. Video recording, specially in high definition and 60FPS always rapes your PC, regardless do you record newest Far Cry or Windows Solitary. Sadly, My PC has proven to be unable to record a smooth and solid 60FPS in HD. So instead - I've made a animated GIFs.The bad news? The quality suuuuuuuucks & swallows due to GIF 256 colors limitation, shitty framerate and big size of the images. But hey, that's all I could do for now. Do yourself a favor and after opening this page - just leave it for a while. The total size of all images is around 50 MB. So be patient young padawan - Its worth it. Anyway, lets take a tour, shall we?Nasty Black Hole sucking in all those poor asteroids :(Yellow Dwarf burning gloriously.An elder Red Dwarf.Ancient Neutron Star brightening the eternal dark...Raging Pulsar, bursting and turning faster then the human eye can see.