SpaceSimCentral

Hello SSC,I am a 34 yo professional game developer with a background in graphic design. My hobbies are music, philosophy, cycling, writing, computer engineering, cosmology, metapatterns, yadda esoteric shit yadda, and I'm from Eastern Europe, and that alone hopefully explains a lot (being this much crazy, non-rich, and too versatile is kinda bad for health :banghead:).As my nick implies, I have always had a great passion for space and anything related to it. As a kid I devoured scientific and popular literature, encyclopedias, as well as games that even touched the topic, but as the time went by, somehow the entire world turned its back on me and my interests. Of course, nowadays I'm hooked on the Internet, but that just makes me knowledgeable about stuff I can't do anything with.To cut the story short, every decision I've made in my professional career, and every skill I've trained so far, has lead me one step closer to being able to make games on my own. Almost every second of my spare time would be spent in making some sort of ludicrous mathematical prototypes, crazy-looking mundane applications, artistic minimalism, UI and UX, and experimenting with new kinds of visuals and multimedia.I wasn't that lucky with my professional work, you see. Living in Eastern Europe has its economic downsides when it comes to anything related to imagination, almost as if noone understood what's the point of having a dream in the first place, especially during the nineties. So the best work I could get was the print and advertising, and much later I got to code cool stuff in Flash (even though I'm coding since I was 7, but as you all know there is no diploma for being talented).And at the time, 10 or 15 years ago, it seemed as if the whole world was struck by some virus that killed not only imagination, but sheer intellect as well. The games went from dry to sorrowful, from souless to completely idiotic, from bad to the worst possible, from DLCs to microtransaction, and as "the suits" completely took over the industry, sci-fi (if it actually got through) turned all glittery and magicky to appeal to these new trends and demographics. So I'm glad that somehow changed, and moreover, I'm glad that since recently, I see more and more signs there are others like me, who actually crave for what I think is missing (well ok, not entirely, but there are still a few wishes unfulfilled) -- a deeply immersive, smart sci-fi sandbox game. I know that's the tricky one to make right and to leave any mark at all, but I am old enough to still remember the most of the good ones if it helps.Elite (and Elite: Frontier), Wing Commander (series), Tie Fighter, X-Wing, Descent: Freespace (1, 2), Hard Nova, Star Control (1, 2), Exodus 3010, Reunion, Iron Seed, Master of Orion (it came out a year after I've decided on my pseudonym), were just some of them. I got a little carried away yesterday when I saw someone on this site asking for a game similar to "FTL with actual controllable gameplay" so I've registered and immediately BABBLED my-oh-my-so-preciously-precious game concept which I've designed around some of the key points I feel undervalued on the scene, whether it's indie or otherwise. It was a basic reply, but it got reeally long, because I'm a lunatic who's destined to be endlessly babbling about his ideas and concepts, especially the ones I'm working on. Sorry moderators! And that's the thing, last year I finished a year-long commercial game development for a gaming studio I worked for. I have fulfilled my dream, and believe me when I say that's really something when you grow up in a third-world country, uneducated, underappreciated, and broke most often than not. I have transcended the place of my origin, so to speak, ready for the new frontiers.But somehow, over the course of this endeavor, and although this project fared quite well, I developed a strong urge to detach from the commercial way of thinking. My imagination was all in the wrong places, as I caught myself thinking about how to trick people into greater retention numbers, balancing the grind so that the microtransaction pays off.... Was that my dream? Who was I? We could've made something much more greater, but we in fact couldn't, so I've quit.Fuck mobile industry. This year I am making my own game, I even got some small investment to keep me rolling, and got myself some friends in the business. That means I'm all in, and it's really a big deal for me. Right now, I think it's ok to share with all of you what I've been doing, as I've been making a prototype for several months now. Like I said, it is a twitch-based sci-fi sandbox survival game set in space, but a cleverly designed one, and I intend for it to grow, and to be infinitely replayable. I resent any kind of generic content, as well as anything that feels too abstract, and really any form of mindless grinding, so don't expect these to pop up unexpectedly. I'm turning full indie so no microtransations either, no free-to-play, no MMO, and no DRM. Just a straightforward singleplayer experience that lets you be out there, gives you tools, a proper world to explore, and a meaningful storyline, all while trying to be as (scientifically) accurate as possible (I like games from which people can learn from), as well as imaginative. Of course there are a couple of things to make this game stand out on its own, and I feel there isn't a great deal of games that provide the method of customisation this thoroughly. So here's the long post I've posted earlier: 
Hello there,I simply had to join up, because I am currently developing a game that fits well into a space-sim sandbox-survival genre, and it is nice to see there are others who feel the same as I feel -- that the world needs less minmaxing and more exploration.I haven't purchased a domain yet so I cannot disclose the name (although it's the working title, and will most surely change at some point), but let's call it "T6" for the sake of communication. Basically I'm looking for a sandbox type game (honestly doesn't matter if it's 3D or top-down 2D, as long as it's not ancient), that puts you in control of a ship which is preferably a large ship, but if it's a 2D top down game then imagination can go a long way . Well, T6 is essentially a sandbox survival game with a top-down 2D view (but with dynamically-lit textured 3D assets).The ship I've started toying around with has about 1,800 metric tons (that's the mid-sized tug class). The game also simulates physics quite well -- that includes the thrusting forces as well as the true scale of the solar systems. There is no direct interaction with the major celestial bodies however, but planets and natural satellites tend to be pivotal for the game (and will be hanging in the background, once the player is well inside the gravity well). T6 will include 2D orbital motion of all major system bodies.I'm doing my best to make the game quite entertaining and not tedious, so given the scale some faster-than-light technobabble is a requirement (especially if I get to make the multiplayer mode), but I am currently aiming for a hard-ish sci-fi type of singleplayer experience, with an immersive Cowboy Bebop (& Firefly) -inspired space odyssey (featuring FTL-like storytelling and mandatory permadeath).You might think of it as twitch-based Don't Starve set in space.Or, even better, FTL meets Star Control space sim. I'm not really interested in 'dog fighting', which is what 90% of the space sim games seem to revolve around, but rather a game centred around exploration and random procedural generated events and what not. Of course I don't mind combat, but every new game out there these days seems to be 'accept trade mission or fight pirates mission, rinse, repeat'. A good example would be FTL with actual controllable gameplay. This, good sir, is why I had to join spacesimcentral. You've hit a nail on the head.There is combat in T6, but it is one of the three main "pillars" holding the game together: exploration, combat, and economy. I expect from the players to balance all three in order to survive, so the survival aspect is not a chore you have to maintain just for the sake of it, but it binds the experience into a coherent whole.Basically, you are a person/pilot/captain inside one of the ship modules (the Pod; not to be confused with Eve-online pods), fitted with some basic life support and navigational systems, thermal and radiation shielding, water and nutrition supply, starting off in a relatively safe corner of the galaxy, having to plough his way through Five Chapters which are somewhat predestined, but randomly picked for the selected character in a procedurally-generated map.The map is divided into Parsec Sectors, all of which may contain 1-2 unique and meaningful star systems, usually harboring some form of intelligent activity.The way the map is assembled is not a known fact at the beginning, so the player will find himself looking for the rumors, maps, missions, permits, and equipment to embark anywhere further away from the starting Sector. The map isn't linear either.T6 is driven by the ad-hoc generated storyline which ties together the predesigned factions inhabiting the map. The player is free to engage faction NPCs (which may be stationed or piloting other ships) in any plausible way to gain more knowledge, access, loot, and allies.The dialogs will occur in real-time and much "to the point" (FTL is a good example, without the pausing obviously). There is no typical narrative, the game unfolds more in a manner of meaningful emergent behavior. "Quests", errands, bounties, trading routes, and anything else a player might commit to, will provide more structure, unveiling the mystery surrounding the player, and allowing him/her to speculatively minmax, so that the intelligence and factional engagements play a big role. The way T6 culminates (within the Five Chapters) is really a broad test of one's ability and adaptability, constantly providing somewhat contradicting but immersive abstract challenges. Think of Minecraft (or even Dwarf Fortress) in terms of how you are never told specifically what to do and where to go, and then there is an absolute absence of any kind of hand-holding tutorial. I don't think such a game exists unfortunately, but anything flexible and sandboxish like that would surely fit the bill. It is true. That's why I had this feeling this was the best of times to start a project like this. All other space games focus too much on combat, strategy, or 4X. I wanted a game that conveys that feel of belonging to something bigger, yet out of reach.I want for the players to feel curious, and to occasionally feel so alone in space til they turn back for the bustling stations, mining outposts, and pirate-ridden clouds. Clearly I want a game in which you're not a God, but you can become a Space Hero if you have what it takes. However, I wouldn't like any of you to get a wrong impression of T6, as it's not similar to SPAZ or Space Rangers, so let me disclose its key (non-abstract, non-narrative) aspects. Because the game is driven by physics, the "meat & potatoes" of T6 lies in its engine: a modular assembly of its ships constrained by the actual physics, and some other equally fair limitations: To expand from the fragile and rigid Pod design, the player is free to stumble upon new or used ship modules, all of which may be entirely unique to the generated map. These are not pure boxes, but feature somewhat industrial and sometimes complex LEGO designs, with materials and visuals of their own (that look good in various combinations, and represent somewhat industrial look; pictures will come later, sorry). In terms of parameters, on the other hand, think of Borderlands weapons, for example. These modules might drop from other vessels upon destruction, or they are to be found in stores and factories. Some can be even manufactured by the player alone. All of these modules have a clear purpose (and a manufacturer, who is tied to a faction and might stick to some kind of a business strategy -- think of the keywords: cheap, high-end, thrusters, pods, weaponry, crappy, top-notch, cooling, banned...), allowing the player to bring together interesting designs that represent the optimum solution for the overall role of the vessel. Form vs. function is the puzzle of this game, enabling the underlying engine to stress-test the whole thing in a simulator-ish fashion. The rules of the ship assembly already cover many systems that have to be engineered independently but simultaneously, such as Drive, Life support, Energy, Hull, etc. Each of these can be viewed as biological "systems of organs" overlapping each other in some cunning ways (to fit the module capabilities), however a critical malfunction of some part might lead to a collapse in ship functioning, fuel leakage, radiation, and whatnot, and this really pronounces what I've set to be the key concepts of T6 -- creative engineering, radical malfunction, and improvisation. So the best ship is not the one that has the most armor or weaponry, but the one that fits the best your needs for survival and progress, while facing the threats and challenges that may be known or unknown, as a consequence of your prior actions or as a new event of some sort. For example, one might put an armor shell to protect his most vulnerable modules (as well as the Pod itself), but this may increase the internal heat that is not easy to dissipate in space, so the player now has to install a cooling unit which requires a coolant tank, but there is no space for this tank in the already protected modules, so it becomes a vulnerability in itself if left exposed... On the other hand, the center of mass shifts due to armor, so the ship becomes less good for fighting, requiring more thrusting power and more fuel to compensate. Burning more fuel means more expenditures and less space for cargo... Someone foolish enough could place a thruster in such a way to burn his other modules. Someone else might use a powerful thruster only to burn others. Someone else might salvage a burnt derelict by grabbing one of its intact modules and hauling it away. - - - - - - And, if that's not enough, T6 prototype already features an incredible and never-before-seen User Interface (UI) which lets you fully customize the on-screen widgets format and placement (widgets are provided by the equipment) that will serve you as mid-flight instruments. So whether you'll use the ship for mining, combat, piracy, exploring, or simply to haul cargo and passengers, you can make your HUD (heads-up display) appear very specialized in that context. HUDs can become incredibly complex (in the hands of an experienced player) and they'll also produce some stunning and memorable perils (a destroyed piece of equipment is essentially a lost widget signal, suddenly leading player to even more immersive experience, because he can't rely on his instruments anymore). I'm hoping to see many a YouTube video based on the ship builds, HUDs, and adventures from this game, as it truly gets to feel special and quite personal. Having a system that's built one piece at a time is not new (think of the typical hero in RPG titles), but a system that has to be ace-piloted through space in order to keep your character alive, is. Physics and HUD can also communicate the emotion and flavor throughout the game, because flying a ship from some other faction feels differently on so many levels: it has a different mass and CoM (center of mass), it has different equipment and vulnerabilities, and it has a unique and different HUD widgets with different sounds, and so on... So many good things emerge from having a good groundwork, a sandbox quanta, so to speak, like Minecraft voxels. Many of the modules are interactive (think of thrusters, weapons, mining drills), and may even rotate (think of turrets) or change their shape (think of transformers), providing embedded functionality that can be freely bound to mouse or keyboard, so the UI learning curve is really in the hands of those who play the game (the prototype uses WSAD and LMB atm). The more the player understands the underlying engineering concept, the better and more robust his ship designs become. The game essentially scales as much as the player wants to get involved. And all of this is really just a tip of an iceberg. Right now I am developing a prototype which is pretty good -- enough to showcase the most of the game which I will do in a couple of months (in October if all goes according to plans). There will also be a Kickstarter campaign next year (TBA). I'm also planning for the crews, the shared player ship designs, the multiplayer modes (completely separated from the singleplayer, but leaning onto the singleplayer discoveries, designs, and achievements), various starting characters (each with their own Five Chapters assortment), and a unique KS backing plan. It makes me really happy if I'm not alone in this yearning for a quality game, as I am sick and tired of watching the sci-fi genre degenerating into magical fantasy with unrealistic backgrounds. I plan to deviate from the usual atmospherics of the genre, to make it stand out even more. Some radical changes in the way the space genre is presented nowadays is much needed to freshen the scene. I also believe there are ways to make things that are traditionally seen as a taboo to work.For example, one of the key things in the atmospherics department is the game sound:It will propagate realistically, but the players will have access to in-game equipment that synthesizes incomplete or inaudible sounds in space. So there are nice trade-offs that might feel like a game in a game for some people. That way, not only you learn something new about space, but you also get to customize your sound scheme. How cool is that? Next time you'll play the campaign just to get that soundset module from the YouTube video you've seen :)Or at least, I really hope that would be the case. Tell me what you think.If you have questions, I'll be more than happy to answer.

Sounds pretty awesome orionsyndrome. Cowboy bebop! How amazing is that  Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing the prototype later this year hopefully. auryx

Hey there, thanks for reading this wall of text!I understand it's a tl;dr, and no pretty pictures, but bear with me, this ain't gonna turn vaporware unless I die or sth.I was just hiding under the rock all these years, and life is kinda real, preventing me to do what I actually need to do.Also, I understand this concept of mine seems like a mosaic of good stuff borrowed from somewhere, bringing almost nothing new to the table (except for the Cowboy Bebop flavor). But that's why I have disclosed it so openly, because knowing all this is not harmful for the project in any way. Anyone can learn this, and everybody knows this, but noone knows how to bind it all together intricately, nor how to communicate the character of the game properly.I have found at least 7 space games with buildable or customizable ships, even played 5 of them and MEHAll good games have this weird "something" that makes them really stand out. I call that something "je ne sais quoi".For many developers and game designers, it's a gamble, but I have a much deeper theory behind all of this, as I've been studying the gaming scene for too long -- a year short of three decades now. I'm also a peculiar guy, believing in some esoteric shit I've stumbled upon, with which not many people would agree, preferring instead to deal with things the way they're supposed to be dealt with. That's obviously limited in perception and just too conservative for my tastes.So I've expanded on this theory of mine, until I've found what makes games and people tick, until I've proved to myself there is a significant correspondence to the real-world psychometry. That's when I realized shit hit the fan, this is my call and I have to do it my way.I learned how to model low-poly in 6 days, Adobe CS is my second nature since the mid-nineties, I've coded my whole life in so many languages it doesn't even matter. I speak and write English fluently and have never went anywhere past the grocery store. I have this bug in my head you see, I can't even make spelling errors -- like at all.So, please bear with me, you won't be disappointed, even if I seem to be overly enthusiastic.Thanks for being supportive!TEH PROTOTYPE IS AWESUM (<< not a spelling error)PICS ARE COMING SOON-ish[edit]Oh btw, here is how I've solved the intercepting[/url] problem if anyone's interested (don't mind the language, there are pretty pictures and some math; or use translate.google.com[/url]

Are you aiming for a space RPG sort of gameplay but without the typical RPG game narrative found in games like Starcontrol 2 and Starflight and would your game have more random events happening to the crew and ship as in FTL.

Well, I'm inclined to say yes, because it is a role-playing game, however I intend to do so without the typical modern "RPGness".Let me explain.RPGs traditionally rely on indirect skills (i.e. you point & click and wait for the animation and formulas to do their thing, thus the stronger the in-game character is, the greater the outcomes of his/her actions turn out to be), whereas I want a truly twitch-based game, completely reliant on direct player skills.Regardless, I'm not making a bullet-hell either, so there is a fine line obviously.Let me express myself in terms of music. If that phat-lined club music is the typical RPG game, and exasperating hard rock is the typical shooter, I'm heading more towards perplexing jazz. So there's more to this Cowboy Bebop homage, even methaphorically speaking.It's more like, the whole game is this big ass toy that can get unpredictable, but is usually steady, and you really want to learn from it. The more the better, thus you explore, and you meet the others.It is not infinite (technically it can be, but that's not the point), because I imagine there are hubs of activity that you cannot simply ignore: stores, factories, shelters, hangars, questgivers and such. But once you learn all the rules that have been set out for you in this universe, you begin to tweak them in your favor, as you begin to see the patterns emerging. Finally you prioritize your actions and setup your parameters in such a way that you can gain an edge over whatever is bothering you. You gain an expertise so to speak, and there is no turning back.That's what is normally called minmaxing in typical RPGs. And frankly, it's really boring. You have this moment of being awesome, really a tiny winy moment, and SPLOSH it goes down the drain for the rest of the game.So the aim is to have a game that can easily outpace you, and dynamically react with the overarching story, straying off from what you've already covered, and do it rather unpredictably. However, like any good dungeon master, the game won't do it just to kill you, or without a reason. It simply escalates. And this is a hybrid-system, as I don't believe a truly random game could ever achieve this -- it would have to be either intelligent or simply driven by a clever human design.So I've devised a hybrid-system which I haven't tested yet, to be honest, but I believe it might deliver. The whole game therefore revolves around this escalation and whether you'll be prepared for it or not. So, in that manner it's quite similar to FTL, but much delinearized.It's an excellent mechanic in terms of gameplay, because even if you start over and over again, and learn all of this metagame particularities, it will still evolve somewhat differently and surprise you at some points. Also, you can build up strategic affiliations with the numerous factions in the game which will change your perspective every time.The typical RPG element I wish to keep, is the progressive build-up of the ship parameters and functionality, and this part can get quite entangled (especially if rushed, which sort of emulates the makeshift mentality). So much, in fact, that you have to watch out for some midflight management, sudden emergencies, even hardcore crisis (there is a fine line between piloting a superior spaceship and riding a bomb essentially; also combat can get much more deadly, as you can "bleed" from your wounds), and this is where direct skills come in. The controls, on the other hand, are actually quite simple enough, so that eye-to-hand, motion tracking, and accuracy aren't the skills I have in mind. Control-wise it shouldn't be more complicated than Starsector, for example.But it should most definitely leave you with some agonizing but memorable experiences. Next time, you'll install that expensive K4 safety switch on your main fuel conduit, and your reactors will get some quality ceramic heatsinks from now on, not that plastic shit from Brabadua.I have a very straightforward vision for all of this and a very simple solution. You don't get your eyes off of game EVER. There are no (standard) menus, no loading screens, no pauses (there will be a pausing functionality, of course, but only on demand). Everything is basically seamless, from how you mine asteroids, cruise between the planets, plot your course, converse with someone midspace, to dogfight. Even buying and selling is going on in real-time, the only time you get a different screen is when you build your ship (and that's paused for you, but you can do this only once you get to a safe station hangar).tl;drYes, but in a truly open and dynamic world, in many ways similar to Don't Starve, and with a similar (but not so obvious) underlying content structure.There are two critical differences naturally: 1) biomes = stellar systems, and 2) no abstract skills.Don't get me wrong though, when I say "open world" I don't mean just freedom of movement, or the shape of the star map, but the way the storyline progresses, as well as your high-level goals.Starflight and Star Control 2 are excellent examples of where I'm coming from, but it'll still be a different game.