Sunday, August 4, 2013

[MMc] Starlight

For the hackathon I'm revisiting a game that I wrote in a month two years ago but never released because the original version became too large to maintain.

Title: Starlight
Platform: Windows
Players: 1 (maybe)
Concept: An RTS where your "empire" is a spaceship that you can fly. Add new rooms, upgrade the hull, trade and battle with other ships.

Related Games:  Galaxy Trucker, Minecraft, FTL, The Ur Quan Masters, Age of Empires, tower defense and RTS games

Technology Plan: 

  • Use G3D, 3DS Max, Photoshop, SVN, Audacity, CFXR
  • Spaceships are made from hex tiles, with math from my codeheart.js example
  • Minimize state and assets, e.g., 
    • Procedural generation of the galaxy and visual elements
    • Dervive all ship data directly from an single image of the ship
    • Rely heavily on emergence

Art Plan: 

Design Plan:
  • Straight RTS mechanics, except components are found and bought instead of built directly to avoid players having to learn a tech tree and recipies
  • No "units"
  • Emphasis should be on building and configuring the ship, with flying, combat, trading, etc. forming increasingly tighter reward cycles.
  • AI is (as always) a risk.  Multiplayer?
Early Asset Tests:
Procedural Starfield
Spaceship Rendered in 3DS Max

Spaceship Hexified on Load
Screenshots of Old Prototypes:

Fully 3D Prototype Emphasizing Flying
Another 3D Prototype

2.5D Minecraft-like Prototype with Intricate Wiring Mechanics

2.5D Prototype with UI

Combat in the 2.5D Prototype


5 comments:

  1. Hello I'd like to ask about the render of your spaceship. Do you mind if I use the 2D image for a non-profit postgraduate project? Thanks.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks a lot. Should I credit you as 'Morgan' or do you have any specific names you want to be credited as?

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    2. Sure, Morgan McGuire. Thanks.

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