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Star Explorers #458179
02/24/16 05:08
02/24/16 05:08
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline OP
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Star Explorers

EDIT: Star Explorers 3.0 release is up, and the game is on sale this weekend ... check it out!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/502720/Star_Explorers/

EDIT: Star Explorers has been Greenlit! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=700074180

I've been working on Star Explorers for a few years now, and its' finally starting to look and feel the way I imagined it. Star Explorers allows the player to explore a randomly generated galaxy with stars, planets and other features.

The goal will be to find earth-like planets, but there are many other types of worlds to search through along the way. Here are some screen shots of the game as it looks right now:



Last edited by Dooley; 06/08/19 00:08.
37 Comments
Re: Star Explorers [Re: Dooley] #458180
02/24/16 05:16
02/24/16 05:16
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline OP
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Dooley  Offline OP
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I will keep uploading images as I complete different environment types. The planets shown are all of the life-supporting variety, but there are also frozen planets and hot lifeless wastelands to explore.

I'm happy with the look of these so far, but I still have improvements in mind. There are caves also, which are going to be updated soon as well. All the terrains are randomly generated, and each feature is saved, and will be there when the player returns later.

It's a huge project for one guy, but I hope to have a working Alpha out by the end of the year. You can see more about it on the Steam Concepts forum:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=354789892

The video is from a previous build. I'm going to film a new one after I update all the graphics...

Re: Star Explorers [Re: Dooley] #458183
02/24/16 11:55
02/24/16 11:55
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,823
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Reconnoiter Offline
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I definitely get that mysterious / desolate vibe already a bit from the screenies, which is a plus. I would say use that as much as possible to make your game standout. Your other project Anomalies also had that, so I gather it is something that interests you too from an art/design perspective?

I read on your steampage that you want to add a crafting & an inventory system to allow the player to better explore the stars by improving the ship and the player's weapons. I think this is a good aproach to keep the game interesting.

Re: Star Explorers [Re: Reconnoiter] #458185
02/24/16 12:35
02/24/16 12:35
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 283
Germany
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jenGs Offline
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jenGs  Offline
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 283
Germany
I like this project so far, it sounds promising.

My suggestion: Create something special on some planets. Something outstanding, that is worth investigating and rewarding, like a powerfull lifeform or a strange energyfield. Or something dangerous that can kill you when you approach it carelessly. Or something that starts a mini story line, like a science fiction episode.

One Thing that would be important: Shipmates. Ok I know that woul be a bit overkill to implement.

I will definitly vote for this.

Re: Star Explorers [Re: jenGs] #458186
02/24/16 12:37
02/24/16 12:37
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 283
Germany
J
jenGs Offline
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jenGs  Offline
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Concerning the graphics: If you have the time, put some more alien like plants in there. Go all out on creativity. Fungus stange leaf formations. Strangely bended plants. Plants with facelike characteristics

Re: Star Explorers [Re: jenGs] #458187
02/24/16 15:16
02/24/16 15:16
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,823
Netherlands
Reconnoiter Offline
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Reconnoiter  Offline
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Originally Posted By: jenGs
One Thing that would be important: Shipmates. Ok I know that woul be a bit overkill to implement.
, I would recommend against adding this to prevent from going the Star Citizen road (to many features, to many gimmicks). Star Citizen can do it cause they already have a big pile of kickstarter money.

Quote:
My suggestion: Create something special on some planets. Something outstanding, that is worth investigating and rewarding, like a powerfull lifeform or a strange energyfield. Or something dangerous that can kill you when you approach it carelessly.
, +1

Last edited by Reconnoiter; 02/24/16 15:17.
Re: Star Explorers [Re: Reconnoiter] #458190
02/24/16 16:38
02/24/16 16:38
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline OP
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Dooley  Offline OP
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Thanks for the feedback! I have lots of plans, many of which are already implemented, but not quite refined enough to share. You can see more of the existing features in the video on the Steam page.

Fungus is a definite feature I plan to add. I also have ideas for more alien things like floating plants, glowing, geometrical, and anomalies that will appear on planets. One idea I'm very excited about is adding ancient ruins to some planets, as well as more futuristic living cities where the player will be able to interact with aliens.

There are two types of aliens not shown here. Animals and bipeds. The animals are randomly generated out of different body parts like head, torso, legs etc... Each life supporting planet will have a different species. I'm planning to add more options like fish and bird like animals as well as some Lovecraftian geometrical/tentacled monsters. You know, nebulous, tendrilled horrors from the vast gulfs beyond space and time ... fun stuff like that laugh

The are bipedal aliens can either be friendly or hostile, depending on how the player interacts with them. They don't look like much yet, but you can get randomly generated quests from them, or trade goods with them, or fight them and take their stuff (if you win).

My big influence is actually the STALKER series, so yes to desolate, mysterious locations laugh

I think the big challenge will be to find a niche that allows my game to exist separate from the big players like "No Man's Sky" and others.

Last edited by Dooley; 02/24/16 16:39.
Re: Star Explorers [Re: Dooley] #459892
06/10/16 09:18
06/10/16 09:18
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline OP
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Dooley  Offline OP
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
The new video is up on the Steam: Greenlight forum: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=700074180

Please check it out and share with your friends!

Re: Star Explorers [Re: Dooley] #459897
06/10/16 11:33
06/10/16 11:33
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,823
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Reconnoiter Offline
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Nice. The area with pink sky is a bit overkill on the pink though. tongue
Also some of the planets are to bright.

Re: Star Explorers [Re: Reconnoiter] #459903
06/10/16 16:31
06/10/16 16:31
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Dooley Offline OP
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Dooley  Offline OP
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 868
Chicago, IL
Yes, I have had to balance improving and tweaking the graphics with getting everything to simply work laugh

Once I have a stable build, I will be addressing all those issues and more.

Better Weapons - I'm already updating the weapons from those shown in the video. These will definitely be improved before the alpha release.

Better Animal Aliens - again, you could only see a few of the animal-like aliens in the video. I am working on improving the AI and textures for these guys, and you will see some new screenshots of them soon.

Better Intelligent Aliens - You don't see the bipedal, intelligent aliens in the video, and for a good reason. They need to be redesigned to match the improved graphics. "What improved graphics?" you ask? Well ... you should have seen the original laugh

The main thing I'm working on is redesigning the planet save/load function. Originally I was using a pre-defined function to do this, which worked great at the time. However, as I added features to the game, certain things did not laod correctly, and I had to make little workarounds for each new feature. I decided to create my own script for loading and saving each level/planet/cave. It is working, but it is not yet implemented for caves, and is still missing a couple features.

Here are some other features I want to work on once the alpha is stable and ready. So these would come after the alpha release, but would be ready for the commercial release:

Ancient ruins - not every planet will have them, but occasionally the player will discover the remnants of a civilization. I think this will be interesting especially in cases of dead/uninhabitable planets.

Cities - Living cities with intelligent aliens to either interact with or fight. These would have to be on life bearing planets.

More variation - I have a bunch of different surface, atmosphere, liquid, rocks, plant and alien types already. Conceptually, adding more variation is easy, but I want to get the whole thing working and up to a certain quality standard before I go into adding more variation.

Weather effects - rain, snow, lightning and other more unusual phenomena will be added to different planets. There is already a day/night cycle and wind, which you can see in the video briefly when the geyser goes off.

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