"iter 27" - spaceship simulation game
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First glimpse at a new project!
Supposed to be a simulation of space travel, as I have always been quite fascinated by the huge distances in space.
Not really laid out as a detailed simulation though , rather as a strategy game of some kind, as the game will be about managing a space station.What you see here is basically just the hub, aka space station iter 27. The options you can click on will be the real deal; all those things like communication and spaceship fleets are merely words at the moment (like a To-Do list I made public), will take some time to make all of this - I am aware that the scope might become too big to make everything I want though.
"Skip to next day" and "map" are the only menus you can open at the moment. The main mechanic, however, - turn-based movement on a gigantic space map - is here; furthermore, the game can already calculate where the ship has to go based on the planet it travels to (planet Mars is there too, some 10,000 pixels off screen. Just 150 days to go!)
I will try to have some realism in here. For example, I've looked up the distance to planet Mars from Earth in au (astronomical units), and translated that to a distance in pixels. also looked up a reasonable speed for a spaceship ( =how many pixels a rocket can make in one day). I don't really feel like simulating things like the orbit of a planet relative to the sun, I'm not a space phyics expert, so don't expect that stuff :)
When, or if, I'm done with the simulation/ management part (which is limited to the solar system, due to, you know, science issues), there will be a narrative, which involves traveling to a human colony on foreign planets - the fun, science-fiction part of the game!
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This looks really really cool. I definitely want to play this one.
It's great though that you admit the scope of your project is a bit big. At least you're being a realist; however, whether you complete it or not attempting it should still be fun! -
Holy crap! That looks awesome, and it seems like you have put a lot of thought behind it already. It will be very interesting to follow your project. Really ambitious stuff!
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@Jongjungbu Yeah, I'm having some kind of priority list in my mind, in order to have a finished thing even if I have to stop somewhere
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oh wow!! amazing.
it reminds me of one of my most favourite Amiga games (and one no one else seems to remember) K240 by Gremlin! -
Made a bit of progress regarding UI and ship movement. It is now possible to set up one of four target planets/ destinations, and to travel in 3 different speeds. With this setup, turn-based movement is actually finished now!
Next steps are:
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resources
nothing complicated: money, fuel, nutrition, and crew; nutrition will diminish every day, fuel only when accelerating/ decelerating, not sure about crew yet) -
communication
sounds ambitious at first glance, but what I'm actually going to do is
apply attributes to every planet (i.e. will they
help us, what resources do they have, ...).
When the player sends a message, they can
choose from a list of requests, and the
answer will be the value from the attribute
list.
The idea is to incentivize research and have
the player decide where to go based on the
planet's attributes -
planet interaction
I don't know for sure how this will work, but
essentially the player receives resources
whenever they visit a planet for the first time -
menu screen and progress save
when I'm done with that, I'll basically have a
complete game! Everything else
is a bonus (I have a lot of ideas, though).
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You should do random space emergencies. Solar flares, crew member gets appendicitis, etc.
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Crew member gets "space madness", etc.
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@toxibunny was thinking about asteroids or something, but appendicitis sounds quite intriguing!
keep the ideas coming :D -
After answering a distress call from a distant planet, one of the crew members is infected by dangerous alien creature. One by one, the crew is killed and eaten by the alien, until only one of them remains.
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more progress! furthermore, I've decided to share the current build;
ID is ULM23MND11I hope some of you try it out and tell me what you think of it, what new concepts I should include/ what to enhance etc. (randomized events, for example, is an idea I really like, even though I've yet to include it).
Note that this is really not supposed to be a playable game, but rather a demo. I think that the project lacks player motivation, and I'm not really sure what the objective could be; so please tell me your ideas! Maybe there is something that just feels out of place, I'm ready to overthink basically everythingThere is quite a lot I incorporated/ refined this time (more intuitive UI, resources, planet interaction, saving). Most importantly, I decided to scrap some of the ideas I had before, as those didn't really fit the scope of the game.
Lastly, I started experimenting a bit with some background story, maybe someone will take a look at that as well.Will be taking a little break from this program, though, as I have finished the mininum goals I had when I started with the project; really only want to go on as soon as I have a better idea of what to do next.
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Wow! It’s awesome!!
So much background info to read, feels like a whole universe.
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@vinicity thx for playing it!
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This is very good! Excellent background to the world and the mission! I am currently hanging out in Europa orbit!
I think others suggested fun hazards like space weather and asteroid collisions, and I think those would be a fun addition, too (unless they are in there and I just am not yet far enough!).
Good job!
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@DaddyJDM thanks so much! You're right, hazards are not in yet, but they are one of the things I'm planning to do next!
What you can play as of now is just the basics of the game though
