The story has been evolving as time has passed. I would like to create a real story experience, that really immerses the community into a wonderful experience unlike games previous that only offered similar experiences to a single-player environment. The way the game will work, will be in chapter and book increments most likely. I'm unsure how exactly I want to go about the game advancing through the story. There are a few ways to go about the progression mechanic, but as of yet I'm unsure.
---> The game and it's mechanics <---
The game at it's core should feel very sandbox for most of the mechanics, but will provide a definite story-line as seen by the development of the game. The varied types of player vehicles and the characters themselves will be modular and highly-customizable. Very reminiscent of many games out today.
Player advancement will not be as traditional as, you slay X amount of creatures, you level-up a few times, you move to bigger and badder creatures. Advancement in skill and level will provide a bonus that will add additional elements to the game. A player of sufficient skill, but lower "level" should be able to best a less skilled player of a higher "level". However, a player of higher "level" will have more access to more and more mechanics of the game. It is traditionally safe to assume a new player won't understand a game as well as a veteran player. So, to reward those who invest enough time, they will have access to more advanced elements. However, a player that doesn't have the time to invest, should be able to experience the story just as well as any other player, but just not as full as the prior person.
PvP is not the main focus of the game however. PvP will most likely be arena based to test your skills against another player. On-lookers will be able to place bets on who wins and who loses. As a benefit to the participants, they'll receive a portion of all bets, but of course, the winner takes more of the winnings than the loser.
PvE being the main focus of this game is going to be somewhat difficult in my opinion as I'm not sure how I want it to play at the moment. I'd prefer to avoid set spawn points for monsters, you go out and grind, come back and you're richer and high level. It will most likely play similar to I'm guessing EvE in some respect. More on this later as the game gets further along.
Vehicles and the many variations of them and the game environment. Being a game that's going to be in many different settings, a wide array of vehicles is a necessity in my opinion. However, there will be two distinct settings. Space and land. Space will specifically the void of space where there is no breathable atmosphere. Land will consist of the colony spacecraft, military spacecraft, planets, etc. and the atmospheres readily accessible that those provide. All large spacecraft, planets, etc. will have player character accessibility to a large degree. As much of it as possible will provide some sort of use. If a clan of players that frequents the game on a daily basis and has "setup shop" in a portion of the ship, the ship will be customized to provide usefulness to the clan. Individual players will be granted at the very least a living space and garage to accommodate their vehicles. This should provide a more immersive environment for many players. You actually own something within a video game, it is yours and other players can visit it. The players will be able to build onto their place hopefully to a large degree. A specific planet will be a large focus of the story and players will be able to construct a fortress, which they must defend. More on this as time progresses.
Player death is something that's going to occur, it happens. However, I don't want players to run around without the fear of consequence for their death. Player vehicles will suffer the most. Either outright destruction (depending on ordnance used and location of death) or chance of retrieval, if the player can get back out their to retrieve their wreck. Being PvE focused, players will not have to worry about malicious players on a regular basis, quite hopefully keeping malicious acts against another player to a minimum.
--->Other notes<---
This game is a project of mine, very similar to the way Dwarf Fortress is a project of Tarn "Toady-One" Adams. My game will hopefully reflect the type of care, ingenuity and complexity that the game Dwarf Fortress has to offer, but of course, in a different sense.
I'm accepting of input from other people in all departments: 2D art, 3D art, various audio work (including music and weapon noise and all that kind of stuff), etc. I just ask that if you decide to provide artwork, if it is 2D, make it schematics or blue-prints or something to work with, if it is 3D, make it accessible in Blender.
A focus point of my project is to prove that you don't need millions of dollars to make a fantastic game. I'm using very affordable products for everything I'm working on. Blender for 3D work, Gimp for 2D work, Unity for the game engine, etc. Unity is by far the most expensive item, but at $1500 it is far more affordable to some alternatives out there.
Articles
Yes, this is a copy-pasta from my Tumblr account, but it is doesn't need to change to fit.
First off I’d like to let you all know this is a long read, but I’d say it’s worth it! It explains a lot of what’s been going on, outside of the game I’ve been working on. If you like Dune and Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert (Frank’s Son) and Kevin J. Anderson, it’s probably also worth the read!
Next I’d like to say after January off miserable, as you can tell with my post about my dog dieing and my little bro shipping off to the Marines (Him leaving is not bad, I’ll just miss the crap head! At least for a few months)
Starting January 18th at about 6:30 PM, it went from miserable to quite possibly the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. In short, I went to Rusty Con in Seattle, WA to meet up with Brian Herbert, who had heard about my game and expressed great interest in it and wanted to talk to me.
The short version about Rusty Con: It was super awesome and life changing.
The long version… is a bit longer.
The 18th is when I got the called to talk to Brian Herbert. Finally I was talked into showing up to Rusty Con that night. After all the prep and drive over I arrive at Rusty Con at 10:30PM that day. Of course the convention booth area was closed, so I meet up with the party I was to attend the convention with. Went to a place ran by a group called Biohazard, who are by the way awesome people! They do the event making zero profit and have been for many years.
Anywho that night after all the wandering around, talking, partying, drinking, etc. we decide to head to bed. Get up to our room and eventually work on falling asleep. The couple… mainly the wife, snored… loudly. Needless to say I finally dozed off for about 30min to 1hr and proceeded to take a shower, lay down unable to fall asleep until about 9 or 10. The couple went to attend to their booth at about 8:30.
Get down stairs, to the dealer room (where all the booths are) and begin to figure out what is going on. Spend the next few hours browsing talking, meeting some wonderful people. A lady who does video game reviews and other stuff, a few artists, etc. Mostly just random assortments of people. Around 1 or 2 PM I attended a seminar of a few writers (Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, collaborators on Dune), after the seminar was over I talk to Brian briefly to figure out how he’d like to chat, said to just come by his booth a bit later.
After about 30 min to 1 hr I get to his booth with Brian, Kevin and Brian’s daughters. Talk to Brian a bit about the game and such. He didn’t want to hear too much about in-depth details so he wouldn’t accidentally steal ideas. BS with him and his daughters for about a hour.
Brian heads off to prep for his next seminar about Dune. Joined the seminar when it started at 4, learned a lot about them, Frank Herbert, and the story of Dune.
About 4:40 my father decides to show up and within 20 minutes, buys a 200 dollar jacket, gets a couple accessories from the people we were there with who sell Steam Punk and much more stuff and people near immediately feel compelled to talk to him.
Anywho throughout the day I frequent Brian and Kevin’s table to talk with them about various things. Get a lot of writing tips from the both, mostly Brian. BS with off and on pretty much the rest of the whole day until about 8 when the dealer room closed.
Rest of the night was fun/party/etc. A burlesque show, slave auction, and other stuffs.
Head to bed at about 2 AM, the couple doesn’t snore loud, my father doesn’t snore (He snores so loud it can shake adjacent rooms.) get some rest, wake up around 8/9 today. Spent most of the day hanging out with Brian and his family talking. Met one of Frank Herbert’s best friends who is a wonderful artist who is going to do some art for the video game. Decide to pick up Frank Herberts Biography written by Brian titled “Dreamer of Dune” and Kevin J. Andersons novel “Hidden Empire” which was personally suggested by him as a source of inspiration for my game. Got them wonderfully autographed, both expressing best of wishes for my game in the autograph.
More BSing and towards the end Brian and Kevin made the most amazing offer I never would’ve expected… They said, when my game takes off and it’s making money, they said, “We want you to remember us and when you have the time, talk to us again and we’ll work on a story together.” More or less… it was a lot longer and well drawn out.
More or less I got offered to do a collaboration with Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson after my game gets released… I’m trying to avoid unnecessary language, but I was so ecstatic I can’t express it in words well enough.
Also! Rusty Con was my first convention. On top of the whole Brian Herbert thing, I’ll be doing 3D work for a company and print said 3D work and turn it into the various products they sell. It was a lot of Steam Punk stuff this time around. I met a couple very well established artists, a few will do work for me, met a wonderful lady who has a large community of followers who said she’ll help where she can and more!
I would have to say January is turning out to be the best January ever, even thought I lost my doggy and my little bro joined the Marines.
Expect to see me at more conventions as my product gets more towards completion and I start getting a lot more income!
Also, for an update as to what’s been going on with the game… I’ve been working! It’s slow as I’m the only one working on it and all my concept work is in 3D which takes quite a while, but it’s progressing.
Spend a lot of time working on the character making it feel how I want it to feel. I keep hitting walls on design, but I overcome them and hit another wall. I work on some “extra” content filler content like plants and other simple and quick 3D items.
Anywho, that’s mostly it for now!
I’d like to let you know I’ll have another huge post up, anywhere from later tonight to some time this week, explaining a lot more about the game universe, mostly geared at giving artists ideas and what’s available for them to work with.
Game update
NewsThe game universe is being expanded, art-work is back on track after illness and community submissions are being reviewed and worked on.
Making progress
NewsI'm working on making a giant space ship which will be a regular location for the beginning of the story. Working on making assets to insert into Unity...
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