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Empire in the Sky is an independently developed PC video game set in a stylized 1960s-1980s retro cartoon universe with blatant and extensive references to NASA and other "Space Race" icons. Much of the data is modeled after real life, so you might even learn something! This is the "lava lamp" of space RPG shooters! Travel the cosmos in a fully customizable spacecraft -- designed by you (or us). Fight or befriend scores of alien civilizations in your quest to rule the cosmos, while exploring a rich, procedurally generated world that includes planets, planetary bases, towns, cities and starbases. Build a nearly limitless and vast empire that stretches across hundreds of star systems, on thousands of planets! Empire in the Sky optionally lets you build your own starbases and planetary bases, and enhance your designs by crafting individual spacecraft parts.

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With sadness I am here to announce a temporary, indefinite pause to the development of Empire in the Sky. The game will be made one day, but we're not sure when. There were a couple of factors in this decision, and I want to say that no one is less happy about this than myself.

It took 7 years to build up enough source code to get the demo of Lost Astronaut's Empire in the Sky out the door. I started it alone, and since then over two dozen people have come to help the project, largely for free, and I paid actors out of my own pocket with limited funding. I purchased thousands of dollars in audio and 3D models to produce Empire in the Sky, and I have as yet to make a single dime from development of this game. Things were looking up for the project: I have a working demo that seems to be stable on a wide number of Windows 7 machines. This in itself is a major accomplishment considering how many companies have turned away from this kind of development toolset.

For those indie game developers who are reading this, let me tell you a bit about my experiences. For one, I developed it entirely using OpenGL, and I had only a limited intent of developing for iOS. iOS came about year 3 of the project and 7 years ago Minecraft hadn't happened yet. Nor had we seen Terraria. I feel this space is getting crowded. At the time I started the Indie movement had all but died out.

It was only through intense self-discipline that I was able to write the 300,000 lines of code and 1800 C++ classes that go into Empire in the Sky's core offering. I began writing a C program to "make a quick game in 6 months just for fun", and as I moved through various libraries and development platforms, I found myself putting a lot of effort into Windows / Linux, and specifically the Microsoft Visual Studio platform. It takes roughly 12 minutes to compile Empire in the Sky from scratch. When I started it took about 1 second. This makes working on the game enormously frustrating.

We will return to this game one day, and it will be published!

All is not lost, however, as experts at the aforementioned big tech giant have extended a hand to Lost Astronaut. However, wheels turn slowly there and I'm left with a big question mark as to when we will be back at full steam on this project. So, in the meantime, I've left behind this enormous undertaking to focus on a simpler, easier to develop product prequel called Fringes of the Empire. While we will still be devoting some effort to the Empire in the Sky project, we'll be spending the bulk of our time pushing forward the cross-platform prequel.

I have started porting it to Code::Blocks, but there are months of improvements that must be explored to port it to the Linux and GCC platform. This means more setbacks to a game that is still only 60% complete.

Thank you so much to those who have supported us up until now. Please continue to raise awareness of Lost Astronaut Studios and the Empire in the Sky series of games. I want so very much to publish and I think Fringes of the Empire will be a great sci-fi RPG that stands on its own, even if it isn't developed in the grandeous and procedural way that Empire in the Sky is.

Yours,

Herbert Elwood Gilliland III
Lost Astronaut Studios

More Empire in the Sky screens

Announcing Lost Astronaut's Fringes of the Empire

Announcing Lost Astronaut's Fringes of the Empire

News 1 comment

Fringes of the Empire takes place in the same world as Lost Astronaut's Empire in the Sky. Find out more about this game and its coming availability on...

Lost Astronaut to work with Leap Motion

Lost Astronaut to work with Leap Motion

News

Lost Astronaut has joined the early developer program at Leap Motion. Check out this cool video on the future of gesture-based gaming!

Lost Astronaut's Empire in the Sky Desura Exclusive: Planetary Settings

Lost Astronaut's Empire in the Sky Desura Exclusive: Planetary Settings

News 3 comments

An update to our development progress for Lost Astronaut's Empire in the Sky. This article covers beam weapons and planetary surfaces.

Mini-Contest, New Textures, Cool Side-Scrollin' Action

Mini-Contest, New Textures, Cool Side-Scrollin' Action

News

Announcing a mini-contest, sharing information about the upcoming pre-release availability (for those who want to buy into the early preview support...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 14)
Corridor7
Corridor7

empire of the willy, more like

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JStone1
JStone1

I'm looking for the demo for this game that was hosted on Desura so if anyone out there can provide that I'd be most appreciative. Also know that I've contacted Herb about it too. Thanks!

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zgrillo2004
zgrillo2004

I suggest giving this guy a kickstart campaign. he needs the money to keep developing this game

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LostAstronaut Creator
LostAstronaut

hey thanks for your support. i did try a kickstarter campaign but it was back in 2010. I received a total of $10 from my one friend =D .. 2 people have bought the full version ($29.95), but a few pizzas doesn't really free me up to do much, and this game is now becoming niche (Windows only, maybe one day a Linux port). I'd still love to finish it -- but without funding it will have to sit on the backburner for a while. I am working on another one called Fringes of the Empire, which is for Mac/Windows and will possibly have mobile versions. It is not as procedural, but still has some of the charm of this game.

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Insolent.
Insolent.

Ooh, will download this when I get home from work!

Speaking of which... back to work!

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explorer13
explorer13

The creation system reminds me so much of the concept for Thrive's system, which is awesome. I second Insolent, now tracking. :]

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LostAstronaut Creator
LostAstronaut

thanks! please help raise awareness of the project

Reply Good karma+2 votes
1kon
1kon

odd...., but i love what i see so far. trackingXD

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LostAstronaut Creator
LostAstronaut

Thanks!

Reply Good karma+2 votes
Insolent.
Insolent.

You know, "The King of Infinite Space" or "Kings of Infinite Space" would be a cool title for this game too!

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LostAstronaut Creator
LostAstronaut

Yes, the line from Hamlet is perfect and was discovered early on while searching for inspiration for the game. However, we don't want to be too gender biased! =D One of our voice actresses really enjoys making purple space ships.

Reply Good karma+4 votes
TooMiserableToLive
TooMiserableToLive

I won't berate you for that decision, as much as I disagree with you. Instead I'll offer an alternative.

Change king to monarch. It'd still be a reference, and wouldn't be quite as gender specific.

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LostAstronaut Creator
LostAstronaut

Molest Shakespeare? Never! Well, the game is called Empire in the Sky, but yeah I see what you are saying. Thanks for the comment.

Reply Good karma+3 votes
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