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[Sollthar]

Hello everyone

I got pointed to these forums by someone over at gamestar.de - and I'm always looking for feedback and people interested in indie games. I'm relatively new to the indie game scene.

I'm working on my first game which is developed in my spare time. I started with the project almost a year back and have since kept devoting much of my free time to it.
It's a science fiction open-world RPG that blends with action, dialogue, exploration, trade and space combat. Basically, you have an entire universe at your disposal with lots of planets ruled by one of about 3 factions. You start alone, then progress building up your own fleet, hire crewmember, explore space and ultimately rule the universe. Your way there is guided by a procedurally generated storyline. Think a blend of "Mount and Blade" and "Mass Effect".

The game is developed in unity and so far, I've done it alone - so I'm responsible for graphics and code. Which is fun, but a lot of work.

Here's the most current gameplay video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl40xEtHz-I

[Paul Eres]

i like the trailer but i feel like the voice acting could be better-acted

[Sollthar]

Thanks!

The voices will be recorded by voiceactors once I have everything ready. So far, I just record all the lines myself to check if the code is working. 

[Reives]

Serious props for going this far, it must've been a tremendous amount of work. On similar note to the VO, the walking animation seems a bit zombie-like. I think it's the arms.

[SundownKid]

That's pretty insane for one person . It does look rather Mass Effect-y.

[eigenbom]

wow very nice. keep up the good work.

[Sollthar]

Thank you very much. Glad you like it so far.

the walking animation seems a bit zombie-like. I think it's the arms.

Good tip. It's a motion capture sequence - but I changed the arms because he was waving it around like a happy first grader. Maybe I've reduced it too much now. 

[starsrift]

That looks awesome so far, especially for one dude. Good job, don't stop!

The only criticisms I would have would be:
1) There are no women in your universe
and 2) If I was playing that game, I'd be pissed off at the slow movement speed and want a run option.

[Sollthar]

Woman will come, just didn't do them yet.
And you can run of course. Didn't even notice there isn't a running sequence in the entire video, heh. 

[zenger]

  Awesome work Sollthar!!, looking forward to seeing more 

[FinalSin]

How is the plot procedurally generated? Could you talk about that a bit?

Nice trailer!

[Sollthar]

The game's framework is basically a large scale strategy game: Conquer planets.  You have three basic ways to approach this. Through force with your army, through politics by getting enough support or through economy by simply buying it.

The game keeps track of what the player does and the quests/storylines will be chosen based on the current situation. There's also a lot of randomization happening so the game will offer different possibilities once you replay it.

For example, one player might land on a planet, meet a contact man of the resistance movement there, support it, get cought, shipped out to prison and barely escapes with nothing - while another might actually lead the resistance to success and ends up owning the planet as a restiance leader. Or a player might chose to become a double agent for the faction currently in control and gets a lot of money (and bad reputation) for leading to the resistance cells complete destruction or not meet the resistance at all in the first place.

The idea is to create a framework of a lot of different things that "might" happen. It'll work along those lines. 

[Jackson31]

great work making something this good looking by yourself,

Re: the walking animation, it is the arms, they need to have a slightly more pronounced swing, but the biggest thing they need is to be swinging more along the sides/back of the body, at the moment they seem to be swinging from the pockets forward, giving a hunched drunk/zombie kind of vibe. It's also a bit in the turn of his hands, he's swinging his hands a little bit 'palm first' and he's keeping the hands rigid to his forearms as they swing. people swing their arms wrist first in real life, like:

[Sollthar]

Oh, thanks a lot for the input and reference! Much appreciated. I'll certainly fine-tune all the animations again.

They're done through motion capture - hands and heads have to be animated seperately though so I'll definately have to tweak those areas the most.

[Sollthar]

Slight graphical update. (And yes, the minimap is a test placeholder).