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[Savick]

Our 3 person team is currently in need of a 2nd programmer versed in C++ and an experienced pixel artist to help the lead artist (me) with the artwork. Things have been going well with the project so far in that we're making a square planet have logical gravity (which isn't easy) and I'm developing art in the mean time.

Here's hoping someone out there wants to work with us!

[SolarLune]

Isn't it just gravity on one of four sides? Each side can only lead to two of the other sides, so it seems like it's a pretty simple problem...

[Mirceam94]

It's not so simple once you realize that the player is free to build the planet more or less however they wish. Imagine a valley/mountain. How can you tell that edge apart from the edge of the planet?

Anyways, we've gotten a more or less working system in place now =]

[Savick]

We have a second pixel artist! He's great! His name on these forums is unsilentwill, so say hi to him if you see him.

This project is really coming together and I couldn't be happier being the directive force behind it.

[Panurge]

I really like the look of this. A very fresh and original idea - it puts me in mind of 'The Little Prince'. Good luck with it!

[Savick]

I really like the look of this. A very fresh and original idea - it puts me in mind of 'The Little Prince'. Good luck with it!

Thanks! We're just fine tuning version 0.1 right now. The gravity and jumping works, were just getting the camera to rotate with the player now when they go around the planet they build.

[Savick]

Here's a screen of v0.1 working.

[SolarLune]

The stars look a bit too large in my opinion. Looks pretty good, though. Nice job so far, to all of your team.

[Savick]

The stars look a bit too large in my opinion. Looks pretty good, though. Nice job so far, to all of your team.

Thanks! Yeah we need to scale them down, but that might be more of a v0.2 thing since were releasing v0.1 for just basic block building and gravity gameplay.

[Mirceam94]

The stars look a bit too large in my opinion. Looks pretty good, though. Nice job so far, to all of your team.

Thanks for the suggestion, I made them a bit smaller. Their scaling is set at random, so I just altered the range. And we have parallax scrolling for the starfield now  

Speaking of which, we're done with V0.1 and are working on a video to release. Shouldn't be much longer now  

[Mirceam94]

Any votes for this game being fullscreen by default?

[Irock]

Any votes for this game being fullscreen by default?

I'd make it windowed by default. Fullscreen can be kinda jarring. I think there was a thread about this very subject a while ago.

[Savick]

Progress!
We're now a 5 person dev team with 2 programmers 2 pixel artists and a composer. No one's posted in the thread here in 4 days so I thought it was time for an update.

We've bumped the palette up to classic NES 56 but plan to keep the same blocky feel favoring contrast over shading. So, the name 16 color story isn't going to stay much longer.

The base element list is up to 7 or 8 in total with some new ones like Cosmic and Life.

We've started on the animations and the ring menu is coming along nicely.

We're planning on a 2D depth system the likes of Dwarf Fortress's layers mechanic. Putting this in will mean the player can build their home planet and other planets at least 100x bigger and more complex.

Our plans for the music and sounds are to have our female composer do them a capella and make them all voiced sounds (which she's really good at). So instead of beeps and boops we'll have happy gibberish formed into catchy beats.

The story is coming along as well with themes like space westerns and stuff. For example, bounty hunting, block thieves, and caravans of merchants.

We plan to do a Kickstarter somewhere down the line as well, but we need some more exposure I'd say. That, or a paid beta or both. Oh, and a website soon!

Ask any questions you want in the thread, PM me, or use this email [email protected]

[Franklins Ghost]

Why are you moving to 56 colours and do you have any screenshots of the new look?

[Savick]

Why are you moving to 56 colours and do you have any screenshots of the new look?

About the colors - we were running into problems when creating variations and combinations of 8 different elements with only 16 colors for a palette. I know some games only have 16 colors and they do fine, but I wanted to raise the color count to make sure we could have a pleasing variety of colors to go with. Some might disagree with this and prefer a more refined palette, but this is what were doing right now.

As for a screenshot, it will look like the same style in the first mock up but with more colors added in. However, there will only be 2-3 colors per type of block/character to keep a simple feel to it. I'll make a note of it to get a new mock up together soon.