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[X-Tender]

What is it?

VOID is a 2D space exploration Game where you have the control of a spaceship.
Gather resources form Planets, Destroy Enemys, take Missions and Upgrade your ship!
Tradings/Upgrades ect. are done in a "Console"

The Status

I've started the Development in the middle of 2012 for a small GameJam. After that I poked around the Code to balance the whole Gameplay and made it feel like a real game then a prototype.
I can say that the Engine is pretty solid and do what it does. There are still some Gamplay issues and balancing stuff to do.
Also the complexity of the game is low (only 3 different "boring" missions), only one Enemy (with different difficulty Stats) ect.

The Goal

My Goal is to make the game feel ready, like giving the player a real feeling that he is flying around the space and do some Missions, upgrade his ship and Discover new stuff without getting the Gameplay repetitive. Also a small storyline would be sweet

The Roadmap

I don't have a real Roadmap, I do more the stuff that I think is missind and what I like to have in it. But here's a small list that's floating around my head.

• Different Enemys
• More (Complex) Missions
• Tweak the "Models" Specialy the Planet-Buggy
• Outposts that can be used with the "Console"
• LOAD/SAVE!!
• Anything you suggest

PLAY IN BROWSER

Well, that's it.

I try to work on it as much as my free time allows.

CHANGELOG:

Code:

0.85 - 090113-A
Console:
ADDED: Switch to the SubMenus at any time with 1,2,3,4
ADDED: Change Textspeed my typing "textspeed 1"  or 2 or 3
ADDED: Buggy Upgrade Level shows cost for next Level in Line
ADDED: You can Access the whole Content of the Console also out of Signal but you cant buy/upgrade/sign ect.
CHANGED: Changed the Movement of the STarfield from the Players Movevector to the Cameras Movevector, now it's better in "Aim" Mode
CHANGED: Enabled the "Intro" which I forgot in the Orgin Version :) (0.8)
REMOVED: "clear" info command out of the console, function still exists

[Slaktus]

I think this looks lovely. Really like the way everything is built out of a mess of relatively positioned, absolutely aligned squares. That could look monstrously brainfuck in 3D. It's like a ... tapestry made out of well-oiled hinges.

I also really like the naive approach to spatiality, mixing top-down and side-scrolling. I can't get the buggy to do anything, and I imagine it'll be pretty hard to make "levels" for it, but the buggy could be a really cool interface for managing, say, mining colonies or tower defence-style military outposts. Every planet has a number of slots depending on size, where the player can build upgradeable structures by navigating with the buggy.

Planets could have moons, so you would build outposts defending your mining facilities on the moons, or if there are particularly valuable minerals there, build relatively exposed moon facilities that can be taken out by opportunistic space pirates ... Ah, but I'm gonna stop telling you what game to make!

I miss being able to zoom. I also miss being able to shoot. Hm. Since I can't use the buggy either, I'm guessing the space key isn't working for me.

Hope you keep working on this. The few things I've seen display potential and imagination.

[X-Tender]

Thanks for the feedback.
The "look" happend because I'm pretty bad in GFX

That's strange that you can't use Space, maybe in an another Browser. I will upload a Downloadable EXE Version the next day for special Players like you

The Buggy is Primary for Gathering resources. You have to Move to a Resource and then he "Locks" on it (flashing square) then hold space for gather the stuff.

I plan that the player can place "oilrigs" on the planet to gather resources under the surface. therefore he have to analyse it to see where the big underworld fluid/gas pockets are.

The Universe is currently random generated

[Slaktus]

If you can be bothered, make a couple of gifs demonstrating the look. They'll grab people's attention more than static shots.

[toipot]

This looks really nice. I think the fixed orientation square look works really well, particularly for the planets,
although when the planet has the same colours as the ship it can be a little tricky distinguishing the ship on top.

Couple of comments on the gameplay,

I'm not sure about the switched viewpoint for combat, it seemed a little disorienting at first but I can see the reasoning
behind it.

The console works nicely, although I think it'd be a good idea to be able to access missions, ship status etc while
away from base. The speed of the text writing is probably a little too slow for me

The mining mechanic seems a little grindy? Maybe a nice idea would be to use the buggy to
prospect for deposits and deploy automatic mining stations, which you can periodically collect resources from.

An 'inertial mode' for combat might be nice? I.e hold shift and you can continue moving in one direction while turning to fire at an enemy.

Rather than having a 'Death Zone' could you just wrap the universe asteroids style?

[X-Tender]

I'm not sure about the switched viewpoint for combat, it seemed a little disorienting at first but I can see the reasoning
behind it.

Yeah, when a Enemy is near the player the camera always moves in fron of the ship in the direction he's vieweing, otherwise its in front in the direction he's flying.
The reason is that its better to Aim when you see the Enemy

The console works nicely, although I think it'd be a good idea to be able to access missions, ship status etc while
away from base. The speed of the text writing is probably a little too slow for me

That's true, I will also add a Option to change the Speed of the Text.

The mining mechanic seems a little grindy? Maybe a nice idea would be to use the buggy to
prospect for deposits and deploy automatic mining stations, which you can periodically collect resources from.

Yes it's currently grindy. The possibility of deploying mining Bots is nice, I keep that in mind.

An 'inertial mode' for combat might be nice? I.e hold shift and you can continue moving in one direction while turning to fire at an enemy.

Well currently it behaves exactly that way. When you rotate he keeps flying in the same direction, maybe the camera movement change does that impression..

Rather than having a 'Death Zone' could you just wrap the universe asteroids style?

Hmm, it's an Idea. I check it out..

[toipot]

Well currently it behaves exactly that way. When you rotate he keeps flying in the same direction, maybe the camera movement change does that impression..

Ah yeah, I see now! For some reason it wasn't that obvious to me first time around.

I'm not sure but, when you rotate the camera in the zoomed out view, it looks to me like the background isn't affected by the motion?
Maybe that's why i'm finding that view a bit weird.

[X-Tender]

I made some slightly changes and Updates.

CHANGELOG
0.85 - 090113-A

Console:
ADDED: Switch to the SubMenus at any time with 1,2,3,4
ADDED: Change Textspeed my typing "textspeed 1"  or 2 or 3
ADDED: Buggy Upgrade Level shows cost for next Level in Line
ADDED: You can Access the whole Content of the Console also out of Signal but you cant buy/upgrade/sign ect.
CHANGED: Changed the Movement of the STarfield from the Players Movevector to the Cameras Movevector, now it's better in "Aim" Mode
CHANGED: Enabled the "Intro" which I forgot in the Orgin Version (0.
REMOVED: "clear" info command out of the console, function still exists

I tryed to add the Universe Wrap function but somehow I didn't knew how to achieve it. Maybe someone have an Idea. For the Info, The Universe is a space between -X and +X also -Y and +Y.

Did someone know how to convert MP4s to GIFs so I can place some Animated stuff in the Startpost.

I'm currently undecided how to improove the "mining" Gameplay. Both suggestions were prety good (the one with the build Slots and the automatic mining robots) Have to think about it a little more.

[toipot]

I tryed to add the Universe Wrap function but somehow I didn't knew how to achieve it. Maybe someone have an Idea. For the Info, The Universe is a space between -X and +X also -Y and +Y.

Well, the first thing to do is just to wrap the coordinates of every movable object
after updating. Which is just a simple function like

Code:

// loc -  coordinate vector to be wrapped
// size - size of universe
void CoordinateWrap(Vector2f& loc, Vector2f const& size) 
{  
  if (loc.x > size.x )
    loc.x = loc.x-size.x;
  
  if (loc.x < 0.0f ) 
    loc.x = loc.x+size.x;
  
  if (loc.y > size.y ) 
    loc.y = loc.y-size.y;
  
  if (loc.y < 0.0f ) 
    loc.y = loc.y+size.y;
  }
 }

But then you need to calculate distances differently. To work out the vector between two coordinates you can't just subtract them, as there could be a shorter route over the wrapping axes. You need a function something like this

Code:

// work out distance vector between a and b vectors
Vector2f CoordinateDistance(Vector2f  const& a, Vector2f const& b, Vector2f const& size)
{
// simple subtracted distance vector
  const float x = b.x - a.x;
  const float y = b.y - a.y;
  
// try going over coordinate boundary
  const float x1 = (x>=0.0f ? -1.0f:1.0f)*size.x + x;
  const float y1 = (y>=0.0f ? -1.0f:1.0f)*size.y + y;
  
// return whichever is the shorter distance
  return Vector2f(abs(x1)>abs(x) ? x:x1, abs(y1)>abs(y) ? y:y1);
}

(These functions all assume coordinates from 0 to size.x/y so you'd need to shift them to start at -X/Y).
After this though, all the geometry is identical. You just use the distance function instead of distance = a - b.

Hope that's useful!

[X-Tender]

Thanks for the suggestion. Did you have maybe a Suggestion for the drawing Part? So when the cam is @ X 0.0 then I should see a object which is @ size.x of the "universe" also @ 0.0. Sure I could do a couple of IF statements but maybe you have an better, elegant, solution.

[toipot]

Thanks for the suggestion. Did you have maybe a Suggestion for the drawing Part? So when the cam is @ X 0.0 then I should see a object which is @ size.x of the "universe" also @ 0.0. Sure I could do a couple of IF statements but maybe you have an better, elegant, solution.

Sure, to figure out the draw position of an object, you just need to calculate the distance between the camera position and the target object using the CoordinateDistance function.

Here's roughly what you'd do if you have a camera coordinate that's at the top left of your screen for example:

Code:

// (loop over game objects)
{
Vector2f drawLoc = CoordinateDistance(camera.location, object.location, universeSize); // work out distance from camera
if (drawloc <= screen.size && drawloc > 0 ) // if the object is in the screen window, draw
draw(object, drawLoc);
}

[Thecoolestnerdguy]

Played the game. It's fun, I have to say.
When I opened the game the game, it ran veeery slowly, then, suddenly, start to run normally. That shouldn't  happen, I guess, but it's almost surely fault of my seven years old computer.

I also like the:

the way everything is built out of a mess of relatively positioned , absolutely aligned squares.

An 'inertial mode' for combat might be nice? I.e hold shift and you can continue moving in one direction while turning to fire at an enemy.

Planets could have moons, so you would build outposts defending your mining facilities on the moons, or if there are particularly valuable minerals there, build relatively exposed moon facilities that can be taken out by opportunistic space pirates ... Ah, but I'm gonna stop telling you what game to make!

These are good ideas! Would be cool to have then on the game.

The mining system is very confusing. I would never guess how to mine.