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autumnspark
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« Reply #22 on: April 28, 2015, 08:45:37 AM » |
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Currently having perma-death discussions it scares me personally as I'm usually very prone to dying in just about any game. We want to sort of force people to invest in their ship though and commit to the game, where each enemy encounter might be a bit of an "oh shit" moment. I think thought that rewards for missions and trades and just exploring stuff will need to be much higher and valuable so that the player can invest heavily in upgrades and construction to make sure they can stay alive long enough to get through the game. I could go on about this for a while, so maybe I will. I think perma-death means that some of the mission structure I've made needs to change a bit to be more puzzle oriented while still having a combat element to it. Combat shouldn't always put your entire game at risk when you engage with it, and I think there are probably some fun almost arena style ways to cope with the issue. Stuff where you can go crazy in either a NPC or ship fight and not worry about getting your shit totally rocked. Anyway, we have some gifs of astronauts dying. Hoooray!
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autumnspark
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« Reply #23 on: April 30, 2015, 08:38:48 AM » |
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Some of my favorite bugs from the week: "object type “exhaust” not disappearing from an engine after being used in specific situations" This made it look like your ship was constantly peeing into outer space. There was also an issue with manual docking procedures, where you'd get an instant game over after docking with decimated station. It was akin to Matthew McConaughey pulling off that sequence in Interstellar, only to get blown up. Not fun, not fun at all. In more fun news, our rotation engines swivel now, so you can still rotate the ship if you lose all of them on the port or starboard side. Living in the future baby. Moar screens, gifs, devlog technical documentation.
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autumnspark
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« Reply #24 on: May 04, 2015, 07:38:56 AM » |
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Got some new explosion sprites up and running. Also playing around with trade-off of automatic vs. manual control for ship systems. Right now the only implementation of this is with weapon systems, where manual control gives a slight damage boost bust leaves you unable to access other systems while in combat. Other applications include output for reactors or hydroponic farms and their chance of breaking down or being damaged. Balance Balance Balance, Tweak Tweak Tweak. Moar images over hurr.
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autumnspark
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« Reply #25 on: May 06, 2015, 11:42:32 AM » |
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I shot a video for our devlog this week showcasing my ill-fated attempts to properly manage a large interstellar space craft. Despite total disaster nose diving headfirst into me it was still pretty fun. Trying to make the video has sort of made clear what kind of things need to be added or tweaked, and it highlighted some bugs too. Playing in a different mindset sort of teased out the issues which was pretty cool. Pretty much working on balance and hammering out bugs so we can get the demo out in the coming weeks. Hopefully peeps will have fun with it. Devlog with video and screens.Also, a screen where it looks like a planet is being vaporized by the death star.
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autumnspark
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« Reply #26 on: May 24, 2015, 12:27:19 PM » |
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I've been having some interesting talks with people this week and playing our demo for them. We're about to overhaul all our UI so that detailed descriptions for basic tasks can be eliminated out of the demo/beginning of the game and, you know, make the game look more badass. But stuff is definitely coming along. It will be nice to reach that first milestone on the way to completing the game. We'd been working on a trailer for a long time as well, and hopefully we'll get around to finishing that soon. I think I wrote some neat stuff for it. Devlog with screens n' stuff
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autumnspark
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« Reply #28 on: May 31, 2015, 07:13:11 PM » |
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Managed to shoot the game off to Indiecade this week after beginning to introduce some new UI elements and advanced ship behavior. Once your ship takes enough damage from a dirty whargarbled space pirate their ship will try and board with you. This is kind of a second chance in some regards, because if you manage to take out the pirates in good old fashioned hand to hand combat, then their ship is totally yours. Whoop whoop! We also have been working on how resources are distributed throughout asteroids. The cursor now brings up what element is in a specific tile on an asteroid, so you sort of know where you should dig if you want a specific element. Got some pictures n' more stuff about it over at IndieDB.
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AlexMartial
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« Reply #30 on: June 11, 2015, 10:33:33 PM » |
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TESTERS NEEDED FOR DEEP SPACE GAMEPLAY Have you ever wanted to build a spaceship, take care of astronauts, mine asteroids, and subsequently watch your vessel get obliterated while your crew chokes to death on interstellar void? Come join us as a volunteer tester for Sol-Ark’s demo. This will be a closed test, super secret, and used to help us with our full demo release at the end of June. Sol-Ark is currently running through its pre-flight checklist and is looking for a handful of brave (and unpaid) testers to strap themselves to our rocket and see what happens. We’re reaching out to those who have commented on our posts and articles so far, basically anyone who showed any sort of interest in the game to date. Sol-Ark is still in its prototype phase and we are looking to get some broader feedback before we put out a hardened, finite demo for everyone to get their hands on. This means that the builds you’ll be playing will be limited in some capacities and don’t represent the final gameplay and graphics that we’re shooting for. There are placeholder elements for the user interface, windows, menus, that sort of stuff. Some gameplay mechanics will be switched off so we can focus in on things we know need to be tested, we’ll test all aspects of the game a bit later. You may encounter errors and bugs or lags, and we’re hoping you find some! We need this kind of feedback and want you to report back to us with all your thoughts, opinions, and experience. All of your input can be submitted via a feedback form we’ll provide you with should you be chosen for our little deep-space experiment. What we’ll need from you: - Your email address
- An internet high five ( ^∇^)ノ
- A promise you won’t blog, tweet, post or hoot and holler about everything you’ll be playing, at least for a little while.
Still interested? Shoot an email off to [email protected] with “Tester” in the subject line.So keep your eyes on your personal message transponders and look out for an incoming message signal from a far off galaxy. It’s either an invitation to test, or a distress signal because I miscalculated my required propulsion (again) and have flown clear out of the solar system. Full list of performed work you can find on Sol-Ark's blog with devlogsTake a look at Sol-Ark's page on IndieDB website or Sol-Ark's blog with devlogs to know more.
Join us on Sol-Ark's official website to stay tuned
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« Last Edit: June 17, 2015, 10:58:17 PM by AlexMartial »
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Greipur
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« Reply #31 on: June 12, 2015, 01:04:22 AM » |
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Looking forward to try the demo out later if/when it goes public! I must say that I find it interesting with your modular system of tiles, that random ones can take damage and disappear such as in this gif. I'd imagine that you have to focus on structural integrity more than we're used to see in other games, as a managament geek I find that interesting.
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autumnspark
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« Reply #32 on: June 12, 2015, 11:28:49 AM » |
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I'd imagine that you have to focus on structural integrity more than we're used to see in other games, as a managament geek I find that interesting. Yep yep yep. There have definitely been times where I've accidentally disassembled an assortment of tiles causing either small and/or large chunks of ship to break off. It's especially bad if once broken off you try turning and then they fly into your weapons/solar panels/connecting bays/astronauts/etc at high speed and wreck more stuff. It's pretty fun. We'll put out a demo at the end of the month for everyone to tool around with and see how its playing
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AlexMartial
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« Reply #34 on: July 09, 2015, 09:19:03 AM » |
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Hello, everyone!We are updating our thread with a regular devlog (07/07/2015 CheckPoint). Take a look, how Sol-Ark evolves right before your eyes! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vfC7GAtxCq4/VZuqV6LxbVI/AAAAAAAAA4g/UXAoDlsnokU/s1600/2015jule3_3_opt.gifWe want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped us test the latest build of the game. Some of you racked up four or more hours of playtime which we find truly incredible. I’m sure the body count for dead astronauts is well in the hundreds. Nice work. We have received an immense amount of feedback about what is working great and what needs to be improved. It’s helped us formulate a better development plan and given us a good, hard look at where we need to go in order to build a great game. Part of this decision involves switching our engine over to HAXE, which will help us tremendously in the long run. Much of our time has been dedicated to crafting the particulars of an engine that suits our game’s needs, which are quite complex, but utilizing HAXE at this stage will allow further progress to come more smoothly and readily. We’ll be announcing some things in about a month from now, so stay tuned, and if you managed to get your hands on our build we hope you play it until the solar system is littered with dead pirate bodies. Check Sol-Ark's page on IndieDB website and our blog with devlogs to know more. Join us on Sol-Ark's official website to stay tuned.
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« Last Edit: July 27, 2015, 03:51:42 AM by AlexMartial »
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