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[Chris Koźmik]

Title: Stellar Monarch (old name: Pocket Space Empire)

Platform: PC

Genre: turn based, strategy, 4X

Theme: space empire builder (with focus on you being the Emperor not a logistics officer)

Release date: somewhere in 2015 (EDIT: managed to do it in 2016 )

EDIT: The game was renamed to Stellar Monarch and released.









Core design goals:
* no micromanagement, focus on high level decisions not moving scout ships around
* fast paced, compacted gameplay, able to easily maintain a huge empire
* feel that you are the Emperor (audiences, appointing governors, maybe rebelions, etc)

About the game:
At the first glance it's a traditional 4X, but it has many twists. It's assymetrical (aliens play different than you) and strictly singleplayer. There is only one Empire (the player rules it), the others are just aliens/traders/rebels/invaders/etc. Also many mechanics are changed/replaced (like hierarchical military system, priority based auto exploration system, audiences, appoint governors).


Zillion related links
Homepage: http://silverlemurgames.com/stellarmonarch/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SilverLemur
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellarMonarch

[Chris Koźmik]

I wonder about audience mechanic. As the Emperor you definitely should organize audiences, yet I don't want it to be too distracting (since it's 4X not a throne room simulator).

I think audiences should not happen each turn, but in bulk every 5 turns or so (not dealing with 1-3 people who want to see you each turn but like 12-20 once in a while).

Also I was thinking of some simple court politics (but not to an extend of CKII).

If you have ideas how these should work, post.

[Chris Koźmik]

Implemented rebellion

Once in a while a rebellion starts (you can select a scenario where it happens from the beginning and there is only you and rebels, no aliens). It's not exactly that people rebel against you, but it's more like a coup/usurp where some factions inside the Empire wants to take over. They accumulate power and influence over time and when they are ready they start a big rebellion (no small rebellions every turn, one big and coordinated across several planets that happens rarely).

Overall, the rebels are not that strong, the problem is speed. You need to crush the rebelion fast or you start losing prestige, also the stability of the empire falls and it all can ends badly (if they perceive you as weak you will be disposed from the imperial throne).



Mechanic:
- when rebels accumulte enough power they start a rebellion
- they first take over planets politically (loyalty & security rating is important here)
- then they try to take over more planets by force (ultimately aiming to take over the imperial capital, which means instant game over for you)
- important note is that rebel planets are still considered partially your Empire, trade goes on, you have free recon there (always there are enough imperial supporters among population that will gladly spy for you), population can migrate between these planets, etc.

[GroZZleR]

I dig the idea of hosting an audience.  I really enjoyed that mechanic in the (very) old Castles / Castles 2 games, really helped tie together the strategy and managements elements of the game.

As you're solely targeting PC, are you worried the name "Pocket" Space Empire might alienate some consumers, thinking they're purchasing a simple mobile game or a mobile port?  That's something to consider, especially with the reputation that mobile ports have on platforms like Steam.

Keep it up -- looks promising so far!

[Chris Koźmik]

I dig the idea of hosting an audience.  I really enjoyed that mechanic in the (very) old Castles / Castles 2 games, really helped tie together the strategy and managements elements of the game.

In Castles the audience was storyline based and linear. In 4X it would be a kiss of death (replayability)
I need it still at least partially appealing after several plays...

As you're solely targeting PC, are you worried the name "Pocket" Space Empire might alienate some consumers, thinking they're purchasing a simple mobile game or a mobile port?  That's something to consider, especially with the reputation that mobile ports have on platforms like Steam.

Hmm, I'm more worried about confusion (that the game is not for PC), wonder how to phrase/promote it to avoid it... As for the title itself I *feel* it fits the game quite well. I mean, I'm not making a super bloated longish 4X, I aim for a lighter feel (both gameplay and the humour and also graphics (cartoonish)).
But there is also another, secret, reason If I named the game Epoic Ultimate Galactic Empire Simulator" I would never finish it :D With this title whenever I want to add some unecessary feature I keep reminging myself "you are making *pocket* space empire", it helps :D OK, helps sometimes, it will be overly complicated as all my other games in the end (I bet) but at least now with some restrain (I hope)

[ryansumo]

I agree that the title "Pocket" definitely hints at this being a mobile game.  Not that this is a bad thing, especially if you are considering porting to tablets.  Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

[Chris Koźmik]

Research screen:

First you set priorites to fields of research and generate res.pts for each field.
Next you spend these res.points on technologies (so each field of research is like a separate system).

[Chris Koźmik]

I agree that the title "Pocket" definitely hints at this being a mobile game.  Not that this is a bad thing, especially if you are considering porting to tablets.  Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

I doubt I will port it to tablets. Most likely it will be PC(Windows)/Mac/Linux. Althrough, apart from right mouse click and resolution it might be portable to tablets... But still, I designed this for desktop, so not sure it would be a good game on tablets.

[Chris Koźmik]

Got research system to work, it turned out quite fun.

Each field of research/category is made of a list of techs. Techs have levels, to unlock level 2 you need to have at least one levle 1 tech. Usually there are 1-3 techs per level. Which makes interesting decisions all the way since usually you want to get only one tech per level (to proceed ASAP to the high level techs), yet if you really want to you can go and grab more (but you will reach the top slower...)

Each tech provide 1-2 effects (new hull, new module for ship, global bonus, change in some rules). I love designing new hull types :D Had to stop since I got too many

[Chris Koźmik]

Working on audience system. It will be a mix of predefined storyline, help system (advisors poping up with ingame information based on the scenario (upcoming events)) and mechanics (visits of governors, imperial projects proposals - like construction of "death moon" :D, assassination checks, ambassadors, intelligence opportunities).

[Chris Koźmik]

Parasites invasion:

[flap]

Hey, has anyone noticed that the developper posted new videos ?

Here, he is detailing the

.
And there the

.

To be honest, I am really curious about that abstraction level between fleets, squadrow and ships. I'd love to try how it works in game !

[Chris Koźmik]

Hey, has anyone noticed that the developper posted new videos ?

Here, he is detailing the

.
And there the

.

To be honest, I am really curious about that abstraction level between fleets, squadrow and ships. I'd love to try how it works in game !

Yeah, I should have added the link to the YT channel (done).

OK, I'm preparing for a crowdfunding and greenlight very soon. I strongly suggest to subscribe to the announcement newsletter: http://eepurl.com/blcMDr (stricly low volume about important things only) to be notified about when these start (also there will be a small cosmetic pack for the first 2k people who subscribed).

[Chris Koźmik]

Crowdfunding just started (2015-06-24) http://igg.me/at/pocketspaceempire/

[Chris Koźmik]

Yay! :D

[Chris Koźmik]

Version 0.12 of EarlyAccess (prototype branch) released.

I'm preparing for an Alpha, so, I was trying in this version to finish all the technical things and smaller stuff.

Improvements:

• new reporting system
• interface improvements (more tooltips, etc)
• invention level mechanic finished
• max industry level mechanic
• governors have names, age, can die, competence penalty to new governors
• performance boost
• load/save
• ground combat bonus simplified
• most technologies work now (not all)
• a bit of balancing
• and many other

New features:

• "Reorganize" fleet button (super usefull)

Here is the "progress report" video:



At the moment you can buy the EA edition or preorder the game here: (EDIT: released!) expected release late 2015.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It's still a prototype, don't expect gameplay yet, if you hesitate or are not a huge fan I recommend to WAIT for Alpha/Beta release.

[Chris Koźmik]

ALPHA stage reached (v0.20, v0.21).

List of changes on the homepage: (homepage changed, check first post) (finally changed the crappy homepage :D)

[Chris Koźmik]

Space Game Junkie preview:




Version: 0.22, 0.23, 0.24 released.

Schedule adjusted: Release planned at late March 2016.

[Chris Koźmik]

Released (5th December 2016)
* Homepage (game): http://www.SilverLemurGames.com/stellarmonarch
* Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/446000/

Also name changed (the old one sounded too much mobile like).