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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsSolotra.B Development Log
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SCAREKRO
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« on: April 12, 2015, 11:49:47 PM »


Hi everyone. I have decided to begin my development log on here. So here we go!

My name is Ricky and I am creating a game called Solotra.B.

Solotra.B is an open world, 2D, top down shooter/trader/resource management/tower defense/strategy game. Imagine a top down Elite, fused with Pirates! and Command & Conquer, Terraria and Fragile Allegiance/K240.

I have been developing this game a bit over a year and have been slowly learning about all the elements of creating a game. I am completely new to the world of video game development, I have no past experience in the development industry. I am however, an avid gamer and love all manner of games and have played an innumerable amount of games over 30 years.

I am a high school teacher by profession and was exposed to game development through being allocated an Info Tech class where I was charged with teaching students the basics of programming using tools like GameMaker and Unity. I found that I was perhaps enjoying learning about programming and game making more the some of the students!

I had dabbled as a kid with programming, using my trusty Commodore 64 and a bit of encouragement from my Dad and Uncle but that was my first and only foray into game making. I had always talked about wanting to make a game throughout my life but just never got around to doing it.

I decided, just over a year ago, to make some changes in my life and actively pursue my dreams instead of always saying "one day...." Thus Solotra.B was born.


THE GAME

The concept/story behind my game is that you, the player, have been sent out into an unknown sector of the galaxy in order to scavenge, collect and mine resources needed to save your home world and/or help build an exodus fleet.

In the sector of the galaxy that you have been sent out to, there will be a number (24 or so) star systems that you can visit, each with their own unique planetary systems and alien races that you will interact with.

You fly around each solar system and can collect resources from space - minerals/rock from asteroids and metal from scrap that is floating around, alien items from alien ships and trade goods from attacking merchants - which you can use to build & defend mining bases, upgrade your ship and develop weapons.

You can establish small mining bases on planets which will enable you to harvest more minerals and particular elements, that you can either use for yourself or that you will send back to your home world.

You can sell these items to alien civilizations to purchase technology, weapons, schematics, ships etc. but there is the risk of not supplying enough to your home world. You will need to constantly decide on spending on yourself at the expense of those people who live on your home planet. Be selfless and help your people but risk failure in your mission as more aggressive aliens will destroy you - or be selfish and risk the lives of others.

You will need to defend each of your mining operations from attack from aliens and pirates who will attempt to steal from or destroy you. This will work in a space invaders styled game within the main game.

This is the main concept behind the game. As I develop this game further I will update you all here, as well as on my website www.scarekrogames.com (where I have already began a developer diary/blog.)

I am expecting to continue development of this game for at least another year - I think it will take that time (and perhaps more) to develop this game to my full vision.

Can check some videos out if you want
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrieMb-x2ePbBe8S8TTU_CQ

Anyway, will be posting progress here from now on also. Hope to get some feedback on any aspect and am happy for any questions, comments or criticisms. Thanks guys!

Here are some screenshots (all early development stuff):




























« Last Edit: August 18, 2015, 02:25:33 AM by SCAREKRO » Logged

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GeoffW
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« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2015, 12:28:23 AM »

Looks promising.  Can you tell us a bit more about the moment to moment gameplay?
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SCAREKRO
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« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2015, 06:20:03 PM »

Sure dude, thanks for asking! At the moment (with my game still being a WIP), this is what I have decided to be the basic gameplay structure - this might be subject to some slight changes here and there as I refine the game but the general breakdown of gameplay is as follows:

OVERALL GAME IDEA

1) After the initial introduction and story setting/commander selection screen, the player will be sent out into a peaceful (non-inhabited) system with two or so planets and just have a small pod type ship. Their first task will be to establish a base on one of the planets and begin to harvest resources from the planets surface and surrounding space. This is so the player will be able to learn the basic mechanics of the game in a relatively unthreatening environment (certain hazards will still exist).

They will then be able to construct a small or light spacecraft, from a small selection of ships (which have slots for weapons and other tools) which will have the ability to warp out to the surrounding systems.

2) Upon arrival into a inhabited system, the player will have some preliminary contact with an alien species (I haven't decided if this will be randomized at first, with the chance of coming up against a more hostile race or not), and will either attempt to:
 
a) trade with that alien species, by going back and forward from their  new 'home' system (like               establishing a trade route) accumulating different resources/credits/schematics for themselves and their home world

b) be slightly more aggressive - by establishing mining bases in the alien systems to mine different resources

c)attack alien spacecraft and steal resources/credits/weapons etc. which will increase the hostility levels of the species.

Each of these options will progressively carry greater risk but more significant rewards.
The player will have to start making decisions about what resources to send home or to utilize for themselves as their home world status will slowly deteriorate/improve.

3) Once a player begins to venture further out from their new home system, they will come into contact with different alien species which will respond differently to the player and also have different trade items/resources weapons etc. I am wanting interactions with different species to influence each other and that the player can choose to build a positive relation with certain species by carry out side missions for each different race - which will carry different benefits for the player.

PARTICUALR GAME MECHANICS:
HEALTH:
The player will have a health, shield and booster bars. Health and shield are self explanatory, booster will be used for certain tools and or special weapons and depletes with use but slowly recharges. Booster is also used to charge shield if shield are low.

EXPERIENCE LEVEL:
Perform certain actions will accumulate experience - which levels the player up and will provide a RANK and certain benefits.

DEATH:
If the player ship is being attacked and nears destruction, the player can choose to escape by pressing a button which shoots out an escape pod - whereby they can evade hostile enemies. They player must return to their home base and reconstruct a ship (these are essentially your "lives" and multiple can and should be constructed - if you run out of these lives, you will have to function as only the small escape pod ship and the risk of perma-death is high. If you die as this escape pod and have no lives - your game is over. Death will be death. ( I have some other ideas if this ideas does not end up working the way I want it too, but I still want to maintain some significant penalty or challenge upon death - I am not a big fan of feeling as though there is no consequence for death in games.

As a secondary possible penalty for destruction, at the moment of your ship destruction (not pod) all of your cargo and credits are shot out into space, into a container. This will have to be retrieved by the player in order to recover your credits and cargo. It will have a locator beacon, so it will not be too difficult to find. It may get picked up by an hostile alien craft however and you will have to fight this ship (on your return) in order to recover your credits/cargo. You can choose to store certain amounts of cargo and credits at your bases though - management of these becomes important in this case.

SYSTEM COMPUTER:
In order to perform certain tasks player will have to use their keyboard to type in particular functions (rather than use traditional buttons). I want the player to feel like they were actually using an onboard computer. At the moment the commands the player will enter are:
SHIELD - repairs shield using booster
MAP - displays system map
GAME - some on board entertainment!
HAIL - make communication with nearest ship
WARP SYSxxx - initiates a warp countdown sequence to warp out of system
REPAIR - initiates a minigame to repair a particular broken/damaged ship function - SHIELD,ENGINE,HULL,WEAPONS
DUMP XXXX - dump carry that may be contraband in a certain system
LOG - a log of significant events -player can also write notes in here, kind of like a diary/ships log entry.
LAND - initiate landing sequence on nearby planet (player within range)
HELP - displays commands

In this ship computer screen - status and other important information is displayed and player change change their ship loadout (atm the moment this is on the fly but I am considering only letting a player do this when in a 'hangar' on the surface of the planet.

AI COMPANION:
You ship is equipped with an AI companion, which will serve to update player about certain events, small and significant, provide assistance and advice to players, provide some light entertain and banter and also provide some real world factual knowledge about certain elements of space (sorry, this is the teacher in me, I thought "Hey why not have some educational value to my game".

BUILDING BASES:
On each planet, the player will be able to construct buildings (an HQ, power facilities, radio towers, mining towers, silos, teleporters, research labs, environmental control centers, shield generator and defences.)

This will consume resources/credits.

Each planet will have certain resources that can then be mined and these mining bases must be defend from attack.
The level of alien hostility will determine that likelihood of attack and the player can choose whether to
a) no defend planet
b) use the automatic defences on the planet (if they have built them)
c) defend manually by remote (not as effective - if player has built the remote radio control towers)
d) fly to the planet and defend it manually

LANDING ON INHABITED PLANETS:
Player will be able to land on inhabited planets - but not build (unless alien race is friendly) and visit alien cities to trade and communicate. If alien is hostile landing will not be possible unless the player wants to risk destruction (they can attempt to sneak in and land).

LANDING ON SPACE STATIONS:
There will also be space stations that the player can dock with and carry out trade etc...


CONCLUSION
This is an overall summary of most of the parts of my game - I hope I have made it a bit clearer about how my game will actually play, but if I haven't I am more than happy to answer any more questions. I also would greatly appreciate any more ideas, feedback or criticism of any element of my game.
Thanks everyone for reading, hope some of you are interested and sorry for typing way too much!
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SCAREKRO
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« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2015, 06:39:25 PM »

Just working on some more planet surfaces and environmental effects like rain, snow and ash. Put in the second layer of background on one of the surfaces and will create the parallax effect. Made the backgrounds shift to create a day/night cycle effect.

Going to start working on the backgrounds for another four planet types - Jungle, Island and Rock and Crystal.

Check out the new environmental effects here:




Or some screenshots:



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« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2015, 02:56:25 AM »

Had some other things to do today - so only got to work on my next planet for an hour or so before going to bed.
Here is the beginnings of the Crystal Planet called Kyan.

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« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2015, 03:36:04 AM »

Still working on the Crystal Planet... thinking of a type of light or beam effect I could apply here. Didn't get much else done today. Between work and family it is hard to find time to work on my game. Slowly but surely I guess...

Anyway, don't know what would make the best background sky colour, have tried a few but not quite happy.

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« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2015, 09:04:39 PM »

Just about finished my Crystal Planet now.
Going to start working on a few ships - will post when I have about 10 ships. Could be a few hours, could be a few days....

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« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2015, 02:44:00 AM »

Was going to start working on some new ships that the player can select from... just for a change of scenery. Didn't end up doing that though.

I started working on another planet landscape. And pretty much finished my crystal planet. Have to work on some clouds for the background and another layer of depth. Going to start figuring out lighting too....

I must say that it gets pretty tough sometimes working on a game by yourself and not having anyone to bounce ideas off of or to help with aspects of the game. You feel like you are going mad talking to yourself and almost constantly thinking about some element of your game.

The concept of finishing and one day actually having people play (and hopefully enjoy) your game is pretty exciting but it seems incredibly distant. Just got to keep soldiering on. I keep thinking about what my game was like a year ago and how much I have achieved in that time and it drives me forward. If I keep at it, keep improving, keep learning and keep working, I know that what I will have in a year from now will only be better.

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« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2015, 04:35:40 PM »

Started working on a more player ships. Going to create a couple more and then I have a few ideas for some planets I would like to create. Then I want to start working towards a working demo that people can try out.
To do this I will need to start working on the game introduction and beginning - looking at have two systems that the player can test with one alien species and a small selection of ships/weapons and buildings. Also have to work on the player UI and menus. Bit of work to do....

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« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2015, 02:41:20 AM »

Working on ships for new alien race called the Zekrotin...
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« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2015, 03:21:33 AM »

Working on some more ships for this alien race. 4 more for this race and then need to start working on animations for them.

Short term to-do list: (from the top of my head)
Finish ships for system 5
Create intro screens
Complete the tutorial system
Build the planet surface UI
Fix building placement and costs/resources required
Finish status screen
... that's enough for now.

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« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2015, 10:10:37 PM »

Here are some of my handwritten development notes and the first ship of the new alien race I am working on:
(The game design principles I wrote down from a Gamasutra Article);






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« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2015, 03:24:32 AM »

Worked on another planet surface today. Going to start working on the HUD for the planet view next.
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« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2015, 03:30:27 AM »

Development Log Video #3 - Defending the surface with your little spacedude!



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« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2015, 06:22:54 AM »

Check out a short video of the evolution of my game from January 2014:



« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 07:20:12 PM by SCAREKRO » Logged

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« Reply #15 on: May 16, 2015, 11:18:05 PM »

Gif of some of the new ships that I made:



All of my ships to date:


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« Reply #16 on: May 16, 2015, 11:38:12 PM »

This looks great Smiley I look forward to seeing more of your devlog, just found it today Smiley
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« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2015, 09:47:08 PM »

Hi PsySal,

Thanks dude! Knowing that there are some people who are enthusiastic about my game is like motivational gold!
If you want to make any suggestions about my game then feel free too - I would welcome any feedback at all.
Cheers!
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« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2015, 02:49:29 AM »

Beginning your mission to save Earth!





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« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2015, 04:27:56 AM »

Working on the introduction sequences of the game:






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