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[sperryman]

Though it has been said before, it definitely bears repeating; THIS IS THE SPACE GAME I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! The possibilities you have outlines with missions and exploration seem almost surreal, and the episodic nature should lend itself well to a quick play session on the train. After reading over your stretch goal number two and not seeing the answer, are you going to have a way that players can track their progress throughout the universe? Perhaps some way to map the courses they have taken and perhaps create a map or something out of it? I think that would be a great addition, the ability to see that you've traveled through 200 different systems or something. Just a thought!

[Kisguri]

Tiny Trek on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2064021040/tiny-trek

Today I was able to rig load and save to the editor. Now you can save your ship design and then load it again later. I will expand on this over the next day or two. In addition I began designing a space dock from where the ship is edited. So you can make multiple saves. Here some up to date images of the editor...





In other news I have been work with Mr Czanik to figure out how to create lifeforms on planet surfaces. And I think we have come up with a idea. We are going to have several body part types, for instance movement may be achieved with wings, fins, two legs, eight legs, etc. So we will have these parts available, and the engine will stitch them together based on the planet. Here is a concept image below.



 Finally we are nearing the end of our second stretch goal and as promised today on the Kickstarter info page I revealed the 3rd and final stretch goal, More Melee options! Here is that information copied for your convenience!

"$10,000.00 Raised - Mega Melee modes: If we can reach the $10,000 dollar mark we will be able to expand the Melee combat mode we have planned out. We will be able to include the ability to create team battles where you construct teams out of your save files and download NPCs from the server. Then battle one ship at a time against another team. Another mode would be endless mode, where you ship of choice has to survive against a never ending onslaught of Saved NPCs and generated enemies. The third battle mode would allow you to combat against two enemy vessels and you have a friendly NPC to assist you, two on two. The fourth mode would involve a endless round of battles, where each battle is timed. Each victory adds more time to the clock, the faster you can defeat them the more time added to the clock. "

Tomorrow I hope to post a new build for Backers to edit their ships and do combat again, but this one will have the load and save functions in and I am attempting to code some method for e-mailing each other our ships for fun in-till we can get the server up.

[Kisguri]

Wow what a bonehead move on my part! Thanks!,

[Kisguri]

New article on Tiny Trek up at Super Game Droid.

http://www.supergamedroid.com/2013/12/20/kickstarter-spotlight-tiny-trek/

[Kisguri]

Question

What do you guys think of a Co-op party mode, Adding something like in artemis bridge simulator or quartet. The guys at work suggested it, allow up to three players play together running different stations, like engineering and science in addition to helm, etc. In other words if we could pull of this mode you could have a for instance where you are playing let's say on your TV with a Ouya or you apple tv via ipad, and your friends bring their own tablets. they could have panels on their screens for some of the stations while you control the helm, Might even work for away missions each person controlling a team member. Do you think this would add value or dilute the overall focus of the game?

[Kisguri]

New battle build posted to Kickstarter page for backers. Hoping this one is fairly bug free so I can go about integrating back into main game. Backers!, comments most welcome!

[Kisguri]

Tiny Trek is one of Pocket Tactics most anticipated titles of 2014!

http://www.pockettactics.com/features/recon-report-anticipated-ios-android-games-2014/

So that's a feel good warm fuzzy.

[Kisguri]

Making Surface worlds is complicated...

Talking with some of the guys on the design team we had a wish list item that we really felt needed working out to make the game better. Originally the episode generator when it came to surface missions were only one offs. That is you could only visit one surface spot once, This was due to how I initially wrote the randomly generated level creation, But after several long discussions we decided that I could do a whole lot more if we could load and save multiple spots on planet and return to them later in the game, either in generation of the episode or just cause you wanted to go back to where Red shirt #68 had died previously in your game. So I was finally at a point at the beginning of this month to work on that. So I started by writing a save state string that would be generated during a the creation of a new surface scene, And that is where our first headache occurred.

So here you have a single typical generated level's output string that I crafted...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e791w8mh7dop0r5/level.txt

If you chose to check it out you will see its quite a few characters long but it contains everything I need to place set pieces on the screen in the correct sizes. The problem is that the string is quite large, especially if I wanted to provide multiple spots on a planet, After running some numbers a typical estimation is I would have 1mb of text for every 8 worlds I generated. That means in a endless universe your surface missions data would grow to rapidly and take up precious storage space, especially if it was a mobile device. So I scratched my head, and the scratched the heads around me to see if any Ideas would fall out. Damon suggested Random Pools or a Pseudo-random number generator. What this meant is that if successful I could generate using my algorithm the same type worlds but each time a seed value was entered I would get the same sequence of random numbers. The result is below. Needless to say I am quite excited by the results, the same 1 mb that I could fit in 8 worlds or so I can now fit over 8,000.

Here is the seed that generated the following world scene in different colors: 999987







 I also started working out how battles may be conducted on the surface. The current front runner is when you enter a battle situation your guys line up and the enemy line up for a turn based affair. You can select any one of your guys to move to the front of the line and execute one command. Each officer regardless of job can fire their side arm, at the first guy in the line of sight, Or use their special ability, For instance A security officer can throw grenades, and damage several people or a engineer can erect a shield barrier. Then the enemy takes one turn doing the same. Still ironing it out but as I said this seems to be the front runner and works well in game so far.



 Look forward to any comments!

[Kisguri]

New build is up for Backers!

The “Exploration Build A” gives backers a taste of how the game flow is so far presented. Backers can take their procedurally generated vessel and travel amongst the stars visit planets, send away teams to run around the surface and engage other vessels in space. I am really excited to see the input from the backer pool about their experiences to see what we can change and improve. Hopefully we can begin to safely activate “episode” components in the coming builds.



The biggest challenge we experienced the last month was with making re-visitable surface environments instead of the original one offs we had initially planned. I would like to extend a thanks to Damon C for pushing me in that direction. I think it’s very neat that now a player could land on a planet with a away team walk 100 screens in one direction and then leave. Come back days later in game, and those 100 screens are the same. The implications for game play are huge moving forward.

Backers can visit the Test builds page and pick up a copy to play with now.

More Information at: http://tinytrekvoyages.com/

[Kisguri]

Galaxy Screen



So I got alot of good feedback and one thing that was confirmed for me was the galaxy overmap interface was messy and confusing so I spent a considerable amount of time last couple of day reworking that portion. I think most folks will be pleased with the result. In addition to creating a sense of travel and better location association for the player I added some more function. Instead of just clicking a sector to travel to it, you have two button options, one is Scan which gives you some basic information from that sector and Engage which of course starts travel. The nice thing about this is you can make a more informed decision of where you want to go based on your long range sensor results. I also recorded some play footage you can watch below.


New gameplay WIP footage at:

[Kisguri]

Connecting the pieces!

So things are moving fast with development, I have begun to sew in the various episode components, This build you can happen upon 7+ event triggers with various mission objectives. Over the next week I hope to triple that. But I wanted to get a build out so you could see the progress. The cool thing is as I add them they begin to feed into each other. Once I have these done, I can then begin to layer them in sequence to make robust episodes. Before I do that I have to rewrite the text display engine, as the one I have is inefficient and in capable of delivering large blocks of text we will need to drive the narrative. However with this build you should see some improvement! Other notable items added is three screen resolution options and the long sought after assignable key function.



As I develop the episode components I have to add some of the missing base features along the way. Some of those additions for instance are the Medical and Engineer Scanners both of which provide functionality to those away team members. The medical scanner allows you to heal sick or wounded crew or NPC’s in battle you can heal your own guys if you team had a medical officer or render assistance to a injured NPC. The engineer panel repairs stuff, by shifting the “tumblers” to the off or on position, you can reactivate machinery, repair stuff, or lock/unlock doors.



In other news thanks to you my supporters and interested gamers we have finally earned a greenlit spot on Steam, I appreciate all those who voted and look forward to providing something unique on the Steam platform. Those who backed for a PC build can choose a Steam key if they desire. Gamesare Studios was also recently approved to be a Wii U developer so it is now possible you could see Tiny Trek on Wii U or 3ds. Though it may have to wait for a period after release so we can afford the developer kit.

I hope to get iOS testing started first of December.

In any case I look forward to your comments on this build, Backers can find the link to download in the Test Builds section at http://www.TinyTrekVoyages.com Below is a list of complete changes.

Build 151 Change log

-Assignable Keys
-Changeable resolution (480×320, 960×640, Full screen)
-Auto entry to planets and stars from solar system screen
-Speed indicator on all manual control areas
-Cloned nebula code to Ship Encounter section for main game
-WIP intro music for episodes
-WIP Episode end music
-Completed First sections of episodes
Detect Damaged ship in asteroid field, Assist out with tractor
NPC ship under attack, defend from hostile
Derelict Craft Located, Scan vessels for life signs
Weak lifesigns, beam aboard and render assistance
No lifesigns, second ship returns and attacks
Good lifesigns, its a ruse defend your self
Intercepted by another vessel
Ship attacks you
Ship requests you go to star system
-Created Engineer Scanner, allows you to repair devices and open or lock doors
-Created Medical Scanner, Scan and diagnose correctly to heal a patient
-Added ground combat cover system, Crouch to have 50% chance of avoiding being hit, crates or other obstacles provide auto cover when you stand next to them providing 100% cover.
-Weapons use power, and need to recharge on away missions
-Interaction Icon flash when Engineer, Science or Medical officer is near point of interest
-Added refuel tick sound during refuel mission

[Kisguri]

Here is a recent capture of in game footage. and a little update information!





http://www.TinyTrekVoyages.com

Check out the latest work in progress footage of Tiny Trek, A procedurally generated space exploration game by Gamesare Studios.

In this video I wanted to share some of the new features and consoles available to would be captains in game. First off is a revamped control scheme, which I am still tuning. Each "command" you can give in game is associated to a button icon letting you know which controller button or previously assigned key to use for it. All keyboard keys are completely assignable.

The Cargo console is in place and accessible from the bridge. Here is where you review your 20 slots of cargo in your ships hold. Some of the cargo like plants and minerals can be processed in to raw materials for use on ship, while others can be sold at star bases. During ship to ship combat, cargo from another ship can be dropped as well as weapons systems which you can swap out are collected in the hold as well.

The engineering panel has been flushed out more and currently allows you to view your ship, conduct ship repairs after battle and gives you access to the weapon modification console. Each weapon system type comes with a certain number of points which can be manipulated and tuned in the weapons console, Allowing you to modify your weapons systems output.

Also space stations are now dockable and you may board them. They contain three rooms, Trading, Warehouse and ship modification. More coming soon!