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In the near future, a comet smashes into Europa, shattering the ice crust near Thera Macula and revealing the liquid water beneath. You play the Dragonfly, a robotic rover whose mission is to explore the caves beneath the surface for signs of life.

And now for the gifs...

The game will also feature time-trial levels. Training missions which take place in a simulated environment teach you how to fly, hover, use your laser and other skills required for the main game. As you progress you unlock time-trial simulations where you can compete on a global leaderboard.

This is looking very interesting, can't wait to see where you take this!

3D print of the player vehicle:

(http://cokane.com/shapeways/dragonfly_small_02.jpg)

Comet crashing into Europa and making a huge hole is the only way we will ever to come anywhere close to the underground ocean. So maybe trying to figure out how to redirect a comet into a moon is easier and faster than sending a costly expedition that will spend decades drilling a hole in an extremely harsh environment just to find some bacteria and perhaps fish. So there better be huge sea monsters and alien fish people in your game!  :P

Cool scenario (and graphics), following.

Edit: I'd like to see a slower rotation around the vertical axis while changing directions. The rotation could randomly be clockwise or anti-clockise, resulting in illuminating the back of the cave or the eye of the player which could lead to additional cool lensflare and overexposure effects. :)

Yes the ocean is very likely to be under 20km or more of ice, however the latest studies from NASA suggest that the chaos terrain features are probably caused by sub-surface lakes which aren't as deep as the ocean.

(http://astronomynow.com/news/n1111/17europa/lake.jpg)

My game is set in one of these lake systems, which has been exposed and mostly evaporated by the comet strike. Oh and yes, there will be 'interesting' things to discover down there  :eyebrows:

It always turns clockwise (to the right) at the moment. Just like Derek Zoolander. Should be easy enough to randomize it though.

Please be a hauntingly beautiful exploration game (http://www.tigerstylegames.com/wakingmars/) and not another run-off-the-mill murderscape (http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/SRHoliwell/20150130/235329/A_Maze_of_Murderscapes_Metroid_II.php)

oh my god that water is making me so hot

Some of the characters in the game:

(http://ionormal.com/images/IceCaves/humans.png)

From left to right:
Sophie Chatterjee - Principal Investigator on the Europa mission for Hydrosphere Industries.

Ronan Brout - Lead Software Engineer on the Dragonfly personality simulation program.

Europa - Phoenician noblewoman, descendant of Io, consort of Zeus.

(http://ionormal.com/images/IceCaves/verne.png)
Verne - The name of the personality simulation embedded in the Dragonfly rover.

Woah, woah, woah. Phoenician?

Are these Space Phoenicians? Or is this alternate-timeline stuff?

The majority of the characters in the game are going to be robots, with 'Personality Simulations' which are primitive Artificial Intelligences. No humans are actually sent to Europa, the humans just direct the mission from Earth. These AIs can project any appearance they desire when communicating with each other in virtual space, and one of them takes on the persona of Europa herself.

Cool!

... can we expect Dark Star-like AI shenanigans?

EDIT: For the uninitiated, Dark Star is a very old Science Fiction movie by John Carpenter, which features a smartbomb who is getting impatient and wants to blow himself up despite technical malfunctions. So the crew tries to postpone this by teaching it philosophy, making him doubt his purpose in existence.

Looks super cool! Keep up the good work

Here's a look at the custom Unity level tools I'm using to build the game. These tools were created by Ed Basset (http://devsketchpad.com)

The caves are built using a spline based system.

(http://i.imgur.com/tsxIBTv.gif)

Drag nodes to move the cave walls. UV mapping and collision for multiple cross-sections are all handled automatically.

(http://i.imgur.com/bP80fFa.gif)

Modifiers add more detail to the initial spline path.

(http://i.imgur.com/8dDsw8J.gif)

The back-wall is automatically generated to fill the space between the cave surfaces.

(http://i.imgur.com/djhVfRB.gif)

This system allows me to do all my level creation in Unity without having to go back to any 3D software for UV mapping or creating collision meshes. It handles random placement of prefabs, collision optimization and vertex colors. Moving the spline happens in real-time. Recalculating collision or back-wall fill takes a few seconds of calculation to rebuild before the level runs.

Wow, nice! That must remove so much tedium from the process!

Exactly - it also allows me to experiment more as I can create stuff quickly and test it right away in the editor. When your tools work smoothly you can be more creative - prototyping risky ideas takes less time.

I've added replay-saving into the time-trial levels now so you can race against the previous best lap.

(http://i.imgur.com/H7zImwB.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/LwPNlvv.gif)

Starting on the sound effects:

(http://i.imgur.com/JwT1KNa.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVD1iuj7ZA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVD1iuj7ZA

Your game sounds interesting! And that cave tool certainly looks neat.

How big is the life you can encounter? As far as I know scientists predict that life on Europa would be microscopic. I mean, most space sci-fi games I've seen/played throws weird and fascinating species for the player to interact with. I'd imagine finding minute life would be anticlimactic for your average player.

Will you stay on the hard science path or take some liberty with the setting?

My plan is to stay on the hard side of sci-fi - no FTL travel or communication, no anti-gravity, no teleporting and no humanoid aliens. I'm trying to depict what a real mission to Europa might look like, if we could afford multiple landers, and if we're lucky enough to get deep into the ice (in this case, due to a comet impact).

Yes, there will be Europan life in the game, but it is like nothing on Earth.

The story also focuses on the interaction between AIs as all the characters on Europa are robots, and it examines the ethics of how we treat AIs we have created for a specific purpose.

I see, the premise reminds me of Waking Mars by Tigerstyle. Not in details of course but having a dramatic arc fleshed around scientific discovery on a planet in our solar system. Though granted, your game is more hard sci-fi than that game (and mostly not alike at all, why did I bring it up... ;)).

Eh, as far as other games go it still probably is the closest match

Cool game!
Yes, Waking Mars is close. Maybe InsanelyTwistedShadowPlanet is even closer. I liked this very much. Ice Caves gameplay looks similar with its controls, laser drilling, etc. I guess it will be a bit faster, that's no disadvantage :) Very promising!

(http://i.imgur.com/ESkCQtJ.gif)

Docking with the charging station robot on the surface of Europa.

Nice

We're working on the animation rigs for some of the characters. Here are Europa and Zeus (in bull form)...

(http://i.imgur.com/bnnSO8y.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/4lixu05.png)

Nice use of historical symbolism! Did you represent Europa as human and Zeus as a bull only for the historical representation or some other purpose?

this looks SUPER cool  :handmetalR:

Jamesprimate - thanks, super-cool is about what we're aiming for :beer:

Greipur - The Europa character in this game is the Avatar of an AI. She chooses to appear to the player accompanied by the bull. One of the themes of the game is how humans will treat Europa (the moon), and so the myth of Zeus and Europa provides a good reference point for that story.

That's fascinating, feels like you've given some thought to your AI archetypes. Sure, using archaic names/myths is a staple in fictional AIs, but your approach actually feels relevant.

I gave a talk at the Unite Melbourne conference on some of the visual effects developed for Ice Caves of Europa. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WXUelRjOm0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WXUelRjOm0)

god that's geeky you got me because of that

Were you guys at PAX? I think I maybe saw this there? Anyway, it looks very interesting. A cow and a space thing. :)

Jimym - glad to hear it  :whome:

eigenbom - we didn't exhibit at PAX Melbourne this year, however I was there alright. Spent most of my time at the Reaper miniatures booth painting stuff! The indie section was fantastic this year, lots of really high-quality games. Great to see so many of them getting onto Xbox One and PS4 also.

I should have been clued by Beryllium, those x-rays can't see you

Go Beryllium is an old shmup I made - you can get it here: http://cokane.com/games/beryllium/

cool!

Working on the UV map for another robot. This guy orbits Europa generating power by traveling through Jupiter's magnetic field, which induces a current in its long central cable. This energy is then beamed as microwaves to the charging station robot on the surface, which charges the Dragonfly's batteries before each mission.

(http://i.imgur.com/RJ62LbR.png)

This is not the final texture, this is just a grid texture used for laying out the UV map.

Surveying the impact site.

(http://i.imgur.com/g8jEwgj.png)

I like everything I know about this game so far. Great idea and look.

Thanks Matthew! That's really great to hear. I'm hoping to get a demo out soon so I can put the game on Steam Greenlight.

Did I hear the word "demo"? :whome:

Will be following this! Science fanboy here.

I imagine you've seen Europa Report?

Yes I thought it was quite good. Their low budget obviously impacted how much they could show of Europa itself, which was a shame because the few shots they did manage were really nice. Biggest disappointment was the ending...




[Europa Report spoilers below]



I thought the bio-luminescent squid alien was quite weak. There was no indication of an established eco-system that could support a predator of that size. Also, making alien life essentially the same as life on Earth seems quite short on imagination.



[end spoilers]

The aliens in my story will have more in common with the Minds in Ian M Banks' Culture novels, and are also inspired by "The Rapacious Hardscrapple Frontier (http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/rapacious-hardscrapple-frontier.pdf)" [PDF Warning]
This is a short essay by Robin Hanson about the probable behavior and nature of humanity as it expands to occupy the rest of the Milky Way.


I'll post it here as soon as it's ready!

Exploring the surface.

(http://i.imgur.com/E3cMjhL.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/AAwrmIn.gif)

It looks great but... too bright maybe? I mean, this is pretty deep into the solar system, shouldn't everything be gloomy even when facing the sun?

That's a good point. To a human eye it would certainly be dim, but not as dark as night-time, probably more like a gloomy day. However if it's being viewed via a camera (or a virtual, in-game camera) then the brightness depends mainly on the exposure. Here's a shot of Europa from space:

(http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54d010cc6bb3f7a12d1b7745-480/europa.jpg)

As you can see there's more than enough light for a good picture. We don't have any shots from the surface of Europa yet, but we do have one from Saturn's moon Titan, which is even further out.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Huygens_surface_color_sr.jpg)

Again, it's certainly bright enough to make out details.

How about Pluto - that must be very dark right...

(http://i.imgur.com/8lJyPMo.png)

Nope, still bright enough for stark shadows behind the mountains. Much brighter than a moonlit night in fact.

Those are long exposures though, right? For a live-feed you might want to add high ISO noise.

I'll look into that. Should be easy enough with an image-effect.

Working on an improved shader for the refractive steam vents. The refraction now falls of smoothly at the edges of the jet, and the particles respond more accurately to lights.

(http://i.imgur.com/3LHxvAC.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/bMepdpc.gif)

Very nice!

Thanks!

Currently working on virtual-targets to teach the player shooting skills. Since the laser is mounted directly on the front of the vehicle it takes steady flying to hit targets.

(http://i.imgur.com/eQpAfd3.gif)

Getting ready for a demo version! Today we're testing controllers.

(http://i.imgur.com/bR4Iwz2.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/NRTfOzs.jpg)

Confirmed working so far on MacOS:

• PS3 - bluetooth
• PS4 - wired or bluetooth
• X360 - wired (or wireless with adapter)
• SteelSeries nimbus (Apple iOS controller)

Tested in Windows 10:

• X360 - wired (or wireless with adapter)
• PS4 - no drivers, works natively!
• PS3 - with these drivers (http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-XInput-Wrapper-for-DS3-and-Play-com-USB-Dual-DS2-Controller)

Rumble works with all controllers in Windows, but not yet in MacOS.

Still to test:
Linux - we're confident X360 controllers will work on Linux.
Xbox One controller - as yet untested but it's very likely to work fine on Mac and Windows.

We're also working on various mappings for the X52 Pro flightstick.

(http://i.imgur.com/UyLeDNO.gif)

There's something strangely satisfying about flipping that safety switch up before shooting.

I envy you :-*

Teaser trailer:

(http://i.imgur.com/GIbKCPl.png) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvv_f_TsGso)

We're on Steam Greenlight. Please vote if you'd like to see the game on Steam.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=538339111

Ice Caves has been Greenlit! Thanks to everyone who voted for the game.

Also - the demo is ready. Download it here, and please let us know what you think of the game. The demo is for Windows and it requires an Xbox 360 controller (or similar) to play.

[Edit - demo removed, new demo coming soon]

Well, stuck on Linux so I can't try for now :shrug2:

Hope it catches on though!

Hello again everyone. We've been working away on Ice Caves for the last year and the game is nearing completion.

Here's a clip from a harder stage near the end of the game.

https://gfycat.com/ViciousDimpledInexpectatumpleco

SPOILER ALERT! LIQUID WATER! :P

Looks great, also nice to see that the project is still alive despite low activity on these forums!

Screenshots - Click for full-size.

(http://i.imgur.com/McgkV1ul.jpg) (https://imgur.com/McgkV1u)

(http://i.imgur.com/kub7iejl.jpg) (https://imgur.com/kub7iej)

(http://i.imgur.com/oMqEsbIl.jpg) (https://imgur.com/oMqEsbI)

(http://i.imgur.com/7adVtKfl.jpg) (https://imgur.com/7adVtKf)

(http://i.imgur.com/QAYu1xsl.jpg) (https://imgur.com/QAYu1xs)

The graphics are amazing but I absolutely love how you manage to convey all the info about 3d movement!  :-*

Is a joystick a requirement or can I control the bot using kb+mouse?

You can play without a joystick, however it is easier to fly with analog controls.

Some behind-the-scenes screenshots from the Unity editor. Click for full size.

Here you can see the components that make up the engine effect, and some of the player's script settings.
(http://i.imgur.com/QCtP3JPh.png) (https://imgur.com/QCtP3JP)

This shows the spline-based level editing tool in action on a larger level.
(http://i.imgur.com/7KCyqmIh.png) (https://imgur.com/7KCyqmI)

Who could this be?
(http://i.imgur.com/VZr3AxNh.png) (https://imgur.com/VZr3AxN)

Updated logo!

(http://i.imgur.com/BMfWfWAl.jpg) (https://imgur.com/BMfWfWA)

And we've started a company Twitter account for updates on the game as it approaches release. Follow us at @IoNormal (https://twitter.com/ionormal).

Oh my goodness, an update! I was starting to get worried!

Haha, yes well, you can either make a game or promote it. I'm finding there's rarely enough time for both!

Our steam page is now live - add Ice Caves of Europa to your Steam wishlist! (http://store.steampowered.com/app/503780/Ice_Caves_of_Europa/)

Building a gradient-controlled color cycling effect in Shader Forge:

(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ThoseReflectingAustraliankestrel-size_restricted.gif)

Cool... but what does it represent in-game?

An EMP weapon blast!

That was my first thought! My second one being that the planet is being glassed, but that would make little sense for an ice moon

Here's a short video showing how the engine effect is done.

(https://i.imgur.com/1v7OJjr.png) (https://gfycat.com/SkinnyMedicalIndianrhinoceros)

(https://i.imgur.com/QiyB6wQ.png)

In preparation for the release of Ice Caves of Europa we're holding a small open beta test.

If you'd like to register as a tester, sign up here: http://ionormal.com/testing/

Thanks to everyone who participated in the open beta. Testing has now completed and we're ready to release.

Ice Caves of Europa will be available on Steam on July 10th.

Here's the release trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfrKg-mkGZY

Looks great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3LXPmiEB-w

Spoiler alert? :P

That's a great video! The game doesn't go into too much detail on the surface features of Europa, most of your time is spent beneath the surface.

The game is now available to buy on Steam for Windows and Mac.

Here's a 3 minute gameplay video to give you an idea of how it plays:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9lngTwM_jM

Looks good! I'll put it on the list. One quick note: when the thrusters were reduced to recharge the lasers, it would be great if this would somehow be visible on screen. The video gave the impression as if the ship would just drop and you have to counter it with controls. Maybe dim it or give it a slightly different colour while the recharging is active?

The laser indicator on the HUD turns yellow, and says 'laser charging' and an audio cue beeps while it charges. It only takes a few seconds and then it's recharged. Maybe you were expecting it to last longer?

No, I've seen exactly how long it took. Have been watching the video at work, so I didn't hear the sounds, but after the tutorial it was clear for what I should look out. But I watched the thrusters and I somehow expected to see a change in its graphics while the recharging lasts.

Some reviews for the game:

Indiegames (http://indiegames.com/2018/07/a_sci-fi_narrative_and_precise.html)

Checkpoing gaming (http://checkpointgaming.net/news/2018/07/explore-ice-caves-europa-melbourne-indie-darling/)

GameZine have posted a 30 minute 'long-play' video of the game without commentary here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUlz0hIoTR0

It looks soooo soothing to play.

I have to remember to boot to Windows to play this :P

it looks amazing  :)

nice, games like this are always great.

How is your release going so far? Really happy you saw this through to launch!

Some feedback on the release trailer from a friend whom I know is the type to love this kind of hard Sci-Fi stuff:


Translation:


I sent him the 3 minute version and the 30 min long play, and the reviews. Sadly, it turns out his gaming Achilles heel is momentum-based gameplay - "Oh god, Lunar Lander PTSD" :(

He might forward it to some of his friends that he thinks are into it though

Either way, maybe link the gameplay trailer from the release trailer page? And make a slightly longer one that combines elements of both to pin it in your Twitter feed and such? Just trying to help optimize your marketing a bit (not that I'm a marketer myself)