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Information:

Loop Factor is (or rather, will be) a science fiction game with good graphics, semi-procedural generation and a (hopefully) good, non-derivative noir themed story. As for gameplay mechanics, there will be a bit of everything: Dialogue, space battles, ground battles, mining, exploration, trading, loot, stats, leveling. Yes, I am ambitious; but I think a certain level of ambition is always required to make a space game. My estimated development time is 16 weeks, starting from today.

My design was influenced by:

-Solaris
-Starflight (and its spiritual sequels)
-Elite
-X-Com
-Spore (There were a few ideas in it that were actually good)
-Freelancer
-R.U.R.
-Might and Magic
-Jagged Alliance

There are some semi-mockup screenshots I have right now:







Right now, the main problem I have is random phrase generation (the horrible writing in last screenshot is the result of my pitiful experiments). It's really hard for me to limit myself to strict, modular sentences; it would be really helpful if someone could point me some sources which could help me with this problem.

I am still trying to develop a consistent graphical style for the game; I know I will be using the present style for the space screens; but it is hard to think of something innovative and easy for the splash screens. The close-up planet shots were used in Mass Effect, so I cannot use them. I think I will be using slightly animated, better looking stills for the planet "interior". I haven't thought much about the battle parts yet; but I fear I may end up using Mastermind (or Total War) style statistical battle system. Still, I've got plenty of time, and I have no intention of being lazy.

[godatplay]

Very interesting project, I look forward to seeing more updates.   

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History Part I

Decisions:

The society depicted in Loop Factor will not be technologically super-advanced, and I will try to be as vague as I can in imaginary technologies as to promote real science; I hate space opera technology blurbs. There will be a soft science fiction aspect to the story, however. I don't plan to do Bioware style childish pseudophilosophy; it will be more similar to Pathologic and Immortal Defense (I think the writing styles are similar if we ignore the translation problems in Pathologic (which I think I will be emulating because I love random generation); would you agree?).


Setting Sketch:

Applications of quantum gravity have allowed faster interstellar travel, marking the beginning of space colonization era. A more specialized version of the Internet, called the Cloud, allowed fast and detailed communications between the colonies, effectively forming a control mechanism. However, in time, the slow nature of physical travel weakened the links between the colonies and Earth, and, as the number of colonies increased, some prospering and some facing extinction, first interplanetary battles began. The strong conquered the weak, while sometimes the weak raided the strong to live. The Cloud became a safe network for Corporations, Colonies and Federations which used it as a means of control over their agents in the far galaxies. Ergo, in time, the Cloud lost its purpose to unite mankind as it was easy for the information to be stolen if it was not guarded by a strong power, which would use it for its own benefits. Insecurity and individuality resulted in the formation of professional "information retrieval" groups who used spaceships or barren planets as bases, actively opposing the similarly structured secret groups of the large factions.

Gameplay Part 1:



I was worried so much about the battle parts that I ended up designing and coding it first. I am using Easyname's spaceship sprites for substitutes, by the way.



Right now, the way battles work is similar to Mount and Blade as large warships are not coded yet. You assault an enemy "encampment", and you and your allies appear at the left half the battle screen, while enemies appear at the right. You then begin to shoot each other. I've also added the ability to enter planets and recruit ships. There are six ship types; Searcher, Fighter, Destroyer, Deathbringer, Slayer, Commander. They will each have a different ability which makes them unique, but I've not implemented all of them yet.



Controls are easy; left mouse button makes you accelerate, right mouse button makes you shoot; trails the ships leave as they move make it easier for the eye to recognize and respond.

Art and Graphics Part I:

GM 8 makes it much easier to add transparent sprites, which I find really helpful as it was really boring to add alpha masks etc. for transparency in old GM versions. This is partially why I am making this game, by the way.



I've added small glows which show the resilience of the ship, and blending according to enemy faction (which are to be revealed in the next update). The trails are stationary objects that are created in every frame which quickly lose their opacity and y scale and get destroyed.



Explosions are basic particle systems that get destroyed in about a second, which are unrealistic but helpful since they give a sense of damaging and pleasure the eye.



This is my first art design for industrial planets; it is incomplete but I think it would just work well in its current form.

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Well, development has been going on nicely. I've finished designing the main quest, making it as nonlinear and Fallout-like as possible. I am now trying to make a game resembling those from the golden era of RPG's.

History Part II:

Corporations became new governments of the colonies, and shaped planets more beautiful and strong than Earth in short amounts of time. Terraforming became a major problem, taking more than a thousand years to master. In time, battles, and the rebel states, shaped the main factions of the galaxy; these are:

Allied States - Formed after The Third War following the end of The Reich, Allied States is a monarchy (despite the name). They have the largest fleet of all five factions.

They are conservatists and warmongers.

The Technocracy - Composed of virtually all scientists, engineers and workers who don't want to join the corporations of Third Moon, The Technocracy works to promote and improve science and technology. As it is not really a faction, it does not participate in the power struggle; it exists to protect the free individual mind against Third Moon, and chooses to fight only with them.

They are individualists and they despise Ayn Randian ideals.

Third Moon - The united power of all corporations who rule more than half of all human colonies. It was named after the second artificial moon constructed by the mankind (and funded by the corporations which constitute Third Moon), which is the oldest artificial moon remaining. The corporations fight with each other, but unite against the threats from other powers.

They are liberals and capitalists.

Enigma - Founded by the old Earth governments in the beginning of space colonization, Enigma is the oldest and smallest of the factions. They are, as the name implies, mysterious and don't actively participate in battles. They do not connect to the Cloud, isolating themselves. The result of this is that they have no access to advanced technology, but they are more than capable of developing their own technology, which easily rivals the technology of the other factions. They are not interested in colonizing planets, instead focusing on mining and exploring; they are infamous for selling their knowledge and exotic technology in black markets, which is known to dramatically increase the crime level in other factions. They have no known power, but years turned their ancient exploits into myths told to children, and all humanity fears them. Even Third Moon, not knowing the full extent their capabilities, chooses to ignore Enigma.

They are utilitarians and populists.

High Legion - Often considered to be the "barbarians" and "orks" of space, High Legion is a mercenary army which, when given enough resources, attacks and ravages the targets presented by the buyers. They fight for fun. They are known to invade their targets and seize them, which makes High Legion a very unpredictable and dangerous ally. They make excellent pirates and are good at creating useful diversions.


I think I'll be talking about character generation and GUI in the next post.

[CiroContinisio]

Loop Factor is (or rather, will be) a science fiction game with good graphics, semi-procedural generation and a (hopefully) good, non-derivative noir themed story. As for gameplay mechanics, there will be a bit of everything: Dialogue, space battles, ground battles, mining, exploration, trading, loot, stats, leveling. Yes, I am ambitious; but I think a certain level of ambition is always required to make a space game. My estimated development time is 16 weeks, starting from today.

You are REALLY ambitious. But, who knows, you may even get it done!

[PDF]

Disastrous! I forgot to update the devlog!

Loop Factor is (or rather, will be) a science fiction game with good graphics, semi-procedural generation and a (hopefully) good, non-derivative noir themed story. As for gameplay mechanics, there will be a bit of everything: Dialogue, space battles, ground battles, mining, exploration, trading, loot, stats, leveling. Yes, I am ambitious; but I think a certain level of ambition is always required to make a space game. My estimated development time is 16 weeks, starting from today.

You are REALLY ambitious. But, who knows, you may even get it done!

Thanks for encouragement! I am actually pretty confident that I will get it done. However, there is a chance that I won't be able to polish the game as much as I want (6 weeks of these 16 will be for polishing). The Polish I am talking about consists of:

-Graphical Effects
-Additional Dialogue
-Better Art
-Voice Acting (if possible)
-Better, more intuitive GUI
-Music

which I've found out from my experiences takes up most of the time one spends on a project since for most of those things you normally need a specialist, while you are often unable to find any.

Character Creation, Stats, Leveling Part I:

The character creation in Loop Factor is similar to most Golden Age RPG's. There are five main stats:

-Strength: Combination of Endurance and regular Strength stats. Strength is used to determine the will to live, allowing the player's character to save himself from grim situations and make repairs he would otherwise be unable to do. It does not actively participate to gameplay, and is mainly used in conservations and when trying to repair the ship during battle.
-Dexterity: Increases accuracy and the speed the character would be able to reach without using "implants".
-Intelligence: Your regular Intelligence stat.
-Wisdom: Knowledge of cultures and human behaviour. Increases the potency of technology-based abilities and aforementioned implants.
-Charisma: Regular Charisma stat one uses in bartering and convincing.

There are also several human subraces and different backgrounds for your character. I am not sure if I will be able to exceed the number of different and witty backgrounds of Arcanum, but I intend to try.

I've also added basic leveling, but there are no perks right now. I intend to include a large amount of perks and achievements (which will basically be perks you gain for doing something of value).




I've been looking for a suitable message/dialogue engine for the game to begin coding the main story, and I was able to find this in Yoyogames forums which I believe will be of immense help.

Finally, a screenshot from the current build:

[nihilocrat]

The combat looks amazingly like something I'm working on 

Your original pitch also made me really skeptical you'd be able to accomplish it all, but your gameplay shots are making me excited about seeing the end product. I think the design of your planet screens is clever and vaguely noir-ish, they use black as positive space while the colored parts give merely suggestions to what the black figures might be, letting the mind fill in the blanks.

[PDF]

The combat looks amazingly like something I'm working on  

Wow, our gameplay mechanics are strikingly similar; however, while you only allow firing in the direction the ship is facing, I allow ships to fire wherever they want to. Also, Loop Factor plays about three times faster than your prototype right now, which, as far as I can see, renders the games sufficiently different.

Your original pitch also made me really skeptical you'd be able to accomplish it all, but your gameplay shots are making me excited about seeing the end product. I think the design of your planet screens is clever and vaguely noir-ish, they use black as positive space while the colored parts give merely suggestions to what the black figures might be, letting the mind fill in the blanks.

That was my intention, and continues to be so. I am currently trying to add better dialogue support to the game for various other needs. I will then proceed spending time on ground battles.

Finally, I have a new screenshot (ignore the placeholder WoW icon):

[deathtotheweird]

 

All the influences you are talking about are making me really excited. Everything about this just screams awesome. Really can't wait to play this

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All the influences you are talking about are making me really excited. Everything about this just screams awesome. Really can't wait to play this

Well, this is exactly what I'm thinking while I am working on the game   However, it is always a challenge to create exactly what you want to. For example, I am still not sure how I'm going to implement a fun mining part. Right now, I'm thinking of huge driller ships, which act like "tanks" in space and mine on surface.

It's been a relatively quiet week for the game; I've been playing Heavy Rain and Venetica, so I didn't really have much time to work on the game. I began to iterate on my ideas about the plot, trying to minimize the amount of work I'll require while maximizing the amount of choices and proper consequences. I was able to finish implementing a fairly good support module for playing the .dlg files though. I also began to add small packets of content; the "galaxy map" is almost complete now, with three of the systems controlled by Third Moon up and running. However, I am going to need to add some other factions, and change the positions of the existing sectors to create an organic universe with endless conquests and battles throughout the map. I plan to add several ship models for the player to buy tomorrow, so expect an update.

And, as always, a screenshot showing the current state of the game:

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Yes! I was able to add the beginning ship models, though the presentation is less than desirable.



I was also able to begin to change the placeholder ship models, though they currently don't look too good because of the problems I've been having with my current graphics filters.



I was also able to complete the task of adding 8 complete sectors into the game; 5 of these belong to Third Moon, while the other 3 are in the control of Allied States. There are automatically created trade lines between the planets, and pirates hide in the darkness of space to ambush the ships. Some screenshots (the blue dots show where the stars are):


Finding a battle


The orange pirate ship approaches its prey

[Mipe]

 
I am watching this, because the list of influences is pretty darn good.

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I am watching this, because the list of influences is pretty darn good.

I won't disappoint.

So, I've been trying to complete the technical part of the game, adding different effects and small things (shake, explosions, larger ships and effects for them, derelicts, a bumping effect for large background objects, balancing weapons). I still need to complete the inventory, but I think it will be trivial compared to the rest. However, I intend to add all kinds of junk stuff, which I believe makes the game a lot more fun (think of the thousand redundant objects in Oblivion and Ultima 7 and the stuff you can eat/drink/smoke in Bioshock 2); and it will take some time to finalize them, unfortunately.

I am still trying to nail down a graphic style for the game (mostly planet screens); I looked at the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, Gaspard von Wittel, Bernardo Bellotto, Hubert Robert and William Turner, trying to inspire myself. I won't add new screenshots/concept art since there is already far too many in this page.