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[coldrice]

GET THE GAME HERE

http://store.steampowered.com/app/280360/

LIVE STREAM : http://www.twitch.tv/coldrice_dev

Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coldricegames/interstellaria[/center]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=193386952

Most current youtube video:



Jan 18th Alpha Teaser Trailer

My goal is to post an update midweek each week - I hope that by posting it'll keep me motivated and progressing.






Interstellaria is a game that I've dreamed of making for some time. I feel like I've only just got the basic skills enough to get started. Interstellaria draws heavy inspiration from games like: FTL, Mega Man, Starflight, and Metroid. I'm not trying to create a super game which I'll never complete - but more like take a few gameplay mechanics from each one and combine them into a game I feel like I'd really like to play (and hopefully other people will too!).






CURRENT PROGRESS SUMMARY
Right now I have just the basics implemented via unity (for cross platform). The basic mechanics of the platformer segments / planetary exploration are set. The ship scene includes scanning down enemies (scanning is very simple), firing guns, and controlling crewmen. Little emoticon lists their needs, and manning stations boosts accuracy. The platformer contains an inventory, enemies, guns to shoot, and an expanded tileset.






What I'm dreaming of making:

SHIP MANAGEMENT


-Manage stations and give orders instead of direct combat.
-Put out fires, maintain oxygen, repair hull damage, and keep your crew alive!
-Fend off intruders!
-Several different kinds of ships planned for the player to buy and pilot
-Stations can be purchased and placed in position by the player

CREW MANAGEMENT


-Take a page from the Sims - your crew are not only valuable but they are also unique.
-Crew have traits that make them valuable, or a nuisance.
-Crew must eat, sleep, interact, and be entertained to be at their best.
-Crewmen learn as they use their stations. Nothing is worse than losing your master engineer, and nothing is better than seeing your novice gunner level up to a journeyman gunner for that extra bonus to damage and accuracy!

TRADE AND DIPLOMACY

-Communicate with alien races, if they're friendly
-Trade between planets. Purchase goods, and then sell them on other planets for a profit.
-Special items are only available for you or your ship via trade
-Special items and ships are only available via diplomacy


EXPLORE PLANETS

-Explore planets in a platformer mode. Each planet has its own challenge. Some are simple run/gun, others are more puzzle based, while some are open world ala metroid.
-upgrade  your player! Several upgrades (armor, utilities) are available for sale on different planets. Many of the most important weapons and upgrades are only available by beating the planets main challenges.




I really would like the game to be OPEN WORLD/SANDBOX with an overall plot that can be completed at the players leisure. I really want people to just explore planets, upgrade their ship, etc... however it depends on its reception. If I can get a following (which means people will buy the game when it comes out) then it will be sandbox. Otherwise it will be shorter in content, and linear (you go from one planet to another in order until you complete the game).

Some misc. art









website:

http://www.mastercoldrice.com

[Alec S.]

I really like the idea behind this.  I look forward to seeing it progress.

A couple notes from the gameplay videos:  Looks like the jumping is a bit too poppy with not a lot of air time.  I'd consider lowering the jump force and gravity for a bit of a smoother jump. 

Also having some knockback when the player runs into an enemy would go a long way to making it feel more impactful.

[coldrice]

I agree about the jump bit. For some reason I haven't hit that sweet spot with jump force/gravity yet.

As for knock back, I also agree but I wont be touching that just yet. I am jumping between the planet part and the space part each week, so in a couple of weeks when I work on the players gun I'll also add damage/health/knockback. Right now I'm just getting the bare essentials into unity.

On that note, thank you! I REALLY appreciate feedback. I'm still very much a novice and any insight people give me I really try to turn around and put into my projects right away.

[Conker534]

Looks cool, following.

[wccrawford]

You've said all the right words!  This looks like it could be amazing.  Good luck!

[coldrice]

Alright, here's my first midweek update!

This week has been all about the space phase, and working through the UI. If I can get my UI up and running quickly, then I can really get into the meat and potatoes of the space phase. Here's what should be close to the end result (barring any changes due to functionality):



In terms of progress, here's a video showing how the UI works.





 The menu's fold (really important when you have big ships/lots of crewmen) and the buttons in the center work when guns are equipped to the ship. Next I'm going to the top corner to get the stats done (hp and all that)

[dhontecillas]

Are you building the UI from scratch? or are you using something like the NGui library for Unity ?

I would do only the basic stuff for the UI that lets you work on the core AI, so you can start prototyping the mechanics as soon as posible (because at some point you might decide to drop some mechanics or add new stuff to the UI ).


 

[coldrice]

All from scratch. Like you said, I'm only doing the parts I need for now, not the entire UI

[baconman]

Fan. Flipping. Tastic.

I like how you're putting variety and importance into the away missions. That's about the only part FTL was lacking in, the crewmate interaction around that part of the game.

Have you considered moving the GUI elements of the space part to the left/right side of the screen (apart from crewmate info, the rest would stack pretty nicely like that), crunching the bridge's width (or making the ship a two-story); and then using the rest (above/below the ship) as a display panel for battles/positioning? Or at least to display other vessels?

I'd think an upstairs navigation/weapons system, with the shields and engines in the lower story. Sickbay can go either/or, and should probably be paired with Life Support (since they both serve similar enough functions).

[coldrice]

What's nice is that my goal is to have a variety of ships. You purchase a small one then Yeah it'll be like one room one story. However some will be quite large which is why the UI needs to fold. Also, I'm considering having the ships stations be purchasable and then drag/drop by the player to customize their ship.

As for enemy ships, that part just hasn't come up yet. The idea is a "sensor" station. You have to scan a ship before you can hit it. Basic scanner show only an outline and more advanced equipment give more details/specifics.

[Pineapple]

Oh my god. This is delicious.

[coldrice]

Lots of work done this week so far!

So for the space phase, you can now scan down ships and then fight them. Right now they don't fight back, but the UI/stats work. In the video below you can see the meters lowering as I applied a DOT effect to the player's HP just for the sake of the video. I also did some background art. Some of the human planets will feature propaganda such as:






I've also added guns!



The player is armed! You can equip various kinds of weapons throughout the game. I am thinking of having a menu screen so you can swap between weapons as well, similar to mega man. I'm also considering human guns requiring ammunition, while other alien weaponary (lasers!) don't. Its all about balance really.

LATEST VIDEO:

Features Ship scanning/basic combat, as well as shooting the gun/enemies!

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Interesting. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses 

[coldrice]

Big week! I wanted to get a lot done before the Fourth of July celebrations here!

SUMMERY VIDEO:




FIRST: Crew stations, needs, and emoticons!



Crewman can now use stations, and in addition they can show emoticons for what they want. Even more exciting is the unlabeled tactical station that improves your weapons accuracy. The emoticons and use of stations are show above, except for tactical. I also have a video showing weapon use

Heres a combat video:

HAS UI/MECHANICS EXPLAINATION

tactical:
http://i.imgur.com/MEvN8wU.gif


For planets I've got a basic idea of how I want to handle HP, and eventually armor:



I think it'll look cool. In addition, I've updated some of the tiles in the platformer phase as well. That's not as major a development since its just ONE tileset for human planets but it still looks nice




Lastly, I decided to build the worlds shortest alpha. Its really nothing - but I think people will get a better idea of how the game is going so far. This is week 5!

ALPHA LINK: http://www.mastercoldrice.com/INTERSTELLARIAzeropointzerofive.zip PLATFORMER ONLY

[coldrice]

Decided to work on the menu for the platformer part so I can begin equipping different weapons



**note the items shown in the inventory I just made really quick for the sake of demonstrating how it'll lay out.


I should have it coded in by next weekend. I'm not sure if I'll do another playable build though!

[coldrice]

Ok, menu is in as is weapon swapping






Take a look! You wont be disappointed!!

[Juan Raigada]

This all looks really awesome!

A technical question. Are you going for a fixed resolution or is your GUI code resolution independent? Are you trying to go for pixel perfect placement?

[coldrice]

Its actually resolution independent for the most part.

This project currently is just a demo or proof of concept build - but I'd like to be able to copy/paste as much of the code straight into the full project as I can down the road.. That being said, I've made  most everything resolution independent but there are a few items here and there that I just said "screw it" and coded it pixel perfect. I'll have to go back and redo those.

[Juan Raigada]

Its actually resolution independent for the most part.

This project currently is just a demo or proof of concept build - but I'd like to be able to copy/paste as much of the code straight into the full project as I can down the road.. That being said, I've made  most everything resolution independent but there are a few items here and there that I just said "screw it" and coded it pixel perfect. I'll have to go back and redo those.

Ah cool. I was wondering because I find pixel perfect display in Unity a pain to do (tried to implement that into my project, but found it was not worth the time -it's a 3D project, so it's not too crucial). I'm actually impressed how sharp everything looks here.

[tanner bananer]

Postin' to follow.