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[Pol]

Aaaaaah I keep forgetting to reset this testing endgame map. That should be fixed now.

[Rayiner]

this is awesome!
gj.

[Pol]

I'm currently trying to get Linux and OSX builds to work, it's kind of a hassle considering I have no such platform around to run tests. If anyone's got a few minutes to spare, can you please download one the build from here http://polclarissou.itch.io/even-the-stars and tell me if it works ?
(alt. link : http://polclarissou.com/eventhestars/standalones/)
The first feedback I've had about the mac build's that it simply won't launch. I've changed the build params since then but haven't been able to re-test it :/

Also : thanks Rayiner !

[Pol]

Update : the OSX build definitely don't work, if someone has already dealt with successfully building a Mac standalone in Unity on windows, hit me up, that'd be super appreciated.

On other news, I've submitted the game to Strasbourg's indie game contest and to Ludicious in Zurich. Fingers crossed ! I've also setup an itch.io page for the windows and linux standalones of the game : http://polclarissou.itch.io/even-the-stars

This version of the game is the first non-beta build ! There's still some polish underway but I think this can be considered an actual 100% true game from now on :D

[flap]

The shadow caused by the sunset on cities is terrific !

That version version runs smoothly on my main computer, but the typing fells slow on my netbook (not sure that you can do much about it...)

About the escape key : I often press again escape twice before reading the screen (as if it was paused, and I wanted to quit the pause), being kicked out of the game without realising it. I am sure that I won't be the only one.
So maybe to quit the game, avoid asking to press twice the same key. Instead you could ask "do you really wish to quit ? Y/N"

Otherwise, congratulation ! I hope that they'll enjoy it in Strasbourg !

[errik]

Really like the atmosphere in this game, been playing it a few times the last couple of days. Great work!

I have a suggestion to make it more obvious that the planets are different sizes, now it feels mostly like the ship has different speed on different planets..

How about you make the larger planets a bit more highpoly? That way all the planets will feel like they have the same amount of "polygones per square mile", if you understand what I mean 

[flap]

I think that it is the case already.

[Pol]

Nah it's not, but that could screw up the structures' generation so I gotta think about it.

[oyog]

My girlfriend and I played with her giving me coordinates and me writing diary entries (mostly).

Here's my map. There are some problems with player written diaries overlapping. I'm pretty sure this is in chronological order but it's kind of hard to say. A lot of the coordinates I was given were based on birthdays of friends in my age group so the map got kind of muddled.

--SHIP'S LOG--

CEMETERY - 07.07.87
  i stay and look at alien headstones
  i don't know what they say

SPACE COWS - 02.72.69
  i drank space milk
  space milk tastes space weird

SPACE FARM - 06.02.14
  i listen to space farm
  i see into the future
  i see into the past

CITY - 06.04.87
  i met a delightful creature

SPACE FARM - 07.17.14
  i met a friendly space dog
  she looks like a pile of crawdads

[Pol]

New update with a smoother death and a solar energy feature when out of fuel (makes you wait one turn in exchange for one fuel bar, basically) > http://polclarissou.com/eventhestars/

@oyog yep, the map doesn't handle close coordinates in a fashionable way... That'd be a huge load of work and I'm not quite feeling up for it. A friend of mine tried aligned coordinates once and that's the map she got :



...which is kinda tragic but in a funny way and vice versa, I guess :>

[oyog]

@oyog yep, the map doesn't handle close coordinates in a fashionable way... That'd be a huge load of work and I'm not quite feeling up for it.

That's totally reasonable.

I'm pretty much psyched by the tiny writing prompt planets with landmarks present.

[flap]

Hey Pol,

in case you think that you could be usefull for Even the Stars, I have created a script for unity that generates random descriptions from a grammar.

For exemple, you load this grammar :

Code:

Forest
#Adjective #Verb. It is #End.

Adjective
Red
Globulous
Tiny
Thousands of
Two
Some

End
beautifull
eerie
scarry
intriguing
rather unexpected
terrifying

Verb
eyes are #EyesActions you
#Beings #BeingActions

EyesActions
staring at
watching
blinking at

Beings
mooses
animals
things
chimps

BeingActions
are #EyesActions
jumping around you
running away
escaping
mating

And when running the rule "Forest", it would produce following strings :

Red things jumping around you. It is rather unexpected.
Tiny things are blinking at. It is intriguing.
Globulous animals running away. It is rather unexpected.
Red eyes are blinking at you. It is rather unexpected.
Red chimps escaping. It is beautifull.
Tiny eyes are staring at you. It is scarry.
Globulous animals running away. It is eerie.
Some things escaping. It is eerie.
Two eyes are blinking at you. It is intriguing.
Tiny eyes are staring at you. It is beautifull.
...

A sample application can be downloaded there and the unity asset package there.
And of course that grammar is just a sample and could greatly be improved...

Feel free to ask, if you find it interresting or have any question !

[Pol]

It's super nice  ! I haven't tested it tho but I see how you're doing it and it makes sense. I don't know how much we'll add to Even the Stars from now on, we're chilling out a bit right now and we'll see if we keep working on it a bit later or just keep the game as it is - if we keep it up I'll look further into your script I guess ! In any case, what you built is interesting, I mean don't hesitate to develop it further for yourself or build an actual game/toy/thing out of it :D

[jctwood]

This looks interesting, what is the story behind the CRT type curvature on the screen, is it because you are using a console in the game to control the actions you perform? Like a drone or something?

[Pol]

It's mostly that I like the look of retro cathode ray displays, I guess ? The idea's that you are in your ship, typing commands on your screen, but at the same time the game allows you to have a third-person view... So rather than having a separate interface/commands view with a black screen under a regular game-view screen, I slapped the screen over the game view because why not its vgame.
I don't like interfaces, generally I just ditch 'em around the environment as much as I can.

[flap]

It's super nice  ! I haven't tested it tho but I see how you're doing it and it makes sense. I don't know how much we'll add to Even the Stars from now on, we're chilling out a bit right now and we'll see if we keep working on it a bit later or just keep the game as it is - if we keep it up I'll look further into your script I guess ! In any case, what you built is interesting, I mean don't hesitate to develop it further for yourself or build an actual game/toy/thing out of it :D

He, that was a quick reply...
Well, for sure I'll have fun creating some rules. But, I probably won't have time to create a game with it. Maybe I'll try to package it in the asset store for free...
As for Even the Stars, if later you wish to come back to it, I would be glad helping with creating some rules.


As a side note, I did quite like to old way when features were grouped together : it made it easier to imagine stories.
Also, appart from the mood, has the radio any use ? Maybe its sound could change when getting closer to feature (it is maybe the case already...)

EDIT : I have played a bit more with my new toy. I have made the forest grammar evolve a bit :

Thousands of shrub-birds are blinking at you. It is unusual.
The sky is unremarquably scarry.
Two things are running away. It is intriguing.
Thousands of eyes are rolling. You turn away.
Tiny eyes are escaping. It is scarry.
The landscape is really beautiful.
Some vine-animals are staring at you. You escape.
The forest is really eerie.
Green fishes are mating. You wish to stay.

[Pol]

The structures being located close to one another in the previous versions of the game (if that's what you were talking about) was actually accidental and caused by the way they were generated, which caused issues. I may try to tweak the new system so that there's a probability for a structure to spawn others at its side, now that you mention it it's true that there is something cool about seeing a few of them at the same time.
The radio is totally cosmetic for now, but I love the way it can thicken the mood (it's Nicholas' idea originally). We thought about using these as clues for specific coordinates but.. Well there are no specific coordinates in the game anyway. We keep it in mind in case we keep building stuff for the game but there's no plan yet. About the sound also, It'd be nice if sceneries made an ambient noise as you go near to them. Once again it's not planned really (plus the game file is already kinda heavy and sounds are the heaviest file type, sadly).

Oh and your generator looks even nicer now, I like how the structure adapts a bit rather than staying the same. Keep it up ! - I mean if you want, not trying to force you or whatever :I

[moure]

Thanks a lot for that , i will give it a try asap and report back to you

[flap]

(...)About the sound also, It'd be nice if sceneries made an ambient noise as you go near to them. Once again it's not planned really (plus the game file is already kinda heavy and sounds are the heaviest file type, sadly).

That would be really cool !

Oh and your generator looks even nicer now, I like how the structure adapts a bit rather than staying the same. Keep it up ! - I mean if you want, not trying to force you or whatever :I

I'll keep working on it. Those few changes very easy to do : it is just some more rules in a text file (the code behind remains the same).

However, right now, every rule at planetary level would be perfomed independantly. I would like to have more consistancy between features. For example if a planet hosts "green fat lizards". Then we could have :

Forest : Behind the leaves, tens of green fat lizards are looking at you.
Farm : An old farmer curses against the big fat lizards which scare his cows.   

I am working at that.

EDIT : I have included part of these "variable" things. See previous download. The grammar file which can be edited is in RandomText_Data directory.
There is still one tiny thing I'd like to code, and then it will just be the fun to create rule sets.

EDIT 2 : I have now done all the variable things I wanted to. For example, now you can define a planet as "Dry", and it could be taken in account in any feature description.

[flap]

Some fun with the text generator :

-ven -he sta--
You read some ancient text : -ve- th- -t---
You read some ancient text : eve- --- -ta--
You read some ancient text : e--n -he s-a-s
You read some ancient text : -ven th- stars
You read some ancient text : -v-- th- ---r-

Adding such randomly garbled text to artifacts or other features could be fun... (with more variety in the introduction)