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[vdapps]

Ouch, that doesn't sound like it will scale for a one-man team, no

Any ideas how you're going to handle it?

Yep, I had this brainstorming session exactly about that. 2 things:

1. game should be 'ever-evolving'. With early access builds, DB doesn't need to be complete anytime soon. It can take even few years of incremental updates when every new version will have a bit more entries in DB. Important is that it will grow slowly and steadily and parallelly with it will grow also the engine.

2 I'll 'interleave' filling DB with engine development. From now on, it'll be less time dedicated to DB filling and more to engine development. For first build, I spent more time on initial feed with data, as I didn't want to have DB ridiculously small for first public version. For later builds, I'll make much smaller data updates between builds. Let's say there'll be new build. In new build, there will be batch of engine upgrades plus DB update - and in this DB update the new will be i.e. only missions and rockets debuted in year 1960. In next build only 1961, etc..

[Sp1ke]

Do you have an idea when Universe Quest will be playable? (Alpha or Beta) I'm a big fan of space simulators and similar space games. My favorite is freelancer old, but captivating with a great atmosphere. As a kid, I loved reading popular science books about space and the weirdness of the whole universe.

And I have a small favor could you post your tigsource review od Singular Matter on itch.io or gamejolt?

I would be very grateful.

Mike

[Sp1ke]

Done with tables factorization. Previously, 'Missions' table was bit hard-coded (columns were hard-coded, rows were spawned from data file, sorting were just custom callbacks with full table re-creation).

Once I wanted to place new 'Rockets' table, I realized that it'll be far more effective to develop new 'GuiTable' element for my editor, which will generate everything from some simple input description data (generate columns, rows, auto compute sizes, support for scroll, sorting, with custom callbacks for clicks or hovering over elements).

So, I migrated 'Missions' to new table and started filling 'Rockets' table. Here's small screenshot.

Btw, which you like more? Old black background or rather blue background for tables and texts ? (this blue reminds me a bit BSOD, but it's easier to read text on it IMO )

I think black one is easier to read, but I've got impression that slightly yellow text would be more readable.

[Sp1ke]

Looking through youtube I found something like this:



Maybe you could find collaborators or some inspirations. It looks quite complex.

[Sp1ke]

I Played your Universe Quiz.

Here are my positive thoughts:
+ Very nice fluent graphics
+ Very nice soothing music
+ Very well thought and realized
+ Easy to access
+ Cheap
+ Very easy to gain knowledge (of course if you are not an astronaut or cosmologist)

And now some negatives:
- Too many difficult questions in the first quizzes about moons of the other planets. They have a lot of moons and some don't.
- Too many questions about dwarf planets
- And at least questions about distances between earth, moon, mars. They are prone to change.

Anyway, It's a very good quiz for anyone very interested in astronomy  
 

[JobLeonard]

I just got this in my RSS feeds, might also be fun to check out:

Race Into Space a free software version of the Liftoff! board game by Fritz Bronner, originally developed by Strategic Visions and published by Interplay in 1993 and 1994 as Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space.

This project was born in 2005, when the original developers re-obtained rights to the game and released it under the GPL. The project made many releases, each containing more bug fixes and minor features, until releasing 1.0 in 2011.

http://www.raceintospace.org/

[vdapps]

Do you have an idea when Universe Quest will be playable? (Alpha or Beta) I'm a big fan of space simulators and similar space games. My favorite is freelancer old, but captivating with a great atmosphere. As a kid, I loved reading popular science books about space and the weirdness of the whole universe.

And I have a small favor could you post your tigsource review od Singular Matter on itch.io or gamejolt?

I would be very grateful.

Mike

Hi Mike!

In fact, the very very early access version will be available soon (I guess 1-2 weeks), however, no playable part yet, only very first entries of encyclopedic part and I'll be on encyclopedic part for some time. The reason behind super-early access is that I want to establish infrastructure ASAP (I want to provide regular updates, in-game new-update detection, download webpage etc..). There's long run to any playable part (I guess 6-12 months cca), but I'm definitively committed to it.

And of course, I have accounts on both itch.io and GameJolt, so I'll gladly give you review.

I think black one is easier to read, but I've got impression that slightly yellow text would be more readable.

Thanks for the tip, I agree with yellowish tint!

Universe Sandbox

Regarding Universe Sandbox, I know the program, I'll not go into such complex world, but definitely I want to aim also to Universe Sandbox players. Reason is Universe Quest will be also historically and technically accurate. On the other side, playable part I want to have more arcade. So it can be played also by someone who is not total nerd into astronomy and rockets like me.

[vdapps]

I Played your Universe Quiz.

Here are my positive thoughts:
+ Very nice fluent graphics
+ Very nice soothing music
+ Very well thought and realized
+ Easy to access
+ Cheap
+ Very easy to gain knowledge (of course if you are not an astronaut or cosmologist)

And now some negatives:
- Too many difficult questions in the first quizzes about moons of the other planets. They have a lot of moons and some don't.
- Pluto is not a planet anymore. I guess he is angry
- Mars is not red indeed. It's red-grey. Nasa admitted to color it redder on the photos (I don't know why).
- Too many questions about dwarf planets
- And at least questions about distances between earth, moon, mars. They are prone to change. To complicated.

Anyway, It's a very good quiz for anyone very interested in astronomy  
 

Very thanks for review!

You're right about difficulty. I set it quite difficult. You can always go trial and error, first fail, learn correct answer, remember it, and when given same question later, answer it correctly. But doing it often on many hard questions, it's repetitive.

Regarding Pluto, AFAIK, I was careful never mentioning it as planet, neither directly or indirectly as it's dwarf planet category. Maybe I made mistake anyway? Hmmmm..

[vdapps]

I just got this in my RSS feeds, might also be fun to check out:

Race Into Space a free software version of the Liftoff! board game by Fritz Bronner, originally developed by Strategic Visions and published by Interplay in 1993 and 1994 as Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space.

This project was born in 2005, when the original developers re-obtained rights to the game and released it under the GPL. The project made many releases, each containing more bug fixes and minor features, until releasing 1.0 in 2011.

http://www.raceintospace.org/

Thanks for the tip! I checked it on MobyGames (screenshots) and it looks interesting. Very first what caught my eye is again historical accuracy. Worth to check it. Maybe I can gain some inspiration for gaming part from it.

[Sp1ke]

Afterthought: Don't worry about to many the minuses in the review. After thinking about it, I found I was to harsh on some details like color of Mars and other minor things. Pros definitely outweigh cons.

[Sp1ke]

Corrected review:

I Played your Universe Quiz.

Here are my positive thoughts:
+ Very nice fluent graphics
+ Very nice soothing music
+ Very well thought and realized
+ Easy to access
+ Cheap
+ Very easy to gain knowledge (of course if you are not an astronaut or cosmologist)

And now some negatives:
- Too many difficult questions in the first quizzes about moons of the other planets. They have a lot of moons and some don't.
- Too many questions about dwarf planets
- And at least questions about distances between earth, moon, mars. They are prone to change.

Anyway, It's a very good quiz for anyone very interested in astronomy 
 

I corrected the review And you're right pluto is dwarf planet.

[vdapps]

Thx! I'm you happy, you appreciated fluency of UI as this was something I really took care of. To use some animation always, no instant changes. Together with music, this I hope gives it "game feeling", rather than just some windows with questions and answers. The same will apply for Universe Quest (as there's same engine in development under the hood). As you noticed, quiz is former mobile game so main window is in portrait mode. Universe Quest finally is full PC 16:9 desktop design.

[Sp1ke]

I also thank you for writing reviews on gamejolt and itch.io

[vdapps]

You're welcome. Hopefully, you'll write more visual novels. For me it's good format. I like sci-fi and because I can't play games long hours, few hours experiences do suit me well.

[vdapps]

I'm close to release the very first early access version (v0.1). Currently doing more infrastructural work than actual development. There will be not much to see in those very early versions (only encyclopedic part), but for someone interested in history of spaceflight and rocketry, there will be for sure worthful info to find. Today prepared webpage where it will be possible to download Universe Quest soon.

>>>>>>>>>>
https://vdapps.net/universequest
<<<<<<<<<<

[JobLeonard]

There is something oddly 90s website nostalgic about that background

[vdapps]

Maybe because I'm 40, I remember well that era.

Anyway, thx for feedback. I'll try to improve and modernize it. Currently I have lot of tasks, so I'm doing just basic stuff in every area to cope with it. Later, I'll improve things step-by-step, for what I feel that has priority at that particular time.

Regarding the webpage, in fact, I'm terrible in web pages making, almost zero experience in it. My main page vdapps.net, I made in some crappy visual editor. For me as a programmer, it's really not way to go, so I want to change it in future.

For Universe Quest web page, I started quickly learning HTML for the first time ever, so this is what I made after 60 minutes reading HTML doc in w3schools.com. This time, no visual editor but just plain text file, where I feel much better, with more control.

[vdapps]

Universe Quest journey begins, yoohoo!


You can download the very first early access version (v0.1) of Universe Quest
--------------------------------
>>> here <<<
--------------------------------


The idea is that Universe Quest early access versions should be available from the very beginning, with regular updates, so it can have time to find its community while giving iteratively more and more to its users.


This very first version of Universe Quest contains only very basics of encyclopedic part with first batch of data (missions and rockets from 1944 to 1959). However, if you don't mind lot of texts and rocketry and space exploration is your cup of coffee , there's certainly a lot to check and read. Basically, after reading all entries you can have quite good overview about the beginning of the Space Era.


(I'll appreciate any feedback, for this very first version mainly about technical issues. Had you troubles running? Did you need to install VC redistributable? Was Windows warning about app from unknown publisher? Etc, etc..)

[JobLeonard]

Oh don't misinterpret my feedback: I think it is charming!

[vdapps]

Oh, so I'm happy it's not catastrophe.

Last days directed my social networks pages which were made originally for Universe Quiz (few thousands likers/followers/subscribers) to point to Universe Quest. To slowly move Universe Quiz to obsolete status and give more focus to new project.

I have already task-list for UQ 0.1.1 version ready, but big thing is I resumed RTG project as I scaled down its ambitions and started to believe again it's viable to have interesting results sooner than later.