Far Space. Early prototype stage. Thread

Far Space is a 2D top-down game, putting player as a sole crew member on board of a mysterious starship.

Guide your vessel among the stars of procedurally generated galaxy. Visit countless planets. Do not get lost for their surfaces have realistic areas, spanning thousands miles in all directions.

Bring all that you can gather, be it rocks or a space hamster, to convert into usable materials or knowledge through studying.

Repair and maintain the machinery, which provides you with air, food, water and protection from harshness of space.

Find a way to restore the memory banks of ship's computer, to learn of your past and, finally, fix the jumpdrive to carry you back home.

As the development goes forward, player's ship will grow in size, providing explorable area in itself. Inventory and item system will become playable by this weekend. Alien life and rudimentary combat system will follow. Almost all of art is made of placeholders, I aim for final look to be clear, minimalistic one. Since this is an early Work in Progress expect major changes both in implemented and planned features. Scroll down to the link to playable build.

Play in browser: Algernonscage.blogspot.com

Download(Windows x64): Googledrive.com

You can also visit Greenlight concept page: Steamcommunity.com

Edited by: White_Mouse_Algie

I think you have a very interesting concept. I'm sure i will find the finished product enjoyable.

However, what are you going to do about immersion? Storyline? Is this going to be more casual or in depth? as it is, this level of development doesnt exactly answer these questions. And to top it all off do you need help with the topics i previously brought up?

Regardless, your game looks promising, and you have my support. I hope to be able to attain the finished product on steam one day.

Thanks, Harvey!

However, what are you going to do about immersion? Storyline?

Story will be revealed gradually, through interactions with AI. Fixing its hardware, step by step, unlocks different bits of information about its and heroes past. Newspaper articles, emails, logs etc.

Sometimes those stories will be interactive, playing out either as small text adventure or on special "past" maps with same basic gameplay as main game. Former being planned as minimum, latter as maximum.

Upgrading/repairing AI will also unlock additional info about game's present. For example, something as simple as additional details in description for found items/creatures.

Is this going to be more casual or in depth?

From casual to in depth, depending on development progress.

Gameplay foundation must be as simple as possible, to allow a quick pick-up play session. Basically a "Crimsonland with random maps" with nothing more complex than shooting, hitpoint management and primitive ammo crafting. In finished game it will become an "Arcade Mode".

Upon that foundation I plan to build more complex features.

Atmosphere conditions - already partially implemented - on ship and planets, with tracking of pressure and composition of air and their effects on player. Temperature and radiation levels. Three of those, plus different gravity levels, will be already enough to create strong differentiation between planets by their accessibility, giving player the incentive to create and use better gear.

Detailed health and needs management. Food and water, with multiple types of food items, different body parts/organs capable to sustain damage, different types of damage and different cures to be made to avoid death. However, I'm not a big fan of a games, which declare a character dead from starvation after 5 minutes since last meal, so timescale for needs will be closer to real life. Can't really specify without playtesting.

All of that I plan to add gradually, from simple to complex, to give me ability to cut some corners, in case I will need to speed up development.

And to top it all off do you need help with the topics i previously brought up?

Quite possibly, yes. My main concerns are visual art and bulk of the game's text. With art I'm constrained by my lack of skills and made a forced choice to stick to flat-colored, minimalistic looks. With text I'm worried about production times. I have no trouble building the lore and general story, but all the additional text content will surely eat a lot of my time.

On the bright side, art and writing troubles do not hinder early technical work, so it will be somewhat later when I'll begin looking for second writer and an artist.

Regardless, your game looks promising, and you have my support. I hope to be able to attain the finished product on steam one day.

Thank you again.

Update July 10 2015

Second prototype ready! Sorry for the delay, you all know the song about 99 little bugs!

New stuff below.

AIR SIMULATION!
INVENTORY!
ITEMS!
PERSISTENT WORLDS!
UPDATED GRAPHICS!
UPDATED SOUND AND MUSIC!

Ship's rooms are filled with air which can escape through HULL BREACHES.
Pick up REPAIR TOOLS into your INVENTORY from the floor by shift+left click. Left click them again to put them into Active Slot.
Check your INVENTORY for BAROMETER. Its indicator will show you remaining AIR PRESSURE.
Go to the rooms with holes in walls, get really close and press left mouse button while keeping cursor over HULL BREACH to fix it in five seconds flat!
Stand near open doors and see how AIR PRESSURE equalizes over time between rooms.
Hear the SOUND of escaping air or the hum of mighty Jump engines.
Listen to the great MUSIC made by STELLARDRONE!
Use the shuttle to get to any planet you like, drop any ITEM wherever you like, return after a trip around galaxy and find it at the SAME SPOT!
Please your eyes with new interior design!
Say hello to new face of Eve, our main hero!

Old, boring stuff

Ship is small. Planets are barren. Generated planet surfaces are not random enough. No boundary checks for galaxy map and planetary surfaces. Sometimes tiles show annoying seams. No Christine. Pretty much no content, no challenge, no tasks. Just like prototypes are.

No web player version. Can't get Drive to cooperate.

Important objects

NAV - your navigation computer. Interact with it to call GALACTIC and SOLAR SYSTEM MAPS.
SHUTTLE - your personal taxi to surface. Interact with it to land on a planet you orbit.
ATM - ATMospheric renewer. A marvelous box, producing air in unlimited quantities.
ENG - sublight ENGINES. They are nothing fancy, but they will get you between PLANETS with little trouble.
JMP - JUMP engines. Technological masterpiece, pushing your ship and everything on board between stars faster than light.

Keep in mind that they are not mere decorations. Damage to a piece of machinery will adversely affect its associated function. Destruction of a module means you get nothing at all, including complete loss of navigation, mobility, air regeneration, food production and so on and so on.

Controls

movement - WASD
interaction - E
pick up item - Shift + Left Mouse Button on item on ground
drop item - Shift + Left Mouse Button on item in inventory panel
make item active - Left Mouse Button on item in inventory panel
put active item back in inventory - Left Mouse Button on item in active slot
use active item on target - Left Mouse Button on target

If 1 floor tile = 1 meter, player must be 2 meters or closer to pickup items, interact with machinery or use items on targets.

Download:
Drive.google.com

Music used: Airglow by Stellardrone
Stellardrone.mymusicstream.com
Youtube.com

Edited by: White_Mouse_Algie