StarFire will be an open-source, java-based space simulation shooter that is currently in development and running on jMonkey engine with self-created game resources. There will be many simulation elements that will make an significant impact on gameplay and if the world/universe is going to be completely generic or pre-defined, will be completely up to you. The GUI as much as the gameplay should be self-explanatory and user friendly, and if something is not so clear it will either have a detailed manual or an ingame tutorial - I don't want to spoil much of it here as I just recently got out the conceptualizing stage of this game.
However, I really need to plan this out thoroughly if I want to succeed, especially seeing how my programming skills aren't the best and that I plan to do it all by myself (unless I find people who are willed to help me out, of course).
What I already have, after two weeks of conceptualizing and one week of programming:
- a carefully-planned, hand-written, 40-pages concept as to what I'm going to do and how I could possibly achieve it
- basic classes for star systems, planets, spacecrafts, items and their affiliated characteristics
- an (relatively easily-) extendable xml handler that manages and saves game data for the above mentioned classes to a file. I might need to look into that further as I fear xml might not be the best choice when saving a huge amount of data (unless I manage to logically split up bigger data chunks somehow)
- Some basic classes in which I played around with potential visualization of planets
- Some basic graphic resources
So here are my plans for the next two months (or weeks, depending on how fast I work) :
- First thing I need to do is to get basic game data done. To make this job easier, I need to create a couple of GUI editors that convert raw data (which is a pain to work with) into an easy-to-understand interface.
- Based upon this basic game data, I can create basic game logic, such as collision detection, GUI development, inventory management, spacecraft behavior and so on.
- Just then I can proceed with client/server programming to establish multiplayer games.
- After all this is done, I will proceed with an advanced 3D editor for customizable content. This mostly will affect planets and spacecraft.
I will most likely learn as I go by, and I do hope this project will be a success in a long-term.
Blah blah, that sounds great and all but when can I play it?
You probably won't be getting anything playable in the next 3 weeks, so please be patient. :P
