Special Space Force - Space Army Manager with narrative combat

Games
1

Hi!

I’m developing a new turn based strategy game called Special Space Force, or SSF for short. SSF is an army management simulator, which will feature a narrative combat system that generates a story transcript of the events that occurred in a battle. The player will take on the role of the Commanding Officer of a special forces regiment, designated to a sector of space that they will defend and protect, or conquer in the name of their faction.

So far, I have a prototype of Special Space Force, and it’s looking pretty good!

Some Gameplay footage and the BitSpark You-tube Channel

I currently have closed testing going on for the game, and am looking for more people to get involved! If you want to help out a new developer, or just want to try out the prototype I have an maybe find a bug along the way, head over to the website (listed at the bottom) and join our discord group (at the bottom of the homepage)!

In it’s current Prototype Stage, Special Space Force offers -

· An in-depth Force and Fleet management screen
· Customisable troopers with modding compatibility
· A custom generated Sector Map of star systems and planets
· Voidcraft capable of transporting troops around the sector
· A template system for creating your own force and fleet layouts
· Moddable voidcraft, planet biomes and Alien Races

I hope to be able to include all manner of things, however the main planned features for it’s release are :-

· A unique Narrative Combat System that takes input data and outputs a story transcript of what happened in the battle. Eventually, the user will be able to interact with the battle as it happens, or let their commanders deal with it if they trust them.
· A Galaxy of empires of which your sector represents just a part of. Who you will have to fight will depend on many factors, and not just ones from within your own sector as your empire strives to gain the goals you set it in the game generation.
· A mod compatible threat based spawning system, which spawns “threats” the player has to counter. Should these not be dealt with quickly, they can grow and snowball into much more difficult threats later down the line.
· Full research and tech trees for all items that depend on your faction’s overall tech level. You won’t be able to unlock tech that your faction hasn’t completed fundamental research in yet. However, there are many lines we can take this down, from armour and vehicle parts all the way to bionics and genetics.
· A full tutorial/story campaign that exits into a set galaxy, designed to be balanced and fair.

I hope to be able to take this game to market, but right now I just need to get testers and get the word out about it’s existence!

If you made it all the way to the bottom of the page, you might as well head over to the BitSpark website and check out the rest of the game screenshots!

Thanks for your time reading this, if you have any questions at all feel free to ask them in the comments! (Also If this post is not allowed please delete!)

2

I love army build n fight games. This looks very much my cup of tea! Thanks for sharing!

My only suggestion from your description is consider scoping down or out the scripted story campaign. That could be a lot of effort. You are making a procedurally generated game , you dont need some space bar mashing to skip story stuff here.

3

The narrative story campaign will be a scripted save, if you like, that has tutorial elements built in. Because the entire thing is story based (the narrative combat is a story description of the battle essentially), every campaign will write it’s own story, and users will be able to add their own narrative elements, when I’ve worked out the kinks! xD

However for all intents and purposes, the story in the tutorial will be scripted to have certain events happen to give a set story, which will then open into a regular galaxy with pre-set values. A starter galaxy if you like.

I hope that doesn’t disappoint!

4

Sounds great! I love that approach! Just as one colleague to another, pick one path, writing cool stories/dialog or generating them from string buckets. Not both. My taste is for the latter!

Also unasked for advice from a fellow developer: Ignore the tutorial or scripted missions until after you are Alpha. You will have to rewrite the FTUE anyway when you final so no sense in doing it too early. Also you can often get to Alpha with no scripted tutorial hoops and discover players prefer it that way so win.win.

Anyways good luck! I will be purchasing!

5

Hmm, that is a very valid point. It would make the prototype phase easier O.O though I am concerned that it is pretty confusing and complex right now, so I don’t want people getting lost.

Thank you! I will try and keep updating stuff here as development goes on!

6

Strong agreement. I don’t have Rod’s experience but I have more than zero, and any time spent on tutorials and such is going to be wasted or even negatively impact velocity until your mechanics are good and baked.

Gotta find the fun before you can lead people to it, right?

If you’re lucky enough to have some enthusiastic community members, I’d recommend seeing if you can encourage them to write new-player guides that you can highlight on your store page / homepage / forum / stream / twitter. Community folks love that stuff. They’d rather you spent your time working on the game anyway ;)

7

Thank you guys for the input! I am taking notes! :D If I manage to get a community I will be very lucky I think, it’s hard to get these things off the ground, isn’t it? Too many games already in the pool!

I would love to have a few enthusiastic members creating content for people to use! Fingers crossed people see something in this!

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9

You’ve certainly hit the right crowd.

I don’t have a pedigree, but I’d say it might make sense to hack some scripted missions to test whether some idea works, but ONLY if it’s a prototype that is quick to make and that you will throw away without thinking twice. And that you really trust yourself to have no exceptions on that only, not even if it looks like a good idea.

10

When you say to hack some scripted missions, what do you mean by this?

11

Seems right up my alley as well.

12

Hi all!

I’ve managed to finally get the Devlog together and uploaded for Version 0.3, it’s more of a walkthrough that anything else though.

You can view it here - Fancy You-tube link

It runs through all the elements currently in the game prototype, and explains a little about where it’s going next. It also marks the end of the bug-fixing period for version 0.3 and the start of development of version 0.4!

Have a great day everyone :D

13

Quick Update!

Works going well on implementing a new threat system that spawns enemy invasions, natural disasters, cults and other lovely things on your planets!

The way it works is by calculating the strength of the player’s force with a points system, kinda like miniature wargames. Then it calculates how many threats already exist and, if that strength is lower than a maximum value, spawns more threats.

This means there will always be new fights awaiting your troopers across the galaxy.

Threat System Preview
Threat System Preview1619×909 280 KB

But that’s not all! If you leave a threat alone, it will grow and become more threatening, potentially even stealing planets and systems from your faction!

Make sure you keep an eye out for threat icons, missing one could be a very bad mistake.

Check out more Special Space Force Stuff on our website!

14

Just a quick update! Firstly, there is a new link to the testing server, so please use this link if you want to get involved!

The new threat system is also underway! The nature of the system allows you to add your own threats, missions and enemies to the game, all as part of the AI race creation!

XML_Result_1
XML_Result_1894×894 222 KB

These are entirely XML created, and you can even edit the missions and threats that I create if you want them to be easier/harder!

I have also taken the time to create new template layouts for squads and troopers, and even added nicer backgrounds and artwork! Here is a squad position for a group photo!

Advanced Assault Squad
Advanced Assault Squad1000×1000 174 KB

15

Hi everyone!

Work has been progressing at a steady pace, and now I can show off the threat system as well as an example of xml code that is used to mod said threat system.

Open Area Concept Art
Open Area Concept Art1920×1080 365 KB

Threats are the forces of an enemy, or space monsters, even natural disasters that you will need to send your troopers to solve, either through application of force or by other means (rescuing puppies etc) You can add your own threats by creating xml files and tying them into either the existing Race files, created by my, or by creating your own race files for completely scratch built alien races!

From the threat file you can add missions, which appear on screen and are selectable, and allow your troopers to go into battle! While the battles aren’t yet available to play, they are coming very soon!

In the future, you will be able to add images and sounds to be played via xml, as well as load your own 3D models, and you can already use xml files to add your own armour, helmets, weapons and equipment!

See a bit more about threats here - Feature Focus Threat System

You can see a bit more about the threat xml files here - Feature Focus XML Stuff

If you want to follow along more closely with development, I post much more regularly in the discord server - https://discord.gg/XP58gxH8wY

You can also follow on Instagram or Facebook!

If you like this idea and want to help support new , please feel free to share the above videos in any gaming groups, or post your support here/on the links I just shared :)

Thanks for reading!

16

Excellent update, i look at your site for the roadmap! Im excited to play this once it gets close to release!

17

Looking great dude!

18

Thanks guys!

I hope to create a proper road map once I finish the prototype - it’s a key part of helping people understand where the development is going to go!

I’m also looking at another name, as I feel Special Space Force is a little unprofessional, even if it does describe it pretty well! If you want to vote on the new name, or even vote for it to stay the same, head here - https://linkto.run/p/BJOKW1JY

19

My 2 cents: ditch the pseudo-Latin and initialisms that resolve to long, clunky names that sound like a subsidiary of the IRS. They’re forgettable. Also ditch Special Space Force, if for no other reason than it sounds like a reference to the politically charged real-life “Space Force.” But you had the right idea with that one in that it’s short, and has short words. Star Corps is on the right track.

20

I personally like ISF
Interplanetary Special Forces
IPSOC is my favorite after that

ISF is simple and to the point, and what you would likely see in some novel or big budget movie about the subject. Space force has too many negative connotations to it at the moment, and not very elite sounding.