There it is again! Hey, @Island_Dog or @Brad_Wardell! What/who does that Crimson Corporation logo at the end of the trailer represent?
[looks at calendar]
[looks at non-functioning TARDIS]
Damn you, Time Lords!!!
They make the BEST force fields
Wrong thread?
Great trailer :)
Great Seeping Pore… lol
He’s just hungry.
This week’s dev journal is about the art of Star Control and how it has undergone quite a lot of change over the last 5 years of development. :)
Interesting to see all the iterations. I hope we get to read a Gamasutra postmortem in a years time or sooner also, as those are usually pretty interesting, although I guess you’ve detailed a lot in these articles already.
Just read this great piece :)
In our future, Amiga returns and takes over. You heard it here first.
Yes please.
Interesting to read about the difference you have between “playing a game” and “being in the game” on mobile ui vs. ui.
I remember rating Populous and the even more awesome Powermonger as my favourite games of all time, but thinking about those user interfaces I’m not sure I would be happy with them today. Even back then there was a lot of useless space, although I think as your various generals died, the avatars standing around the table also disappeared(?).
I wonder if this is an issue that pops up for most game designers in approaching the ui, outside of making it functional and aesthetically pleasing… on how the “UI” itself is “the game” or just an interface for the gamer.
I originally was going to use Powermonger in that screenshot but was worried not enough people were familiar with it.
The UI debate was our single biggest internal argument after Super-Melee (well other than game engine arguments).
I think for something like Star Control to work, you have to focus heavily on the immersion. And the UI is a big part of that.
Here’s a little video I made of just collecting resources.
Forgive the low end settings. This was taken on a very old PC.
Brad, at 1:40 when your lander returns to the ship after you fill its hold, does it automatically transition back to the solar system view or did you press something to do that? I recall one of the things that made resource collection tolerable in SC2 was spamming lander cargo runs to get all the bits you couldn’t fit.
That was me messing up. Normally I would just have gone right back down.
Good to hear :)
That launch from the planets looks great :)
Surely everyone knows about Powermonger? I even bought the Data-disk with the WW1 campaign that didn’t quite pan out as I imagined it would in terms of features.
Ooooo, pretty. Looks like candy.
I’ve mentioned this before, and I don’t want to dump on excitement others might have, but I thought Brad might want to know: I’m seriously thinking of not picking this up because of the resource collection.
How to explain this in a way others might understand? Imagine a space combat game where every time you get near an enemy it simply explodes. You don’t have to do anything; it just dies. That’s how resource collection looks to me. I did see that there were rocks that could be shot to obtain resources, but that’s clearly not the standard.
And I get it, this isn’t a game focused around resource collection. I’m not looking for them to change anything. I think this simply isn’t the game I want it to be.
That’s not how the original game played out. The worlds with better resources were also more dangerous - imagine volcanoes blowing up around you, or giant lizards trying to kill you while you gathered resources. Part of the fun was trying to collect resources from worlds that were above your level, where making a single mistake could kill you (and lose you the resources you spent to build that lander in the first place!)
So, if this game has similar design, the experience shouldn’t be particularly passive unless you’re going to a very easy world with relatively low value resources.
Yeah, there’s a risk-reward to the richer planets. At least there was in Star Control 2. I can’t remember how many times I’ve lost landers while trying to get materials from a hostile planet, whether that be environmental factors or creatures.
That gameplay system was pretty important to Star Control 2, so I would have been very surprised if it was missing in SCO.
That’s totally fair. I never played the original. Sticking to the original design is a fine choice. I’m not going to criticize something for being exactly what it set out to be (a pet peeve of mine). I’m just realizing it might not be the game for me, that’s all.
I’d go with: See how great this runs and looks on a low end PC?