All of us once dreamed of our future profession, building our own worlds in our minds and creating our own stories. I spent my entire childhood watching programs about space, how planets were discovered, trying to explore or at least understand this amazing world of space. And while a lot of those dreams will always remain just dreams, today I'm going to share with you an amazing story about a former high school student who became a programmer and game designer and literally tried to open the door to space.
My story began in March, when my passion for programming inspired me to create my own space game. However, it's worth noting right away that my 3D modeling skills were at a "zero" level. But that didn't deter me - instead of creating familiar 3D objects, I chose the path of developing a 2D game, but with a unique concept that made it truly unique.
The world of space games was dominated by standard scenarios: the player flies through vast black space, and asteroids and enemy ships rain down on him. But my goal wasn't to create another similar game. I wanted the player to feel like not just a ship pilot, but a true defender of all of space.
My first task was to create a mini-orbital station that, at first glance, resembled the Death Star from the Star Wars universe. It was challenging, but I worked hard to make it look like it was actually in space
Figure.1 Picture of Space (Collected from different pict
Fig.2 Space station
Then it was time to design ships. I had about a dozen different models, divided into three classes. Light ships were fast and maneuverable, but they had limited lives. They dealt a lot of damage, but became brittle at the slightest hit. On the other hand, the heavy ships were slow but had mighty armor. They weren't easy to destroy, but they couldn't maneuver as easily. And the medium ones, which were not fast, but not big armor either.Thus, players were given a choice: destroy the fast or the heavier opponent
Figure 3. Concept Art:Lightning light ship
Fig. 4 Concept art of the Arrow light ship
Fig.5 Concept art of the light ship "Whirlwind"
Figure 6. Guardian medium spacecraft concept art
One of the key elements of the game was the random appearance of enemy ships. They could appear at any moment on the edges of the screen, forcing the player to be attentive and react lightning fast to defend his station. This created an atmosphere of incredible tension and made the game exciting from the first minute.
But that's not all. I decided to add a little lore revealing the history of enemy leaders who attack the station, and I created a station pumping system that gave players more options for defense. Plus, I added a leaderboard, allowing players to compete for rankings and raise the station to the pinnacle of glory.
And so what started out as my own personal single player development turned into an exciting space adventure that interested players from all over the world. This project gave me the opportunity, though in the virtual world, but to get to know the space and give players a unique experience.
So, if you once dreamed of the stars, but you didn't become an astronaut, don't be discouraged. Creating your own game can be your way of opening the door to the vast expanse of galaxies and imagination. Find your star and take the first step into the vast world of game development.
It took a very long time to get all the elements adapted, in addition, the SDK sometimes gave an error. Before the last moderation seems to have fixed, but 5% of players had an error with the definition of Desktop or Mobile.
Development time - on weekends, 3-5 hours a day since July. A lot of time was spent on the selection of colors for the ships to match or not black with the background of the game. Plus for authenticity added the history of the universe, or rather some characters, I hope someone will pass to the end (The game is quite long).
Game link:
Yandex.com
