Back again for another update and now as the project branches off into multiple directions I find myself struggling to know where to begin! It occurred to me the other day that I perhaps spend 45% actually making the game and 55% marketing it. This feels like a natural split to me now and I enjoy the feedback that is coming back to me, particularly on some of the YouTube videos which I will cover later on. But if you'd said to me 3 months ago 'Jim, most of your time you will be talking about the game rather than making it' I'd have likely laughed at you because at heart I'm a socially awkward geek and already this project is changing me.
Gathering Pace
So I've been reaching out to all and sundry gathering figures, making contacts and learning from others as much as I can. One contact is of particular interest, his name is Mike Horneman - Mike is the creator of Nexus: The Jupiter Incident which is a game that inspires me deeply. He says the Shallow Space project excites him and he offered his complete support, we also had a chat about his aspirations and I'm limited by what I can say but lets just say I wouldn't give up on Nexus 2 just yet...
I've also reached out to the guy that made the models and provided him with list of the intended Mk II and Mk III craft and weapons that I also want to bring into the game as a bare minimum. If funding exceeds expectations I have plans to dress the whole lot up Eve Online styles so I've also reached out to a very influential 3D artist who has started to express interest, neither come cheap which is reassuring in its own way.
I've found a very fun voice actor who can knock out any style as if it's his own voice, Enry is still churning out quality music and art like the worlds about to end. I'm exploring other marketing avenues, mugs, t-shirts, cuddly toys and I will utilise any and every resource - resistance, as they say, is futile. But yeah when someone says 'Homeworld remake' and the world looks the other way you know it's wise to start looking at some more persistent marketing techniques.
Our recent YouTube promotional video saw 1,600 views in the first week and I've put up another looking back at the last three months and just how far we've come. The beauty of this indie effort is that I want people to feel involved because this is very much a wiki and community type game, we are venturing down a path less travelled here so all constructive input is welcome. On the subject of community the Shallow Space forums are now open over at Space Sim Central because as much as I love IndieDB, it makes more sense to house the forums in an environment where Sci-fi is the primary spoken language. Please do head over there and get involved, ask questions and view the exclusive content.
Game Progress
So those that read the latest blog article will know that we're working towards getting fighters in for the NPC ships now and in particular the military outpost, for which we've seen a few pictures and a short development video. As well as that I've been combing over the code tweaking the playability and stability but there is little in the way of crashing anyways. Performance issues have largely been resolved also by a complete rewrite of the targeting components and the re-factoring of several other auxiliary classes.
A guy called Anubis over on the Promo 1 YouTube video page said 'i see a Star Trek mod from this :)' which made me cream my panties with excitement but he reminded me of a very potent point; modability. I love Star Trek and while I can't have that IP (a crying shame that is I tell you) I can pave the way for some genius to replace my ship models for his and hide the turrets to make them look like - hmmm I don't know - phaser emitters?
Anyway's this next part is a little advanced, don't let it scare you off if you are the average player, but I also want to put in scripting support with long term (very long term!) plans to even let players add elements to the interface windows to accompany the scripts (X3:TC and X3:AP were all over this concept.) So we've added in the 'Quake Console' now and right off the bat this powerful tool can manipulate any of the in-game variable's, this is quite dangerous as it can alter the stability of the game so we're going to have to put some confines in but as you can appreciate it opens many many doors in term's of customisation already. The console will also serve as the history and event log with the colour co-ordinating of object types according to hostility a bit like Blizzards offerings of WoW and Diablo.
So I hear the voices of the collective muttering 'What of that Alpha?' well I've been advised to tread very carefully there, there exist some unsavoury types who simply won't like the face of it and may use it as a stick to beat me with so I want to make sure its right. It'll be the close supporters that get it first, followed by the letsplayers for an exposure kick and then the general public will get a limited preview prior (or during) the Crowdsource.
Anyways, enough babble from me, enjoy the evolutionary video below if you haven't seen it already and you can look forward to another epic trailer being released within the next week and our thanks to you all for the continued support, don't forget to head over to Space Sim Central.
James
After looking at the GIF I was curious as to whether or not there will be homing weapons that will let you take advantage of the asteroids cover by shooting over and around the asteroids. Being able to shoot weapons in order to attack the enemy ships/star-bases without having to take a direct beating from the enemy would be really nice.
Could make the counter to that, i.e., destroying the asteroid to remove the cover a fun added tactic.