SpaceJourney Beta - v1.1. file - Science Fiction Fans

Thanks!

Hopefully its working now for you or you can use my dropbox link to the game.

Dl.dropbox.com

What is confusing about the game?

Thank you very much for the feedback and the compliments.

No problem at all for the wait! And thanks for the follow up.

Yeah, the general idea is to make it one big sandbox. And it is sort of already designed that way, since you can complete your objective of getting the artifact pieces in any order. But this will become more evident the larger the game gets. And yes, there will definitely be more history integrated into the game (especially concerning the main antagonist aliens in the game).

It looks like there's a 2000 character limit, so I am going to have to split this up:

As for travel, you can either cruise or starjump. To cruise, you press the "cruise" button on the front desk console and select a speed, then steer the ship with the arrow keys.

To star jump, go to the back console, select "space chart", then select a sector. Then hit "starjump" at the front desk and try to survive the incoming obstacles from warping (either by shooting them manually with your gun outside of the ship or by constantly repairing the ship).

Starjumping is only for long distance travel to other sectors, and cruising is only good for flying within the sector you're currently in.

Right, now you can't land on any planets. But you can dock with a space station in sector 2. You do this by selecting the space station on the list of targets and press the "dock" button, when you're in sector 2.

You can also launch a probe on a planet in sector 3, by selecting it in your target list and then going to the back desk and pressing the science panel button. A launch probe button will show up if the planet is selected.

To use the target list, you go to the front desk and press the yellow "target" button, which will expand its dialog, then you can cycle through the different targets or view it on your view screen. You can minimize this dialog again by pressing the target button.

Pretty much most of the interaction between the ship and the outside world is done with the target dialog. So like when you come across enemy turrets or ships, you'll want to select them in the target list and then your weapons will target them.

I guess someday I could add one of my old ideas, which was to fire weapons manually with a submarine style scope. But right now, alot of stuff is automated so the player doesn't have to struggle when trying to get ship to do stuff.

I've been trying to figure out how to put a tutorial into the game without it telling the player how to play. So that's a great idea about the tutorial being in the console. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll add a "help" section to the back desk or chair's interface which will give the player various information like I am telling you, about docking, travel, etc. As I already added basic info about the game on the chair's interface, for the next update.

Thanks for playing and for your suggestion, questions and overall feedback!

Interesting suggestion...that would definitely create some different situations. I'll consider it and let you know if I implement it.

Thank you for your comment!

Haha, well you'd definitely need some fast thrusters on the suit to get around. :D

Oh ok, just to clarify, is your suggestion to make the suit thrusters a secret power up?

Oh I see...yeah that's a good idea...so basically, use the suit thrusters to access ships that can't normally be docked at.

I'll definitely keep you informed if that makes it into the game.

Thanks for commenting!

Yes, save spots are doable. Do you mean like checkpoints, or where you can save your game and load it later?

I'll look into adding saving and loading games in either the next update, or the one after it.

Oh hey, sorry I didn't see this post!

Well, for the full game, I'm thinking of giving it an overarching story line \ quest, but let the player complete that story in their own time. So it'll be pretty much a sandbox with some strong back-story but not a strong, overbearing plot.

Then in the future, I might make other versions of the game where its all about the plot, but having played the original, people would be familiar with how the gameplay works. I have story ideas for a prequel and something that's set many years in the future from this game.

I don't want to get cocky where I start thinking about sequels after this one, when this isn't even close to finished. I would like to finish this game, and then start thinking about sequels, or prequels. But having already decided some of the prequel ideas, does have its advantage. Because it's allowed me to add stronger back-story to this game, and I can plan things out ahead of time. I think it does help create a more cohesive world.

Thanks for the comment!

THANK YOU so much! I appreciate that! haha