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An indie game project with the goal of reviving our favorite game type, the epic space adventure! By mixing favorite aspects of classics like StarFlight, Star Control, SunDog, Universe, and Tradewars, we hope to bring what we loved as kids to the current generation. Quirky aliens, arcade space battles, planetary mining, and adventure around the galaxy -- should keep us busy developing for a while. The project is a family affair, Wife on art, son on music, and code-monkeying by me. We are currently in early development for the PC,Mac,Linux platforms... XboxOne or PS4 if we can swing it.

Post news Report RSS StarDiver - Take a Ride Through the Galaxy!

StarDiver is moving right along. Join us for a ride through the galaxy.... or at least its current, current development state!

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StarDiver is moving right along. Join us for a ride through the galaxy.... or at least its current, early development state!

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We are a small family team (myself, wife, and son) and are very excited to share our progress on StarDiver with the community. StarDiver is a story-driven action/rpg that spans numerous star systems and is teeming with alien life, conflict, and dying stars in desperate need of saving. Our goal for the art, music, story, combat, and exploration is to put the player in a universe filled with alien life and intrigue.

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We want the game universe to be anything but generic. So when it came to discussions about procedural generation of things, we had to take a hard look at what we should hand craft and what we shouldn't. We will be using procedural generation of planetary surfaces, clouds, and atmospheres so that no two planets look the same. We will also use procedural generation for solar system layouts, number of planets, and number of moons so no two solar systems are the same.

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Our primary target is an excellent single player game with a deep story arc, numerous unique aliens, dialogue trees, rpg progression, and more. Solar system backdrops will vary greatly depending on the location within the galaxy, the type of star at their center and the alien race which controls them. We implemented volumetric nebula clouds so they shift and flow as you move through and add depth to the movement and in some areas even have electrical storms. Solar gravity offers some fun slingshot effects -- whip around the sun to help get a great speed boost, but get too close and you will burn up skimming the sun's surface. Gravity will play a key role in combat as well, helping slow ships outmaneuver faster rivals.

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Combat for StarDiver is retro, action oriented, and unique. Instead of upgrading generic hulls with generic weapons, StarDiver will feature numerous alien races who each have their own very unique ships. One example is the SunDagger, a ship from a race of beings who call stars their home. They are immune to the effects of gravity and dive through stars to pull a streaming ball of plasma to toss at foes brave enough to tangle with them. The Krex Cruiser is another example of a unique ship design. Its six long-range broadside cannons have exploding warheads with lots of splash damage, while its nose pulse can smash into foes trying to close the distance and fling them back to long range where the cruiser is most effective.

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My son has taken on the task of music and sounds for the game. I think his tunes are matching perfectly with the feel we are trying to convey. Here are a couple of music samples:

My wife created all the alien concepts, and are painted by an excellent freelance artist who recently joined our team. Our goal is to have 15-30 unique alien races, each with their own back story, region of space, and custom ships. Here are just a few of the planned alien races:

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Being a small and under-funded indie team, we are considering crowd funding when our project is further along. Also being techie geeks, we couldn't think of anything more fun for both us as developers and potential backers than 3D printed StarDiver ships. Santa brought us a 3D printer and we've taken a go at printing a couple of our early ships:

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Thanks for taking a look at our work in progress. PLEASE, PLEASE (couple more pleases) give us some feedback. Gamer feedback is pure rocket-fuel. It gives us buckets of motivation and helps us refine the project into a much better end result!

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[RLM]Darksteel
[RLM]Darksteel

Looks great guys! I remember seeing this game a while back and thinking it looked pretty cool. Great to see this much progress! Keep up the awesome work!

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Sph!nx
Sph!nx

Yah, great artwork!

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friken0 Author
friken0

Thanks for the input guys. Always appreciated!

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boomcogames
boomcogames

Really cool to see the original artistry! Tracking for sure :)

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