Going To Take Longer To Come Out With Space Sim Gameplay
I had space sim content for the game and was working on the code that would fully sync solar systems players had created with the game. Recently there was an explosion about 1/3 of a football field away when the local transformer blew itself up. I do have backups, usually. I thought I had backed up my progress. I have everything on two USB backup hard drives. But today when I went to check my backup drives only the Cartographer is there. No space sim content.
Even though my desktop computer was turned off but plugged in it got fried along with my GPU and no operating system is detected on the hard drive where the latest progress for Space Time Shipyard was.
So here's to starting over, for the space sim content, again. It shouldn't take me almost 6 months this time as I remember what I did and so I won't have to do all the problem solving I've already done along the way.
Below is the tentative intro for Space Time Shipyard I did about two months ago but I cut some of it before posting it online today. The graphics and text are placeholders. I wanted to get the timing down for the intro first and then come back to it and finish it before I uploaded the game. The greatest monetary expense I have for this game is paying musicians for the music in Space Time Shipyard.
Going To Take Beyond December For The Next Update
I'm making progress but I'm really sick right now. The hull designer has been changed. It doesn't use a grid system anymore like the cartographer. Now players can just click on the faces of 3D pieces to place a new piece. I've decided to not export the hull as a standalone 3D model. Now a text file will be generated. When the game loads the text file it will reproduce the hull with the pieces in the exact positions, dimensions, and colors as when it was saved in the Hull Designer. Using the Hull Designer players will be able to create a wide range of ships with different colors. Players will be able to rotate ship pieces and change scale and texture/color as well.
Edit: 12/11/2023 Made some changes to how the Hull Designer will operate. Adding nodes to click on with the shapes as that works better. Using Faces was causing errors with more advanced shapes. Will also be adding a lot more ship pieces and of course colors. The image below is a screenshot of the Hull Designer being developed.
Edit: 12:/27/2023 It's going to take longer than I initially planned to release the space sim gameplay. I won't be able to release it in December. Reworking the components entirely because the system I setup is taking up too much memory and the game is designed for players to be able to mod in their own components.
Shooting For Late December For Space Sim Gameplay
I'm making progress but I'm really sick right now. The hull designer has been changed. It doesn't use a grid system anymore like the cartographer. Now players can just click on the faces of 3D pieces to place a new piece. I've decided to not export the hull as a standalone 3D model. Now a text file will be generated. When the game loads the text file it will reproduce the hull with the pieces in the exact positions, dimensions, and colors as when it was saved in the Hull Designer. Using the Hull Designer players will be able to create a wide range of ships with different colors. Players will be able to rotate ship pieces and change scale and texture/color as well.
Short Term Development Road Map
The Cartographer fulfills it's basic function but still needs work. Aiming to have actual space sim gameplay uploaded to Steam a few days before Thanksgiving 2023.
Working Cartographer Tool
The Cartographer tool is working but still needs some work. It will generate the data files needed for loading star systems created with it into the game. Now I need to get the code mess that's the game and release get it uploaded before Thanksgiving. :)
The Finished Cartographer Will Be Uploaded 11/6/2023
I apologize I won't be able to upload the finished Cartographer tool today. The serious environmental issue I mentioned in an earlier announcement kept me up last night. I also had to spend 2-3 hours on legal stuff today. I've made progress and star systems will be saved to the user's hard drive in a text file format. I decided that would be easier than storing them in HTML format. The Cartographer will be finished and uploaded on 11/6/2023 (Monday). I also updated the Quick Reference Sheet for Space Time Shipyard. The documentation is a work in progress.
News About Upcoming Updates
Today is November 2. By November 4th, at the latest, the fully functional Cartographer tool will be uploaded to Steam. I plan to have space sim gameplay uploaded to Steam a few days before Thanksgiving this month.
October 2023 Update
I'm disappointed with this update I was hoping to get so much more done. Unfortunately factors outside my control have hindered my progress. This update TEMPORARILY is a downgrade from what I had uploaded previously. Currently only a partially functioning Cartographer is available, the standalone tool for the game used to create/mod star systems for the game. One of the reasons this update is a downgrade is doing tests I found out the way I programmed the game having lots of entities flying around in space would cause Unity to crash. So I needed to redo the foundations of the game. I've found the problem and am building up from there. I'm going to try to finish the standalone Cartographer in a few days and upload that. I really want to get space sim gameplay live before Thanksgiving. I am sorry regarding the current state of this title.
Moving Game To Another Engine
Because of Unity's declaration of war against indie developers Space Time Shipyard is going to take longer to reach a finished state. I will still be developing this game but it will not be with the Unity game engine. I've asked Steam if I can remove this game from distribution but still have the website up on the Steam store with the release date to be determined later. If that's not possible then I'll ask Steam to remove it and will bring it back to Steam when I develop this game through another avenue.
Unity Is Pure Evil
Because of Unity's declaration of war against indie developers Space Time Shipyard is going to take longer to reach a finished state. I will still be developing this game but it will not be with the Unity game engine. I've asked Steam if I can remove this game from distribution but still have the website up on the Steam store with the release date to be determined later. If that's not possible then I'll ask Steam to remove it and will bring it back to Steam when I develop this game through another avenue.
