As I wrote in a previous post, I want to make everything better in Galactic Crew 2. I loved the dungeons in Galactic Crew, but I had some issues with them. For example, it took me a long time to hand-craft them and new rooms, enemies or resources were difficult to add. I completely rewrote most game mechanics regarding dungeon management. In Galactic Crew 2, there won't be a fixed set of dungeons, but all dungeons will be generated when you enter them. This has many advantages: it takes less disk space, because I do not have to provide dungeons and you will never visit the same dungeon twice. Also, I can easily add new rooms, features, enemies or loot at any given point and it will be automatically available for any future dungeon you visit. That makes it much easier and faster for me to add new content! The difficult part is to create meaningful dungeons that don't look strange. After some research, I implemented a so-called Wavefront collapse function algorithm that resulted in wonderful dungeons.
The following image shows a floor plan of a generated dungeon and the image after that shows the same dungeon in-game. The entire dungeon generation process takes less than 300 ms, so you won't even notice a difference in loading time when entering a dungeon.
The new dynamic dungeon system has also enabled me to implement multi-level dungeons. Depending on the mission, quest or event, you will get the chance to explore dungeons with multiple levels and increasing threats.
What's next
I am working together with artists to create new content. For example, one artist currently works on new equipment for your crew. I plan on expanding the range of equipment dramatically! For me, there is a vast amount of small tasks to do next. The next update might take four to six weeks. Don't worry, if you don't see an update - I am still working on it!
Kind regards, Benjamin
Dev Log #2: New inventory and tech tree
Dear players,
Two weeks ago, I announced that I work on Galactic Crew 2. Today, I want to give you a short update on what I did in the past two weeks and what is currently in the making.
Inventory
One of the ongoing processes is to overhaul the entire user interface. The screenshot below shows the new inventory design and the resources of Galactic Crew 2. In the first game, most resources where just for trading or were used in some missions. In Galactic Crew 2, all resources will have a purpose and there are going to be new ways to acquire resources. One of the new resources is construction material. I wonder what this resources will be used for... ːwinter2019happybulbː
Tech tree
One of the game mechanics that resulted in very positive feedback was the achievement system to unlock new content. Of course, Galactic Crew 2 will feature it again. However, I redesigned the entire user interface and the bonus cards. Some bonus cards from Galactic Crew make it into the new game, some cards are new and some cards can be upgraded with different techs. For example, if you add the new "Trader" card, the bonuses you get depend on the techs you achieved. Below is a screenshot of the current state of the tech tree. It is going to be expanded until the game's release.
What's next
I am currently rewriting a lot of code for dungeons. The way dungeons and rooms were managed in Galactic Crew made it complicated to add new rooms, features and create a lot of dungeons. Thanks to the changes I am currently making, dungeons will be less repetitive, more dynamic and offer more features than in the first game. I will give you more information with the next update.
What else?
I bought many game assets that will find their way into Galactic Crew 2 including new enemies. I also hired two artists to work on the new game's logo and new equipment for your crew!
Kind regards, Benjamin
Dev Log #1: I am working on Galactic Crew II
Dear players,
Recap
Making video games was always a childhood dream of mine. I founded my own company in 2017 and worked for more than two years full-time on Galactic Crew. It was quite a journey. I experience a lot of things and although I could not create a sustainable business and went back to become an employer for another company last year, I enjoyed the ride.
The start of Galactic Crew was quite rough. I had to rush it, because I needed financial fundings to keep my business running and as a consequence the game lacked essential features in the beginning. First, I had weekly updates pushing new content every Saturday and I could see increasing player satisfaction in form of nice e-mails and also numbers: The chargebacks/refunds on Steam dropped dramatically in the first months. After the game was released last year, I was proud on one hand, because I could be a full-time game developer for two years and created a game that I personally love and that got me very nice feedback from players, but I knew that I could have done more with more time and money.
Galactic Crew II
Last summer, around four months after the game's release, I continued to work on my game engine. Despite the current trend to use Unity, I was always interested in game engine development and still use my own game engine for my projects. First, I had no specific game in mind. I just wanted to improve everything.
As time passed, I decided to work on Galactic Crew II. The idea is to use my existing game, but make everything better. Making things better does not necessarily mean to change everything. In some cases, it means increasing performance and in some cases it means to add or improve visual effects. In other cases, I have to redo the entire design of a feature. Although I put a lot of time into the game in past months, there is not much I can show you right now, because I mostly focused on the underlying game engine and the game's architecture. However, I can give you some numbers. Launching the game takes now 70% less time, starting a game from the main menu is down by at least 50% loading time, memory usage dropped, calculcations like pathfinding are faster and the entire complexity of the game shrank down massively. Because of the weekly updates in the beginning, I did not always had time to perfectly engineer a feature. Now, I have the experience of implementing all features and can refactor a lot of things. Stuff like network communications for multiplayer gaming is much more stable, trading items is completely bug-free, etc. I also completely changed the way terrain is handled enabling nice water scenes, etc.
One of the things I am currently working on is a complete overhaul of the user interface. Please check out the screenshots below to get an impression of how the game might look like. Please note, that any image I'll share with you shows a snapshot of the current state of development!
Main menu
Creating a new game
Game
Roadmap
As I wrote earlier, I am working full-time for another company, but I spend a certain amount of my spare time working on Galactic Crew II. I will give you updates here whenever I have reached another milestone to share my progress with you. The CoVid-19 virus currently haunts the world and I am in lockdown. I do not enjoy the time, but I take the opportunity to invest time and energy into the game. Therefore, I am quite pleased with my progress. However, it is impossible to say when the game will be finished.
I do not want to make just a remastered version of Galactic Crew, but also add a lot of new stuff. It will be announced once I am working on it. I am currently busy remastering the original game. I will soon hire artists to join me working on the game.
Be excited!
If you suggestions for new features, please comment down below. Since there is no specific release date and nothing is final yet, I am very open to your input. Like the first game, Galactic Crew II will start on Steam as Early Access title. This phase gave me a lot of great input and I do not want to miss this opportunity for the new game.
I could not have worked two years full-time as game developers without you, who bought the first game. I want to show my gratitude to you by providing everyone who owns Galactic Crew a free copy of Galactic Crew II once it is available - if I find a way to do this! Once I reach a points where I can share a first impression of the game with you, I will do research if there is a way to gift a game key to everyone who owns a certain game. I do not know, if it's possible directly in Steam, but be asure I will try to find a way to give you Galactic Crew II for free, if you own Galactic Crew!
Update 44 - Level Editor Bug Fix
An issue was fixed that could cause game crashes when starting the level editor.
Update 43 - New settings and fixes
I've added a new setting to invert mouse buttons to support left-handed players. You can find the option at the bottom of the in-game's settings window.
In addition, two bugs have been fixed that could lead to crashs in rare cases.
Update 42 - New winning condition
Dear players,
As requested by a player, a way to win a space battle has been added. You can now win a space battle by killing every crew member on the enemy spaceship. It does not matter how many hull strength is left, if every enemy is defeated!
Update 41 - Tutorial Fixes
Several bugs regarding the Tutorial and gameplay have been reported and fixed:
In the Tutorial, the enemy spaceship could flee resulting in an aborting Tutorial.
When zooming in, the Tutorial text boxes pointing to objects could display wrong information.
Upgrading your spaceship at a shipyard could result in a game crash.
Update 40 - RELEASE
Dear players,
It's been a long ride and I enjoyed it. Now, I switch a button and the game is released.
Story
I started developing a 3D game engine back in 2015 as a side project to my day job without any plans on making an actual game or even founding a company. As time passed, the game engine got bigger, better, more reliable and I started to build a small game around it. More time passed and it was already mid 2016 when I decided to quit my job to realize my childhood dream to found my own video game company. Another year and a lot of work later, I had the very first version of Galactic Crew released as Early Access product on Steam.
I was so proud of my work and contacted influencers on YouTube from around the world and told them about my game. Some of them requested a key and put their Let's Play videos online. The reviews were bad. I mean... really bad. It was devastating for me, because I put so much work and money in this project. However, I decided not to give up and continue my full-time game developing work fixing all discovered bugs, adding requested features and listen closely to the community.
Although the Steam reviews are still mixed, I am very happy with the final result. As you can see in the discussion section of the Community Hub, I replied always as soon as possible to any kind of quesion and I realized what players missed in the game. I originally planned a six to nine months Early Access, but it turned out that the game needed much more work to be actually like the game I wanted it to be. As time passed, I got many nice e-mails from you and I really appreciate that you saw and enjoyed the progress of the game.
Galactic Crew's sales started to drop last summer. Since then, the game did not bring enough profit to make a living out of it. I earned enough money in the first months, so I could afford full-time game development until the end of last year. I decided to use my time and money to finish Galactic Crew. From a financial point of view, it would have been better to abandon the game and start a new smaller project, but I did not want to be one of those devs who are just after the fast cash.
I moved to a new city in January this year and started working for a new company as employee, because I could not make a living with Galactic Crew anymore. I implemented all features I promised, I fixed all bugs that were reported and I can happily say: I did it. I realized my childhood dream. I want to thank anyone who bought the game during the Early Access stage and I want to welcome anyone who bought the after its release.
It's not the end!
As I wrote before, I am working full-time for a new employee and I can't make full-time game development any more. However, I will still make updates in the future. There won't be updates on a regular basis any more, but I still plan on improving the game!
I spent so much time testing the game, but there will still be bugs I missed. If you find a bug, please write me a short e-mail to support@galactic-crew.net
You can also post here in the Community Hub, but I am not using my PC on a daily basis any more, so I'd see e-mails faster on my smartphone than messages on Steam.
Kindest regards, Benjamin :lunar2019piginablanket:
Update 39 - New planets, dungeons, skills and missions
Dear players,
The latest update of Galactic Crew features over 60 new dungeons, four new planets, a new skill and new events and missions.
Capturing ships
A feature that has been requested quite often is the ability to capture enemy ships. This feature finally made it into the game! Your engineers got a new ability to capture an enemy ship after you disabled it! You do not need to create a new game to use this feature, all engineers automatically have this ability as soon as you patch the latest version of the game!
You can start the game with a rather small spaceship and use the Unpredictable Space card that was introduced with the last update in combination with the new engineer ability to capture larger ships. You can also capture ships with unique paintings that are normally not available like the Pirate Zeus!
New dungeons
Sixty new dungeons of various themes have been added to the game with new rooms to explore and new enemies to fight. One of these new enemies is the hellhound that can be found near kennels.
Another new types of enemies are mutants and mutant insects which are the result of some strange bio experiments. Be careful when you explore their habitats!
You can access the new dungeons by either requesting combat missions at a space station or pleasure hub or with one of the new space events.
New planets
In addition to new dungeons, a range of new planets were also added to the game. They feature some of the new enemies I mentioned about but they also feature new enemies that are ... simply too large to fit into a dungeon like Bone Skeletons!
Release is coming
If you bought Early Access games in the past, you might have experienced game that were never finished. They were abandoned by their devs because of lacking profits or because they simply lost interest in their games. I experienced this by myself over a dozen times and promised you and myself to complete the game. The next update (approx. coming in March) will be the Release update. I will spend the next week testing and optimizing the game engine and gameplay before Galactic Crew will finally be released! I will continue support for all players and bug that are found after the release will be fixed, but there won't be regular content updates any more. However, I don't say that there won't be any updates anymore!
Update 38 - Level editor
The latest update of Galactic Crew brings you a level editor to create your own levels and several improvements and fixes to polish the rest of the game. Some of these features were requested by the community. If you have anything you want to see in Galactic Crew, feel free to send me an e-mail at support@galactic-crew.net
Level editor
A detailed description how to work with the level editor can be found here. In general, you can choose between a desert and grass type planet and add any model to your scene that is available in the game. There are also a bunch of models available in the level editor that are not part of any planetary scene or dungeon in the game.
On the left side you will find a list of all objects sorted into the categories buildings, props, nature, NPCs and beasts. Simply click on an item and it is added to the center of your current screen. Select a model with a mouse click and move it around, scale or rotate it around any axis using the keyboard and mouse wheel.
Once you are done, you can write your own quest (like you already can) and use your own level as planetary mission. You can share your files with friends or internet strangers to let them play your levels. There wasn't enough time to include support for Steam Workshop, but it will come with the next update! Feel free to send me your levels at support@galactic-crew.net, if you want. If I like them, I will add them with the next updates as official game content!
New features
The bonus card "Contractor" has been removed. Instead, its bonus was added to "Brilliant Salesman" to boosten the value of this card. The newly opened space has been filled with a new bonus card that is available from the beginning of the game called "Unpredictable Space". Normally, all fights in space are balanced. That means that your opponent always has a strength similar to yours (with Nemesis ships as an exception of course). If you use this new card, there is a certain chance to get any kind of enemy when starting a space battle. You might face a large space pirate with your start vessel or you face a small Artemis ship when flying a hulking Ebisu. It adds more variety to the gameplay, but it makes the game also more challenging in the early game!
If there are any problems during the launch of the game, a message box will pop-up showing the problem and providing a link to a solution. If you don't have any troubles playing the game, you won't ever see it. ːsteamhappyː
Moving the camera by moving the mouse cursor to the screen edge is now smoother than before. There are also new settings to enable or disable this camera movement for space, planets or dungeons. If you find this kind of camera control disturbing, you can simply deactive it at any time.
I also put some time in improving the squad behaviour. For example, when you teleport your crew into a dungeon, they won't stand in each other any more.
A similar issue has been resolved for space combat. Enemy combatants won't be stuck in walls anymore.
You can use Italian language using a start flag.
Two new planets were added.
Gameplay improvements
When looting weapon crates in dungeons, you will get credits, if the crate did not contain any weapon or armor. This way, looting will always be rewarded.
The game no longer freezes, when you send your squad to attack enemies in large dungeons that are far away.
The background of the credit and threat display has been improved so that you can see the values better in dungeons and on planets with a bright background.
When switchting a weapon turret or drone in a SIngleplayer game, the overview won't close anymore. It still happens in Multiplayer games due to synchronization processes.
The weapon turrets sold by shipyards are now sorted according to the turret's size.
Game engine improvements
As you might know, I created my own custom game engine for Galactic Crew. I used the past weeks to improve it and as a result I was able to fix a memory leak that might cause troubles when playing very long sessions. In addition, I was able to reduce the initial loading time (when you start the game from Steam) by around 60%!
The accuracy of object highlighting was been improved.
Bug Fixes
Removed spelling error in German translation.
When you fought two Nemesis ships in the same system before leaving it, the UI elements of the first ship were still visible after travelling to a new system.
It was not possible to damage the Shield Generator II and Drone Booster II. They also were not listed in the status icon bar.
After teleporting your crew on a planet and from the planet into the dungeon, enemies from the planet might be visible in space after returning to your ship.
In two dungeons, quest NPCs were placed inside objects.
The crew of enemy ships won't be placed in walls anymore.
Resolved memory leak when loading texture packs.
The game could crash when you left the game during an encounter with a large Zombie vessel.
Fixed display errors on a few UI controls.
If you used less than four mod quests and deactivated standard quests, the game could hang up.
Corrected the tool-tip of the resource panel, if your ship does not use any energy crystals.
During the examination of two objects that were close together, both objects could be highlighted.
Crew members no longer get experience, when they are dead.
You could the Navigation skill, even if quest was shown.
Crew members could man shield generators and regenerate shields even when all generators were disabled.
When using the option "Say nothing" during a conversation with the weapon smuggler in the Story Line, a wrong tool-tip was shown.
The Galactic Map did not work after loading a quick saved game.
Scrolling the game settings with the mouse cursor did not wok.
You could "upgrade" your ship to the same ship class at a shipyard.
In the tutorial, too many buttons in the tool bar might have been unlocked.
Coming up next
The next update is planned for late January improving and polishing the game. Support for Steam Workship will be added. There will be new dungeons with new rooms and new enemies. And new content for the level editor will be added. If you have feature requests, send me an e-mail at support@galactic-crew.net
