- [p]Thousands of stars with multiple inhabited and uninhabited planets and asteroid belts. [/p]
- [p]Inhabited planets can have from one to 10+ unique procedurally generated towns, that you can drive to in your speeder.[/p]
- [p]The towns all have permanent residents that you can visit and befriend over time.[/p]
- [p]A galactic directory can be accessed on most worlds to help you find particular residents by town, planet and star system.[/p]
- [p]Deliveries to depots at the space port don't pay as well as deliveries straight to the recipient, but that may involve a long drive across the planet to make the delivery.[/p]
- [p]The system is in place for random points of interest and events to be found on these worlds while you traverse the surface, but it is still a work in progress.[/p]
Orion's End
Devlog June 2025
News re the Demo
As a rookie dev I am learning a lot as I go. My latest mistake was thinking that the game was in a state where a demo was a good idea. At this stage it isn't. There are bugs and missing features, and just isn't fun for the average player.
What I have decided to do is cancel the demo and instead have a closed playtest for those special few who are happy to try out a rough build, encounter bugs, get frustrated and then tell me all about it so I can make it better.
The playtest will have more planets to visit but at the moment will be a little bare bones. This will however be a build that I will continue to update frequently.
I you are this kind of person, were interested and wanted to drop by the discord server, I'm happy to add you to the play test.
Sorry for the inconvenience but at this stage I think this is a better way to go.
Thanks
Dave
Orion's End Demo Now Available
As announced last week, a demo for Orion's End was released today. It gives a taster for what the game will be like, but limited to the one system / planet.
I will be making some further tweaks to it over the next week, but I wanted to stick to the timeline that I had given.
I am keen to hear back any views, opinions, bug reports, etc etc. Feel free to drop them here, or on discord linked on the main page.
Thanks
Dave
Demo Releasing Soon
I know it's taken longer than I originally thought. I'm an optimist - or delusional, take your pick. BUT, the demo is almost ready to release into the wild. I know Next Fest is coming up, but Orion's End will not be participating in it, instead, the demo will be releasing next week - two weeks ahead of the Next Fest.
The reason for the delay is that I wanted the demo to have enough content to be fun, but not too much content that it's more than just a demo. With a sandbox game that is kind of tricky, because in the full game you'll be exploring multiple systems, and trading goods between them. The demo will be limited to one system to fly around, and one planet to planet on. However, it will give a good idea of what to expect from the full game, so you'll know if it is down your alley or not.
Some of the changes that have occurred since the last update are detailed below.
New Star System Structure
Originally the systems were composed of one star and one planet. The asteroids were contained to clusters around the system. That isn't what I was really wanting though. The asteroids form in one or more rings around the star, just like real asteroid belts. Being in 2d, this may involve successfully navigating your way through the belt to get to some destinations (never tell me the odds).
The other planets you find in the this system in the demo are not landable at this stage. They will be available in the full game, however.
Every NPC is Unique, and Every Ship has a Pilot
As I've stated before, there are two types of NPC. The handcrafted NPCs with unique portraits, stories and quests, and the rest of them, who are procedurally generated using the same character generator that you use to make your own character. You talk to them on the planets, but now you can also hail them from your ship.
A New Level Design System
My previous level design methods had an issue with the player getting stuck on some of the environment, such as trees. I've rethought how I did this, to allow for large areas to explore - and eventually proc gen areas for those who like more open gameplay.
Many Tweaks
From NPC behaviour and physics to graphics and customisable controls, I've tweaked a lot of things to try and make it the best I can while working on this project solo.
I look forward to sharing it with you, and I hope you enjoy the Demo. I am open to all manner of suggestions, wishes or criticisms, because I think that will help make this a really special game.
Thanks for checking in, I will be announcing the demo mid next week, but in the meantime, safe travels.
Dave
Some really exciting news!
This month I've got some really exciting news. Last year I applied for funding from Screen Australia in the form of their Emerging Gamemakers Fund, and I was successful. It's only just been officially announced, so I haven't been able to talk about it until now.
What does that mean? Well, for the past few months I have been able to spend a lot more time working on the development of Orion's End. I have been able to make substantial progress that I wouldn't have been able to achieve without this support. The game systems are starting to connect together in such a way now, that providing a demo in the not-too-distant future is actually achievable. To me, that is really exciting.
To complement this news, I have updated the Steam page to reflect the current state of the game, with new screenshots and a new trailer. In this trailer, for the first time, I haven't been able to give peeks into every part of the game. That means that the amount of content in the game now has really grown.
I'll post more updates on social media and in the Orion's End discord. I've covered a good selection of social media so there should be something in there that you have, if you want to keep up to date.
Thanks for keeping track of the project and I look forward to telling you more soon.
Happy travels.
Dave
Dev Log January 2025
It’s been two months since my last update, but that’s not because I haven’t been making progress, but quite the opposite. I’ve been working fulltime on Orion’s End for the last two months and have been so deep in it that I’ve found it hard to stop working on the game long enough to write a devlog or even post much on social media. But, I think it’s about time I gave some kind of update. So, this is what I’ve been working on over the last two months.
Ship Design
Orion’s End was originally going to have a static spaceship as your home, with a customisable living quarters and upgradable engines, weapons, shields etc. However, I do love the idea of having even more freedom than that. So, I commenced work on a whole ship design feature. Everyone starts with a set ship, but then you have the ability to customise the structure of the ship any way you like.
Open World Areas on Planets
I like having a handcrafted settlement where you land on a planet, with familiar faces and locations and the services you need to do whatever role you choose to take in the universe. However, I also want the ability to go adventuring in a large open world to mine for resources, hunt outlaws, harvest plants, or to fulfill quests. So, I’ve been working on a system that allows you to explore the planet beyond the landing zone. This will use a combination of handcrafted and procedurally generated content. I want to find the right balance, because I know the limitations that full procedurally generated content has, but as I am working mostly solo and I want to complete the game at some stage, I need to streamline the process somehow. A certain amount of procedurally generated content is my solution.
Every NPC Unique and Interactable
In December I spent quite a bit of time working on the character system. Originally in the code, the player’s character was a separate object to the NPCs. As I started to think more about recruiting crew for your ship, I realised how necessary it was for the NPCs and player character to be exactly the same object with exactly the same features. This will even allow the player to take direct control of a crew member and go exploring as that character, or swap between characters to complete more strategic missions.
I also improved the art and animation for the characters, have created multiple body builds/genders, and created a system that allows for changes of clothing to be reflected on characters in game.
Originally, only a handful of NPC were special. All of the others were texture for the world, creating crowds that would move around randomly and react to your actions in a minimal fashion (run away from you if you become violent). But that was never the ideal plan, and I’ve now started work on a deeper NPC system. Now, because they are all essentially the same as the player character, they all have their own name, portrait, clothing, likes, dislikes etc. Next, they will have their own homes and daily routines. Eventually, the player will be able to befriend any NPC in much the same way that a special NPC can. I hope to even give them procedurally generated quests. However, special NPCs will always have their unique and handcrafted portraits, quests, stories.
Creatures
Improving combat is something I will be working on soon, and is going to be a huge milestone in gameplay. Before that can happen, I need more things to actually fight. In the past few days, I’ve started working on creatures to populate the wilds of the planets. These are simple herbivores at the moment, and there’s only a few types while I work on the code. Eventually, there will be a procedural system that will generate a larger variety of creatures and behaviour, but I’ll update that as time goes on. Again, finding the right balance of proc gen and handcrafting is soooo important.
Accessibility
Providing accessibility options is very important to me, and it’s something that may require a lot of tweaking to get right, but I’m ready and willing to make whatever changes are needed to make the game as accessible as possible while retaining the core experience planned for the game.
I’ve rewritten the controls code ready to allow for key/button player customisation. The customisation screen itself will come a little later, but it’s important that the nuts and bolt are in place now.
I’ve also started implementing the mouse control for the game. This is a major change to how the game can be played, but also opens up new opportunities. The characters can be controlled by keyboard or controller in a standard action style, or they can be controlled in a point and click manner with a mouse. However, this could make combat for mouse control a bit of a challenge – especially when considering accessibility factors. So, I’m also implementing an action/pause system. The plan is that gameplay can be paused to allow the player to target enemies or given commands using the mouse (or other control methods) and when unpaused, the character will perform the attacks, actions or movements. This is a work in progress, but I envision some really cool scenarios where this could be useful, such as planning a heist and swapping between different crew members as they do their part of the action.
I’ve also created a new font, that I believe is a lot easier to read than the original one.
What’s Next?
The next thing I’ll be working on is combat – on planet and in space. This will involve creating new spaceship designs, creature designs, and new NPC/creature intelligence code. I’m sure that I’ll find prerequisites I need to complete first or discover branching features that will tempt me away from this as I work on them – nothing is ever straight forward.
Best wishes to everyone, and be safe out there in the space lanes.
Dave
Dev Log November 2024
If you don't like the profits you make from trading - then why not cut out the middleman and do some mining to fill up your cargo hold.
I've also spent some time working on beautifying some of the planets.
Dev Log October 2024
Years ago I used to be exclusively a Playstation gamer, but when Morrowind was released I bought an Xbox just to play that game. The freedom Morrowind offered was irresistible to me. The first thing I did when I hopped off that ship was to find a door to lockpick. It wasn’t the allure of criminal activity that drove this, but rather the freedom to go places that you wouldn’t usually be able to go.
So obviously when making my own game I would want to offer that kind of freedom too.
This month I have been working on a few different aspects of the game, but the one that excites me the most is the ability to hack doors, giving access to any building in the game. The difficulty of the mini-game will depend on the type of door. A small common residence would be quite simple, but a military compound would be extremely difficult to complete without triggering the alarm.
Later, I’ll be adding a similar system to allow you to “borrow” other peoples speeders when on planets.
I’ve also been working on the backend of a terrain system that will allow faster creation of levels, especially more confined areas such as underground mines and caves.
Over the next month I will be focusing on creating more pixel art and completing the mine and large open over-world area on the starter planet and implementing the mining mechanic. The mining mechanic will allow you to collect raw resources that can be added directly to your ships cargo inventory. You could sell the commodities locally, but the chances are you’d get a much better price transporting them to a world where there is a higher demand for it.
Until next month, travel safely.
Dave
New Gameplay Trailer - September 2024
I'm really excited to finally be able to show a new trailer for Orion's End. It features some familiar and unfamiliar aspects of the game, and is a more accurate representation of where the game is currently at.
For a while I struggled with some creative decisions concerning the development of Orion's End, which led to a period of non-progress, and eventually to me taking an extended break from its development.
However, I have been back working on the game for some time now, and feel confident in recommencing regular updates here on Steam and social media.
Today I have revealed a new trailer that shows off the current state of the game, which is sticking to the original style and concept for the most part, but has seen some changes (I think improvements) in space travel and planetary exploration.
I have recently started a new job which is very draining on me mentally, so progress will be slow for a little while until I learn the ropes fully, but I shall keep plugging away on Orion's End and endeavour to post more regular updates.
Happy space travels.
Dave
Some Bitter-Sweet News
It's time that I finally face the fact that progress on Orion's End has ground to a halt - for the time being at least.
I believe that I was quite naive and overly ambitious with the project considering my level of experience with a project of that size. I also found myself conflicted between what I wanted to achieve and what was practical within the time frame I was aiming for.
I haven't given up all ambition with this project though, but it may be a while before I return to it.
Thank you to everyone who has made positive, encouraging, or helpful comments here and on social media. I found your energy to be extremely motivating for a long while. I also offer my sincere apologies to everyone who was interested in the project.
In the meantime, I am still involved in game dev. I have been working on a new project for a while now and I am happy with its progress. I will share a few images of the game here.
Thanks again to everyone, and I look forward to telling you more about the new game.
