Hi, and welcome to the devlog of may 2021. Since the last devlog a lot of progress has been made in various areas of the game, including beginning the preparations for a DEMO. Yes, you read it right! I will release a demo of the game, showcasing many of the elements in the game. If everything shapes up, it should be ready for the Steam Fall festival.
So what has been done since the last devlog? Well a lot I think :) - Lets dive right in to it!
Main screen
The main screen has been revamped with new fonts, a new headline, new changing backgrounds and a rotating procedurally generated planet. You also get random tips for optimizing your playing experience.
Options screen
Now you can change settings for the game and remap the keybindings to your play style. A few more settings and keys will be added later on, but for now, you're good to go.
New game screen
In the new screen you are able to create your own personalized character for the game. It has a lot of options and you can create more than 2 million unique appearences. It is also where you select your initial ship to help in your adventure.
New mission types
Goods missions
A lot of different goods hauling missions have been added to the game. Each station offers different kinds of missions for transporting goods to other stations, both on same planet, in the same system or between systems. Prices will vary according to travel time, deadlines and potential risks.
Passenger missions
The universe is a busy place and people needs transporting from place to place. You can take up the role as passenger carrier and transport people around. The rewards can be big, but so can the risks. And you need a passenger cabin in your ships hull.
Fines and bounty rewards
Fines and bounty rewards has also been implemented. A bounty is a price on your head, which will be added when you kill other ships without prior provocations. Note though that this only happens if there are any witness to your crime. If you have the Ship Scanner attached, you can see if a targeted ship is wanted and have a bounty on its head. To receive the money from killing a wanted ship, you need to go to the Security section of a station and redeem a bounty voucher. Fines are given to you, if you fail to complete missions, which have a fine attached to it. Fines are paid off at the Security section and failing to pay fines will result in your reputation being lowered.
Reputation
Your actions in the game will have an impact on your universal reputation which again will influence which types of missions are available and which function of a station you are able to use. So keep a good reputation! This includes completing missions, paying off your fines and generally just be a decent guy.
Legal status
I have also added a legal status to every ship. Your legal status represents how the police and other ships see you. A legal status of outlaw will make the police attack you on sight. The only way to reset your legal status by paying off the police at the Security section on stations. Your legal status is changed when you attack unprovoked AND being witnessed by other ships.
Demo coming
As I mentioned in the beginning, I'm working on making a demo ready for you to play. It will be ready for the Steam Fall Festival (date unknown right now). For this demo, I need to add sound and music which are nonexisting as of now. I hope to have more information regarding this at a later stage.
Localization
I've added my game to Localizor, an online crowd translation tool to have it translated. This should make it possible for me to release the game with these languages:
English
French
Spanish
German
Russian
Danish
You can contribute to the translations and will be able to receive a free Steam key for the game when it releases. You will also be mentioned in the Credits for the game. Just follow this link Localization Stardust Origins and signup on the page. The game could really use your help in this!
That's all folks! At least for this devlog. I'm still busy working on the game and still enjoying it a lot! I hope you will too, when you can get your hands on it.
If you liked this devlog, please give it a thumbs up! If you have questions or ideas for other ways to present the devlog, dont hesitate to give me shout on the forum. Press the Discuss button below, and we'll take it from there.
since march I have been all over the game, doing changes and additions in all directions - But all is needed in order to give the best experience for the game. Here are the highlights of the previous month:
Mining permits
You can't just fly around and build mining stations anywhere. You need permits to do it. At every station, you can buy a permit, which can be limited to only one planet, and with a deadline or it can be a wildcard, you can use everywhere. A mining permit grants you the rights to build one station. And you can buy all the permits you like. Mining asteroids won't require permits.
Mining station maintenance
Once you have your mining station set up, you can customize the look of it, and how it operates. It is also here you can upgrade your station to be even bigger and more profitable.
Defensive mines
The defensive mines are a great way to protect what is dear to you. You can carry up to 8 mines at a time and deploy them using one of your secondary actions functions. The mines are magnetic and will get pulled towards all ships close by (incl. your own!). They explode when close to a target and shoots our deadly darts.
Cluster bombs
The same goes for cluster bombs, with the biggest difference being that the cluster bomblets have no magnetic abilities, but they WILL explode when a ship is close to them.
The story and missions
Even though Stardust Origins is a game where you choose your own adventure, there's an unfolding story going throughout the game. You need to complete this story in order to win the game. But its up to you how and when you do it. A lot of story missions have already been implemented (I'm not going to reveil how many), but lately I've added story mission 5 and 6 and can tease a little bit about one of them.
I believe that is all for this devlog. As you can see, work is still ongoing, with updates almost every day. You can follow me on Twitter @Petskull where I post all updates.
You can also join my newsletter to get news on the development and to get tips and tricks for the game not mentioned anywhere else.
I'm not sure if I have told you this before, but this game is the fulfillment of a long lasting dream I've had for many years. To create a new Elite Frontier experience, but in 2D and topdown. This means, a game where you can explore planets, mine asteroids, trade goods, kill pirates, help the police, buy bigger and better ships, get good reputation and solve mission stories and do it all at your own pace.
The mining stations
My main focus since last devlog has been to implement the mining stations. Mining stations are a vital part in the game, if you want ot increase your wealth the easy way. Mining stations come in 4 sizes and can be upgraded from smaller to bigger stations.
In order for you to be able to deploy a mining station, you need to have room for it in your hull. The mining station comes as a tight packed compartment, which will assemble itself on deployment. Once deployed your hull is empty for other uses.
Using the Ore locator you can find the best spots on a planet to deploy your station. Look for areas with a lot of ore in the ground and place your station. This will maximize your revenue.
The crew
Next step is to hire an efficient crew to help mining for the ores. Mining can't begin before the crew is hired. Be sure to find the crew with high efficiency and low salary. New crew members will be available every day. If you fire a crew member you will have to pay him the salary owed PLUS 3 months of pay.
Once a month the crew needs their salary. This amount will be deducted from your cash. And be sure to have enough cash, otherwise the crew will stop working.
Selling the ore
The mined ore needs to be transported to a planet station to be sold on the stations market. You have two ways of doing this. You can transfer the ore to your own ship and fly to a station to sell it.
Let the droids work for you
Or you can buy a mining freighter, which can do the job for you. This droid ship will fill its hull with ore from the mining station and fly to the nearest station to sell it for you.
When an ore field has dried out, you will get a notice and you can then dissasemble the station and move it to a new location. Just remember to have room enough in your hull for the packed mining station.
Wrapping it up
That's it for this devlog. Work is going as planned and the amount of tasks I need done, is slowly getting smaller. At the same time I still come up with new ideas for things I really want to add to the game, to make it even better. Remember to Wislist the game if this kind of game is to your liking. It means a lot to me to get wishlists, as it encourages me to deliver the best game possible and to give you a great gaming experience.
Until the next devlog - Hope to see you again :) - Follow my almost daily updates on twitter https://twitter.com/PetSkull
February 2021 devlog - Almost ready for mining stations
Already well into february and work is still going on with Stardust Tycoon. I'm working on it as often as I'm able to, and still enjoy it very much. With this devlog I will highlight the major updates to the game.
What has been made since the last devlog:
Added different engine types
Added 2 different missile types
Added the ship buying section of a station. New ships will be available every day
Added the upgrade section of a station. Here you can buy and sell upgrades to your ship. The availability of upgrades are dependant on the planets tech. level
Added a mining station, which can mine for ressources on a planet. You will be able to either land on it and move ore to your ship or you can buy a robot freighter ship, which can do this for you.
Redid some of the graphics for the game
Added more main story quests, which are part of the developing story of the game
A lot of bugs has been fixed and the game runs great on my development machines. Average fps is at 1000-1500 without capping.
Next up is finishing everything regarding planetary mining - I need to add an ore finder, so you know where to place your mining stations, to get the highest return. I also am working on adding more quests to the system, both story and sidequests.
I've also begun the process of finding and adding sound effects to the game - But this has lowest priority right now.
Until the next devlog - See you :) - Oh, and do follow my regular updates on twitter https://twitter.com/PetSkull
January 2021 devlog - Big news!
Hi there fellow gamers,
Happy New Year to you all - Hope you all had a nice day and got into 2021 in the best manner possible :-)
It is time for the first devlog of 2021. The biggest news first! I've partnered with Thomas Cowling a story and mission writer, who will contribute with main story missions and side quests to the game. He also is a great idea-man and has already come up with new great ideas for the game. This is so good, and I'm very pleased to have him onboard.
Also I've persuaded my talented son Sebastian https://www.artstation.com/sebastianpagh to do the Steam page art for the game. I'm really excited by this - He's already working on the images and they look really good!
This is the list of things I've been working on since the last time:
A brand new prolog has been created - Giving you an insight to what will come
The dialogue system has been implemented
Work has been done to implement story missions
The first sidequests have been added
Numerous bug fixes and optimizations
Next up on my agenda is the ship shop and upgrade shop located on all stations. The assortment will differ from station to station, according to availability and technological level. But you should be able to upgrade all ships with some helpful stuff.
If you're interested in hearing more or have any questions, don't hesitate to use the discussion forum. And do give me a thumbs up, if you read this and enjoyed it. Thanks! :)
Until next time...
December 2020 devlog - Still working
Hi there,
time for another devlog! I'm still chucking along on the code and getting longer every day. There are a lot of systems in Stardust Tycoon which needs to fit together, so a lot of work has been made to the core engine.
This is the list of major things I've been working on:
NPC's now interact with each other. Pirates will hunt freigthers and freighters can call for help and police can respond to distress calls.
Pirates will have their bounties increased each time they get reported
Wanted fellons are listed on all stations along with their bounty
Saving and loading the game state is implemented. This means you can save the game anywhere
First part of the storyline has been added
Numerous bug fixes and optimizations
Things are shaping up just like I want them to. I have so many ideas for the game and try to limit myself in order to not get too excited about little extra features and still work on the core game. But all ideas are noted and some of them will be implemented in the first version. There's still a long way to go, but my goal of releasing in 2021 is still my marker and what I aim for.
Happy holidays to all of you and I hope you will get into a corona free 2021.
Still working on the new version
Work is still going as planned and with more work hours than initially anticipated. This I really like!
So far I've been working the following areas:
Hyperjumping from planet to planet
New area, the asteroid fields - Here you will be able to mine minerals
Market prices for all stations has been implemented. Prices will change according to supply and demand and the planets needs for certain comodities
All selectable objects on a planet can be selected and communicated with (still ongoing)
Planet map with all selectable objects shown
Tutorials have been added to some functions and more will come
New general dialog layout
Next big step is to implement the different NPC's. I will be starting out with the Freighter-type, as this one hauls cargo from planet to planet and thereby influences the prices on the stations.
I will keep you posted! And please dont hesitate to comment to these post either directly here or in the community.
Working as planned on the framework move
Right now I'm moving parts of the core engine to the new framework and so far everything looks good.
It is not a secret, that it will be a big task to move everything and I might have to recode or change some of the things from the old version. The UI will be different and better looking. The player movement will also change to have more natural feeling to it.
So the big question is, when will you be able to play it? Honestly I can't say right now, as game development is only my part time job. But I pour all the hours into it that I can spare, so progress is made almost everyday.
Moving to early access soon
Long time no hear from me. I'm not proud of it, but that's the fact
But today, I have some long awaited great news for you! :) - I will change Stardust Tycoon into an early access game soon, and will set a low price on it, for as long as it is in EA.
The reason behind this, is that I want you, the community to get a feel for the game and help me with valuable feedback regarding the gameplay and mechanics. Being a sole developer, it is hard to get around each corner in this game, which have grown bigger and bigger - Way bigger than I first had in mind.
I hope you will help me bringing this game into the greatest state, where all will enjoy the spirit of the old spacetrading sims :)
I will make a new announcement, once I get a runnable version ready of the game.
Assignments added to messageboard
I've completed adding assignments to the messageboard. All types are completable and have a wide variety.
