Hello everyone.
I am Irbis. From 3 months i am developing a space simulation game known as Hidden Space. If you would google a bit you will propably hit by Dev blog or youtube video from the game or a forum topics on SpaceSimCentral.
I am 26 years old guy from central europe (poland exactly), with wife and kids. I am a gamer from like more or less 16 years. oh, be warned - my english is terrible - i know that. For my defence i need to say i am a self-learner. So literaly, all the english you see me writing and posting is a product of passive learning by watching satelite TV back in 80's, english subbed anime and manga and of course - the internet. i never had any proper english studies or teachings and this is why my english, when still being rather understandble, is full of all kind of mistakes from simple grammar to spelling and my randomly "eating" letters (heh).
So anyway. After soo many years of playing games it became vry hard to find a good deep one nowadays. Most of them now are very short, linear, with horible story what so ever, or none at all. They are full of bugs, published uncarved in hurry in lust for money and audience. 3 months ago, i though to myself, that someone should finaly make a diffrence.
I am a huge fan of indi games, which when being low budged and undeveloped, still shows much higher quality and gameplay then many comersial ones.
Being a gamer, i am also a huge RPG maniac. RPG in its roots. Which gives the player open ended world, non-linearity, diffrent game paths and most of all - freedom.
Mass Effect, for e.g. is more like a movie rather then a game. Its short, linear to the blood, "cinematic". But the idea, the potensial it had and which was wasted was incredible.
Star Trek like. One of my oldest and most childish dream.
To have a spaceship. Which i can customize as i please, upgrade and enhance. To have my avatar which gains skils and expirience . To have Universe, with planets, solar systems, space anomalies, aliens, trade, space battles, exploriations and discoveries. And rich game world full of secrets, hidden content.
To be a game i cant beat over one night.
|I dont care about graphics. My first steps in gaming world was made in games which were text-based, have 8bit graphics and pixels were size of a baby elephant.
I didnt care then and i dont care know. Gameplay is what it counts.
I played and tried many games. But none of them fulfiled all my wishes, only few of them at the time, but not all - combined. I was looking for a gooooood cup of coffee. instead ive been served sugar, spoon, coffee seeds, and milk - separatly. what a shame eh?
So then an idea struck me. If i want to have a game that would satisfy my taste - i need to make, by myself.
But it is like with making up interesting stories for friends or your kids - and writing a solid 300 pages big book. Two diffrent things.
But i gained confidence. Being totaly un-talented in area of programing ive needed to obtain some kind of tool, which would do the codding for me.
I can manage sprites, i can manage SFX, GFX. I know a trick or two in PhotoShop, Audacity ect. But any and every programing language, even the most basic and simple one had been always outside of my grasp. And now, with so small time in hand, i cant afford learning programing from the base. I am just too old, to lazy, to busy and to un-talented.
I tried few game engines and finaly landed with RPG Maker VX. The interface, drag-and-drop model and overall easyness made this program almost perfect for my needs. At least, till now.
After 3 months ive discovered how limited, badly writen, glitchy and non-compatible RPVX really is.
Dont get me wrong, its okey for a simple games. For generic adventure or RPG games. But not for something as complex as HiddenSpace will luckly one day become.
After talking with Darkone, the "king and queen" of SpaceSimCentral, ive learned about Scierra and the Constructor. And i gave it a try. This is because HS is still in more "on paper" then on my hard disc stage. This is propably the last moment when i can swicth engines without too much of hussle and troubles.
So i would like to learn few things. But instead of wasting hours on researching the egnines, googling all the internet, i would like to ask you. Who can answear my questions better then you?
So here it comes.
HiddenSpace is about space exploriation.
We have our avatar, which gain expirience and skills. Which can have diffrent weapons. Which can upgrade his suit in many ways. And do the same for his spaceship.
The whole spaceship is not just a dead sprite on the screen. anytime you can leave the deck and walk around your spaceship. visit cantine, check cargo hold, go to the workshop and work on your weapons, gear or systems. You can goto your own captain quater, have a sleep, check your control panel, listen to the radio, or change your cloths. You can visit other crew members quaters, have a talk with them or a drink. Ask them to aid you whatever you have problems with. After battle you go outside and patch the spaceship hull and holes mae by enemy lasers and blasters.
When flying in space. You encounter many random events. You discover asteroids fields, derelict spacecraft, anomalies, or a spacewhales hah. you visit diffrent solar systems and their planets with radomly generated or picked surface. You can land on them, walk around. Mine ore, gather materials, herbs. Fight with the lifeforms, catch them, take them as samples or hostages.
Of cours you also have space battles, which i would like to be a mix betwen real time and tactic.
Alien rases with their ships. Fighting, trading, drifting out of full in hope for miracle to happend.
As you see, the game has many diffrent layers.
Walking on board. Walling on planets, flying in space, fighting ect.
Now my questions is, before ill waste countless hours digging in tutorials and learning the engine capabilities, which of what i have enlisted and described above can be made in Constructor? And how hard would that be for such programing retareded guy like me to learn and create?
But let me say that twice:
I am totaly untalented in area of programing.
there are many people out there whuch claims that Dark Basic is a simple game engine. Yes, perhaps it is - for a programer. I am not a one, and i will never be. I am just a guy who have beat Eye of Beholder for 27 time. I am a gamer, not a programer. my limits are narrow.
For anyone interested about HiddenSpace heres couple of links:
my section on SpaceSimCentral forums http://www.spacesimcentral.com/hidden-space-f63/
my ugly dev blog http://hiddenspace.blog.com/
game intro http://www.viddler.com/explore/irbis/videos/1/
unfinished spacespace cockpit http://vimeo.com/15624486
Best Regards