starshipsimulator
Starship Simulator
Explore billions of distant, uncharted worlds on one of the most detailed starship ever made. Wishlist on Steam!
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We're currently updating all of the Engineering systems to work properly in multiplayer, and the UI's will now make use of IEEE electrical symbols. More polishing up for the demo :)
Wishlist: http://steam.starshipsimulator.co.uk
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The new planetary rings are looking awesome! You're also able to see your friends running around the ship from the external camera, and flying is much easier with another person or 12!
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We've been working hard on the officer's lounge rebuild, and we also have a working lift!
Next is to finish off the external ship and for anyone on the alpha builds, don't get lost
#starsim#starshipsimulator#indiegame#spacegame#spacesim#gaming#pc gaming#video games#gamedev#simulation
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2022 In Review
It's been ages since I wrote a proper dev update, and as we enter into 2023 I think it's a good time to take stock of the past year and have a look at what we've managed to achieve over the past 12 months.
In terms of game updates, we pushed 24 release builds to Steam, in addition to 252 development builds. If you average it out that's actually 2 release builds per month, which is a pretty decent release cadence.
We also opened up our first fully public playtest, which was downloaded by over 3,500 people and garnered "
Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam. This perhaps helped with our other big achievement, which was coming third place in IndieDB's "Best Upcoming Indie 2022"!
Content-wise the game has evolved a lot in 12 months. By far the biggest addition was the new galaxy system, which enabled truly game-changing features such as;
• A true 1:1 scale galaxy, based on real astrophysics and featuring real galactic regions.
• A galactic navigation and coordinate system.
• Seamless real-time travel around the whole galaxy with no loading screens or transitions.
• Stars moving in real time outside of the ship.
• Real-time labels for stars and planets in 3D space.
• The addition of our first batch of real-world stars from the Hipparcos catalogue.
We also made the galaxy a more interesting place to explore;
• All new planetary surface shaders with upgraded details and more variety.
• A new system for planetary rings, with textured surfaces and dynamic planet shadows.
• New VFX for stars, including active coronas and mass ejections.
• Added multi-lightyear scale volumetric nebulae.
• Added procedural black holes.
• Added Sagittarius A* at the centre of the galaxy.
The interior of the ship also saw a lot of new additions;
• All new Bridge design
• New Helm console with support for keyboard flight controls.
• New 3D Orrery Map which tracks the ship's location in real time.
• All new A Deck interiors.
• New VIP Lounge
• Interactive Door Panel Controls, including a lock system and various operation modes.
• Interactive Window Controls, supporting polarization and projected nature scenes.
• Interactive Room Lighting Controls, supporting brightness and colour temperature.
• Added a detailed Ship Customisation system.
• Added ability to sit in chairs, some of which can be wheeled around.
• Added a new prop system that supports thousands of props at once.
As well as the player character, which was sorely in need of an update;
• Switched to Character Creator 4 and made all new male and female models.
• Designed new crew uniforms, including dynamic name tags, country flags, and a mission patch.
• Added a new character customisation system.
And then finally a few other miscellaneous items that are worthy of mention;
• Migrated the project to Unreal Engine 5.0.
• Implemented significant lighting optimisations.
• Built a whole new front-end and menu system for the game.
• Built a new website for the game.
• Added a multiplayer chat system.
• Updated all major systems to work properly in multiplayer.
• Added an automated save game system.
• Fixed hundreds of bugs.
This definitely wasn't everything I wanted to achieve for the game in 2022, but looking back I think we made solid progress towards something resembling a viable Early Access release.
As we now look forward to the next 12 months, my new year's resolution is to make an effort to produce more social media content to help generate more buzz around the game. It's been literally a year since I made a YouTube video, so that will be the first on my list. I will also try to incorporate proper live streams into my schedule, and also write more regular dev diaries.
Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/eDSQvpgdUX
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We came third in the 'players choice: Best Upcoming Indies of 2022' over on IndieDB.
Thank you so, so much to everyone who voted for us, it means the world!
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We're working with @composerinprogress for some new trailer music. Here is a small piece of what we have so far.
What do you think? :)
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I needed to take a break from geometry struggles for a bit, so I decided to have a go at building the ship customisation panel. It's actually going fairly smoothly so far, and I'm happy to say you can now customise quite a few individual things.
I've been determined from the outset to give players the freedom to customise their ship as much as possible and to really make it an extension of their personality. I'd like people to feel a real attachment to their vessel, and I think deep customisation options really help in that regard. This is all built-in from day one, of course, you won't find micro-transaction skin packs around here!
The biggest challenge with this is making sure all areas on the ship support customisation to the point of still making visual sense when you start swapping colours around. A strict design language helps in that regard, and I'll see what I can do to expand this system more over time
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Day 66
It's been a really productive day today, with both a new build released on Steam and a new dev video uploaded to YouTube!
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Weekly Dev Diary - Issue 12
I finally had the chance to start work on the fusion reactor this week, which is something I really want to get right because it's very much the beating heart of the ship. I'm basing the design on real-world FRC reactors, so I've spent a fair bit of time this week studying how fusion reactors operate in detail. Rather than simply being an attractive centrepiece, I'm keen for our reactor to be detailed and accurate to the science/engineering involved. [Image 1]
Deuterium and Helium 3 gas will be heated into plasma at each end of the reactor, before being fired through accelerator coils and a theta pinch. The two high-velocity plasma volumes will then collide in the reaction chamber and be heated further to millions of degrees, while neutral beam injectors maintain plasma stability and provide additional fuel. [Image 2]
Ions from the fusion reaction are directly harvested and turned into electrical energy for the ship, resulting in a clean and reliable source of power. It's also very safe, with Deuterium and Helium 3 fusion being aneutronic, meaning it doesn't generate any harmful neutron radiation. All of the fuel and coolant involved is also completely inert, so there's no risk of explosions or a meltdown, a critical point for something like a starship! [Image 3]
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Weekly Dev Diary - Issue 10
Starships in science fiction typically have a small number of "hero locations" where the bulk of the action takes place, driven of course by budget restrictions and limited building space in any given soundstage. With Starsim, we've got the freedom to build entire starships, and the action can take place literally anywhere required by the narrative, but just like classic sci-fi there are still going to be a handful of hero locations that demand a particular focus.
One such location is Main Engineering, and sitting at the heart of the Magellan Class's two engineering decks is the Reactor Room. [Image 1]
We're designing this space with practicality in mind, so the design language is far more utilitarian when compared to the comfortable surroundings of the main living areas. There will be numerous pipes and cables lining the walls, and all of the hardware will be exposed for ease of access. If you choose to play as an Engineer, this is where you'll be spending a lot of your time on the ship. [Image 2, Image 3]
The reactor model itself is still a work in progress, but this will eventually reveal the million-degree maelstrom of Deuterium and Helium 3 fusion taking place within its confinement chamber. It's currently also still lacking its fuel and coolant supply infrastructure, which the player will of course have full control of. [Image 4]
If all the stars align next week, the plan is to get the reactor finished and its associated gameplay elements at least started. Once that is done we'll be putting together a new dev video explaining the entire system in detail, so watch this space!
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