Team name:
None
Project name:
Universe X
Brief description:
A 3d space ship combat simulator set in a galaxy with many star systems with trade routes and skirmish fights between them. Newtonian physics model with semi-realistic ship controls, highly customizable ships. Players can control 1-5 ships RTS style at same time.
Target aim:
Commercial project, free download with monthly subscription.
Compensation:
No payment at this point.
Technology:
C++, VS2008
Ogre 3D engine - goes without saying
Bullet physics engine
RakNet networking
MyGUI - user interface SDK for Ogre 3d
Windows platform, however may be ported to any platform that Ogre 3d supports with minor work.
Talent needed:
I'm trying to find 1 or 2 graphics programmers who want to partner up with me and who would be interested in working on a long term project, as opposed to series of small games. It's important to clarify that I am not looking for people who just want to help with a few things and I can't hire anyone. I'm looking for people willing to open a company together as full partners, when the project matures.
It's important that you are willing to work with the tools listed, Windows platform is not a requirement if you are willing to spend extra time porting Ogre 3d based application.
Team structure:
There is no team yet, just me. I work as a programmer with focus on game logic, using Ogre3d API, MyGUI API, Bullet API, RakNet API on high level.
Website:
No website. At this early stage of development, I don't want to advertise anything to general public.
Contacts:
email: fig_tatam@hotmail.com
best way to chat with me online is to go to Ogre 3d IRC channel: #ogre3d on irc.freenode.net : 6667, my nick name is either Eph or Ephemeron
Previous Work by Team:
I have been involved in several failed volunteer projects in the past, years ago. That isn't something to be proud of, but it did give me better understanding of difficulties involved with free game development.
I have real programming experience working as software engineer at Darim Vision, mostly win32 API, MFC, DirectShow, working with custom 3D engine API. No game development tho, just video processing.
Additional Info:
I'll start off by describing some of the planned game design features:
*) Newtonian physics model - space ships will move with help of multiple thrusters that apply forces at different parts of the ship. A typical ship may have 9-20 thrusters to have flexible controls. Space will not have drag.
*) Customizable ships - the goal is to give players a lot of freedom with space ship design. The main way that is achieved is by having variety of equipment types, such as: engines, guns, missiles, power generators, capacitors, shields. The other way is to let players play around with a modular ship design editor, where they can influence the overall shape of the ship.
*) Damageable equipment - ship damage will not be represented by a single hit point counter. The ship hull will have several hit areas and all the ship equipment will have its own hit areas. It would be possible to target enemy guns or engines and disable them. As ships get more and more damage, their functionality keeps decreasing. Some damaged equipment may explode, further damaging the ship. Since ship systems are damageable, there will be some need for redundancy, so some ships will have multiple sets of the same module located at different parts of the hull.
*) Galaxy setting - game setting is in a galaxy of many star systems. People will typically fly between space stations in different star systems. There are no plans for any planet-side action
*) Scriptable Actions - since controlling a ship with 10 thrusters in Newtonian physics is a complicated process, a lot of the useful ship maneuvers have to be pre-defined using a custom made script. Example actions are "orbit target at X distance", "follow target at X distance", "move away from target while randomly changing directions", and "move the ship through set of points in space, bringing it to a stop at X, Y, Z". These scripted actions will be visible as GUI elements in an "action list" window and the idea is to allow players to trade these scripts between each other for game money.
*) Economy model - game will feature simplified version of NPC controlled economy. Players can move trade goods between stations to earn game money to buy better ships and equipment.
*) Multiplayer - game is based on client-server model. There is no single player. However there will be NPCs, so there will be something to do even with 1 person online.
*) Multiple ship control - the idea is to let players control up to 5 ships at same time, depending on some size restrictions. So 1 player can choose to control 5 small ships, 2 large ones, or 1 huge ships. For example, player could choose to control 1 cargo ship with 2 escort fighters. Control of multiple ships is done RTS style, with scriptable actions.
The main camera mode is will 3d point of view, orbiting player ship, but it will be possible to switch to Follow camera and 1st point of view. The game is designed to offer best controls from 3rd point of view. In a way the game style is more of a RTS than FPS. The game will try focus on making space ship combat strategic and tactical, not simple point and shoot. There will different weapon types, different damage/resistance types, power output management between weapons, shields, engines. Weapons will have limited arcs of fire, putting greater emphasis on maneuverability. Basically, the goal is to make a sophisticated space ship combat system with lots of possibilities.
Work done so far:
*) implemented 3 server applications and 1 client application. One of the server applications is designed as "game instance" node, that is meant to simulate the game within some given area, such as star system. Another server process is in charge of handing out game object IDs and keeping track of which node is handling which game object. 3rd server process accepts connections from clients and forwards messages between one of the game logic nodes and clients. Right now only 1 game node is supported with no inter-node communication, but the basic design is setup to handle it in the future.
*) implemented game object manager for server and client, with ways to construct new objects, handle destruction of objects, update clients with object creation/destruction and with specific variable changes in game object structure, and run periodic synchronization of position and velocity data.
*) Implemented game objects: space ship, thruster equipment, laser gun equipment, asteroid, space station. Space ship can equip thrusters and laser guns, use them to fly and shoot, destroy other game objects.
*) implemented several user interfaces for controlling space ships, showing information on player space ship, showing information on selected target, and a chat window. Also implemented Login screen interface and Game Over interface. All the interfaces are rather crude at this point, more like place holders showing functionality.
*) pretty much all 3d objects in game are generated from box and sphere shapes, no real 3d models. The plan is to design game functions first with place holder graphics that will be replaced with pretty 3d models after functionality is more or less stable.
There is a functioning multiplayer demo, you can login to server, control space ship and shoot another space ship. Everything is still very crude and far from finished. The preferred development process is to maintain a functioning prototype, add new features, make sure everything still works, then add more features.
Screenshot of player ship killing another ship:
Screenshot of player shooting station:
Screenshot of 3 server processes:
The graphics are not very impressive at this point, since I'm focusing on game logic with place holder art.
Work that I plan to do in near future:
*) implement radar/scanner system showing list of targetable objects. Implement target tagging for user interface
*) create custom script commands for controlling of space ship, implement Action List interface where those script functions are visible to user as buttons - basically work on significantly improving ship control by automating a lot of the basic functions, which is necessary when ships move with help of 8-20 different thruster engines.
*) Implement station docking, complete with interface switching from space ship control to station interface - station interface needs to show ship customization options and trading of goods, for starters.
*) implement power generator and shield modules. Start working on balancing power consumption between engines, weapons, and shields
*) implement rudimentary AI to act as NPC opponents, should be easier once there are scripts to create space ship Action list.
Basically, focus on expanding game features in stages, giving player more options and more variety.
