This month I’ve added some more content and also mostly finished the game’s interface.
New title screen!
Behold!
The font is Audiowide. I’m using it on the title screen and for major headings throughout the game. Body text is still the default sans-serif font.
The background starfield is a randomly-generated SVG image. It looks like the one on the title screen of Seedship, but under the hood it’s done in a way that’s much better for the game’s performance. The starfield persists throughout the game, although it’s only visible on large screen sizes where the game text boxes don’t take up the whole screen.
Crew names and bios
I’ve replaced the placeholder name lists I was using with a much larger list of crew names, and I’ve added random crew member bios. The new names include all the ones people submitted in my previous post. Go comment there if you want your name included.
There are 18 sets of names for different cultures/nationalities/languages. For each crew member, the game picks the first name from a random list, and the last name from either the same list (4/5 chance) or a random list (1/5 chance).
There are 7 or 8 basic bios for each explorer class, and each basic bio has bits that the game randomly fills in (e.g. “Was a professor of (subject) at (university)”).
Bios have no effect on gameplay, and they’re not really about the character at all–they’re about establishing the tone and setting of the game in bite-sized chunks. I don’t ever describe what the surface of the Earth is like in this setting, but the fact that many top scientists and engineers work for the “Earth Restoration Project” should give you a clue.
You can click on the little icon next to a crew member’s entry to edit their name and bio, if you want to explore space with your friends or favourite fictional characters.
Interface improvements
I’ve completely rewritten the HTML and CSS that controls the interface layout. On large screen sizes it looks the same, apart from the presence of the background stars in otherwise empty areas, but it now resizes smoothly on small screens.
Tutorial boxes
I decided the game was complicated enough to need a few tutorial boxes, so I’ve added some. The game remembers which ones you’ve seen across all playthroughs, so you’ll only see each one once, unless you click “Reset Tutorial” in the settings menu (or clear your browser data).
Surface and orbit features
Also visible above, there’s now a distinction between surface features and orbital features. If you’re in orbit, exploring a surface feature requires you to land; on the surface, orbital features require you to take off. Most of the existing random events won’t trigger while you’re in orbit, and I’ve started to to add new random events to represent orbital hazards. (Still got a lot of these to add.)
Other changes
I’ve made a bunch of other improvements that don’t warrant screenshots. Descriptions for bodies other than terrestrial planets now work properly. Revised the formatting for all events so that they’re consistent. Added flavour text for taking off as well as for landing. Removed the few places where crew members could get moved to life support before you’d bought the life support upgrade. Fixed a bug where civ descriptions in the data view were causing an error. etc. etc.
In general the game is a lot more polished, both in its appearance and in its gameplay. I’m getting towards the point where the only thing I’ve got to do is add more content.
2021 plans
I’m not ready to give a specific release date, but I’m now confident enough to say that I intend to release the game in 2021. I had hoped to release it in 2020, but 2020 turned out to be…well, 2020.
I’m undecided whether I’ll do a mobile app version like I did with Seedship. Making an app version is a lot more difficult than releasing a desktop version and I’d have to be sure it was worth it. If I do, I’ll release it separately, probably several months after the desktop version.
Thank you all for your continued support. Have a very good holiday season, and I’ll have another dev blog for you at the end of January.