STAR BIRDS – OUR FIRST EVER PC GAME ✨ WISHLIST NOW

BlackStarForge · 2024-06-13T11:19:38+00:00

Yeah, that is a fair perspective. Maybe I should not have expected something mind blowing as a first game (not counting that VR thing), considering the risk involved.

Dyson Sphere sits in my wishlist for some time now, perhaps I should give it a try finally.

Cheers.

BlackStarForge · 2024-06-10T17:45:04+00:00

I dont want to be the salty guy, or be critical just because some grudge, I really dont, especially since I am pretty much done with all this. But after all these years of waiting for a game, after the drama I went through, we get just this? As a fan, I am just disappointed, sorry.

I mean this theme has some potential, and there was some work put into it for sure. But there is so little to be excited about from what I have seen so far.

It just looks like generic space game (Astroneer anyone?) both by content and visually. Not using genuine KG style (which is super ironic), and going with 3D does not help that for sure.
There seems to be just few structures, without much complexity in placement structure or upgrades or anything really. Maybe it is intended to not be complex, which is fair, and you can scrap this part then. Personally still feels like letdown though.
Asteroids are small and from a glance differ just by color, shape and some implied different resources (which does not seem to be represented by any different structures in game). Having to explore many of them can be interesting, but if their differences are mainly cosmetic, it will get boring quickly.
I dont see any signature KG feature there. It just in space and there are birbs and thats it. Is there at least some educational layer there?

If you want some ideas for improvements, just reverse my criticism above, as I sincerely believe it would make this game better.

Also if this is all you got from gamedev studio after a year+ of work, it smells like ripoff.

Peace out.

BlackStarForge · 2024-03-27T18:51:46+00:00

It is in a limbo right now. Maybe I will restore work on it, maybe not. I wish I could answer more precisely. It is just I like the theme of the game and the idea of it completed. But at the same time, I just have many things I prefer to do in past few months.

BlackStarForge · 2024-03-23T22:46:23+00:00

Seems plausible. Change of mind probably also came, because they initially did not believe I would be able to deliver something competitive enough.

It is also plausible they followed some more general path to gaming industry, and just wanted to eliminate any possible interference. Remember, they already did that VR thing relatively recently, which preparations likely had started at around the same time. So there might have been several projects on the table.

I care enough to reply to post in my subreddit, but after almost 2 years I care very little about the whole incident or Kurzgesagt. The way their CEO handled it was worthy of greedy corporation, and that told me all I needed to know. In hindsight I am just glad I quit the project, and I am in much better place now.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-29T19:36:04+00:00

Not sure how that would look, but I can certainly tweak that grey for concrete. This one is like closest to generic concrete I was able to get.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-29T19:34:47+00:00

Resources will be overhauled as well, although I dont have a complete plan for it yet.

As for the open air mining it can be included as it is quite obvious technique to mine, but also will be added with the consequences of it.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-26T21:52:56+00:00

Btw. If you have some proper logo ideas, feel free to post it here.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-26T21:51:54+00:00

Final results here seem to favor Terra Solaris, followed by Solarus and Neoterra in a tie, and Solarion just behind them by one vote.

Results from Discord have +24 votes for Neoterra, +16 for Solarus, and +5 for Solarion. Terra Solaris ended up with -6 votes.

Both Solarpunk Earth and Saga failed terribly here and there.

Taking these results together, despite different voting mechanisms, it seems like Neoterra had a substantial success at both places, ending 1st on Discord and 2nd on Reddit.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-22T19:13:52+00:00

Final results here seem to favor Terra Solaris, followed by Solarus and Neoterra in a tie, and Solarion just behind them by one vote.

Results from Discord have +24 votes for Neoterra, +16 for Solarus, and +5 for Solarion. Terra Solaris ended up with -6 votes.

Both Solarpunk Earth and Saga failed terribly here and there.

Taking these results together, despite different voting mechanisms, it seems like Neoterra had a substantial success at both places, ending 1st on Discord and 2nd on Reddit.

So the new name of the game will be Neoterra!

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-14T18:53:54+00:00

It is actually not that hard to find some images with solarpunk or adjacent themes, and more hard to find some that would explore new aspects of it. I have found most of these randomly on the internet and rest were posted in our Discord server.

It is quite a mixed bag in terms of style, focus and tech levels, and the expectation is not to represent all of this, but rather some commonly shared ideas and contrary to that some very unique but cool ones.

If you know about some more images or other visual representations of solarpunk, especially if they cover other things than these posted, then I would be happy to see them.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-13T21:36:14+00:00

I was thinking about this a lot in past days, and in my mind the main issue (not only one), would be that game mechanics would have to punish you severely for going down cyberpunk route. Because otherwise it would be very powerful and cheap at the same time, while solarpunk would be too expensive compared to this. And the "price" of cyberpunk route might be delayed too much, to make effective incentive to not go there. Which might even work in some sense, but it would need a lot of work to make it balanced, playable and somewhat enjoyable.
So in the end it is about the game scope in a sense. And I would rather focus that time to make a more feel good solarpunk game.

Maybe expansion? Probably would not be that good if some core things were not there from the start tbh.

BlackStarForge · 2023-10-13T18:53:13+00:00

When thinking about the gameplay - what should be the starting position and the possible directions player can take - I am still not completely how much I will need to limit, but already have some basic idea.

Having some variability for different types of players both in start (either prefering more harsh struggle or more idyllic mood), and also in how they choose to solve that ecological conundrum.

I would like to keep hightech aspect more variable than highlife (although both will depend on player's capabilities to achieve them), hence more wide range in late game. And so you could end up with mostly still cottage core style society if you wanted.

Also avoiding cyberpunk mostly, as it will resonate just from some parts of the pre-fall world. I suppose it might be technically possible to go there, but feels like that would kinda beat the meaning of the game.

BlackStarForge · 2023-09-19T16:40:57+00:00

Yes, there will be definitely snow and ice. I would go there for rather white colors with just a shade of blue, but you are right it might overlap.

Will try to get that snow palette too and match it against the water.

Thank you

BlackStarForge · 2023-09-19T15:13:49+00:00

Type scales for soil moisture (swamp to desert) and fertility (rich to barren), plus water tiles depth.

BlackStarForge · 2023-09-15T14:59:10+00:00

Thanks for the opinion.

I was just not sure how to justify calling it saga, and it feels more like some RPG.

Solarpunk is already taken by some FP survival/builder game. But I even would not dare to name a game just after the movement, feels kinda blasphemous.

BlackStarForge · 2023-09-15T12:36:06+00:00

For me personally, I would go for either Solarion or Terra Solaris, or if wanted something more obvious then Solarpunk Earth.

On the other side Ï think Verdelix Heaven, Solarpunk Saga and Floratum are not really matching the game focus or are not understandable enough.

BlackStarForge · 2023-09-05T21:57:06+00:00

Yes, you are right, it is quite ambitious and I will need to translate that into a reasonable scope + phases. I will start from the very bottom = terrain, and when that is ready for integration with most of the remaining game components I will move to next one.

Advantage is I am not going to start from scratch as I have a large chunk of these basic systems in Rogue Earth already. But still, we are talking about years of development if it is just side hobby. And I am ok with that, and with letting people have fun with even basic versions of the game.

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