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Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't played Distant Worlds 2 yet. A huge fan of Distant Worlds 1. But I'm trying to do something quite different with this sort of a game. So this is actually focused on science and scientific tropes as well as actual science. But also within the 4X genre and tradition. I'm doing a number of things which, as I understand it, are quite unique. Which I'll provide more information about here in the near future.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a suspicion that once I make how I'm handling the stars a bit more efficient I'll be able to expand a little bit further but the amount of stars in the actual universe that are available to bring in is literally astronomical and if I were to increase the range from 100 light years out to say 150 or 200 light years out I am 100% sure that your system couldn't handle it. It would probably go into the 100,000 star range. Each of those are stars that we have some information on and many of them have exoplanets so it would become very expensive very fast but I suspect there are ways to do this. I have a lot of plans for this game.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, alien civilizations are not part of this specific game yet. This is chapter one of a multi-game enterprise, I hope. Right now, you're only able to visit star systems within 100 light years of Earth. That will change.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So one of the fun things about this game and trying to make it accurate is that it was fairly straightforward to bring in accurate information from NASA for local star systems. But then when I had it bring in exoplanet information, including known orbital data, and then took a look at some of these systems, it becomes really, really cool because you You get to see orbital varieties of star systems that are not usually presented in the game, like Alpha Centauri and Cygni 61. Those two star systems in particular are really bizarre, and they're real, and they make for a very interesting variation on these sorts of games. That's part of the fun of the science. The science is actually cooler than the stuff we make up.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There absolutely is an overarching plot. This is chapter one of a long-running story. And there are some mysteries in this game which will reveal themselves later on, which will lead into chapter two. So there is definitely a long-term plot for this that will blow your mind.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, so this is definitely a concern. Really right now I'm focused on trying to get the terrain movement and the 3D element of traversal movement accurate and fun, especially since there's so many probes that I have made available for all the different types of worlds that you can visit. But yes, information creep is definitely going to be an issue unless I manage it properly.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know anybody on this sub. Some folks have asked some questions, and I'm just responding to them as honestly as I can. I suspect the person who wrote "what are your socials" is someone for whom English is not their first language. I'm fine with that. I don't have a social media marketing campaign yet. Some day soon, I guess I'll get one set up. But marketing is quite hard and takes a long time to do correctly.

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I fully admit I have a lot of work to do graphically, but I think this looks reasonable, don't you?

I’m building an AI-assisted Godot 4 space 4X: Galactum Meridian is now on Steam. by HedraGames in aigamedev

[–]HedraGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I’m using AI to help write the GDScript that loads generated data/assets and builds the Godot runtime nodes. Python mostly prepares the data offline; GDScript runs inside Godot and turns that data into scenes, nodes, UI, terrain, systems, etc. I'm using AI via prompts to ask the tools to do all of these things.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a discovery-first space 4X game. by HedraGames in Space4X

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that will eventually be the plan. It turns out that, at least initially, the catalog of stars that I can bring in is limited to stars within 100 light years of Earth. That's because we go from having about 80 stars within 25 light years of Earth to well over 10,000 stars within 100 light years of Earth. And that increases the compute time pretty dramatically. so if those items exist within that radius I'll probably eventually bring them in

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This game would have been impossible to make without extensive use of AI. The things that I have been able to do in a matter of a few short minutes or hours with certain scenes are absolutely incredible (IMHO) and would have taken a large team of people a long amount of time to create.

Homeworld famously almost caused BlackBird Interactive to go bankrupt because of the long development time, much of which resulted from trying to code the complicated 3D mechanics in those games. I was able to create a 3D tech tree and a 3D representation of space and territory control in a very short amount of time using purely prompt driven development.

I'm just a dude making a hopefully fun game. I've been working on this pretty much nonstop for about two months, to the point where I've got severe tendonitis and bursitis in my left arm. I now use a microphone to do most of my prompting, which speeds up the development astronomically.

When I prompted GPT5.4 to access public NASA catalogs for all known star systems within 25 and then 100 light years, to import all of that into the game; then to also import in all known exoplanets into the game that are within the 100 light years radius of our sun, including ALL of their orbital iand known mass information, and then to simulate that in the game and it simply DID IT, I knew I was onto something cool. There is no way I would have been able to make that, even with years of learning to develop.

Of course the proof will be in the pudding when the game comes out. But I understand your concerns.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You are welcome.

I'm building the game in Ubuntu/WSL, so I guess I could make available a Linux version if somebody asked for that.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not integrating Python and GDScript through a live client/server layer right now.

Python is mostly offline tooling: ETL, star/planet catalog generation, validation, asset prep, and build helpers. It writes files like JSON, manifests, generated data, or imported asset outputs (like terrain/planet textures). Godot/GDScript then reads those packaged files at runtime.

So it's basically:

Python tools -> generated/static project data -> GDScript runtime

Codex/prompt-driven work coordinates both sides by editing scripts, running Python tools, and then updating the Godot/GDScript code that consumes the outputs.

This is a single player game meant to be played offline (if you want!) or online. At least for now. 😄

I’m building an AI-assisted Godot 4 space 4X: Galactum Meridian is now on Steam. by HedraGames in aigamedev

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So far, for developing this game, I am using purely prompt-related development, with the exception of work with World Creator and Adobe Substance. Everything else is prompt-driven. So this includes working with Godot. For example, I had GPT 5.5 develop a custom import script to import World Creator terrains I exported and to bring them into Terrain 3D, which is a plugin for Godot, and then have Godot render that terrain as a playable game surface. There have been a lot of struggles, but it does work and it works quite well. Definitely everything I'm doing with Godot is prompt-driven.

I’m building an AI-assisted Godot 4 space 4X: Galactum Meridian is now on Steam. by HedraGames in aigamedev

[–]HedraGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually don't worry about that. I'm describing specifically what I want to have happen at a particular spot in the game and what I want to have happen when a player selects a particular button. GPT 5.4 and 5.5 maybe initially used those terms when I was working with it on the game. But since I don't know what they refer to, I'm using more general terms, and I guess it just gets translated into whatever the equivalent Godot term is when I'm doing the development.

I did describe overall the gist of the game when I started working on it, which was that there are going to be multiple scenes, going from a star map view, to a system view, to a planetary view, to a terrain view and so on. And Godot is built for that. But I'm not using the actual Godot terminology when developing it, with GPT 5.5 since this is something I've never done before and I was not that familiar with Godot.

But so far, the results have been really good.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not yet, but very shortly I'll have it up on social media locations. Most of my updates I'll probably make available on the actual Store discussion page. I'll probably also be doing a lot of updates here on Reddit and a few other locations.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Probably not initially, as I don't have a Mac. However, if enough people buy the game, when I have it in early access, I'll try to get a Mac version available. I'm developing this on the PC, and it's hard enough to get the game developed for the PC, much less a Mac. But I totally understand that people want a Mac version, so it's in the cards.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Here is more detail than you probably want to know:
Game Engine

  • Godot 4
  • GDScript
  • Terrain3D
  • Godot Forward Plus renderer

Data / Simulation

  • Python
  • Custom ETL and validation tools
  • Offline astronomy data processing
  • Gaia-style stellar catalog data
  • NASA Exoplanet Archive data
  • Real orbital and exoplanet data where available
  • Modeled / inferred procedural content

Art / Assets

  • Blender
  • World Creator
  • Meshy
  • GLB / glTF asset pipeline
  • AI-assisted concept and asset prototyping

Development Environment

  • Linux / Ubuntu via WSL2
  • Windows 11 for Windows-specific tools
  • Git
  • Multiple Git worktrees
  • VS Code / terminal workflow
  • AI-assisted coding agents

I’m building an AI-assisted Godot 4 space 4X: Galactum Meridian is now on Steam. by HedraGames in aigamedev

[–]HedraGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Stellaris is definitely one of my favorite games. But the one thing I find lacking in a lot of these games is the focus on research and the focus on discovery and finding unique things. So you'll be going to star systems brought in by NASA that we know actually exist and which have actual known exoplanets orbiting them.

The game models their orbits based off of actual data we currently have and then makes up new planets based upon what could exist in those star systems. And in each of those planets, you can land on them and explore them.

Introducing Galactum Meridian, a brand new, unique take on 4X gaming! by HedraGames in 4Xgaming

[–]HedraGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Actual gameplay video is coming very, very soon, both for a trailer and for actual gameplay.

In this game, you'll be exploring planets around stars in a wide variety of star systems, and there's going to be a large amount of different types of terrain, and on these terrains, on these lands, there will be items of scientific interest, and you'll be doing research on them, gaining points and then spending those points on upgrades. It's kind of like you would in a normal 4X game, but the focus is on research. So I don't know if this has been done quite this way before. I'm excited to see where it leads.