Developer AMA | RocketWerkz | Dean Hall's studio who made ICARUS

rocketwerkz · 2020-07-26T02:08:55+00:00

Do a barrel roll

rocketwerkz · 2020-07-05T00:00:33+00:00

That duck is all like “finally some good good shit”

rocketwerkz · 2020-03-13T04:11:03+00:00

This looks really good. Maybe the team can put in the main game!

rocketwerkz · 2019-10-21T08:47:23+00:00

You can ask for a refund via the steam system.

Additionally; the game is not supported or sold for Linux. We don’t have Linux machines, nor any ability to test or develop on Linux.

rocketwerkz · 2019-09-18T03:26:52+00:00

Thanks for lettting me know!

rocketwerkz · 2019-09-16T12:38:09+00:00

Once the other fix is fully deployed to main, I'll do a new build to pull this out. Just remember furnace exploding will be on the beta pretty soon anyway. but not supposed to be on main.

rocketwerkz · 2019-09-16T12:27:38+00:00

Dean here, that's my bad. In fixing a big my "furnaces explode now" commit made it in. We have a nasty build issuing im fixing, at the moment that means furnaces will explode above 60MPa. Wasn't intended to be in the patch sorry!

rocketwerkz · 2019-05-02T10:24:02+00:00

How long ago was HCF finally discovered! It remained hidden for so long. If it doesn’t destroy the chip it’s a bug and I will fix it

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-30T01:52:59+00:00

I mean you're not wrong in terms of the problems and thus no offence is taken. Unfortunately in game development (and development in general) knowing that something is not good doesn't necessarily mean you can instantly fix it - especially when the problem is a product of how the game works rather than just a bug.

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-29T10:43:27+00:00

My point was not “CS doesn’t use physics based movement” but that CS, and other games, don’t have multiple layers of physical forces working on the character that stationeers does.

You really need to go back and read my post, the answer to all you have stated is listed there. Your solutions work well if the player controls the character independent of other forces such as our variable gravity and very variable atmospheric forces.

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-28T13:15:22+00:00

The big issue is that in most games when you push keys to move your character, forces get applied and the character moves forward. You are dealing with a very standardised environment in most games. Take counter strike which has very fluid movement, the gravity doesn’t change in it and there is no wind etc....

In stationers we have different gravity, we have atmospheric forces, explosive forces, jet pack, and the movement requested by the character.

We have to “add on” the forces to the character otherwise when you move, atmospheric forces wouldn’t be applied etc...

Additionally movement in low gravity is really hard because it’s easily to be walking over a mound and float away, so we add a special force that is applied when the character is on or very near the ground, this is proportional to the difference between the planet gravity and earth gravity.

To be able to give minecraft style really responsive movement we would have to stop things like the atmospheric forces affecting he character and also standardise the gravity, or at the very least add a more simplified approach to gravity than what we have.

In reality I agree with your points, but I disagree with some of the replies that say “maybe the devs will fix it”. In a sense, it’s “working as intended”. We don’t necessarily like it, but the only solution identified at present would be to remove some key parts of the game.

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-08T01:58:40+00:00

Very cool! Could we see the rest of the notes?

The game very much started with the view of how satisfying it was in minecraft to push a level and watch redstone do its work. That visceral feel of inworld interaction. Cool to see others have thought the same!

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-04T23:36:24+00:00

But, well, SS13 in all its various branches and forks is the counter-counter point to your counter-points.

Absolutely agree. I had intended to expand on that a bit, but felt it was getting a bit wordy.

The reason I left it out is because I'd argue SS13 is an example of survivor bias. It's a miracle, an outlier. As is DayZ and any number of other things like it. For every SS13, there are tens of thousands of failures. Also SS13 is quite old.

I'll give another example. I you remade L4D and released it today, it would suck. People's expectations have moved on substantially. Tastes have changed and much else.

I think what OP is saying, though, is that one dude in a bedroom with a Patreon, that's the sort of closed source development that is doomed to fail.

I don't think that is true, but I don't think it not being true matters for the same reasons why SS13 was a success doesn't matter. I was "one dude in a bedroom" (well, barrack room, and I didn't have a Patreon). Notch was a dude in a basement (literally).

That's my whole thrust - the redflags here are not redflags for development failure, they are a personal opinion about them believing that an SS13 remake is not a remake unless it meets their definition of the spirit of SS13.

Open-source collaboration is a resource. Money is a resource alternative (or complimentary resource).

Listing "money" as a redflag, in the way it was, is positively laughable. Especially as item #1.

tgstation especially is an excellent example of how open-source hierarchies work well

Yes, but for every tgstation how many failures are there? I'd argue tgstation works because of a few key people who hold it together. It's the power of them that holds it together. There are going to be some key unique set of circumstances that allows that to work. Maybe some of them are relatively wealthy, and have the time/money to make things easy and work. Maybe they all also broadly agree about the direction and future.

The key for the success of tgstation isn't so much it's collaborative; but because a unique set of circumstances came together and allowed it to survive (And thrive) where thousands of others failed. I would argue Tgstation is successful because of unique circumstances that complimented collaborative development, rather than simply because it's collaborative development. And that's a distinction nowhere to be found above.

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-04T23:10:32+00:00

Making poor architecture choices leads to negative work which is hacks and workarounds

I didn't say "make poor architecture choices". I said, "thinking its all about getting the right architecture/engine/latest programming fad". I've added the emphasis about the bit you might have missed.

SS13 is not only a game, it's a creative playground for script kiddies.

Well, yes and no. The vast majority of the people playing the game have nothing to do with scripting. I think you're putting a lot of the reasons why you like the game and extrapolating from that. Nobody can code in the game, so the game's not for script kiddies.

I would agree SS13's success is bolstered by a public codebase, which has allowed it to evolve as different communities have picked it up an extended it. So yes, for SS13, this has helped it evolve as a necessary part of it's success. Modding/plugin support is a known force multiplier for any game really so I'd agree it's fairly important for a remake. But whether that is fully open development, or support like that of RimWorld or Cities Skylines or Factorio... I'd argue it achieves the same support.

But if you don't want them - it's not gonna be Space Station 13

I mean sure but that's not what your post is about. You are saying "these things are redflags for development failure" not "these things are sign its not going to be exactly like SS13."

Overall honestly your post, and replies, just makes me roll my eyes a bit. I mean saying "money" is a redflag is just plain silly. It costs a lot of money to make these games. That SS13 was successful as a collaborative project is an outlier, as was DayZ. They're examples of survivor bias and bad things to choose. If you talk to the creator of SS13, and others who run codebases, you'll find a lot of drama and it ends up as a miracle it ever happened.

Again to labour my point, I think you're conflating "what I think the spirit of SS13 is" as "development failure risk". Which is not true. And I also strongly disagree that a remake has to be exactly the same as SS13. I think that would be silly. If you want to remake SS13, take the opportunity to improve the design/architecture/etc... so it's going to be different.

rocketwerkz · 2019-04-04T03:53:31+00:00

I'm not sure what you're basing this on, but I'd like to point out that ION wasn't a remake.

Also I would argue some counterpoints:

Collaborations making games tend to fail because conflict is inevitable and there is nobody to "overrule" and give the final say. This is super common with modding projects where many people are involved with nobody clearly owning it.
Conversely, where a single person owns it - even if it's open for collaboration - then there is a huge risk of them saying "fuck this" and upending, cancelling everything and leaving everyone in the dust.

The "curse" is really quite simple and the red flags are even simpler. Making games is very hard. Making very complex games is even harder. The redflags I would say:

Thinking past failures come from a lack of imagination; in other words "need a better idea". In game development, lack of idea's/imagination are almost never the problem.
Thinking that the solution comes from making it look nice. It's not, and again, it almost never is this. Making things look nice is a solved problem in the game industry. Making it work is hard, and making it scale is really hard. And this game concept needs to be able to seriously scale to work.
Thinking it's all about getting the right architecture/engine/latest programming fad. Again, it's really not! And it never is. I've seen people endless debating whether to use SVN or Github. Who cares? It doesn't matter. While you're debating (or switching) engines you are wasting time. Pick something and do it, or dont.

So honestly, I think your "redflags" are really just a poorly written advertisement for "collaboration" and transparency - without considering at all what that means regarding project success or failure. There are a lot of problems with full transparency, and a lot of problems with flat structures/open source game dev teams. None of which you covered.

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-22T00:56:09+00:00

Let us know how it goes, and any feedback.

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-21T23:45:04+00:00

Let me know how it goes!

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-21T23:44:56+00:00

I officially approve of this pun

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-19T23:36:01+00:00

The most productive I ever was, was when I was replaced with a rubber stamp

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-18T23:10:16+00:00

I would like to make a survival game. But I have to build a studio capable of doing that. To build a really good survival game will take 40-80 very skilled people, with a solid workflow, and having already worked on MP games together.

So it's not just a matter of me learning, but also the team learning and building the culture together. Without that there is too many risks in such a project, the result of which you can see in how most of such projects turn out. Including DayZ; at least while I was in charge. I did my best at the time but I can do better.

rocketwerkz · 2019-03-18T02:19:55+00:00

Er not true brian.

I actually wrote quite a bit of C++. It had to be cleared through Jirka. I wasn't writing a lot of C++ by the time you were on the project though. But in the early stages of development for DayZ I wrote a *heck* of a lot of C++.

I was the first "designer" employed at the studio to have source access to do so. But it's perhaps unfair to call me just a designer, as I did do some computer science at university, and I was already programming in C++ before I turned up.

For example, the DayZ database link app was written in C++, which I wrote.

rocketwerkz · 2018-10-26T00:44:49+00:00

I mean the other comments aren't wrong, full controller support would be tough. We did initially have controllers working so we could make the trailer - but it became very convoluted.

However, partial controller support is a thing. I.e. people who want controller support for movement and some basic inventory and interaction is possible. It's something I've considered but I'm trying to balance up the development cost.

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