One of the major selling points of Galaxy Unknown will be the diverse weapons; from antimatter beams to quantum chainsaw cannons. Here are screenshots of just a few in action!

I’m starting to get really excited about the tools I’ve been making for this project! It’s come a long way from the original hand-written XML to the new level designer seen below:

Bizarrely enough, this is all AJAX.

I’m planning to eventually combine everything into a polished creation suite for everything from weapon matter properties to galaxy layout.

It’s been a long time since I last posted an update, and a lot has changed.  We’ve scaled down the game design dramatically and changed the story to occur before the events of the original idea. That way we can still use “The Peril of Planet Khadros” as a sequel later. Fortunately, in the last few months we’ve also made huge progress on the engine and the visual assets.

So, now for the new premise!

In a distant galaxy, three intelligent species have united to form a technologically advanced empire. Though primarily peaceful, many of their scientists have been hard at work developing new weapon technologies should the need arise. Their primary weapons research and development center, designated WX-I, was founded on the far edge of a frontier region, far away from the traffic of the general public. Unfortunately, this also put it nearest to a hostile race they had yet to discover.

Without warning, a fleet of unidentified ships invaded WX-I and killed most of the scientists working there. Some managed to evacuate to prototype ships and seal themselves off in safety, but most of the prototypes were captured by the attackers, leaving them severely outnumbered.

If this fleet is not stopped, the weapons technology they recover would easily give them the power to wipe out the other races. The only hope left lies in an experimental ship with a unique ability: it can integrate with any new weapon or equipment on the fly.

You must pilot this experimental ship and destroy the invading ships before they can return home with stolen weapon technology. Though your starting weapons will put you at a disadvantage, you can collect stronger firepower as you go and work your way up to take down even the most advanced stolen prototypes of WX-I.

The next wave of performance results are in, and way better than I had expected!

On the XBox 360, I am able to render over 230,000 triangles with:

• 12 light sources
• Phong shading
• Texture map
• Normal map
• 4x Antialiasing samples
• 1920×1080 resolution
• all at 60 Frames Per Second!

On my development PC (which is certainly no graphics powerhouse) I get 35FPS, which is still pretty decent.

The test code I’ve written is not particularly optimized, but it’s doing nothing but drawing meshes so it has an unfair advantage anyway.

• 955,000 triangles
• Phong shading from one light source
• 4x antialiasing samples
• Covering most of a 1080P display
• 60FPS running on an XBox 360

Once I get to around 1 million polygons it starts to slow down, but I’m quite happy with this.  I know that adding texture and normal map will slow things down, as will adding multiple light sources. However, I don’t think it will slow it down so dramatically that I can’t handle at least 20,000 polygons in the final system. That should be plenty for my purposes.

There are still more tests to do for sure, but I’m feeling very optimistic.

I’ve had a pretty good idea of how I want Galaxy Unknown to play for a while now, but finally this week it’s been articulated in a design document. It took 3 days and a lot of guidance and input from my good friend Costas, but I’m very satisfied with what we’ve designed.

It looks like he might be bringing in a second artist as well; awesome.

Our self-imposed deadline is to be ready for public beta test in 3 months. I think our chances are pretty reasonable, though the scale of this is far beyond anything I’ve attempted before.

Step 1: Prototype the graphics engine to do performance tests. I’ll need to know how many particles and polygons we can throw at it so that the artists can design models accordingly…

For my first serious game production, I’m planning an episodic space action-adventure. The first episode sends you in search of an ancient alien race which once saved your planet from destruction. The planet is destabilizing again, and they may be the only ones with the technology to save it!

Perhaps the coolest feature of this game is the plan for multiplayer. Locations and details are randomized each time you play, and you can challenge your friends in a race to the finish. Will you set up deceptions and sabotage the other players, or focus on your own search for clues to the alien homeworld?

Other features to note:

1. Freedom: You can spend your time plundering weak cargo ships, explore the far reaches of the galaxy, or even make a living as a psychic.

2. Upgrades: What’s the point in earning money if you can’t use it to buy cool new weapons and gadgets?

3. Choices: There’s more than one approach to each major task in the story. Your choices will shape your reputation and lead to allies and enemies.

4. Simplicity: This game is designed for convenient play on an XBox controller, without menus buried inside menus.

And of course, an original soundtrack!

My biggest design decision now is how to handle planetary interaction. I’m not sure if I want an in-depth FPS-style exploration, a simple top-down view, or just a short menu of interaction choices that never leave the main space view. Feedback on this is definitely welcome.

My first XNA game is almost finished! Admittedly, it’s a simple game that likely won’t attract much attention, but it’s an important step toward more ambitious projects.

The PC version has no known bugs at the moment, and the XBox 360 version is only missing some details in handling things like multiple controllers and the “trial version” for the games marketplace.

You can download the PC beta version to try for yourself here: plasma5.zip

Screenshot 1

Aside from the XBox fixes, I’m tentatively planning to add some more art to the main menu montage. Then I can move on to bigger and better games!