Hi everyone, I’ve been posting here for the better part of 3 years… and after all of this time I finally have a game that’s worth sharing (at least I think so!)
I’ll be brief, but our story is that we wanted to create a 4x turn-based strategy game that could be played online or against AI opponents. It’s gone through half a dozen team members, long periods of stand-still in development, and more recently an official publishing deal! We partnered up with Lock 'n Load Publishing a little over a year ago in the hopes that they could help keep the project on track and give us a little more exposure. If anything, this at least helped keep the hope alive that I might be able to gaspmake money making games.
I’ve posted here a few times, with some failed kickstarters and a (thankfully) successful Steam Greenlight campaign. If this all looks familiar… then I’m glad. That means I’ve at least had some kind of lasting impact on my fellow monkeys :). It truly has been both my baby and the bane of my existence since 2012, but I’m extremely proud of where it is now.
Here’s a demo video of some of the features:
Currently, we have created a build that will throw you right into a Single Player game against 4 AI.
I want to open this almost-public beta test to anyone here who is willing to participate. We are currently filling out all of the content, but almost all of the features are already implemented: Purchasing technology, voting on political agendas, playing power ups (tactical actions), planetary battle, space battle… the list goes on. The UI is still a work in progress but I plan on having it finished in the next 2 weeks. There is just still some placeholders in there.
To join the beta, I only ask two things from you:
1.) Post here to let me know your interested
2.) Accept invite to our beta forums where we will post bugs, talk about features, etc. Why the need for separate forums? Because we aren’t quite ready for all of the nitty-gritty to be 100% public yet.
Thanks for the replies everyone! We’re still working on the patcher, but if it’s not done I will be sending out new builds tomorrow at the latest (sans patcher), for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
And as an update on what you can expect in the near future, a list of some features that have been implemented so far this week:
• Updated UI for building units
• Updated UI for political agendas
• Ability to barter with planets and receive a big one-time payoff, or conquer them and receive a steady income of resources
• Enhanced AI abilities, including moving around in battle and purchasing technology upgrades (we have 27 now!)
• Ground unit battle to conquer planets
• Ability to “Sustain Damage” in combat. Normally a ship gets killed in one hit, but now they can have an upgrade to continue battling with damage (including smoke and flames)
• Games can actually be WON now, by a player achieving 20 victory points
• And a slew of bug fixes (12 to be exact)
Progress progress progress! Here’s a demo of our AI and unit building. The AI will do all sorts of things now, like explore systems, capture planets, vote on political agendas, and purchase technology upgrades.
Hey I’ve got some more great news that I can finally let out of the bag. First off, as I brought up earlier, we will be releasing the “Core” game for free. This means people can try out the game, make sure it runs well on their hardware, and most important is a fun and challenging game for them. Because there aren’t really any games out there like Falling Stars, even in the “4x” genre, we think the only way to do it justice is to put it in the player’s hands.
The Core game will include all of the features, just not access to all of the content, so players should have a good understanding of the game by the time they’ve mastered everything in Core. You can check out all of the content, just not all of it will be playable. So some races, technology, and other aspects of the game will be saved for those who purchase the final version.
I have a long list of players still waiting to get into the beta, but we have been doing a ton of work to make the game more intuitive, so once we’re done processing that feedback we will be ready to accept more from people
I’ve sent out the new beta build to a lot of people. We still have a lot of work to do to make the game more intuitive, but I’d say we’re half way there. Some of the features and fixes that will be in this build:
Interactive tooltips that guide the player through every feature in the game
Big enhancements to battles, they’re now much more interactive and visually interesting
Lots more “color” and responsiveness. a la “when you do something, something happens”
