Project Pluto

[seand88]

Hello everyone,

 

My brother and I have a project in the works that we would like your input on.

The game will have similar aspects to subspace and I am making this forum post to update through the development cycle of the game.

 

A few questions you might want to know.

 

What will the game run in?

The game will run in the browser using flash.

 

Where will the game be hosted?

Possibly facebook, possibly game portals and other places.

 

Will the game be free?

Yes and No. The game will be free to play, if you want to support the game you can buy custom skins to make you ship look different from the other ships. Ships can be unlocked by playing to unlock them, or you can pay to unlock the ships right away.

 

Why would i play this game anyway?

The game will be similar to subspace with some changes, we are going to add some classic games modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag.

 

When will this be close to a beta?

Our estimated beta time is 6-8 months.

 

Who the hell are you?

I am an indie game developer and have worked a few successful browser games that are on facebook.

I have always loved subspace and though the time is right to make a similar game for the browser.

 

How can i help?

You can help by becoming a tester during the beta period, and we may need some alpha testers as well.

I will also update this forum with new ships that are going to be in the game, and drawings by our concept artist so the community can help pick the ships.

 

 

 

Updates

 

First Ship Modeled

 

 

Second ship concepts

Edited May 18, 2011 by atarax

[seand88]

Final ship iteration for the stealth fighter

[Dav]

nice models,

 

any chance you will make them available to the subspace community in the future?

[seand88]

Haven't really thought about it, if i released anything i would just release the sprite sheets produced by the models.

 

Also if anyone has a cool idea for the next ship let me know!

[Resol]

I would suggest making them having some sort of theme / style.

 

The two ships posted are 100% different. I just think it should be a set of ships with similar style.

[seand88]

yeah i know what you mean.

 

The first ship was modeled after a pixel art picture i drew

 

The rest of them like the second will be drawn out by a concept artist out so they will follow in the same style.

When the models get down to the sprite sheet though you don't notice the variation as much.

[seand88]

Hi Everyone,

 

Things have been coming along smoothly, working on server side collision and some lag compensation stuff.

Also setup up the database to track players stats and some other things.

 

Here is concept art for the new bomber.

[»jabjabjab]

Atarax, do you need someone to help model these ships? I could be of service. Here is my portfollio for ship modeling: http://s559.photobucket.com/albums/ss31/XDreamersMS/Continuum/Ship_Modeling/

 

Dont forget there are sub-albums to the right.

 

Anyways nice concept.

[seand88]

hey actually i had a 3d modeler do the last ship and it didnt turn out great at all.

send me an email at seandime@gmail.com and let me know what you charge maybe we can work something out.

 

Here are some new screenshots of in-game.

 

Shot of the lobby in progess, select your ship then can quick-join or join a game from a list that will be on the right.

 

Here is an in-game shot with the minimap, chat.

Edited June 22, 2011 by atarax

[seand88]

Forgot to mention, ETA for a beta is around 4 months we have been moving along smoothly.

 

What game modes would you like to see? Beta will have deathmatch and we will expand after that.

 

What do you think of a ladder ranking system tracked by your score from kills/deaths?

Edited June 22, 2011 by atarax

[Dr Brain]

Just remember that without community run zones, your game cannot replace SS.

[»Lynx]

Flash? M'kaye

[seand88]

Just remember that without community run zones, your game cannot replace SS.

 

 

The goal of the project isnt to replace subspace, but have a similar game with additional game modes, which the community wants.

Also to be playable in a browser, this leads to 0 download time and the hope is to bring new players to the genre. Right now the

subspace player base has seemed kind of static and I havent seen many new players coming in.

 

But maybe you guys have?

Just want to bring new players to the game genre.

[L.C.]

So basically you minus the "community run zones" and plus "additional game modes, which the community wants"?

[seand88]

yeah basically instead of community run zones the community will decide which game modes to add.

 

The reason being the server costs money and requires a license for the software. I am using middleware for it because i don't have time

to write my own multi-threaded game server.

 

If the game is received well i can invest time into redeveloping the server on my own so we can have community created zones, or making is extendable through a scripting language so

people can run their own servers, but that would be a future consideration.

Edited June 23, 2011 by atarax

[seand88]

I also want to add the creation of community maps is also already a possibility.

If you want to create your own map for the game simply download tiled from http://www.mapeditor.org/

 

The maps are loaded directly from the exported map.

[»Xog]

Why not open your project - perhaps there are some folks here who can take a peek and suggest / help you ?

[»Lynx]

How is this any different to that last flash game that 'was just like Subspace'?

 

Anyway, I know a lot of you might perceive this is a jerk thing to say but unless you're going to bring something to the community then why are you here?

 

1. We don't want closed software, it's useless to everybody when;
   
2. The single guy with all the power gets bored and has a 6 year break because;
   
3. The game isn't making the money that it was initially making/supposed to make
   

 

Unless of course I'm wrong; you intend on making open source software, knowing that points two and three above become much harder to fulfill if you do.

[Dr Brain]

I disagree with Lynx about open source being a requirement, but I agree with his basic question: Why are you here?

 

I think you'd have a lot more luck with Cosmic Rift players, where they're used to the "community" being dictated to them.

[»jabjabjab]

I've played Cosmic Rift, but besides SOE being dictator i never truely felt this, but it was just for a couple weeks or so.

[seand88]

Here to get the opinion of the community, and when there is a beta i can post links/updates for people to try it out.

 

Also here to find people that are passionate about the genre, and i have already found one person who is going to model the rest of

the 3d ships for the game, from this forum post. (jabjabjab)

 

Dont really care about cosmic rift. Like i said, if enough people want community run zones i can make it a reality.

 

I don't intend to make a bunch of money off this project, just hopefully enough to keep the servers running and to be able to host tournaments with prizes.

Edited June 26, 2011 by atarax

[seand88]

just wanted to update, were still on track for a beta in 3 months.

 

First alpha version will be ready in a month so if anyone wants to be an alpha tester send me a pm, or reply in this thread with your email address.

We will schedule the testing 1-2 times a week and meet over a voice program, most likely vent or teamspeak.

 

Thanks!

[seand88]

Hi Everyone, We really need some testers for the game. If anyone is interested shoot me an email at seandmnd@gmail.com

 

It will be a small commitment probably 1-2 hours a week and we will meet on Sundays.

 

Thanks