I find it sad that the 3D RTS genre has died a death, games like Nexus: The Jupiter incident, Homeworld and Starfleet Command just aren't around any more and if I have to roll up my sleeves and drag the genre back from the pits of despair then so help me I will, I feel its time to don my indie cap and get amongst my companions. Hi my name is James and i've been geeking it out for quite a while. My first PC was an Amstrad 286 with 640kb of memory with 3 games; Prince of Persia (still a classic,) F15 and a golf game. Once i’d played the death out of all of those games I turned to cannibalising the operating system and that’s when I found QBasic. That was all I needed, from the age of 8 I was programming small computer games and apps. See my homepage for more information on me.
Previously the levels were pizza box shaped; now we’ve changed them to a cylinder shape. Not only does this feel more fitting when combined with the...
In the Overhaul, we get around that by splitting the play area into zones. Each zone might contain a series of installations lending it to a particular...
BZZZZZZ – THAWCK – ‘that sounds like XL weapons fire, a siege laser maybe, it can’t be here already…’ Spins camera round for a look and it’s...
Under the hood is also progressing well, taking the time to rewrite the base layers has paid its dues. With the implementation of NVIDIA Physx and all...
So as you’ve probably worked out, one of the distinguishing features of Shallow Space is concurrent activity spread across several play areas that we...
The game also now has a rudimentary AI that will simulate such tasks as auto-attacking, mining and trading (soon to be extended with patrolling etc...
In a 4X colonization would be that thing, but this is an RTS (an open-world one at that) so we have to think outside the box. But you don’t have to...
But we need to keep the maps fresh. One thing we learned from the current alpha is that isolated clusters of rocks and gas do little to create a juicy...
But why zones? Well there are inherent technical issues making a true open world space game, we found that the usable play area really falls far short...
Immediately playing the prototype it’s a vast difference, the smaller ships become much more fun especially the Markab destroyer which was previously...
We also added a sandbox level which has some very basic carrier stations in there, jump lanes and all the stuff we’re going to be using to build the...
Then we hit Steam, which is crazy! I’ve used it back since Halflife 1 days and to scroll through my Library and see ‘Shallow Space’ there, still...
Back in the trenches Mathias joins the project in an unexpected twist of good fortune, it’s a curious sensation actually as I remember peering over...
On the journey to Early Access last week I came to quite an unexpected crossroads. You see I took the scene that I’d been using to construct the tactical...
The game engine is progressing at a phenomenal rate, at lot of the stuff I did last month paved the way for this rapid progress so mechanically we are...
Work on Omega continues with a Medium Corvette model being unveiled, the artists now report they are ‘in the swing’ but there’s a short break while...
Finally we finally met a pair of web developers who are able to take a set of sketches and some instructions and build us a website worthy of the game...
...that’s when I got the first indicator that I’d made a mistake. The mistake was twofold I think; firstly blasting another game to get your point...
So it’s business as usual here at Special Circumstances, interesting ideas flying at me from all corners of the team as I silently enact Plan B which...
It was to be our first mistake because the $2000 we spend on advertising and press releases was essentially set on fire. We pushed the live button on...
So the main focus of this update has been to make the controls better conform to user expectations. The orbit camera becomes prevalent allowing the player...
So now we begin to settle into a frequent cycle of adding features to the demo and testing them. It's easier this way because we get to test the implementation...
By now (or sometime very soon) the Mac and PC demos should be online and ready for download, please take the time to work through the two tutorials which...
Another thing Brian showed you was how to fire a salvo of missiles using the 'Fire Single Salvo' button but you are also able to select the ship [correction...
Shallow Space allows players to control time, you can pause using the SPACE BAR to speed up time PERIOD to slow down time COMMA. When issuing commands...
What’s more? The demo will be released on PC and Mac. What’s more still? We recognise it will be an alpha demo with bugs, so we will be supporting...
Into the room walks Vincent Van Diemen, the producer of ‘Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.’ Now Vincent has been watching the project for some time now...
There was a moment in the week just past when my overworked fingers settled peacefully on the spacebar and I started to smile; it was the moment I realised...
Creating a game of this size from the comfort of my armchair was always an doomed romance but that’s OK because over the horizon marched other fellow...
Well would you look at that, we’re in the Top 100 indie games of the year! Now there’s something we’re most pleased with that especially looking...
No articles were found matching the criteria specified. We suggest you try the article list with no filter applied, to browse all available. Post article and help us achieve our mission of showcasing the best content from all developers. Join now to share your own content, we welcome creators and consumers alike and look forward to your comments.