Author: Produno

DevSlog

Improvements to core features

Produno

With the initial test build released on Itch.io i have spent a bit of time making improvements to some of the core features of the game to improve usability.

When multi selecting an item it will now only select up to 200 items of that type, this should help performance if you have too many objects that are the same. I also removed the ability to multi select hull pieces as there are always quite a few of these for each ship. There should also not be any reason for you wanting to multi select all hull.
To further improve performance, I added a VisibilityNotifier to each Entity in the game, this is a node provided by the Godot engine and allows us to check which items are being shown on the screen, or what the player can actually see. Using this we can now make sure only those on the actual screen will be selected.

Multi Select

I further improved the multi build tool adding new sounds to let the player know when the multi build has started. Unfortunately you cannot hear those sounds in the gif below. I now need to allow multi build for removing build objects and blueprints.

Multi Build

Skin and Hair Colours

I have moved skin and hair colours into a separate JSON file. This allows modders to easily change what colours they want in the game and for which race to assign them to. As you can see below, the pawn data file accepts an array of colour categories, this means you can create separate categories of skin tones and add as many as you want to each race.

The Skin Colours data file.
The Skin Colours data file.
The Pawn/Human data file
The Human data file.

This also means you could have different coloured skin tones for humans too if you really wanted.

Green Human
Information

SpaceSlog now has an Itch.io page

Produno

I have now created a page on itch.io for Spaceslog which can be viewed by clicking the widget below

We will be using Itch.io so our testers have an easy and convenient way to download the game. I have yet decided if we will be using the platform to sell the game, though it is looking likely. Mainly as there are not many downsides to doing so and it should be much easier and cheaper to release here in early access before we decide to release on Steam or anywhere else.

Anyhow, we are still quite a long way out before we can start to think about official releases, but if you wish to help and assist with the development of the game you can offer up your services to become a tester. I have created a post over on our forums where you can do just that.

Will a demo be available?

I have been thinking of a way where i can offer up a demo for a limited time before people are prompted to purchase the game. The idea is that every updated release will have a certain amount of hours playable before the game is locked and needs to be purchased. This means throughout early access you get to try each update and decide which of those updates you feel would be a good entry for you to purchase the game. With every update the hours would reset, meaning you get a couple of hours to test each build.

Currently i am still working a day job whilst working on this game and having something like this available would make me feel much more comfortable working on the game and updating when needed, instead of trying to push out updates that may not be ready to try and appease all those that had purchased the game and expected more.

This is something i do still need to look into however and the plausibility of doing so. Once i do receive enough interest in the game i will most likely switch to working on this full time anyhow.

You can find us at other links too:

Discord

DevSlog

Building, objects and materials

Produno

My main goal for any game mechanics associated with building and the building objects themselves should be flexibility, extensibility and ease of use. Not only for those that want to modify the files but also for the players playing the game.

In other words the menus should be intuitive and easy to read, whilst giving all the information required to quickly build any of the objects available. Anyone wanting to modify the files should be able to do so easily and with the least amount of friction possible.

I also wanted materials to change the appearance of the item whilst also changing its composition, from how it reacts in the world to how much health it has etc.

A lot of time was spent iterating upon the UI and adjusting the mechanics of the game associated with building and materials to fit the criteria set out above. Below you can see the menu I finally settled upon, though be aware that like most other things in this game, it is still a work in progress and could be subject to change.

Build Menu
Build Menu

You can see from the above image we have a primary material and a secondary material. Not every object will require two different material types to build and this can be modified in the JSON files if required. Below you can see this item requires 3 of either Titanium or Gold plus 2 Silicon. These materials can be further modified via another JSON file.

"material_types": {
        	"primary_mats": ["Titanium", "Gold"],
        	"primary_mats_amount": 3,
        	"secondary_mats": ["Silicon"],
        	"secondary_mats_amount": 2,
        },

Below you can see the effects of the different primary material types (Secondary material types will not change the colour of the objects). This is achieved by using a shader and a mask material which can be input into the JSON file.

The effect of different primary materials.

Adding new objects should be as easy as copying and pasting a similar object, changing parts of its data and pointing it to your texture file in your module folder.

As usual, if you have any questions then feel free to head on over to our forums where I will be happy to reply.

DevSlog, Information

Title Screen Artwork

Produno
Title Screen Artwork
Click to expand

Our current artist Leone Simonetti (You can find more of his work here) has created new background artwork for the title screen. Although the previous art looked very good i did not think it fits the intended atmosphere of the game correctly. Hopefully the new art created by Leone better encapsulates that feeling of being lost in the vast emptiness of space with a smattering of lonely alien planets and derelict space stations that can be explored. You can probably see some influences here from The Expanse too.


Let me know what you think!

DevSlog

Modability

Produno

My background in gamedev comes from modding games, which i’ve been doing for the past decade. With over half a million unique downloads the most popular modification being A World of Ice and Fire for Mount and Blade Warband. I could only dream for SpaceSlog to reach a similar amount of popularity. I do of course realise there are many factors as to why the mod was and still is so popular. Having been set within the Game of Thrones world being one of them and being created for an already well established game another.

But i didn’t write this post to talk about mods in other games. I wrote this post to talk specifically about mod support in SpaceSlog.

JSON

I decided to use JSON to hold all external data which is then imported into internal data structures on initial game load. All of the games data is contained in a folder aptly named DATA and can be accessed and changed by anyone brave enough to do so. You can also copy any data here and paste it into your own MODULES folder. Once this mod has been ticked in the ingame mod menu, you will be prompted to restart the game where all these files will be added to that internal data structure we previously mentioned.

Below you can see the current ingame module menu. I still need to add a few things here – an image preview the modder can add plus the ability to adjust mod load order. This will allow the player to decide which mods should or can overwrite other mods if they contain objects with the same ID’s.

Modification select menu

I wont go into the specifics on how modding actually works in this post. That will be for another time but here is a quick example of an item in SpaceSlog and how it looks like in the JSON file. It’s also worth noting that everything here can still change dramatically, though i think i have the basic architecture down for this now.

    "CryoPod": {
        "object_class": "Furniture",
        "object_name": "Cryo Pod",
        "description": "Freezes creatures in time, allowing them to rest for as long as this item has power.",
        "movement_cost": 0,
        "deterioration_rate": 10,
        "flammability": 40,
        "market_value": 200,
        "comfort": 1,
        "material_types": {
        	"primary_mats": ["Titanium", "Gold"],
        	"primary_mats_amount": 3,
        	"secondary_mats": ["Silicon"],
        	"secondary_mats_amount": 2,
        },
        "engineering_skill_required": 3,
        "work_to_build": 1,
        "work_to_uninstall": 1,
        "rotatable": true,
        "draw_width": 1,
        "draw_height": 2,
        "width": 1,
        "height": 2,
        "health": {
            "max_health": 100,
        },
        "graphics": {
            "graphics_class": "GraphicsMultiple",
            "shader_type": "ColourMask",
            "textures": {
                "texture_path": "Textures/Entities/Building/Furniture/CryoPod",
            },
        },
        "component_nodes": {
        	"PowerReceiver": {
        		"power_required": 50,
        	},
        	"Light": {
            	        "light_map_path": null,
        	},
        },
    },

You can see above there are lots of options for the modder to change, including being able to add any pre-built components to any object in the game. I hope to eventually allow the possibility to create new components too. This could mean endless possibilities for mod creation.

Conclusion

Mod support is something i am very passionate about and i have spent a lot of extra time to ensure good mod compatibility for SpaceSlog. I cannot wait to get the game out there and see what weird and wonderful things people can come up with. I expect to see strange new worlds and unthinkable alien races among other things! If you want to discuss further or have ideas for mod support, then please either head on over to our Forums or join our Discord.