[Trevor Bradley]

OK, because the interest seems so high, here's build 55 of my possible future Pandora game "Galactic Artifact"



Galactic Artifact 0055 Pre Alpha Release for Windows, Linux

Again, this is an UNFINISHED GAME. Please go easy on me!

Two requests:

1) PLEASE read the Readme.txt file. The game is incomplete and I'm aware there are many bugs and/or broken features... I'm working on a lot of them. (EDIT: yes, the readme is messy and unedited.. I whipped it up over the past hour)
2) PLEASE don't distribute this file. Feel free to download it from the link here though. This is a pre-alpha build and I'm a bit hesitant about sharing my work in an unfinished state.

EDIT: A quick note (as I didn't make this clear in the already messy readme), the games values for prices of artifacts, upgrades, fuel, as well as the speed of the ship, consumption of fuel are somewhat arbitrary at the moment and have not been optimized! Personally I believe this ship is a bit too fast at the moment in the late game, and too slow in the early game. I think the later, more expensive ship upgrades are too cheap.

This post has been edited by Trevor Bradley: 09 January 2009 - 11:51 PM

[adamorjames]

Thanks man

[shodan]

Holy shit. I´m far too tired to play it now sincere. Only took a quick look and so far:
music is great. simple, spacy and suits perfect to the theme of the game
Also how you accomplished the process of zooming in and out of the galaxy. feels good. just did that for 10 minutes
maybe tomorrow I´ll find out how to actually play this fine game :]
Thanks Mr Bradley for letting us take a look into your project and all the best for the further future

[jakewastaken]

I read through the readme and have been playing it for the last ten minutes or so.

Nice work so far!

[sverm]

Wow! A load of fun! Still some rough edges, as you mentioned, but great work so far!

[jakewastaken]

I just beat the game. Can't wait to see more work done on this.

I didn't use any cheats and it took me like 2 hours. I don't know if that's bad or good, but I took a screenshot if anyone wants to compare stats,upgrades, time spent, or whatever.

This post has been edited by jakewastaken: 10 January 2009 - 03:48 AM

[Trevor Bradley]

I just beat the game. Can't wait to see more work done on this.

I didn't use any cheats and it took me like 2 hours. I don't know if that's bad or good, but I took a screenshot if anyone wants to compare stats,upgrades, time spent, or whatever.

2 hours is a bit extreme... My wife and I have each won without cheats in less that 20 minutes. The starting position is critical though.

My wife says she has had a few games that took over an hour.

[jakewastaken]

I just beat the game. Can't wait to see more work done on this.

I didn't use any cheats and it took me like 2 hours. I don't know if that's bad or good, but I took a screenshot if anyone wants to compare stats,upgrades, time spent, or whatever.

2 hours is a bit extreme... My wife and I have each won without cheats in less that 20 minutes. The starting position is critical though.

My wife says she has had a few games that took over an hour.

I was really distracted at the time too, so cut me some slack I started on the complete other side of the star system.

[Trevor Bradley]

I was really distracted at the time too, so cut me some slack I started on the complete other side of the star system.

I forgot to mention in the README that P or PAUSE will actually pause the game timer.

I think I had a game running for a few hours one evening while I went for dinner. That and I had to do some testing to ensure that at 100 minutes the clock rolled over to 1h40m.... )

I am pondering a system where players of similar skill will be matched against each other... Dunno if the game will have that many simultaneous users though.

This post has been edited by Trevor Bradley: 10 January 2009 - 04:49 AM

[sinoth]

Excellent job! This is an extremely chill, relaxing game. I'm enjoying it Only played about 10 minutes, so no constructive feedback yet, but I wanted to shower you with praise first. Back to exploring the galaxy...

Edit: Just finished my first game, took an hour The only beef I have so far is that sometimes it's hard to select a star if it isn't obvious which direction to push, or other stars are very close. Not sure how to fix this... maybe a button you can hold down to make the selection cursor "floating" (not snapped to stars) and when you release the button, the star closest to your cursor is selected. Also, some key combination to zoom ALL the way out would be nice.

I definitely see some potential for multiplayer!

Edit 2: As far as multiplayer is concerned, going head-to-head with others is a pretty obvious game mode, but I think it'd also be neat to play co-op with someone. Maybe increase the universe size and allow the players to both benefit from information they receive.

This post has been edited by sinoth: 10 January 2009 - 06:30 AM

[blendenzo]

Hey, that was a lot of fun! I can only imagine how cool this game will be to play against others. I played it on Linux, and putting the libSDL_gfx.so.0 in /usr/lib worked fine.

It took me 95 minutes to win on my first playthrough, but I started in a rather desolate area on the opposite side of the map from the artifact. I learned a few strategies along the way, so I imagine future games will be much quicker.

Just out of curiosity, will the number pad controls still be functional in the final Pandora version? If so, I might use my USB number pad as a controller, since the current controls seem to work rather well.

[Trevor Bradley]

Just out of curiosity, will the number pad controls still be functional in the final Pandora version? If so, I might use my USB number pad as a controller, since the current controls seem to work rather well.

Short answer, yes. No reason to take this out. The number keys on the rest of the keyboard work as well.

I'll be sure to test it with an external USB keyboard to make sure it works properly before release.

[Mithrildor]

This looks like a phone layout. Cant you chance the: 123456789 for:
QWE
ASD
ZXC

that is much better, or just replace it by clicking.

[Trevor Bradley]

This looks like a phone layout. Cant you chance the: 123456789 for:
QWE
ASD
ZXC

that is much better, or just replace it by clicking.

It's supposed to be like a phone layout. Is that problematic? The sector numbers are even like North American seven digit phone numbers (XXX-XXXX), it's intentional.

Q is presently mapped to Quit, as is Escape... both of which are bad choices. QWE/ASD/ZXC is easy enough to do.... 60 seconds... done... in svn build 58. You'll need to use SPACE to back out (the KP_0 key). I've left Escape as quit.

Any mouse interface I was going to hold off on... I'd rather get a D-Pad interface up

Again, this is a pre-alpha release. I'm not expecting there to *be* a keypad or even need for the keyboard in the final Pandora version (if possible)

[Mithrildor]

Ok , kewl. Now it fits more for the pandora. Btw forgotten to metion this: It looks awesome. Seems a very nice game (you got inspired of Spore's space stage or is that just me?)