I think it is fitting that for the first real post and it being the new year, that I give an overview of where the game stands today. As Universe Zero is an online multiplayer strategy game, there are three broad areas of development: Infrastructure, Gameplay & Story. This State of the Game, I am going to focus on Gameplay.
There is a motto in programming:
first make it work, then make it right, then make it fast!
That works for business software but for games, I might adjust it a little:
first make it work, then make it fun, then make it awesome!.
I'll use this structure then to describe what I think is Working, what I think is Fun and what I think is Awesome
What is Working
Exploration & Movement
You can explore Planets, Star Systems, and Sectors. This allows you to move about the world, interact with other sentients and find resources.
Ship Building
You can expand your ship hull (and recycle) and configure the Ship Components. All of the relevant stats are wired up. The Shields Generators actually cover their surrounding Ship Components from damage. You can optimize heat dissipation, power and efficiency of every Ship Component.
Drone Operations
Drones are going to play a huge gameplay role. There are drones for resource collection, defense, offense and support. The ability to order your drones around and keep tabs on their operations is working.
Trading
Basic trading workflows to interact with other Sentients. You can trade Ship Components currently. Trading Alloy and Deuterium will also be supported.
Chatting
You can chat with the other Sentients, whether NPC or Players. The basic AI structures in the game are working and ability for each AI to be self directed.
Battles
The ability to attack and defend, issue Battle Orders (selecting which Ship Components to target with which Weapons), & manage your energy systems.
What I think is Fun
Ship Architecture
It’s a lot of fun to me to play around with the Ship Layout and configuration of the Ship Components. Every Ship Component has a specific role, place to be, and impacts the other Ship Components. The UI gives good feedback on what Stats are changing realtime and the optimization is a lot of fun.
Battle Strategy
I think the layering to the Battles is my favorite gameplay mechanic and is matching my hopes for it. I am going for a chess like strategy experience rather than checkers, I want the player to feel the joy of executing great strategy, thinking ahead, and responding to the environment. The battles have layers, from your power systems which must stay in balance (Shields, Capacitors, and Weapons), then your Offensive targeting of the enemy, where every Ship Component is individually targetable, and lastly your defensive operations, choosing what to repair and what to let go. Even though I wrote the algorithms and know what the game should be doing, the battles are layered enough that even I have to respond to the strategic realities presented by the AI, which was my goal.
What I think is awesome
Well other than the overall game direction itself, not a whole lot yet! There is a lot of polish to do. I think it’s all heading in the right direction though and the glimmers of my vision are coming together into the game. I hope to say by 2022 that all these features will be awesome!
The plan for 2021
There is still a lot of make it work to do. My goal is to continue building the core systems with an eye on a playable min-game/demo of these systems in the next 6 months, one that we can all play as a community while development continues. As the grand vision for the game will take many years to unfold, I want to prioritize the development towards something working and playable.
Discuss and let me know what you think in Discord!
