Star Nomad 2, Updated Trailer!

Dude this is looking amazing! Great job so far!

Seeing a game like this reminds me I have so much to learn, ha.

The layered approach to showing outerspace is a great idea. It makes the world seem so deep.

MadSpy

Bonesey

Thanks! It's nice to know I'm on the right track at least!

icugigasoft

I felt the same when I first saw Aurel's The Next Penelope at the start of last year. It was my wake up call. Back then I had no idea how to make a complex game, so I learnt by making Star Nomad, that taught me a lot and I felt confident enough to embark on making a game that I've always wanted, but just lacking in talent to do.

That's the cool thing about C2, it looks and is simple to use, but it offers a lot of depth, as much as you need to make the most complex of games.

Update: Planet art overhaul

Major planets will be the main destinations for the bulk of the game, including conquest, as such they need to look impressive & unique.

In order to achieve that, I have separate sections that can assemble to make unique looking planets, ie, landmasses, oceans, other terrain features so there’s going to be lots of variety in SNII.

The atmosphere has a few layers which are semi-dynamic to give it depth, especially in motion and the dark crescent corresponds to the star within that system.

Open image in separate window for full size: https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... net-02.jpg

https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... net-03.jpg

https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... net-04.jpg

When you approach and slow down, a docking icon appear and its just a simple click to request docking. I’m planning on doing some NPC comms, confirming docking or denying docking (based on faction standing).

Currently I’m undecided if players should be able to dock during combat or not… there’s pros & cons that need to be weighted carefully, but I dislike the idea that combat engagements can be instantly disengaged with zero risk.

Planets do look awesome. Keep up the great work. Are you using your experience with molecular biology to create resilient bugs in your programming code? Oh wait...nevermind...that's probably not a good idea.

One word — ... Impressive! Keep it up!

Very nice work.

Loving it, —! I can't wait to see it all come together.

Thanks guys!

I've decided to move away from a static BG and make it more dynamic.

Now it's a base nebula type without stars, add dynamic shimmering stars , add some storm fx, make it darker and add more parallax dust specs that's visible only when players are flying/moving (to give it depth perception).

By doing this, I can do away with the dust cloud parallax layers that gave the game a faded look, as some of the earlier art input was correct. Now it looks sharper & the moving nebula clouds & stars raise the overall feel a lot.

https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... port-3.jpg

Better?

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This just keeps looking better and better

It looks really good i like space games in general, but sadly there is not a whole lot of good ones out there.

Only thing would comment on, is the movement behaviour of the ships. Kinda looks like its cars moving around, maybe make it so they move according to the engine-thrusters. So you would need side-way thruster to pan left and right etc.

Keep up the good work, im gonna start following your progress.

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I have side thrusters for all the AI ships originally, it was a continuous stream, but I wanted to save some CPU cycles so I cut it down to only fire once per turning initiation. It doesn't look as obvious.

For the player & squad ships, the side-thrusters are continuous streams, fire left to turn right & vice versa.

This one is earlier on, but you can see the movement & thrusters for the AI in action. Note that it fires the side thrusters only once per turning maneuver initiation.

Video of a major 3 faction battle:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzblvP ... NseTg/view

Let me know if you got more feedback!

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I see Then i guess you got that covered as well. ^^

Beautiful concept, and very beautiful immersive environment created. I confess I have a bit of trouble to create space objects and spacecraft in pixel art, but space concept has always attracted me enough then I admire the games made with this theme

gillenew Thanks, but I suck worse at pixel art, I don't even understand how all you guys manage to make so few pixels look so cool. :p

Finally finished the AI Conquest system as well as lots of random Global Events.

Also the dynamic Star Map!

Lots more info on my devblog:

https://halfgeekstudios.wordpress.com/2 ... he-player/

The tiny fleet icons move & fight on the star map, firing weapons & little explosions! Going for more polish. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy">

Also, I suck at making logos...

Best I could come up with:

Or