Author Topic: Infiniverse  (Read 22197 times)

Tapio

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Infiniverse
« on: February 11, 2010, 09:17:25 PM »
Hi!
My long game project called Infiniverse just recently saw a first alpha release - Lone Explorer Edition, so I decided to come here to present it and to get some feedback from you good people.

Infiniverse is a procedural exploration game with ASCII graphics in a nearly infinite universe. The main game is a (modestly) massively multi-player online game, but the now released Lone Explorer Edition is limited to (among other things) single player.



So, you can explore the galaxy, wander through the nebulae, search for the rare star types and take a walk on the surface of millions of planets. At this point there really is not much else to do (although I forgot to properly disable some semi-hidden features), but I'd like hear your thoughts and improvement ideas.

RogueBasin article: here
Website: here
Pics & vids: here
LEE alpha1 download: link (Windows / Linux)

Cheers! :)

Rabiat

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Re: Infiniverse
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2010, 01:15:16 PM »
I tried your LEE alpha a couple of days ago. First of all, the ASCII graphics are amazing - if you're not using the Doryen library, you've done a great job at creating the effects it is known for. I especially liked the nebulae and star systems. The planet surfaces, not as much. I can see the difficulty in procedurally generating a continuous surface in real time, but it would look a lot better of you could get rid of the visible edges on map sections.

Infiniverse reminded me of Noctis' enormous universe, and, unfortunately, its lack of game elements. Using procedural generation to this extent is a feat in itself, and both Noctis and Infiniverse are wonderful demonstrations, but they're not games. As a foundation for a game however, the LEE version looks very promising, and I'll keep an eye out for future versions.

(Coincidentally, along with Infiniverse, I tried Prospector RL, which is also in early development and also has a space exploration theme. It complements Infiniverse in that it offers in gameplay what it lacks in presentation. I think the good qualities of one could inspire the other's development.)

It'd be awesome to see this develop into an MMO which allows players to somehow persistently alter the game world (colonization, development, terraforming, named locations, etc). Though I'm sure handling lots of non-procedural content in a practically infinite procedural universe would be challenging.

Tapio

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Re: Infiniverse
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2010, 05:16:17 PM »
Hi Rabiat,
thanks for feedback. I'm aware of the problems with the surface generator. I am going to get rid of the black borders eventually (probably by loading the adjacent 8 areas too and showing them seamless - then dynamically check if new areas need to be loaded when the player moves out of the center area). I'm also going to improve the surface in general, by mixing different fractal generators and adding more unique features to the detail level.

The multi-player version actually already supports persistent buildings (stored in the server). I.e. the build mode actually works (not in LEE) and people can see their structures (along with other players') in the game even after the server reboots. Terraforming was a great idea that I didn't think of, but because of "the problem of the infinity", there is going to be some limits (unless terraforming a whole planet at the time! :P ) Named planets is a planned feature.

Some gaming features are just around the corner, as there is an early missile implementation and some code for factories that players can build to "mine money". I just need to finish the networking code revamping first.

PS. I've also tried Prospector a couple of times and I saw that it really is already quite deep gameplaywise. Infiniverse will probably never have very complex role-playing thingies (like stats or something), and combat will play only a small part (shooting and avoiding homing missiles in real-time).

Slash

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Re: Infiniverse
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2010, 05:45:24 PM »
This project looks very nice, good luck developing it!

Another game worth examining is Privateer: ASCII Sector.

Krice

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Re: Infiniverse
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2010, 12:23:00 PM »
Is it a world builder or a game?

Tapio

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Re: Infiniverse
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2010, 02:28:03 PM »
Is it a world builder or a game?
Right now, neither, but later - both!
Well, maybe more of a game, "world building" is/will be limited to planting individual trees, smallish structures and space stations. Unless I get deep into the terraforming idea...