@lobster, on 07 August 2011 - 07:32 PM, said in So uh, I'm cloning Nova.:

EV Developer's Corner for a game that isn't EV ... hmm ...

This is the place where Hamster is most likely to pick up a sound guy and scripter. I did consider re-bouncing this topic to Just Games after leaving a link here, but we'll see what happens, I guess.

I'll just toss in my +1 with prophile. He gave a pretty good explanation of why Java kind of sucks, but the main thing to me is that it takes 20 (very long) lines to do something in Java that takes just a couple in another language. Java preserves its object-oriented philosophy to the extreme, and it often results in a great deal more effort by the coder himself to do pretty basic things. It can be slower to run, but not necessarily. My main criticisms are in programming time and reading comprehension. What Java is good at, Java is great at, but I'd really look at some other options. If your college coder friend is at all competent, he can pick up a new language over a weekend, if Java just happens to be the only language he knows currently and that's why you're making the game with it. Like anything, the language of your code is just a tool. You have to decide what tool is best for the job, rather than conform your job to fit the tool. I think, with a little research, the libraries you can get with another language will make the decision for you.

But hey, if you do go with Java, I'm like Super Java Man, so I could totally play with your code someday if it was released.

SCREENSHOTS!

I will post them, tonight even. I am going out for dinner, and when I return I'll see if this machine has a build I can take some screens of.

@hamster, on 11 August 2011 - 10:54 PM, said in So uh, I'm cloning Nova.:

SCREENSHOTS!

Right here I was all, "Yay!"

Quote

I will post them, tonight even. I am going out for dinner, and when I return I'll see if this machine has a build I can take some screens of.

Then here I was all, "##### you."

I am interested, though. Do you happen to have names for the 3 major powers yet? A rough outline for storylines? Anything besides screenshots you can share that you haven't already?

Cool. Will this just be PC, or are you using the general term Personal Computer? Cause if it's just for windows, then you can take something of yours and do something rude to your invisible cat.

What the stupid, self. It's java.

-K

This post has been edited by Kasofa1 : 11 August 2011 - 11:35 PM

@chamrin, on 11 August 2011 - 08:54 AM, said in So uh, I'm cloning Nova.:

Then again, Star Wars is pretty generic too.

Yes, I think Space Empires is nicely open — it makes me expect something that has some story but isn’t too heavily plotted, like the original Escape Velocity.

Are you using the same models for flight physics and the hyperdrive, or do you have new mechanics for those functions?

Pretty much exactly what darth said. After August, I'm relatively free to do some editing/scripting if you're looking. If not, that's cool too. Looking forward to the end result.

@david-arthur, on 12 August 2011 - 08:14 AM, said in So uh, I'm cloning Nova.:

Are you using the same models for flight physics and the hyperdrive, or do you have new mechanics for those functions?

I hope they’re using general relativity, or at least special. That way when it’s multiplayer, people will see time passing at different rates.

But if the gameplay is relativistic, won’t that be incompatible with the quantum game mechanics?

Awesome project Hamster! Are you going to be painting sprites or are you going to be rendering models for the sprites? There's a blogpost here I found interesting about going from concept art to sprite with a ship, you might find it interesting.

So for concept art, you can scroll down on This Page and look at some ship designs, and here are the promised screenies:

I don't know why there's a bunch of white space in this one, but this is the proof of concept title screen, replete with gross fonts and ugly buttons:

This is an in-game screenshot, you can see our lolsteroids and another ship of the same class nearby.

IMMA FIRIN IT!

Not bad. A little cartoony, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

you know what engine would make a great EV like game? HGE, the engine behind hammerfight.

also, hamster beat me to it

Just FYI, the name "Space Empires" has been taken already.

Another great engine to learn game programming is Unity 3D. http://unity3d.com/
It's simple enough to make a quick 2.5D arcade game which is perfect for making a space rpg.
Check out this asteroid game:
http://matteley.word...ids-style-demo/

The good thing with Unity is you don't have to worry about choosing different frameworks and trying to get them to work together. The IDE is also very good.

I will volunteer if you ever move to Unity.