I'm gearing up for the first release of Distant Star, a 4x (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) space game. It's a giant, touch-based love letter to classic 4x space games like Master of Orion and Spaceward Ho!, mixed in with some of the better ideas from Sword of the Stars and Civ V. The game is almost done -- I'm putting the finishing touches on the AI as you read this -- and I'm looking for a double-handful of eager old-school gamers to give it a good beta-testing. There's a ton more screenshots over at my dev blog for the game, where I'm posting regular updates. If you're interested, take a look -- and if you want to get your hands on a pre-release copy (and help make the final game even better!) let me know! I'm aiming for an early-November release, so keep your eyes peeled for updates on Distant Star over the next few weeks!
Holy crap, I'd love a hardcore 4X game on the iPhone! If only I had time to play it, I'd be thrilled to help test... Keep us informed, I'll definitely pick this up when it comes out, time to play or no.
I'll beta test. I've been waiting and drooling for some old school moo style 4x for my ipad since i got it! can't wait
Beta The first round beta is out! If you're still interested in playing an early version of the game, send me a PM and I'll get you in on the second round. In the meantime, what are some cool features that you think the game needs to include? Right now I'm working on tracking a bunch of stats (in preparation for supporting GameCenter achievements), but I'd love to hear some ideas from you guys on what a 4x game like this needs to have, or what neat things you liked from other 4x games. Talk to me!
Things I'd like to see: - Multiple paths toward victory -- combat, diplomacy, cultural domination, etc. This adds both to the re-playability, as well as supporting different playing styles. I always tried to play MOO2 to a diplomacy win if possible. - Races that are really different, not just different skins and a couple of trait plusses and minuses. Example: I loved how in Space Empires you could have races that were gas giant dwellers, which meant that they could co-exist in systems with rock planet species (until late in the game when terraforming tech was developed -- then all bets were off). Alternate tech trees for different races might be too much to ask for (and too hard to balance), but hey, you asked.. - Surprises! Add some interesting and unexpected events/discoveries (eg. ancient artifacts, space plagues, rare tech that isn't on the standard tech tree, etc).
A good presentation with a nice campaign. I heard ascendency is also being ported to the iPad so you might have some stiff competition by the end of the year. Just make sure it's good.
I hadn't heard Ascendancy was coming! (Started a separate thread about it here.) The more space 4x games on iOS, the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.
@magihiro, FPE -- I'm here, man, I'm here! The feedback from the first round of betas was astounding; unfortunately, I tried to work in as many of the fixes and suggestions I received before I answered anyone, and it ended up taking me the better part of a week and a half. But it's done now, and I sent out another (second, probably final) build a couple of days ago. If you didn't get one (and you'd like to!), let me know -- I think I answered all of the feedback emails I received, but I may have missed one or two. @simulated I really, really want to have all of those things -- but at the moment, they're mostly going to have to wait. I've got a framework for multiple, different races, but I'm having a hard enough time balancing one race as it is. My plan is to wait and get some more data/feedback from the human-only version, then release additional races as (free) updates later on. As far as multiple paths to victories goes, Distant Star is minimalist by design, and I want to keep things (relatively) simple. In GalCiv or Civ * I'm usually a cultural victory kind of guy, myself -- so I'd definitely like to include some non-combat victory paths if I can. Surprises, though? I like that idea. *goes away to code* @Stirolak26 Ascendancy! Very cool -- I'm writing Distant Star because I want to play a 4x space game on my iPad, so I'm thrilled to hear there's more on the way. Democrytus looks pretty cool, too...
Thanks to iDos I'm playing Ascendancy on my iPad right now! And running Stars! on Windows 3.1 too! Does this mean I'm not spending as much time developing Democrytus? Possibly... +1 for 4x space strategy games! I see this as the beginning of a revival!
