What was the inspiration behind the making of this game? Is the music in the gameplay video also the music in the game? How are updates earned? Do you have to unlock them first or are they always available and you just have to earn enough money to buy them?
Hey everyone! We just posted the details of our Space Miner Immortality Package Giveaway in our Promo Codes and Contests thread. To view the details, check it out here! Until Saturday at midnight, we'll be fielding questions from YOU about the game, our company, anything! So ask questions, get answers, and maybe win a place in Space Miner history!
The game looks really great. And I'd love to have a section named after me so here we go: It seems that you're into the community relations a bit, but I'm wondering, I hate when devs make a game and then go MIA to their next project, are you willing to hear you community even after the game is out and update/upgrade/expand the game in the eventually that it is needed and asked for by your community? What are your though about DLC? And about DLC in this particular game?
The graphics are very well done, what other game(s) influenced yours? It looks well designed I will def pick it up as soon as it's released. Thanks, Ryan
Hi songbird! The inspiration for the game started as a simple asteroids-type game - we wanted to try and make simple games that were fun and short. We weren't too pleased with the original prototype and instead reworked the concept from scratch. We kept the core inspiration - which was blowing up asteroids - but added a ton of new stuff like ship customization, a fun storyline, a non-linear game world, and various mission types. Actually, you can read about the early making-of stuff for Space Miner on our company blog! I actually just wrote up a post talking about it. To answer your second question, the trailer music is absolutely in the game! It's the Space Miner theme, and - like the rest of the soundtrack - was composed and performed by the excellent Robert Euvino and his Night Owl Productions. To answer your third question, the upgrades you can buy are based on your Space Miner license level. You earn new license levels by earning money and completing missions in the game. You can also salvage upgrades from derelict spaceships scattered throughout the asteroid field.
is there any tactic in the game or is it just shoot everything you possibly can? and are there any types of enemies and bosses? thanks
I am excited seeing the progress! Just like me, I want to ask about items! Hangar view and minning ship looks stuning, but how many items will we have? How many combination? Can we expect paitings or vinyls? Also, do You plan any social options? Like messages on Facebook: "I just mined 24-carat diamond, and You didn't! Beat that!" One more, essential question - do You plan multiplayer? Cooperate missions in search & destroy style? I am not sure if You mentioned something about it earlier. Waiting impatiently for reply,
Hi Khamous, We're definitely into supporting this game and making it better over time. As of right now we're already planning some new features as well as a demo and localized version of the game for our first update. We develop a lot of games but this is the first we've released as ourselves for the iPhone. Generating a community and interacting with them is incredibly exciting for us, hence why we're trying to kick start things with this promotion. I think DLC can be done both well and poorly. We were very traditional in our approach to developing Space Miner, and we wanted to create a full experience out of the box. As such, we weren't planning for DLC as part of this game. If we did, I would want it to be more like an expansion pack as opposed to paying .99 for a new ship hull or gun or something. That's pretty lame I think.
Thanks for the answer. And yes, DLC is bladly implemented lately. Since it came out devs are more into developing half a game and charging to DLC the rest of it. IMO that is pretty lame so it has made me hate DLC a lot, hence the question. About the game itself, I saw the screens in the other topic, the whiteboard, the descriptions and the images etc, and I was wondering, will the game have such good humour? Or you'll take a serious approach for it? Because I've seen that you've got it in you to make a pretty funny game.
Hi therhino! Thanks for your question! I'd say the biggest influence for the gameplay came from the classic Asteroids, but throughout the game's development we added a lot of gameplay features from games that we all really enjoyed. The loot collection and ship upgrade system was based on our love for games like Diablo, for example, and the storyline's humor and writing was influenced largely by old-school LucasArts and Sierra adventure games. We also love open-world RPGs and adventure titles, so we designed the storyline so you could explore the sector freely without having to do every mission. It really is a melting pot of some of our favorite games!
Hi jak, We've actually got a lot of different enemy types on top of the various asteroids and obstacles in the game! There are also boss enemies that have different attack patterns and powers from normal enemy types. As for strategy in defeating them, we've designed the ships so that you can take on enemies in a lot of different ways. It really does depend on how you build your ship and attach upgrades - you could buy a battle hull and equip it for mass destruction, or you could buy a speeder hull and equip it for speedy space dogfighting, for example. It's really up to you how you destroy enemies and complete missions!
@songbird Haha, no, we don't have a "making-of" video It would be cool to have those early design meetings captured on video, but every time we consider something like that, we end up focusing all of our efforts on the game design and not on capturing footage. Hopefully some more members of the development team will post some retrospectives on the Venan Blog? That would be a nice alternative!
Hi Khamous, Re: the storyline's humor, you'll have to let us know Rest assured that we did spend a lot of time trying to make it as funny and irreverent as possible. We were pretty tired of seeing games that have gritty storylines with generic space marines and wanted something a little more lighthearted. A story about the nefarious Mega Space Corporation and their plans to take over this backwater space mining business seemed like a great foundation for all sorts of bizarre space wackiness!
I had to look that up myself! There are 7 hull types and 84 items that can be equipped. Those are spread over seven different systems on the ship you can upgrade - Engine, Reactor, Shield, Weapons, Ore Collector, Scanner and finally Alien Tech. So in terms of combinations, thousands. We don't support skinning the ship unfortunately. The textures are all fixed but that is one of those things we'd be open to doing if we see demand for it. Social options - we support Plus+ awards and leaderboards. We don't have facebook messages or that sort of thing though. I don't think the game lends itself well to that because it a really long experience. But if you guys think otherwise once you play, we're all ears! Along those same lines, it doesn't lend itself well towards multi-player either, although it would be fun to fight other players. I'd love to explore that if we can get enough traction with this title. Perhaps a different game in the Space Miner universe?
Hello! I have a question, too! Will there be a leaderboard support like Open Feint or Plus+ be implemented in your game? I always love a good challenge - and your game would be perfect for archivements!
Hi Vovin, To answer your question, we actually do have Plus+ Leaderboards and awards/achievements in the game! Leaderboard scores are based on your final score when you complete the adventure, and we have 50 different awards that you can earn over the course of the game.
Personally, I think crystal is better than plus+ as it's more exclusive. The reskinning also makes it feel like part of the game, instead of an sdk which has been integrated to the game. Why don't you use crystal?
