Stretch Goal Unlocked: Local Co-Op Gameplay
We just hit our tenth stretch goal: Local Co-Op Gameplay!
With Local Melee Gameplay already met, this means we'll have resources to implement the more technically challenging but exciting feature which will let two players experience the Adventure mode cooperatively, side-by-side in real life. Because our game supports dropping in and out of a game at any time online, the local co-op experience will be similar. Having fun and want someone to join you? Hand them a controller (or if your keyboard can handle it, make some room at your desk) and let them jump in!
We separated this one out from Local Melee Gameplay because designing the experience to work nicely just as we described above will take some work even though our technology can support it. There are considerations for things like UI and how to handle menus for multiple players on the same screen, for example.
Next up is Bonus Languages, which may seem small, but is something we want to provide for our large, international community. If we meet it, we will let backers vote on which three languages we should tackle to help more players who read different languages access our game.
Thank you, again, for the tremendous, overwhelming, awesome support! Keep spreading the word, and we'll keep hitting our goals!
30 years of price inflation, for starters.
Familiarization Brief: The Ur-Quan Volunteer
Familiarization Brief: The Ur-Quan Volunteer
Prepared by Alliance Military Intelligence Division, Department of Xenoanthropology
Reports from beyond the Great Arrow indicate the expedition has come across a fascinating discovery: a lone Ur-Quan Kzer-Za, identifying itself only as “Great Master,” has initiated contact with the flagship commander and has requested permission to join the expedition fleet. The Kzer-Za has informed the commander that it wishes to “observe” the progress of the mission and the command decisions made during its course. Though unusually loquacious for its kind, the Kzer-Za has refused to elaborate further about the specific observations it wishes to make, or the true purpose of those observations.
The Kzer-Za’s explanation for its presence is that it “volunteered” to seek out the expedition, and that the Ur-Quan adherence to the twin doctrines of “The Path of Now and Forever” and “The Eternal Doctrine” are no more—indeed, that the doctrines themselves have been completely abrogated. The Ur-Quan Volunteer intimates that the Ur-Quan are collectively seeking “a new way,” and that the expedition commander’s actions will somehow aid them in finding that way.
Fascinatingly, the Kzer-Za has offered its Dreadnought starship for use in expeditionary fleet defense. This represents a singular opportunity to gather first-hand technical data about the weapons of what was once our greatest foe. Alliance Joint Command recommends the expedition commander accept the Kzer-Za’s offer.
Free Stars: Children of Infinity Steam Page
Today, we just launched our Steam page for Free Stars: Children of Infinity!
If you're here, you already know this game is coming to Steam along with other storefronts thanks to your support. However, if you're not already here, this is one way we can help more people learn about our forthcoming game and potentially reach more people. That means more people can discover our amazing community endeavor, we could have an even more successful Kickstarter, and we might reach more stretch goals!
If you're a Steam user, please wishlist the game and feel free to share it with your friends.
We will be resuming our much more fun content updates as the week continues, but wanted to share this exciting step with all of you.
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Report from Non-Organic Tissue Sample Lab
1st Lt. Varna, H:
You want a list? Okay, fine: quantum tunneling means no long-term metastability at that scale, so no time or opportunity to develop sentience. There's no chance for any kind of macrostructures to form, because particle interactions at fermion-scale don't work how they work here, at person-size. And the perception of time is relative too, remember?! Even if they are alive, there's no chance we'd be able to conduct any kind of meaningful communication with them. We share no common frame of reference!
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
... Great, are you done? Is that the whole list, or you got more reasons why this can't be happening?
1st Lt. Varna, H:
I have so many more reasons.
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
File them in a report. Meanwhile, the impossibly tiny nanobe that isn't supposed to be able to exist is insistent that we communicate with it... and it says it's got a gift for us.
FleetCom Log: Alien DNA Research
FleetCom Log: Alien DNA Research
SCIGEN LAB AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
VOICE 1:
I've never seen anything like it. Quad-helix DNA, eight bases, and seriously—look at the structure. It's like it was designed to be easy to work on!
VOICE 2:
Designed? You think these puppies are, what—bespoke? Somebody's extraterrestrial science project?
VOICE 1:
Maybe. I'll tell you what these puppies aren't: they aren't a product of natural evolution. Not anymore, at least. Someone primed the uplift pump here, practically left a roadmap for what to do next.
VOICE 2:
Captain's going to love this.
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Report from Non-Organic Tissue Sample Lab
1st Lt. Varna, H:
You want a list? Okay, fine: quantum tunneling means no long-term metastability at that scale, so no time or opportunity to develop sentience. There's no chance for any kind of macrostructures to form, because particle interactions at fermion-scale don't work how they work here, at person-size. And the perception of time is relative too, remember?! Even if they are alive, there's no chance we'd be able to conduct any kind of meaningful communication with them. We share no common frame of reference!
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
... Great, are you done? Is that the whole list, or you got more reasons why this can't be happening?
1st Lt. Varna, H:
I have so many more reasons.
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
File them in a report. Meanwhile, the impossibly tiny nanobe that isn't supposed to be able to exist is insistent that we communicate with it... and it says it's got a gift for us.
Stretch Goal Unlocked: Bonus Languages
We just hit our eleventh stretch goal: Bonus Languages!
This means we'll be adding three additional localizations the community votes on! At a later time, we'll provide a list of options for everyone to select from, and backers can rank the ones that they'd like to see the most. For those of you already comfortable playing games in English, French, Italian, German, or Spanish, you are contributing to our ability to reach even more players with our game and give back to different communities which kept UQM alive. This is truly a "fan vote," too, which we were excited to do with your support. Thank you for making it happen!
We're in the final stretches of our stretch goals, and we have received many passionate messages from players for our next one: Console Ports. We know this one is a bigger reach, and we'd still love to make it happen. Look forward to a few more exciting updates as we work towards that, and thank you for your continued support. Go forth, and gather allies to help us hit that next goal!
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Debrief Extract: The Nanobe
Report from Non-Organic Tissue Sample Lab
1st Lt. Varna, H:
You want a list? Okay, fine: quantum tunneling means no long-term metastability at that scale, so no time or opportunity to develop sentience. There's no chance for any kind of macrostructures to form, because particle interactions at fermion-scale don't work how they work here, at person-size. And the perception of time is relative too, remember?! Even if they are alive, there's no chance we'd be able to conduct any kind of meaningful communication with them. We share no common frame of reference!
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
... Great, are you done? Is that the whole list, or you got more reasons why this can't be happening?
1st Lt. Varna, H:
I have so many more reasons.
1st Lt. Bonafaccia, T:
File them in a report. Meanwhile, the impossibly tiny nanobe that isn't supposed to be able to exist is insistent that we communicate with it... and it says it's got a gift for us.
Paul: "We need a microscopic species for our new Star Control-game."
Fred: "Another one? There's already the Xchagger-"
Paul: "The who?"
Fred: "From Star Control 3-"
Paul: "We didn't make those."
Fred: "And the Pinthi from Origins-"
Paul: "Quiet! The settlement even forbids us from speaking of that game!"
Fred: "Right. <pause> So, why does it need to be microscopic?"
Paul: "There's so much potential in that angle, that sheer scale of size difference. The jokes, the puns, the 'Science!'-element to it."
Fred: "Uh-huh. <thinks> Hey, instead of microscopic... why don't we go smaller than that?"
Paul: <pause> "Duuuuude!"
The Art Behind the Aliens: The "Nanobes"
What would an alien look like if it was as small as the smallest things in our universe? What instruments would you use to communicate with it? How would it express itself? And what would it want to communicate?
Those were some of the questions we asked when making our aliens codenamed "The Nanobes". We have a special behind-the-scenes interview with Robert Mauritson, our artist who created them, detailing the entire process from beginning to end and how we arrived at the finished piece. If you enjoyed our little, mysterious snippets about each of our aliens, check out the full story of how these aliens came to be on YouTube.
Ship Art Showcase - Classic Ships
When our development began on Children of Infinity, before we even had any Adventure experiences like HyperSpace, we started making ships and the Melee experience. We knew there was a story to tell, but proving that our technology and gameplay would be fun was our first stop. I suppose we are still faithfully following in our own footsteps from before The Ur-Quan Masters too. Or we just keep making the same game over and over! The beating heart of Children of Infinity is a cast of memorable, differentiated characters. They express themselves in some cases almost entirely through their ships.
For the classic Ur-Quan Masters ships, we want to take something that was presented as only a handful of pixels and create a version which not only is immediately recognizable as the ship you remember, but also something that the fresh eyes of a new player would still be drawn to. We're balancing your memories and past imagination with our own artistry and our ability to explore how those ships might express themselves today. These aren't remakes of the ship, and they're not re-imaginings, either. They're somewhere in between.
Most importantly, they all need to capture that sense of character. Early on, we explored trying to make ships almost entirely in 2D, so we could retain some of the handmade feeling, charm, and colors of digital art made with that approach. We produced some interesting results, but it was ultimately too much effort and difficult to diagnose problems when using some of our technical tricks for making them seem 3D.
Our production ship artist came to us after finding our development streams, sharing his concept of an Ilwrath Avenger (seen above, rightmost) as their own art. We worked together to convert it into to a real ship in-engine with our unique 2D/3D hybrid workflow which fits our need of making many, many ships. After that success and a few more commissioned pieces, we brought him on to do all our ship art.
He works on interpreting, not just re-creating, our old ships, sketching or referencing concepts in both 2D and 3D. When it comes time to assemble the 3D model which we eventually convert into a piece of 2D art, we work together to make little tweaks in both the mesh and material treatment to get a desired effect: the merging of "it's that ship we remember!" combined with "and it's even cooler than we imagined!"
The Kohr-Ah Marauder (seen above, second from left) was one of the more difficult ones that took more iterations. With a lot of room for interpretation and so many different elements which used to just be left to the imagination, walking our line between re-make and re-imagine took us some more time. What shape should it be? It needs to be dark and scary, but now we have a lot more pixels we can make dark and scary. Which details should we elaborate upon, and which parts are better left vague? On the other hand, ships like the Orz Nemesis (seen above, rightmost) needed less detail, and made us want to lean more into a specific vision, with its manta ray like surface and shape being the highlights.
Beyond just the ship artwork, modern technology gives us opportunities to create fun, new, and colorful effects for them to go along with the static art we're creating. Even the meager Shofixti Scout gets character in motion with the glow of a thruster.
And an Ilwrath Avenger that truly cloaks is a whole new kind of terror (extra fun in netplay!).
We can even do unique animations for certain ships where we didn't have an opportunity before, like the Mmrnmhrm's X-Form transformations.
We've come a long way since the DOS era, when there were strict technical limits even on how many colors we could use. We like the vibrant visuals of the time, and we still want our space to feel like the colorful, diverse setting we all imagine and not just become drab, gray, or generic sci-fi. We want you to be excited to imagine yourself in the cockpit of these ships, controlling something cool, fun, weird, scary, or all of the above. The art carries a massive responsibility here, but it's far from just being a static thing to look at. The goal is always to serve the player's experience: these ships are toys we're making for players to play with, and fun comes first!
We hope you enjoyed this first part of our ship art showcase. The next part will highlight some of our new ship art, showing processes we use to reach even further with wild, new ships that will inhabit the Free Stars universe alongside the classics.
In SC 1 and 2 cloaking Ilwrathi used to block stars "under" it.And an Ilwrath Avenger that truly cloaks is a whole new kind of terror (extra fun in netplay!).
Good catch! And I hope not, because it wouldn't make sense - the ship does not disappear, it's just cloaked (deflects light).In SC 1 and 2 cloaking Ilwrathi used to block stars "under" it.And an Ilwrath Avenger that truly cloaks is a whole new kind of terror (extra fun in netplay!).
Is lack of that effect intentional?
Completely new game that serves as a sequel to TUQM.
About the Artist: Ben Chandler
We are exicted to have the artistic contributions of Ben Chandler who is bringing his own love of classic games, years of experience, and unique style to our project. Ben has worked on a long list of titles, recently being a part of another "retro revival" with the Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster. We're both fond of his work on The Forever Labyrinth (also made with Ink!), freely playable online, and he's a contributor on our friend, Richard Cobbett's, game Nighthawks. Ben appreciates and draws inspiration from the gaming era that The Ur-Quan Masters was a part of just as much as we do.
Interplanetary concept for a cold system.
Ben is helping us build an artistic vision for how we want to modernize the visuals of The Ur-Quan Masters. As discussed in our ship art showcase, we want to create something that feels new and remembered at the same time. With Ben's help establishing that vision by doing concepts and mock-ups, we're able to guide our artists doing the work. We iterated the most on different user interface approaches because it is so important to our fantasy of the player being The Captain. Below is a very early example of how we were trying to imagine the inside of the player's ships could look and feel.
Early HUD prototype.
Going back and forth with early prototypes and tests like the one above, we turned these ideas into polished ideas we were excited to build. You'll see them in our trailer and game screenshots, the start of a realized world we want players to be excited to play in.
Polished HUD prototype.
We're thrilled to work with Ben to create our "new but remembered" universe which can bring our three decades-old game into the modern era with fresh ideas from yesteryear. Last but certainly not least, Ben is also painting our game's Star Map which we're offering as a physical poster for backers.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about one of our team members. Be sure to check out some of Ben's other amazing work on Twitter and his blog!
Artist Showcase: AndroidArts
We are excited to work with Arne aka AndroidArts on concept for creations both new and old for Free Stars: Children of Infinity. Arne is a prolific creator known by many for his freely-shared creations in his own and other game universes. He's also had a long history of sharing his processes and source files for demonstration; inspiring, exciting, and teaching generations of new artists. For fans of The Ur-Quan Masters, his own creations may be immediately recognizable as part of the internet lore of UQM.
Beyond creating a trove of previous work to pull from, Arne has been helping us concept new ships and characters in our universe. Arne's knack for breathing life into classic game worlds and taste for interesting, novel shapes helps us enrich our own universe with fresh ideas and even re-imagine our classic ships.
Our "Minigun" and "Duo" ships, shown running in both the trailer and on our development streams, were brought to life through his concept, and there's still more in the works!
We hope you enjoyed learning more about another one of our amazing contributors! Be sure to check out more of Arne's original and fan art on Twitter, his site, and his Patreon.
If yuo missed it, be sure to check out our previous piece on Ben Chandler.
