Any plans for the next game?

[palaslet]

With this game more or less done, just waiting for us to be able to buy it;

Any plans for the next game project?

I have always wanted to see a game looking like fallout (only multiple planets), with crafting possibilities similar to Minecraft, and the skill and faction system of EVE... (of course my thoughts are much more detailed, but this was the short version)

Care to implement that?

[Kaesho]

I'd say its probably going to be awhile before he thinks about making a new game after releasing this =P

[echo]

Will you create a sequel to SP if it is successful?

[Jabberwocky]

Care to implement that?

Sure. With my current team size - estimated ship date is 2057.
What kind of content would you build in a space game - something like terraforming the planet surface?
I loved fallout 3, one of my favorite games in recent times. I think pretty much everything Bethesda touches is gold these days.

I'd say its probably going to be awhile before he thinks about making a new game after releasing this =P

True. If at all possible I'd love to think about a beach and a heavily-vodka spiked tropical drink for a week or two.
I have thought about "what's next", if SP sells enough copies for me to continue on with Firedance Games. There may be some short-term goals like porting it to mac or linux. I've also thought about what kind of game I'd make next.

Will you create a sequel to SP if it is successful?

It's definitely a consideration. There is a back story for the game as well, which you can read through the in-game historic time-line, for those who enjoy such things.
(Don't worry - if you're not into reading text and back-story while playing a game, this stuff is totally optional.)



So I could always do a prequil and explore some of the earlier conflict in the galaxy, like the galactic wars, initial wormhole discovery, or the first contact with a hostile alien species.

[palaslet]

What kind of content would you build in a space game - something like terraforming the planet surface?

Well... that might be a possibillity. Defending planets using space stations. Hauling exotic (and not so exotic) resources between planets. Warfare, exploration etc.

The main idea is to let the users "craft" the game. It needs to be a MMORG, and whenever a player wants to research a new recipe to see if it becomes anything usefull, he needs to "submit" it (lets call the delay caused by this for "research time"). When a recipe proposal has been submitted, the game servers will check the database to see if such recipe has already been registered. If it is already registered by some other user, it returns the same result as the original recipe (still having the same amount of "research time" as the original had). If this is the first registration of the recipe, the user will have to submit a description of what he/she wants to produce, and a team of "crafters" (from the games maintenance team) will decide if this is a valid recipe or not for the purpose that the gamer has described. Gamers will also be able to steal/share recipes. This way the game will evolve with the gamers. Reverse engineering and scattered blueprints can be used to "lead" the players in any direction wanted. (If you want more warfare, just scatter more war-related blueprints around)

So... I think what I try to say is that I don't really know what the space simulation will be about. It's up to the gamers essentially. Maybe the "game masters" see that there is to little action going on in space, and most players are mostly playing on planets, they can adjust the game accordingly (maybe scatter blueprints that describe a new type of scanners that will find new exotic resources in some asteroids, opening for mining and piracy in space)

[Constantine]

i like the idea of a space crafting mmo. i think the recipes could be planet improvements or military upgrades. sharing or stealing recipes would cause alliances and wars between different players or corporations/guilds. somebody should make this game!

[DJ Die]

im not so sure about MMO but:
modding tools or modability would surely help a lot and what do you know community may come up with ideas youve never thought about

bigger range of pilotable ships...something like Freespace where you had several classes of fighters each with its pros and cons....
i prefer well armored and armed ships so my ships of choice were bombers or heavy fighters in Freespace, my friend prefered agility and speed so he used interceptors most of the time....

[Jabberwocky]

The idea of crafting recipes and creating a player-driven economy in a space MMO is pretty cool. Asheron's Call, an old fantasy MMO, did something kind of similar with spell research. The tricky part is balance - you'd always need more things to research, but each new thing would have to be somehow better (more powerful, easier to manufacture, etc) than the old thing. Or maybe there is a limit to how long you can use a researched blueprint, like maybe there's finite resources, and when those resources run out, you need to figure out a new blueprint with different resources.

I like the idea of MMOs which constantly evolve. Player driven economies are great too, although a little scary from the dev perspective because you never know what the players are going to do.

sharing or stealing recipes would cause alliances and wars between different players or corporations/guilds

That sounds like a lot of fun!

[Jabberwocky]

modding tools or modability would surely help a lot and what do you know community may come up with ideas youve never thought about

For sure. You can't overstate the importance of modding to the community and longevity of the game.

If the game sells ok, modding tools may be something I look into, either for Salvation Prophecy or a future space game.
Good modding tools are extremely time consuming to make. But now that I have built so much engine tech for Salvation Prophecy, it's maybe a possibility in the future.

[palaslet]

One way of balancing the research might be to decide that advanced research must be done in labs, and you need special skills to do them, and labs don't have to be abundant. To successfully develop a recipe for a warp drive engine you might have to create a research group that all register in the same lab. Depending on the time you invest, the size of the group and their skills, the research can take two months or one year... The result might be a warp engine that explodes when you first try it. So you need to do more research to get there. Manufacturing might also take much time, and much resources. Advanced research might also be dependent on special skills that force you to choose what kind of player you want to be. Fighters might not be such good scientists, and pilots might not be such good fighters etc.

Balancing the game might not be easy, but I'm quite confident that it can be done. One just need to be creative enough