You are stranded on a planet, stuck in your spaceship, because the environment outside is hazardous. So you have to build and use remotely controlled drones to gather resources and send an SOS signal.

Progression will be in the form of drone upgrades, such as higher resolution camera or various tools.

I'm documenting my progress in devlogs, you can find them here: https://blog.loipesmas.net/en/series/remote-space-devlogs/
There is five of them already up, so you can catch up on how it's going so far.

I'm hoping to do a playtest relatively soon™, let me know if you would be interested.

Feel free to comment any feedback, questions, ideas or just words of encouragement ;]

Very good game idea. 👍️ I'm starting to read the devlog — always had a strong interest in the process of making games. 📖 It would be curious to see it in action.

Will there be flying drones? Will there be weather changes?

    Tomcat
    Thanks!

    I want to add flying drones, probably something like Ingenuity (pictured below), but I'm still figuring out what they will do. Picture of the Ingenuity helicopter

    Some kind of weather changes will definitely be there, at least for aesthetic effects, but maybe ones with gameplay impact as well, like a thunderstorm that will disable your drones or mess with the signal.

        LoipesMas but I'm still figuring out what they will do.

        Well, it's obvious: flying ones are visual exploration with simple (lightweight) sensors, ground-based ones are detailed exploration and resource extraction. A lost/broken drone is easier to find with flying ones. 🪰

        LoipesMas but maybe ones with gameplay impact as well, like a thunderstorm that will disable your drones or mess with the signal.

        Martian storms are such an abomination. 😹

              Tomcat Well, it's obvious: flying ones are visual exploration with simple (lightweight) sensors, ground-based ones are detailed exploration and resource extraction. A lost/broken drone is easier to find with flying ones. 🪰

              Yea, probably something like that. But there are other things that I need to flesh out first.

                look awesome, though I doubt the system req will be pretty strict, since godot 4.0 renderer seemed to be relatively unoptimized compare to the engines started with 'U'.

                  MagickPanda
                  Thanks!
                  I'm trying to keep performance in mind, but hopefully the renderer will be more optimized by the time it's finished. Also, there is a lot of tricks one can use to improve performance, so I'll resort to them if I'll have to.

                    4 days later

                    I did some visual upgrades, mostly to UI, and I added a new drone component: radar - it lights up when there are items to pick up nearby, because it was to hard to notice a slightly-different-rock through a noisy 340x240px camera.

                    There is also a lightning effect, which helps with the mood:
                    Gif showing lightning in a fog
                    It's only visual (for now)

                    You can find more pictures and info in my blogpost: https://blog.loipesmas.net/en/remote_space_devlog/5/

                    (I'm not sure how much should I post here, so if you have any feedback, do tell)

                    I love the concept! The visual mood you are creating is fantastic! So the objective in the game is to send the SOS signal in the end? What about then also staying alive long enough to be saved? 😋

                      MikeCL
                      Thank you!
                      I'm thinking that canonically the time between the start of the game and sending the SOS signal will be relatively short (i.e., a few days, maybe a month), so whatever you have onboard should be enough. And after you send the SOS signal... well, I don't want to spoil it ;] Let's just say that basic needs won't be your biggest concern

                      And also I don't want to cram in any survival mechanics. The scope is growing fast enough already 🙃

                          LoipesMas Oh, color me intrigued! Nice! I'm excited to see where you lead us with the project.

                            I've been experimenting with different ways to shape the terrain. Currently I'm using Terrain3D addon + some scattered rocks, but I believe there is a better way.


                            Here is a chunk of terrain generated in Blender with a simple noise map. Too smooth and bland.


                            Here I added a boolean union modifier with a model of a rock (which gives a nice cliff) and horizontal stripes, giving these "steps" on slopes.


                            Scattered flat rocks, looks kinda nice (they are actually a single mesh baked in Blender).

                            Nothing looks satisfactory, but I think I'm going in a right direction. I should move on and work on other things though...

                            There could be a light horror element to the game - a mysterious alien life form occasionally roaming about, chasing and possibly damaging your drones or even putting some time pressure on by gradually damaging the spaceship. Wouldn't be too hard to implement but might add a lot to immersion and open more gameplay options.

                              xyz Interesting idea, but this doesn't really fit my vision. Danger will come from the environment and resource management: getting lost, running out of battery, weather phenomena etc.

                              • xyz replied to this.
                                  9 days later

                                  I did some UI stuff, changed physics engine to Jolt (because built-in had some issues) and finally implemented saving and loading the game.

                                  But most importantly, a new drone:

                                  Flying drone

                                  Took some tweaking to get the physics right, but now it's really fun to fly around! You'll use it to scout new areas, chart maps and probably something else as well ;]

                                  Went a bit more in-depth in the blog: https://blog.loipesmas.net/en/remote_space_devlog/6/

                                    4 months later

                                    Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead and neither is this project. I just didn't have much time.
                                    To compensate for the lack of updates, here's a pretty video:

                                    It's a brand new region, inspired by the Dallol system.
                                    Lots of work went into the assets, but it was worth it (or at least I hope so). Everything made in Blender.
                                    Screenshot from the game, showing the Acid Pools region
                                    Now I need to get back to working on the mechanics and reasons for actually playing the game.
                                    If you want to read a bit more about this update, you can do so at my blog!