Star Control - Development Update

HiddenX

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Stahl33 informed us that a new Star Control game is in development:

Star Control: November Update!

At last, the Founders Program is about to start and the basic website is now live!

First, read this: IGN-article

Take the survey here.

We are desperately trying not to spoil anything about the game but at the same time we want Star Control fans to feel reassured that we’re on the right track. It’s a delicate balance.

So let me just put out information that is now publicly available:

#1 The Team

Stardock built a new studio, from scratch, in Towson Maryland specifically for Star Control. We knew Star Control would require a veteran team to nail and for that reason decided that it was best to build the studio in Towson Maryland.

Why Towson? In one of the quirks of the game industry, Towson Maryland is ground zero of a good chunk of the PC game industry. Firaxis is here. Bethesda is here. Big Huge Games is here. Zynga was here. So much PC game history was made in this little town (Microprose and its successors).

Stardock has a single office complex to house Stardock Towson, Mohawk Games, and Oxide Games. This has had some really positive results that we didn’t consider at first. For example, Soren’s team (Soren designed Civilization IV) working on Offworld Trading Company has had readily available early testers while we’ve ramped up while Andrew’s team (Star Control) has had readily available access to art and game design input from Soren’s team. And of course, Oxide Games, the team making Ashes of the Singularity, is there to help with the engine.

#2 The Engine

So it’s using the Nitrous engine which is being developed for Ashes of the Singularity. Star Control will be 64-bit and require at least DirectX 11. This won’t be a big deal when it ships but it’s something to be aware of.

We’ve made some core design choices (Super Meelee will support up to 6 players in MP mode). While we’ve left other decisions (how many ships should be present in a Super Meelee battle) for the Founders to have input on.

The engine, of course, could support thousands of ships in a battle. That’s not the issue. The issue will be the gameplay and what makes sense.

#3 The Art Style

If you’ve seen Inside Out you have a good idea of what the general art style will be like. Mind you, we picked our art style before that movie came out, so we’re not basing ours on that movie, it just kind of worked out that way.

[...]
More information.
 
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Interesting. I hope planet exploration gets a little more fleshed out, and a turned based combat option. i can think of 12 more scope creep ideas.
 
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Interesting. I hope planet exploration gets a little more fleshed out, and a turned based combat option. i can think of 12 more scope creep ideas.

Star Control has never been turn based, why would you expect this one to be?
 
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Interesting. I hope planet exploration gets a little more fleshed out, and a turned based combat option.

There will be action combat like in old Star Controls. With some options/alternative for those who dont like it (no details about it yet).


mercy said:
The game screens are absolutely MUST SEE

I dont think that those Spore-like planets are "must see". :)
 
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Interesting. I hope planet exploration gets a little more fleshed out, and a turned based combat option. i can think of 12 more scope creep ideas.
No turn based. From the article Mercy pointed to...

"Our Super Melee will be action oriented (so we might as well get that out of the way, it’s not going to be a strategy experience)."

I suppose that leaves open the possibility of turn based in the single player game but that would be QUITE strange.
 
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It seems the tax cuts Maryland gives software companies do help the gaming world a lot.

Thank you, American tax payer!
 
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It seems the tax cuts Maryland gives software companies do help the gaming world a lot.

Thank you, American tax payer!

Other places do this as well...Quebec in Canada for instance.
 
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I kinda' want to like StarDock. They make the kind of games I (also) love - turnbased strategy, and they seem to like doing it a lot. I've tried most of their strategy games and really wanted to give each of them a chance.

But all their games have felt bland, boring and somehow meaningless to me. Harsh words really, but only because I kinda' expect more from someone who say all the right things. Their execution of it has been pretty listless though, at least for me.

So them taking Star Control, one of my favourite game titles... Yeah, not holding out hope - would be nice to be wrong of course. But generally I don't know of many remakes that haven't been disappointing at best. XCom being a happy exception :)
 
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wow is this for real? Star control 2 is one of the best games ever


But who is this developer Stardock? Never heard

EDIT: looks like they are primarily a software developer (non-video game) and published several mediocre games. Ok this is gonna get weird.
 
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wow is this for real? Star control 2 is one of the best games ever


But who is this developer Stardock? Never heard

EDIT: looks like they are primarily a software developer (non-video game) and published several mediocre games. Ok this is gonna get weird.

How have you never heard of stardock? They have published quite a few games and there space 4x games, galactic civilizations are really highly regarded.
 
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Oh ok. guess i missed that. Well if they are experienced in the world of 4x sims, we have nothing to worry about

Albeit , i hope they keep the arcade elements from old games like ship gunfights
 
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Just wish someone would remake Starflight 1 and 2. Starcontrol is vastly inferior with its twitch based combat. Starflight the lost colony didn't really do it for me.
 
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twitch - based?
 
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Yeah, the bit where you spin around planets shooting. For an old man like me that is twitch based. Much prefer Starflight combat.
 
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I like the look of the alien but I would much prefer more realistically looking planets. They are a bit too cartoony for me - tone it down some.
 
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Yeah, the bit where you spin around planets shooting. For an old man like me that is twitch based. Much prefer Starflight combat.

I like tb but arcade elements made it so great :)
 
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