Deep Space Mine (2015)


Deep Space Mine 
(Part of Dare to be Digital 2015)



Summery

Our team for this project, "Hello Sausage", was a solid group with diverse skill-sets,
all looking to submit a game into DARE 2015 to see what we could achieve.

Alex (Leader/Lead-Programmer), 
Joe.T(Assisting-Programmer), 
Jonny (Sound-Designer), 
Joe.C(3d/Animation-Artist), 
Billy(UI-Artist), 
Marc(3d/Concept-Artist) 
Me (Lead-3d Artist).

Summery

Early into development we envisioned an exploration focused game.
The main concept shifting and pitched shortly after to a competitive exploration-mining game.
A banner for what might have been a 2.5d exploration game

We looked into many styles but ended up going for a faceted block colour look, not quite as popular then as it is now, it gave a nice unique look to our game without needing too great an investment of time.

How the environment would be randomised

Concluding that the exploration elements slowed the pace of the game, we shifted 
onus to interplanetary/galaxy-map assets. Assets were to be generated procedurally through the use of randomly assigned textures to our 3d objects, some of this can be seen in the showcased game.

Planet assets used in showcased game, nicely lit in 3dsMax though later not looking quite so nice in-game
Alternate components and skins for player avatars
Conclusion

 We didn't achieve any awards, it was however an eye-opening experience regarding the intricacies involved in prototyping and showcasing the game.

The game itself played well with two players side-by-side, but on-screen your opponent felt quite ethereal, and your interactions limited. There was something quite compelling about the race to gather minerals, but mechanically it needed some TLC.

Most of all, at this stage the presentation was lacking, the game needed a greater variety of  assets, alongside improvements on their presentation within the Unity engine.

With all that said, we are hopeful, given we've successfully greenlit the product on steam, that we will be able to expand and improve upon the game and see it released as a final product to be proud of, seeing to it our experience is put to good use.