StarSpace! An Introduction

StarSpace! is a 3D ray-traced, physics heavy Space game I am working on developing.

About the Game:

My intent is to develop a game with next gen graphics and physics, where you pilot a small spacecraft in an asteroid field repairing, rescuing, and scouting ships and asteroid mines. I am developing the engine from scratch in C. I plan to eventually port sections of it to OpenCL for better performance. It will use a raytracing renderer. I also plan to simulate as much as possible in the game. That way the break/repair dynamic will feel natural, and so the player can really break things.

Why Space?

Honestly, it’s a fairly arbitrary decision. I’ve long knew I wanted all my games to be very physics oriented, and I had just heard about real-time raytracing, and wanted to make a game using that. I knew I needed to pick a location for the game to take place. I was just listening to Starman and Space Oddity whilst looking at real-time raytracing demos when I thought “Hey, why not space?”. It actually almost took place in an underground abandon train network. There were a number of things that made me feel as though space would be easier, whilst having more diverse gameplay.

Development Hurdles:

The biggest; I have never done any graphics programming. I have done some stuff in preexisting game engines, but they all blackboxed their inner workings. This is also one of my big reasons for making this game. This next hurdle has to do with the first. Many tutorials and educative materials for graphics programming are in C++, not C. Meaning I have to translate them before I can follow them. Finding time as also another big one, but I think this is an issue in all projects. Finally, hardware. Acquiring and setting up the hardware necessary has been somewhat of an issue. I’ve gotten this one mostly sorted now, but it’s taken a while.

I’m sure there will be many more hurdles to over come through out development, and I gladly welcome them all as something to do, and learn from.

When Did I Start, and When Do I expect to Complete It?

I started a while ago. It just slowly materialized. There wasn’t really an exact point when I’d say the project actually started, but it’s going now. When do I expect to complete it? At some point. That’s all I can say with any confidence.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated. I will post further updates and in-depth information soon.

OpenComputeDesign

opencomputedesign@linuxrocks.online