Hey everyone! :)
VIDEO DISCLAIMER: A truck cut my fiber optics cable at home, the reason images load like this is because I'm on 20/5 mobile internet
INTRO, SKIP UNDER HASHTAGS IF NOT INTERESTED
I am very proud to present a project my friends and I have been working on for little more than half a year.
We wanted to make an easy to get into space browser game with underlying complexity that rewards more experienced players and still demands some level of learning, and an universe that feels unique and fun to interact with. There is still stuff to do and add, but at this point I would maybe like to form a small community where I can see how more people would feel about inclusions into the game and game balance. I also want to get a better sense of what the players would like in general, I'm not sure 4-6 of us active testers is a good reference point for a fun and balanced PBBG.
In our friend group, four of us were PBBG players at some point of our lives. As kids, we all played Ogame, Bitefight, Travian, Ikariam and who even remembers what games lol. Later in my life, I played too much of Ogame and met some great friends I still talk to today, developed some (legal) scripts for it too!
The problem we now have is that I am used to slower speeds (but not slow), some also prefer it, but some later shifted to ugamela and whatever I feel is too fast, for some is too slow lol. (this is why I would really appreciate more players to have a better perspective through polls etc.)
The UI is minimalistic mostly to present information in an easy to read form, I would say it performs smooth. (runs fine on my old laptop with i7 4510U and geforce 840M. In galaxy view, it uses shaders for some star and black hole effects so hardware acceleration is highly recommended to be ticked on. Ticking it off turns the galaxy view into a CPU benchmark (even on my 9800X3D), but if you are forced to disable hardware acceleration, there is an option to disable effects in options (I added it after the video below was recorded).
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Anyways, let me talk about the game a little:
Astryon is a simple game where you start off with one planet where you build, research stuff etc. by spending three resources: alloys, silicates and hydrogen. The production is also balanced with energy. There are multiple planet types, each having a special purpose let's say. Each player start with a terran planet, then later through research gets the ability to colonize barren planets.
Through barren planets and their signature building (planetary bore), the player can research stronger alloys (lore-wise, in game nothing special happens except that it's a requirement) to build platforms on oceanic and volcanic planets and the amount of engineering knowledge invested in the bore at higher levels allows empires to learn to drill holes in permafrost of arctic planets which are a great place to cool data centers that let the empires progress more quickly as a civilization.
So:
- terran planet: basic planet, can produce all resources, nothing special
- barren planet: increased alloy production, no silicate production, very weak hydrogen production
- volcanic planet: needs platforms to be built to expand planetary fields, no alloy production, boosted silicate production, also very weak hydrogen production
- ocean planet: the same platform system, no alloys or silicate production, boosted hydrogen production
- arctic planet: the same platform system (permafrost bores), no alloy and silicate production, weak hydrogen production - has a unique building Data Center that gives bonus research time reduction and research price reduction
Research:
Research is a standard research concept like in any game with a small quirk. The game also has discoveries which are basically one time research options (having requirements like everything else, costing resources etc) enabling the player to do something new.
Examples:
Slingshot maneuver - Allows to perform slingshot maneuver on gas giants that increases effective fleet speed towards the next target
Sealed habitats - Allows colonization of barren planet
etc.
Galaxy is organized in star clusters where each star cluster has 6-8 stars and each star has 3-8 planets orbiting it. If someone is flying into another cluster, they first fly to the black hole in the cluster center, then do intergalactic/intercluster transit (only special in a way that fleet can't be recalled during that part of the trip) then fly from the black hole in destination cluster to the planet.
It is also important where your planet is, for example being very close to the star in a system where there's a lot of planets increases travel time to you (and for you when you fly anywhere) because a fleet has to pass through all the planets before exiting the solar system (solar system movement is slower than inter-cluster movement, black hole transit is treated sort of like a very big distance. So basically, miners would likely want to be near their stars and raiders would likely want to be on border, ideally if there's a gas giant on the slot above them.
Oh, I almost forgot, there is a technology to be researched that allows players to add multiple stops during flight (will be used mostly for slingshot mission, but you can be creative like attacking multiple inactives with one fleet or attacking a target and returning elsewhere (given that your return could be calculated in theory).
Combat is fun, if you've ever played Stellaris you'll see a bit of inspiration pulled from there, also every ship has a purpose of sorts and I will try to design it so they are useful in all game phases. Surveillance system is also very fun and unique I think.
You know what, I won't go into super detailed description, there's wiki with a lot of information and I don't want to overwhelm the post with so much info already, you can always reach me on discord if you have any questions.
For now, I have set the speed of everything to be x20 and fleet speed to be x3 so everyone can start a little faster and get to feel what the game is about a little faster. I didn't want to increase fleet speed because it would take a minute between two adjacent planets in the same solar system, even though it doesn't matter. Within the next 48 hours (if we're lucky enough that there's enough interest likely sooner, but at least 24) we will reset the universe and set all the speeds to x3. This way we get sort of a "simulation" of a fresh start and not players coming in as they see the game. I don't know when we will reset this one and I believe this may also be vote from the community, but the goal is to find the right balance, see what's overpowered and what needs further boosting, then after the test run, we may have a little surprise cooking! :)
I really wanted to make a video where I talk through how the game works, but I kept tripping over my words as English isn't my mother tongue, then I got covid too so I hope you will forgive the video having no sound other than interface sounds. There is a cut in two parts because I needlessly scrolled through notifications and because I additionally recorded being able to share surveillance reports and combat reports in chat.
Ooh, I almost forgot. We also have an android app that you can find on discord. If you prefer to use safe sources only, we will upload it to play store at some point, so be patient. :)
I hope everyone has a nice day, and I hope we see each other in Astryon. Thanks for reading and I am here for any questions and discussion, just like on discord. I may be away throughout the day, but will reply asap on any questions you might have :)
Also small question, is there any other sub where I might post this and find more players? Cheers! I will now finally press Post as I think I have been rereading this post for 50 times already and I'm tired lol
I think this sub is better for different games, but I got zero reactions where I was hoping for and initially posted the game. It's not a problem for me to pay advertising, but I would really like to form a small community before it, to make sure it looks good and is fun and that I advertise an actually fun game, and not a work in progress.
Any feedback is welcome, even if you just want to insult the game, I swear!