It sounds like a US beta is coming this summer. I could definitely get into something with the scope of EVE and more hands-on feel of Freelancer, et al., especially for free.

And your original point stands as a good one. It’s not just him, though; the team is comprised of three people. However, that’s still three guys, six months, $60,000, and a very ambitious project, especially for a genre that seems to have both a high and occasionally catastrophic failure rate.

That doesn’t sound shallow. I do think what I’ve seen of the playable shipyard is fairly pretty, but I’ve been trying to convince the guy to be more dazzling in the visuals department–some kind of concept art, poster art, or serious in-game eye candy, since, well, first impressions and all. Beyond that, you’re right. The game needs to look good, or it will leave exploration and ship building pretty flavorless. I believe they plan to add some rudimentary play to the shipyard in the next few days, so it’ll be interesting (for me) to see what that’s like.

As for procedural generation, that’s a great point. I think Battlecruiser had some form of this, and I’m not sure it did much of anything to make it a fun game. I think the developer of Drifter is approaching this problem by having handcrafted core systems, with procedural generation for the rest of the galaxy.

Anyway, thanks for the conversation. I respect hesitancy about this and any Kickstarter/alpha funding project. I’ve quietly backed away from far more projects than the handful I’ve given money to. I guess we’ll find out in the next year or so how successful this model is at producing worthwhile games.

A better example of a brilliant core idea with poor execution is Infiniminer. Minecraft re-executed Infiniminer in a more compelling way, and has done a number of things exceedingly well. I personally wish the tech tree was expanded in Bettter Than Wolves-fashion instead of nose-diving into enchanting and potions, but with the widespread availability of mods, it’s hard to complain.

I do, however, see your point, and I agree that comparisons between a well established genre and a previously nonexistent one are probably somewhat worthless. However, I do believe that Minecraft’s influence can be seen in certain aspects of Kinetic Void, namely rich procedural generation, as well as the deep interconnection between resource collection, processing, and utilization, especially as a means of advancing through a tech tree and being able to creatively build better ships. It’s that kind of symbiosis of various play options that I’m excited about.

I’m with you on Starlight Inception. It seems like a straight rehash of Wing Commander/Freespace, a story on rails with combat missions; the pitch actually made it pretty clear that this was the case. I don’t agree on Kinetic Void. While it may not stand out from the genre as much 0x10c, it does aim to do a number of innovative things, or at least collect a lot of novelty and put it into one place. A procedurally generated galaxy and factions, along with module-based ship design in five vessel classes opening up very different avenues of play–that’s enough innovation to impress me. When you add in mining, manufacturing, and economy, you’ve essentially got a game that allows the player to create a mobile micro-empire.

The trouble I see is not whether the game is bringing something new to the table. It’s the question of whether it will deliver something solid and compelling to the genre, like Freelancer or Independence War 2, or break apart on launch, like Battlecruiser 3000AD. The other question, of course, is whether or not it will get funded at all. I’m willing to drop 10 bucks on the mere possibility that it will be decent. For that amount of money, I’m happy enough just to help fund someone’s taking a stab at making a game I’d like to play, because there’s a pretty good chance it wouldn’t happen any other way.

This isn’t one of those games, as it’s just Windows/OSX, but I do know what you mean.

As for whether small teams can create something special, Markus Persson certainly accomplished a lot all by his lonesome.

As for me, I’m incredibly weary of an industry that would turn Syndicate into a lackluster FPS, and of an FPS-hungry player base that makes publishers think this kind of thing is a good idea. I’m tired of the proliferation of generic high fantasy in every RPG, and of MMOs in general. Big publishers/developers just aren’t doing it for me anymore.

There seems to be a revival on Kickstarter and other indie platforms of games that harken back to the 90s/early 2000s, and I think that, by necessity, this is where the next great sandbox space sim is going to come from, simply because large publishers consider it a long-dead genre.

Things seem fairly active around here, but I’m beginning to get the feeling that I came to Freelancer/Starport a bit too late. I checked Steam and GOG to no avail.

When I first started it up, I was pretty shocked at how modern it played. I guess great UI doesn’t age much. I don’t know why this wouldn’t have a place as a digital download somewhere, along with a corresponding revival. With Steam’s recent support for modding Skyrim, one would think Freelancer could fit in with that model.

Anyway, pardon a noob and his ignorance. I’ll get back to familiarizing myself with the game so I can try my hand at multiplayer without shaming myself.

Fair criticism. It took some prodding from me to get the details I was looking for out of the dev, but he gave them, and I liked them. I also liked what I experienced in the shipyard, how various ships handle and, of course, building them. With the exception of games from well-knowns and knowns, plunking down money on Kickstarter projects will probably always be something of a risk.

While it wasn’t really my kind of space sim, I was actually a backer of Starlight Inception until I saw how poorly the campaign was run. It made me uneasy, so I backed out. That and watching people irrationally throwing hundreds of dollars at a $15 game just to see it made. I think Kickstarter can turn into a weird obsession for people, which has a flip side of tending to help push unlikely projects over their funding goals at the last minute. I do think there’s room for more than just one project in the genre. For instance, there’s Drifter, which is 2.5D with the deeper features of a space trade game, and it’s doing quite well. There’s also Skyjacker. Being purely combat, it’s not my bag, but it’s not doing poorly, either.

At the end of the day, I’m not expecting the world from Kinetic Void, just a solid space sim that delivers on the promises it made, with the hope that comes from an indie developer that intends on supporting its game with free content updates. What can I say? I’m a sucker for the Minecraft model.

This seems as good a place to mention it as any. Kinetic Void is currently in crowd-funding mode on Kickstarter. What caught my eye is that the dev has quite a number of goals that bear a lot of similarity to some of Chris Roberts’ initial plans for Freelancer. Multiplayer is presently on the table as a potential (free) content update down the line.

As is, what exists now is module-based ship design from the ground up (5 vessel classes, from fighter to capital ships, and possibly stations). The plans include a dynamic, procedurally generated galaxy with factions, diplomacy, economy, trade, piracy, mining, manufacturing, and, above all, the potential for significant player influence on the game universe. Vessel management also seem quite detailed, and different classes require and enable very different styles of play.

What I’m also liking, now more than ever since I just got into it, is that the controls seem to take a page from Freelancer. I kind of hate the old notion that flying a space ship must be complicated to be accurate; technology, clearly, makes things simpler as it advances–consider the F-22 Raptor, which pilots say takes 80-90% less brain power to operate than its predecessor.

Anyway, I encourage anyone still carrying a flame for the genre to check Kinetic Void out. I’m hopeful that the campaign will succeed and the dev will deliver on all it has set out to do. This could be the one.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seanpollman/kinetic-void

Thanks.

Last night I was planning to just check out a couple missions and go back to Minecraft, but I wound up playing until dawn, screwing any chance of accomplishing anything outside today. I don’t think I’ve gotten this wrapped up in a space-themed game since Homeworld. The controls… my god, the controls. They’re so effing good.

Wow. Underrated indeed. Only a few missions in, but I don’t think I could be more pleased.

I just thought I’d say hey, since I’m about to fire up Freelancer for the first time. I’m old enough that I was an adult when it hit shelves, when I picked up the box and thought, “Hey, this sounds like Privateer.”

Privateer was my fantasy game when I was transitioning from console to PC as a kid, but at the time the various hardware I had available was always behind the times. Instead I got Wing Commander for SNES, which never quite scratched the itch.

My interest in the Elite-style sandbox space genre has apparently been rekindled due to a few Kickstarter projects, namely Kinetic Void and Drifter, both of which seem quite promising.

Anyway, looking forward to checking out the mod section once I see how this thing plays. Thanks for existing, Starport.