Developer Diary 06: Introducing Infinite

Finally! Today is a special day for us, we have reached our goal of achieving “alpha” status on project Kepler’s development cycle. For those who do not know what we mean by “alpha”, for us it means that we have reach the point where we have an unfinished game that is not content complete and may still contain bugs, but is in a playable state. This also means that we are about 1/3 complete in development, thankfully the hardest part is over now.

As we’ve stated on Twitter, we will be fully revealing the game as well as the name once we hit alpha status. That time is now, we can now say that our current project is no longer tentatively titled “Kepler”, instead, I would like to introduce to you, our game…

Why “infinite” you may ask? We chose infinite based upon the overall sense of the game, the game has no ending, virtually limitless to the amount of times you can play, the more you play, the more the game expands. As humans, we perceive the universe as infinite, ever expanding with no sense of end.

So what is the game really about? The goal behind infinite was to create a game where the user can create their own personal galaxy. In order to create this galaxy, you build solar systems that, upon completion, help it evolve. Based upon how you play the game will affect the design of your galaxy, every user will have their own unique galaxy and no two will be the same, all procedurally generated by the users interactions. Galaxies play a bigger role and we’ll discuss them in further detail in a future developer diary.

Solar systems (pictured below) are the main gameplay of infinite. Every system starts with a star, as time goes on, the star ages, increasing its solar mass until it finally reaches the point of being a red giant, the star will die once it reaches its limit, destroying nearby planetary bodies and will mark itself as a white dwarf. In order to maintain balance in the system, the user creates planets from matter, the more planets, the less the star grows, giving you more time to maintain balance to the system. Have no planets at all, the star gains mass quicker and dies sooner. Each system will have different scenarios that you play out, let it be from a single star, twin binary stars, asteroid belts, etc.

For gameplay, the user controls 5 orbital rings around the star, each ring has an orbit lock area in which you use to capture matter by tapping it, once the matter is locked into orbit, you must collide it with other matter to slowly start building the foundation for a planet. You use the accelerometer to tilt the device to either increase or decrease the speed of orbit, this is helpful for attracting or avoiding matter. Each planet and star has its own gravitational pull, matter that is passing by can get slung around  or locked into an orbit dynamically, this all works through the effort of some great use of physics we’ve implemented.

The visual aspect of the game is represented in a minimalist approach, after several designs, we went with something clean and simple, it’s a matter of addition by subtraction, less is more. We felt we wanted to make an abstract game and avoid the realistic approach visually. The stark white objects stand out from the dynamically changing backgrounds, with great visual ques and indications, we really feel it helps with the experience. This is something different and we wanted, visually, to show that. Keep in mind, these graphics are based on designs from the alpha build, over time they will evolve and change by the final product.

We’re so happy to finally show more of infinite, it’s been a very complex game to develop (still is) and we’re giving our hardest work and dedication towards this title to make it the best game we’ve produced. Thank you to all of you who have been supporting us this far and who have been looking forward to this project!

That’s it for this update. Remember, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest information. Stay tuned to the blog as we have much more to share on infinite!