Nexus Game Studio – Independent Game Developer

Developer Diary 08: Eclipse

Over the past month we have been really cracking down on memory issues regarding the older generation of iPhone and iPod Touch devices, it has seen a significant improvement since our previous developer diary and we still plan to target the older generation devices.

Overall progress on development has been great, the galaxy map is still a major development task, but is progressing rather nicely and the previous issues we have had, are now solved. In the mean time, we’ve been tinkering with updates to the overall graphical style of the game. The first screen capture we put out during our reveal was a rough pass at art. Since then we’ve put some more time into feeling out a new updated graphical style, what you see here now is still not final but is much closer to the final product than before.

As you can see, we’ve played more with the colour pallet, not so blown out as before and the colour tones have a more space feel to them. The background has a grid overlay that adds a little texture that really helps the white planets stand out more.

Previously, the HUD was based on text on screen that showed the units “health” as well as the age of the system. Went more for a geometrical representation of the health to also include moons (moons are used as a shield system, more on that later.). Also right now, we have rid of the age system, this decision is not final but it is something we are looking into to see it’s importance to gameplay.

The HUD design is not final, but it is a step in the right direction for now.

Next up, a preview of our second game mode. Infinite will feature several game modes to choose from, right now the main one you all have seen is the standard “Prime” game mode. Now we would like to reveal our second mode, “Eclipse”.

In eclipse mode, the solar system has a second, smaller orbiting star, when this star passes through (as dictated by the dotted path of orbit), any collision with the star causes instantaneous destruction of that unit or matter. Matter near the secondary star are also affected by the strong gravitational pull which can yield some rather interesting results. This really changes the dynamic of the mode and adds the element of timing and precision control. The art for this level is not final and we are also still working on the orbit path of the secondary star, so the results will change with the final version.

In later developer diaries, we will be revealing more game modes, some of which have a more drastic look and gameplay style to them.

Lastly, this week we have met up a gentleman by the name of Tyler Jones of Indiglo Rush, a very talented composer and DJ. We’ve been in contact for a few months now, Tuesday we met in person to make the agreement for him to compose the soundtrack to infinite. We think his work will very much complement the style of the game and really improve the users gameplay experience. Audio has a very heavy involvement and is not something we wanted to short hand. We will be previewing his works in future developer diaries, so stay tuned.

That is it for this major update. Remember, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest information and development progress.

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