No playable demo yet, unfortunately. The basic premise is that you (and/or your friends) are stranded in space trying to keep the space station from falling apart. You have to watch your oxygen, food, and fuel levels; dodge destructive debris; and assemble a reentry vehicle before Bathysphere 1 falls to Earth.
So, a few brief questions.
I’m mostly planning for this game to be unsavable so players start a new game every time they open the place. This makes it more of a multiplayer game, in my opinion, and I find the idea of trying to save every changeable aspect of this game horrendous. Does this seem reasonable?
Should Bathysphere 1 be a template you build on or a pre-built station (like the station in the video) you just have to maintain? This question is mostly for opinion - if I make it a constructible base the game won’t be finished until autumn 2020 with my technical knowledge - but it’s not out of the question.
Do you think it might be too difficult to play in a zero-gravity, drag-less environment, where moving objects don’t stop moving and spinning objects don’t stop spinning? Fellow veteran KSP players shouldn’t have any problem but I’m concerned about other players who aren’t familiar with “realistic” space physics. The player automatically stops spinning to deter motion sickness but I may change this.
Would this game idea (from what little I’ve shown you) become boring - too repetitive to keep playing? I don’t believe an open-world survival game on a space station exists yet but I could be wrong. Shoutout to Gravity fans.
Feel free to shoot me any further comments or questions and I’ll scrape together enough info to answer you.
Bathyspheres were rudimentary submersibles used for underwater studies. I decided the name based on the central module of the station, which both highly resembles a bathysphere and is used for observations. It’s also a popular trading hat.
Question 1
From the looks of it, I think not saving game progress is mostly fine in your game. However, I think having some sort of ‘continuity’ should be there, like some reward for the amount of survivals you made and something you can show off or that helps you in future survivals, maybe oxygen/health upgrades or something for more experienced players idk.
Question 2
If you have an awesome system for allowing players to build their own sips to play on, it can add so much depth and replayability that I would certainly at least give it a try even if it takes you an extra 6 months just for it. Why? With your current game, I’d play it once, twice maybe three times, but if I could build different ships to survive on/in with friends, I’d play it infinitely more. (also adds a bit of roomf or more roleplaying for players who want that)
Question 3
From what I’ve seen int hose videos, you nailed the controls which seems like it would’ve been very difficult to do. I’d have to paly to say for sure but otherwise, great job.
Question 4
If you implement the suggestions I made in question 1 and 2 for upgradability to your astronaut and customisation for the ship (especially the latter) , it’d add so much more life into the game and it boring wouldn’t become an issue for a few weeks or months.
For sure, making this game non-persistent would be fine. You could save small aspects, such as your highest scores and such providing the user some “trophy” for their good runs and skip saving all the complicated stuff (world state).
Do the pre-built station. Just based on your estimate for the delivery date, there’s not enough return-on-investment. If you make the game and people love it to death, then you can think about custom station-building.
I think you should definitely help the player out in this regard. You could have the jetpack automatically stabilize the player with respect to the spaceship, and they’ll probably be pretty happy. You could even make a toggle to turn off the auto-stabilizer so they could conserve their air supply a little better for when they’re ready to try out more KSP-style (0G) maneuvering.
It’s so hard to tell. A lot of this comes down to how it’s implemented. Make the game you want to play and at least one person will find it worth replaying.
Game aesthetic is really neat (why no R15 ) although I wasn’t sure what bathysphere meant. I thought it might be a meme or a reference I didn’t get but after reading this thread it seems like an unfitting name (hence how you had to write Space Station Simulator in the title)
I might convert to R15 but I can guarantee you that I’ll go insane trying to articulate the limbs. And I’m starting to see the confusion with “bathysphere”, along with some unnecessary tension. I really only meant “Bathysphere 1” to represent the central component of the space station (I’ll upload a pic, it currently looks more like a bathysphere helmet), and that players will be able to name their station whatever they want.
I jokingly suggested the name “Grant Theft Astro” to my friend, but in retrospect it sounds a bit too silly.
Forward view of the template space station. Attached to the front face of Bathysphere 1 (pictured left) is a gridded porthole very similar in design to that of an antique diving helmet - a mini bathysphere, if you will.
Having it not save is fine in its current state. Unfortunately, if the game is not insanely fun, users may not return to play again, so I suggest having some sort of a leveling system or mission system. Missions would be cool because it could be like: Make your way safely to the station, etc…
Make the space station pre-built, but have either interactive elements or customization elements. They do not have to be extreme, but do like a pseudo-tycoon sorta thing where once you complete a mission or level up, you can build or interact with a certain element of the space station.
I think it’s wise to keep zero gravity in the entire game… not only is it realistic, but it gives a constant reminder to the players that they are in space. This would essentially open up a possibility for players to role play as astronauts.
It would not be boring if there were things to do inside and outside of the space stations. I think having missions would once again add less ambiguity to the game design and drive users to explore further into space or customize their space station if you choose to make that a feature.
My personal thoughts on the game so far:
I really enjoyed the two videos and I think the game has a TON of potential. Good luck! I’ve always wanted a realistic space game… I just hope you make it work out.
) although I wasn’t sure what bathysphere meant. I thought it might be a meme or a reference I didn’t get but after reading this thread it seems like an unfitting name (hence how you had to write Space Station Simulator in the title)
