Developer Introduction!

[fwiffo]

Hi all. The Steam forums are up! I'm Sven, and together with Jim Francis (aka Arioch) I'm the creator of Stars in Shadow. I love strategy games, and making my own 4X game has been a life-long ambition.

This is a big, sprawling topic. But if we really boil it down, I have three essential goals as a game designer. I want Stars in Shadow to be a 4X game that 1) can be played from start to finish in a single evening 2) emphasizes turn based tactical battles and 3) is set in a world worth losing myself in.

As a designer, you need to decide which gameplay elements you’re going to focus on; and which you’re willing to deemphasize. The intended focus, in Stars in Shadow, is turn-based tactical combat. That’s a significant point of divergence from many of the other titles in the genre. Endless Space, for example, is a case where the designers made exactly the opposite choice -- focusing on strategy while trimming the tactical game down to it’s most basic form.

In Stars in Shadow, the trimming and streamlining happen in the strategic game. Managing your colonies is not intended to be as deep or consuming an experience as Civilization's city building. In many situations, simply leaving your colonies to their own devices for a couple turns while you prepare for your next fleet battle should be the best action a player can take

The emphasis on tactics over strategy is a big part of how I’m hoping keep game times in check. Heroes of Might and Magic maps tend to play much more quickly than Civilization scenarios; and I suspect there’s a fundamental reason for that. When city management is the core of gameplay, each new city added to your empire tends to increase the time it will take to finish a turn. As a game designer, there are some things you can do to mitigate that escalating complexity. You can add mechanics like Civ 5’s happiness value, forcing players to pick and choose a small set of cities that they’ll actively control. Or you can find a way to limit the amount of micromanagement that’s allowed during a given turn, as Koei does in Romance of The Three Kingdoms. But fundamentally, you’re fighting against the natural consequence of a game design that emphasizes city management. When the focus of the game is tactical battles, however, there’s no longer a necessary link between how powerful a player is, and how many different things they need to keep track of. In a tactics-focused game, expanding over the map at a steady pace becomes far more natural.

All that said, the most important design goal, in my mind, is the last one. I want the game world to be immersive; I want to the stories players create for themselves to have real weight to them. Asking what it takes to make a game world immersive is like asking what it takes to write a good book -- there’s no one formula for success; what ends up mattering is how well a collection of little details fuse together into a single whole.

And in this I’m very fortunate to have Jim Francis working on the project. The ship art that Jim has done is extraordinary -- you get a strong sense of each race’s character from the designs; and with tactical battles at the core of gameplay, it’s the ships that set the tone for the rest of the game. The planets are another piece I’m quite proud of -- both of us find ourselves occasionally pulling up a planet screen, staring at the spinning world and daydreaming about the lives our alien subjects are living. I think that’s a very good sign. Refined gameplay is all well and good -- but I play 4X games primarily because I want to immerse myself in a sci-fi world -- and that means quality art is as important as good mechanics.

Among other things, Jim is a gifted storyteller. I think that’s part of what I most enjoy about his art -- Jim says he can’t draw a spaceship without thinking through how it works and why it was built, and drawing a planet is apparently impossible without inventing a history for it. Stars in Shadow has become a setting I look forward to spending time with -- and that’s largely due to the wonderful work Jim has done in bringing it to life.

More links!

"Design Goals and Influences" is necessarily a big topic. Both Jim and I have written a few more things on this point, here's a couple links to notable beta forum posts, for those of you inclined to keep digging ;)

Influences[stars-in-shadow.com]
Production Mechanics[stars-in-shadow.com]
Galaxy Setup/Difficulty[stars-in-shadow.com]

[Rob]

We're all very excited to see how development wraps up on SiS, Sven and Jim! Can't wait to see the final features implemented and the game balanced and polished!

[kicktothehead]

Very excited. :) Count me in.

[harley9699]

I'm already in! hahaha All I need is a Steam key when they come out.
It's a very good game so far.

[Army Pea]

Nice breakdown.

I have been following SiS through explorminate and looking forward to seeing it come together for a fall release.

I'm most excited about the prospect of playing a single 4x game in one sitting.

With so many 4x games that require a large time commitment, it's a breath of fresh air to give the community something different.

[spartackus7]

Im looking for it

[emp456]

Added to wishlist and good luck!

The only thing i don't really like too much is "1) can be played from start to finish in a single evening" That sounds...too casual for a game like this. I love having to play 20 or 30 hours to end a game.

[Monado]

I very much look forward to this game! I really like the style of the artwork.

[Incompetron]

Well, poop -- absolutely everything you say sounds awesome, and makes me want this game -- except that I actually enjoy Civ-style strategy over tactics. :P But you guys are obviously putting so much thought and dedication into this, and I am so on board with the whole "immersive universe" and "stare at a planet and imagine the people living on it" bits that I think I might just go ahead and get this anyway once it comes out... Besides, spaceships are awesome, and even if I'll miss more in-depth planet management, getting to spend more time with thoughtfully-designed ships might make up for it! :D

[zakblood]

good luck for the release on the 15 September, hope all goes well

[Ragic]

if the gameplay is solid then the immersion is almost self generating. i find games that have too much lore make me feel like an outsider. 40k for example. galciv2 kept it basic enough that i could fill in the gaps with a custom faction and not feel like im violating canon.

[Arioch]

Originally posted by Ragic:

if the gameplay is solid then the immersion is almost self generating. i find games that have too much lore make me feel like an outsider. 40k for example. galciv2 kept it basic enough that i could fill i the gaps with a custom faction and not feel like im violating canon.

I agree that too much "forced storytelling" in a strategy game is undesirable, and the best story is that which the player constructs himself, but the game can do a lot to facilitate this player-generated story by provide lots to interact with in the game world and events that drive interaction.

[harley9699]

Originally posted by Arioch:

Originally posted by Ragic:

if the gameplay is solid then the immersion is almost self generating. i find games that have too much lore make me feel like an outsider. 40k for example. galciv2 kept it basic enough that i could fill i the gaps with a custom faction and not feel like im violating canon.

I agree that too much "forced storytelling" in a strategy game is undesirable, and the best story is that which the player constructs himself, but the game can do a lot to facilitate this player-generated story by provide lots to interact with in the game world and events that drive interaction.

^^All true. Any more, when looking at new games, if it says "story-driven", I won't buy it. As stated, I like my own stories. (minor thing for me for this game, I already own it :)

[Yrth]

Great game!!!

Can someone please give some infos about the planet types, their properties and the terraforming upgrde path?

[Arioch]

Originally posted by Yrth:

Can someone please give some infos about the planet types, their properties and the terraforming upgrde path?

That would be a good item to add to the website; I've made a note of it. The Terraforming rules will eventually change, so that part might have to wait a bit.

[jef]

well i love this so far.. i think the tactical facus is a great change from the more strategy based games (which i also love and play)

may even forgive you for sloping off outsider to do this. :)

I do love outside rtoo mind!.. gonna add 2 races?