You might recall one of my side projects, Stellar Fortune. If not, it's a small game I had been making in which the player took on the role of a space trader. I have not posted about it much lately, mainly because there has been quite a bit to talk about with Warhammer Online. The project lives, but is in for a big change.
I've decided to basically blow up what I have and start from scratch. In it's current state, it is actually a somewhat decent prototype. You can buy and sell goods, as can AI ships. With the money the player can purchase new ships and equipment. The problem is, I just find it boring. There is just not enough depth to make it interesting in my eyes.
The fact it is graphical is really holding me back. Sure, the 3d ships are nice, but all the programming that goes in to the world and UI can be much better spent on adding depth. I still want graphics, but they would just be there to supplement the core of the game.
In the 2nd version of Stellar Fortune, I want it to be an online game from the start. It will still be single player though, as I'm not quite ready to tackle multi-player. This is one step closer to it though. I've also settled on this version being browser based, to allow for play from a large number of devices.
Another area I'd like to experiment with is to make the game pseudo-real time. It might take your ship an hour to get from Point A to Point B. Since it is meant to be played anywhere, this might be perfectly acceptable. I don't know, we'll see. With enough depth, I think it could work.
This new version will also introduce me to a number of web technologies I'd like to use. After all, learning is one of the reasons I like working on this game. First up, getting a basic client and server going.
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