Games Parabellum Galaxia - VR/NonVR Space Strategy Game (Early Access Game)

Firstly thanks for checking my game out

I've been working on this the past year and a bit full time but before was building it part time for a couple years before that.

So the premise is i've tried to make a simulation rather than statistically derived Space Strategy game based on real world physics, before any thought of world building and storyline, i really want to make combat that is strategic with depth but that is easily approachable. The 3D nature of space means VR is perfect for this, and whilst ive got a lot of complex systems under the hood, the idea is the player can just point and click in space where they want the ship to go.

Those ships will be built by the player where you shape the exterior of your ship by hand in VR, and then add in the internal and external components. This has associated mass and moment of inertia properties that along with where you apply the thrusters, defines how effectively your ship flys which is done automatically. Along with that the damage system is derived with 5x5x5m cubes overlapping the ship mesh and components with each cube sharing a thermal state and having a mechanical damage. In essence i wanted to create realistic feeling ways of destroying enemy ships, ie. Destroy armour around hot parts of target as you think a reactor sits under there, hit the command centre to disable further motion/targetting, or just hit it all over until the ship systems overheat, shut down or even kills the crew (probably most inefficient means!).

I've made a mission builder to go along with it, with the idea that users can make missions for their friends plus taking into account its only me making this right now, it made sense to focus on the core gameplay mechanics and let others build content within that. Although thats not to say i dont have a single player narrative for the future!

Overall where i really see this going is Multiplayer, if i can implement a effective netcode with unity dots, i think it could really lead to some cool and interesting battles as each player will have unique ships in theory and you'll have to think about how you want to approach them (if they have lots of missiles, hold back and destroy their incoming missiles, then head in for the kill!).

Would be really interested to hear any feedback. Whilst theres Homeworld 3 coming out, i think another homeworld inspired VR strategy game as well somewhere, i dont think theres a game like mine that has combination of designing, VR, realistic motion and simulated ship systems like mine. Not worried that its not hitting a mainstream audience as VR and Space Strategy are two niches that i havnt seen successfully overlapped yet, but its a game ive really enjoyed making and when it works for me personally it really works well!

 

Looks good. VR can still use some more good games . I miss the option "I would wishlist it" in the poll, since "I would pay for it" depends on the price and the final product and "I would play it for free" suggests that I would only play it for free.
Personally I don't care too much about multiplayer. Ship design + massive VR space battles would be good enough for me.
Best of luck, hope it all works out.

 

Thanks @Arnold_2013 for your feedback! The poll was a bit random in some respects. The amount to pay isn't fixed but certainly not full price, maybe something around $10-15 for alpha/early access to entice early interest.

Fully appreciate that. Ironically im not a huge multiplayer person either, however multiplayer if i can get it to work nice and reliably should mean i dont have to rush in to producing a fleet AI. Currently AI exists on a ship level scale (ie. move towards enemy ship, attack enemy, flee when outnumbered/outclassed etc.). The enemy as it stands wont form a strategy with one another, this is something i'd have to either outsource or put a good amount of time in.

With the mission builder you can just weight it such that the enemy has 2x or 3x the mass of ships that are available to the player and its up to the player to work out how to successfully attack a much larger fleet which is quite fun (not dissimilar to homeworld 1/2 single player not skirmish AI).

I'll post back here when i have some updates. Currently prototyping multiplayer as i want a good workable proof of concept before doing any monetisation on basis of it being multiplayer.

 

Stress test of the game! Last two weeks created a multiplayer prototype that at least locally seems to be working (need to get actual testers now!) and done a lot of code optimisation.

Using unity DOTS my CPU is now working across 16 threads pretty much non-stop for the simulation code, just a few gaps between processes, the above battle has 60 fully simulated ships, that includes Reactors, crew management thermal damage system all going on under the hood, as well as 500 odd independently targetting turrets, 1000's of lasers 100's of missiles and all manor of stuff going. Started out at 2fps, hacked and slashed my code till im getting 60fps like for like (1080p in editor) and 36/72 fps VR via oculus link in a full build. Capture performance makes it look worse than it is as game is at 100% utilisation most of the time. At some point will be looking to get someone to improve the graphics in terms of revised and improved modules with LODs (currently its using max LOD for everything..) and better explosion effects amongst other things!

 

I've managed to put together my Steam Wishlist page if anyone wants to Wishlist this. Also i plan on doing a free play test on steam in the next few weeks if anyone wants to give it a try

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2007150/Parabellum_Galaxia/?beta=0

 

Current game test build is 'approved' so feel free to sign up now to give it a play! Currently got 53 testers. Once ive got initial feedback from a few of them and resolved any major issues/bugs they've encountered (focusing on those that prevent enjoyment), i'll open the next build up to further testers! Looking forward to seeing what people think and gathering constructive points to help make it better

 

I've just released a early demo ready for Steam VR Fest on Monday. Give it a go and let me know what you think Its hopefully a bit slicker than my playtest as i spent the last couple weeks debugging and sorting bits out (still have tons to do!). Steam link is above or below

 

Just added some ship system menus so that the player can tweak individual ship and performance to how they want. Lots of bug fixs (probably created some im unaware of but hopefully not!) and implemented velocity limits and weapon adjustable settings. Would be great if people can test it out and give me feedback, ideally identify any game breaking issues. There are a handful of people who've played over 30 minutes (10% of players), but seems to be a majority that are 0-5 minutes making me think theres a glaring VR Compatibility issue no one is telling me about, probably at the main menu!! The Demo is free and downloadable and is pretty much the same as the playtest except that its locked to a single mission.

 

Just released this on to early access as its now reached my requirement that the core game is fun (for me at least). Please feel free to check it out. I'll be making some extra missions over the weekend so there will be more content on Monday

This is using Unity Dots 0.51 mostly reliably and with great performance in places!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2007150/Parabellum_Galaxia/

 

Congratulations on releasing your game. Pretty big discount, pushed me to buy it .

Its not VR only any more? (not sure if it was before)

Could you comment on how you set your price and discount?
Could you comment on the amount of wishlists going into the release? (and if there where any cool tricks on how you got these wishlists )

 

Thanks Arnold, hopefully you enjoy it but if not let me know as I definitely want to make it better

It was VR only up until around end of last year, where i changed over the demo. On the marketing side i didn't update things so have only started marketing it as non-VR at release (poor choice).

I think the important thing is I felt Early Access was best place to start, i reached my milestone of the core gameplay is fun and now for me its a case of refining and improving the content and making sure it runs well and reliably.

As the game is a hobby on the side of my main job (im an engineer), i set the price such to encourage people to give it a go, the content isnt there yet, even with player made ships/missions it will still be limited and so its priced according to what it is now. Over time i intend on increasing the price as it gets more content and features until a full release, ideally scaling based on supply/demand type thing. The discount is a launch discount and i went for the maximum as for me its all about getting player count, hopefully if those people enjoy the game and see the potential they will suggest to their friends to try it. Also keeping the price low (compared to pricing it at £30) will hopefully mean people are less likely to request a refund if it doesnt meet expectations right now (although i would say people should do so if its not their sort of game).

In terms of wishlists, i had less than a 1000. In part that is the fact it was marketted as VR only and within that its space strategy which is two niches combined. Thats a nice excuse but also i am terrible at marketting and of course dont have the resource of the big guys. A lot of that was through reddit posts.

My hope is if i keep building/improving and developing the game success may come from word of mouth. Those instances are very rare but for me im enjoying making the game (except when finding those random SIGGV errors!).

There are much better more intelligent people on marketting/pricing side of things so i wouldnt recommend doing things the way i have unless thats the way you enjoy doing it and your not relying on your game to live.