Greetings!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and if you're interested in participating on our Skype #StarControl channel, post your Skype ID.
As for me, I'm Brad Wardell. I'll be the Executive Producer on the new Star Control game. I played Star Control 1/2/3 when they were first released back in the late 80s and early 90s. Star Control 2 consumed my life for many months and had a profound impact on my career.
Like many of you, I waited in hope that one day, Toys for Bob would be able to get back and make a new Star Control game (or if they couldn't get the rights to the original name and publishing rights a Ur-Quan universe game).
When the Star Control franchise became available to be acquired, I jumped at it. The designers of Star Control 1/2 run Toys for Bob still but it's now owned by Activision who won't let them participate on the new game.
As far as I'm concerned (and therefore Stardock), Paul and Fred *own* the Ur-Quan universe. Not just the source code but the aliens, ships, the lore, everything. I think most of my fellow fans feel the same way. So the new Star Control game won't be able to leverage the Ur-Quan and related aliens and history (unless Paul and Fred give explicit permission) but it also gives us, the fan community, who have given these matters much thought over the past 2 decades, an opportunity to establish a new continuity that can manifest itself in a AAA game with a multi-million dollar budget, veteran developers from Firaxis, Big Huge Games, Stardock, etc.
In short, we (and by we I mean you guys and us) know what a Star Control game should be like. But we also have the freedom to create a whole new continuity with new aliens, new histories, etc. without fear of having to retcon something or violate the Ur-Quan continuity.
With that in mind, tell us about yourselves.
My name is Espen Gätzschmann, also known as TiLT. I'm known for being one of the core Precursors team, having remixed 10 tracks for The Ur-Quan Masters remix project.
I first heard about Star Control back in the mid 90s. The first game in the series I played was actually Star Control 3, and I liked it a lot at the time. My interest in that game brought me over to Star Control 2 (and to a certain degree, Star Control 1 as well), and you can imagine the feeling of "betrayal" when I realized that most of the stuff I liked about SC3 was lifted directly from SC2.
Nowadays I consider SC2 to be one of the best video games I've ever played, up there with the original X-Com.
I'm here because Star Control is near and dear to me, and I can't wait to see what Stardock can come up with for this new game, alternate timeline or not. I would love to contribute to the musical score as well, but we'll just have to wait and see what Stardock has in mind for that.
I just played Star Control 2 last year and I loved it from end to end. I never figured out how to fight effectively with any of the alien ships, unfortunately, but it didn't harm my enjoyment any.
I don't understand your position on the Ur-Quan. It's like buying the rights to Star Wars but saying out of respect to George Lucas, no Wookiees, Jedi, or Darth Vader. Make a game with the exact mechanics and plot of SC2 but with different skins and flavor on everything -- won't feel as Star Control as a tower defense game that has Ur-Quan and those cowardly alien guys.
I feel like the essence of Star Control is those hilarious alien races. You're pretty good at giving races a consistent character, like the Yor and such, but I feel that somewhere out there is the perfect writer who was born to reboot Star Control and could make all the difference. The voice acting was so key too, I actually loaded up the Ur-Quan and the Utwig just three days ago to listen to them speak again. I guess that was because of Rock Paper Shotgun and this game. You could have bolted on any combat system you choose, it could only have made the game better, but exploring to find different bizarre races is the part you have to nail. Maybe a 50-50 mix of old races and new ones. I wish you tons of luck!
I've been lurking in the Star Control forums for awhile and may have been one of the first few to encounter the news that Stardock acquired the rights to the franchise from Atari, because I've got Star Control in all my news alert feeds and had also read about it from Anthony Suarez's Star Controller blog.
I've patiently painfully waited for a worthy followup since playing SC2 back in 1993. It seems impossible that it's been more than twenty years. I was barely 11 years old when SC1 came out, maybe 13 when SC2 hit shelves. They came on these amazing things called floppy disks that had to be individually loaded into the computer one at a time, where they took several minutes to transfer one megabyte of data to a hard drive. There was also no internet or web, so instead I grew up on dialup BBS communities long before browsers existed and I'm rather stupidly nostalgic for those days.
Like Espen above, my interest in digital music began at a young age and I was definitely influenced musically by SC2. I'm not part of the Precursors team, the UQM project, or any other community project, but SC2 inspired much of my fascination with electronic music in games. I was so amazed that I could play SC2's music through a PC speaker without a sound card in 1993, because it used digitized waveforms on an interval timer with no analog conversion or line-out to an amplified speaker. It may seem silly and irrelevant today, but it was like magic to me and it was one of the many innovations that delighted me about SC2.
Even though SC3 failed to capture the same spirit, I enjoyed the characterizations but felt the franchise really needed a change of scenery and still stand by that notion now. As with many comic book story lines, there have always been alternate interpretations of characters over the years. Part of me is disappointed that the old assets aren't involved in this new story, but I'm even more delighted at the idea of a whole new lore being developed. The UQM timeline has been played out ad nauseum via fan fiction and in our own imaginations, and having no preconceived notions of what to expect is very exciting. I'm confident that it can be re-imagined with great dignity and respect to the source material, and I look forward to seeing how the community helps shape the franchise moving forward.
I only played one of the previous Star Control games, but I can't remember which one it was. However, I'm very much looking forward to this one.
Hi Brad and fellow forum members, I am András Barják, I was also member of the Precursors team helping out Espen and his friends with a few remixes for the The Ur-Quan Masters remix project (Pkunk, Zoq-Fot-Pik and Supox remixes). I am a professional sound-engineer and musician, also a software developer. I was also member of the Timewarp community that was aiming to make a sequel for Star Control II.
http://timewarp.sourceforge.net/
I contributed several pieces of music, fonts (!) and also collaborated with my friend CyHawk (I hope he will join the forum soon) in many new ship designs (design, 3d modeling, sound effects, gameplay tweaks) for the Timewarp extended melee engine (which was quite awesome at that time, faithful reproduction of the old melee with nice resolution, cool new features and ships). At one point I was even art and music team leader and contributed story drafts but the project has collapsed as we were just a bunch of amateur youngsters back then with no professional experience about open community development
Any of you perhaps played it? Any of you remembers GOB perhaps? It was an interesting project for sure!
Star Control 2 is a masterpiece of art in my eyes. It was a perfect combination of humor, style, great game mechanics, good story. They even payed attention to details like font types of the aliens! I also think that the games we have around are much more specialized. What made Star Control 2 so great that it was not restricted by any genres. It was more like several different mini games stuffed together: a bit of ship-building, a bit of fleet management, a bit of RPG, a bit of 2d arcade shooter, a bit of different 2d arcade (planet lander), then again, a bit different navigation for hyperspace, for quasi space and for solar system scale -- you had to master many different skills to be adept at the game. And of course exploration.
Nowadays you just don't take different genres and combine them, like combining a 2d arcade streetfighter game with an fps, you can't do that anymore
I would be more than happy if I could collaborate as a musician and sound-engineer to the new Stardock project. If you have played and liked our Timewarp ship designs, feel free to use any of them. (The Bipole Catamaran was the most famous as far as I remember... Also, I am quite sure we could still contribute some great ships with CyHawk as we have became professional software developers since.)
I was a big fan of GalCiv, so I am happy that this great team, Stardock will be the one to produce a sequel/prequel!
My name is Jonathan Rafferty, and I've been a fan of both Star Control 1 and Star Control 2 since they first came out on PC. I can recall countless hours I spent playing Star Control 1, competing with my brothers using different halves of the keyboard, and making bets about who could win with what in SC1's melee. I bought and played the original PC version of Star Control 2, and the music and fonts gave the game such texture that I actually still prefer the version without voicing.
I've been a huge fan, been waiting impatiently for a sequel. If there is any game that I feel must be made, to the point that if no one else would, I would at least try, it would be a successor to Star Control. Best damn game - and whether it's the original team's epic cliffhanger, or the disappointment in the sequel, it needs a better ending.
I've been an avid fighting gamer for a decade, and competed regularly against some of the best fighters in my state, though I'm not exactly good enough to compete nationally at this point. My tastes in games run the gamut, with favorites from all genres. I unfortunately don't possess the skillset to actually do the heavy lifting with game creation - I have some experience in animation and CAD, but it's more industrial than entertainment at this point. I've also got experience with programming and graphic design, and have been the initial editor on a soon-to-be-published novel. I'm brimming with enthusiasm, but I'm not sure exactly how I'd apply it best.
As a fighting gamer, I've found an extreme level of similarity between Star Control's melee style space combat mechanics, and the mechanics of fighting games - I would love to bring that experience to bear as the new system develops ideas and irons the balance out.
My Skype handle is: nstormrider
Best of luck!
Hi Brad and everyone else,
I'm David Paris, longtime game developer and Star Control fan. I've actually pitched Star Control inspired titles in the past, so was quite interested when I noticed the actual IP came up for sale.
Oddly, I totally agree that the best approach is one where you start significantly over and capture the essence rather than the original characters of the series. There was a great deal of joy to be had in discovering what strange and wonderful creatures shared the universe with you, and in figuring out just what their particular flavor of wacky was. I think if you just try to pick up and carry the existing races forward, you run a real danger of losing that, kind of like SC3 did. I think it muddied the experience.
That said, it can still be fun to do cameos, in-jokes, and so forth with the existing stuff. It just reinforces the feel.
Take what Star Control is - the quick fun ship combat, lightweight resource management, evolving universe, and wonderfully twisted characters, and run with that. There is so much opportunity for a great game to be made and if nothing else, I'd love to play it.
Cheers!
Skype: acheronehj
Hello all! My name is Adam; and I've been a huge fan of Star Control since the first game graced the contours of my 8.5" floppy drive. I've played all three existing games, and like many others, find SC2 to be an almost perfectly balanced and scripted game. Hell, it was good enough that the folks at "Evil Acquisitions" ripped off as much as they could, and created a great console experience. Played the games, read the (horrible) novel, and have watched the awesome effort of the guys at UQM in trying to restore the original. I was stoked when I saw the Project 6014 trailer on YouTube; and thought it would be the closest thing to a new game I'd see.
Its nice to be wrong once in a while.
Looking forward to the new iteration of the Star Control universe; and hoping that I can be a polite, and useful member of the Star Control community. Looking forward to years of serious gameplay, fun lore discussion, and *happy* camping in HyperMelee.
Wait, 8" floppies? I thought the oldest platform was the C64 and it had a 5" floppies. What system did you play SC1 on?
And hopefully you mean *dancing* in HyperMelee.
I was 5". Had to go look in the box. Saw the beat up Hyperspace Map & Professor Zorg's "Wheel Of Copy Protection;" brought back memories...mostly of frustration.
The system was an old hand-built DOS PC. We made weekend trips as a family to Radio Shack, Egghead, and CompUSA for parts and electronic goodies.
Heh, for a second there I was afraid I'd somehow missed an ancient 8" floppy version of SC1 with text-based character codes instead of graphics, like a MUD. My mom actually used to use those giant floppies back in the 1970's on an old IBM mainframe. As a kid they seemed like the size of vinyl record sleeves to me. I remember trips with dad to all those stores too. Sure miss those days. Still have all my old boxes too.
Greetings Brad!
As I am sure my name is no stranger around the Stardock / Sins of a Solar Empire forums, I am DANMAN, real name Dan Eachus. I own, run, and lead the 7 Deadly Sins mod development team, Danman Games, and I am a HUGE Star Control fan. So much so that I created 7 Deadly Sins to bring back the works of Toys for Bob into the Sins of a Solar Empire world. We have in the mod, and as playable races, the Urquan Kzer-Za, the Kohr-Ah, the Arilou, and the Mycon, with more in development.
Should you EVER get permission from Toys for Bob to use UrQuan related story, content, etc, I would love to be able to help out with models, textures, etc. All our models are made from scratch, and imported into the Sins engine. We also have 2 versions of the Sa-Matra in the mod, one for the Kzer-Za, and one for the Kohr-Ah.
So should the opportunity arise, I am here to help. If not, then if I can support in anyway, I'll be glad to do so. We all have been waiting for about 20 years for this wonderful series to have a true sequel, or at least some kind of added story. The adventure, the characters, the humor, the music, all bring this classic, epic, opera into our hearts and souls. It's a best selling novel turned into a game, and has a massive following and some fanatical fans.
To András Barják, your music talent is amazing and I enjoy your pieces when playing the Urquan Masters. I too had the original game on 3-1/2" floppies on my old 386 IBM PC. I would love to be able to work with you in your efforts as well.
So, I'm here to help Brad, if you'll have me, and I have a team of people to back me up as well.
DANMAN
Hey everyone!
My name is Derek Rawlings, and Star Control 2 ruined my grade 11 grades. I was totally hooked and am elated that we're getting a new product.
Let me know if there's any way I can be of service; I want this game to succeed.DR
Hi!
I played through Star Contol I, II and III, even though the first one is only a combat game actually and the third was just a pale reflection of the greatness of the second. I have a good gamer friend who played 'em with me back in the day, and for both of us Star Contol II is probably the most liked and respected game still today among other legendary titles like Planescape Torment and System Shock. Back then we spent countless of hours sitting in the dark room together, drinking cola, eating candies and exploring the galaxy, and it was a blast. The shared joy and experience made it even more awesome. I have to mention the Star Control II soundtrack here because it's a mind-blowing thing and the precursor remixes and releases are simply awesome. I've been playing all that music recently as a background music for my Twilight Imperium board game sessions My favorite tracks are:
Those and all of the other tracks as well take me instantly back down memory lane. Somehow the game become a part of me and it will live on as an unforgettable experience. With my gamer friends we still continuously go back to the Star Control subject, because we talk about games a lot and design game concepts just for the kicks. Me and the one who played Star Controls with me, we both like to write as well and we dabble with music, arts and we've been doing some programming also lately.
I specialize in usability and user experience nowadays. I guess that I've found my passion: games and creative work.
I keep my thumbs up for you people there who are developing the next Star Control title. Don't be dismayed by the inevitable problems or failures along the way. You live and learn and carry on wiser than before. Hopefully you will succeed.. and have fun most importantly!
Hi Brad and everyone,
My name is Greg Williams, and since first playing Star Control 2 when I was 12, it still one all my all time favorite games. One that I still reload every few years, and enjoy just as much as I did the first time. I struggle to find a game of the same caliber in the modern age.
As others have said, it has a perfect blend of arcade action, adventure, light resource management, exploration, ship customisation, quirky characters, and interwoven story arcs.
On a side note, I don't know if achieving this perfect blend is possible now with so many gamers with different gaming preferences. Perhaps the game mechanics could include 'Playstyle Sliders'? The same game, but those who like more resource management and ship design can move the corresponding slider up. Those who don't, can move the slider down and have these processes automated, with more focus on adventure and arcade action.
While the arcade action is excellent fun (particularly the Pkunk with the insults as away to recharge the battery, and the random 'resurrection'), brilliant sound track, addictive resource gathering, and ship customising, for me the thing that makes SC2 such an enjoyable game, and one with massive replay value, is the terrific character designs and storyline.
Most other games had abyssmally dry dialouge trees. The same Questions A-D to initiate Response A-D. In SC2, the interactions with different races almost felt real. Here was someone actually responding to me, replying with witty banter. These were characters I liked and wanted to help, and not just for game progression.
Similarly, SC2 was the first game I played that had 3 dimensional villains, with justifications for their actions. This game had a huge influence on me in many areas, but particularly as a budding writer.
I would like to volunteer my services to help writing dialouge trees, story arcs, creative content, even technical documentation if required. I am really excited about the Star Control reboot and would like to assist if I can
Hello. I have been a Star Control fan since High School, when I would play StarCon II against my friends at recess. Every. Single. Day!
For the past eight years, my avatar on http://www.onrpg.com/boards/members/8142-Phenoca has been this:
(edit: Now it's Anna from Frozen.)
As a teenager, Stellar Frontier was my favorite computer game. It was the first multiplayer game that I got addicted to, which led to my Subspace Continuum addiction. I have made over 5700 posts with this avatar, so there's my two cents towards hyping the series! For those who do not know, it is the box art of my favorite Star Control game of all time! For the past 3+ years I've been trying to become a progamer (making money off winning tournaments). I simultaneously held three Diamond-ranked accounts in League of Legends, was the Community Manager of one of the top three PvP guilds on my Dragon Nest server, have beaten or played with every top NA team in Guild Wars 2 from 2012, and have been on two of the top ten Heroes of the Storm teams (to present). I recently redownloaded EVE Online and am heavily-involved with null sec PvE and planet colonization. I have spent over $2500 playing Entropia Universe and Dragon Nest. I got here by Googling "Society Stardock" and the thread "Star Control" immediately caught my eye... And my heart. My Skype ID is TheSteamedRice and I am interested in everything pertaining to StarCon! I am also an Original Vice Admiral Backer of Star Citizen, and various other Sci-Fi Kickstarters. I have participated in numerous gaming tournaments as a full-time gamer and am currently on a competitive team! I play 10-14 hours per day and have co-developed Fragmented Galaxy and Land of Destiny (as well as top placements in robotics, mathematics, and programming team-competitions) so I know a little bit about bugfixing It is rare to find a Star Control fan, so I am pleased to be here! EXTREMELY! Heh heh!
Great to see all these new faces!
SCII is my favorite game of all time. I always wished there was a version of the game where the locations are randomized so that I could play it again but not know where anything was. Yes, I know that's not possible due to the lore and the arrow of rainbow planets and all that. Anyway. Good luck with the re-imagining! I think you are going to need it....
I'm from Argentina, I spent most of my high school years playing SC2, and I remember I "designed" several ships which I thought (at that moment at least) that they were very cool and would make a great expansion. Unfortunately, all those pieces of papers where lost somehow
my skype id is quixote_arg
Hey everyone.
My name is Terry, and like all of you, I too love Star Control 2. SC2 is one of the few games I continuously go back to every couple of years, and I couldn't be happier that someone is finally making a new SC game. I have no experience in game design or coding, but I do have over 30 years of gaming experience, for what it's worth.
I very much look forward to joining in on the discussions on these forums.
Wow...
Reading all the above comments has me feeling like i'm a little boy again. To see so many people who love SC2 as much as I do.
So mySC2 started with a game called Starflight. Amazing game for it's time.. Still remember the interesting packaging it came in. Spent hours upon hours in that game.. But moving on.. I'm visiting a friend in another city when he introduces me to this game called Star Control on his Mac. We play ALL weekend.. When I went back home I just wanted to play more.. well.. as luck would have it.. SC2 was due out about a month after that weekend.. So I saved up what I had and purchases it soon as it came out.. I still remember that HUGE map and manual in the box.. But little did I know.. SC2 was going to be so much more than I ever expected. SC2 became my life for awhile.. I read the manual front to back multiple times. I squeezed every bit of story out of everything I could in that game.. I loved it.. Trying to find any correlation between the Taalo and Chenjesu.. playing through so many times trying to see every different outcome for the races. Sheets of paper around my desk with notes.. locations of systems.. mapping out quasi space to hyperspace. Trying to learn about every space 'in between'.
I've always said that StarControl 2 has been my #1 game on my list.. nothing has come close.. I wish I had some talent to offer but my skill set is operations.
But seeing somebody like Frogboy who seems to carry such a strong love for the game like many of us is such a great relief. I look forward to being able to give my input for something I'm so excited to see.
I could talk about this all day...
Nathan Ramsay
I first played Star Control 2 in 1993, when I visited an unpleasant boy from school with a friend of mine. I was mind-blown, but I only remember three specific things from that session:
1) There were so many planets to explore, and so many options when you arrived at a planet. I was 8 at the time, so I spoke very little English, and that was the time when I found out that Orbit had a meaning other than being a brand name for chewing gum. (Although I thought that the chewing gum brand might have paid money to have that word in the game.)
2) Hyperspace and the hyperspace music! I loved hyperspace, and the music was so exciting. That might also have been the first time that I experienced a computer with a sound card.
3) Hyper melee (or is it super melee?). We mostly played hyper melee, and I liked it a lot, despite losing most of the time.
I later asked the boy if I could borrow the game from him, but he would only lend it to me if our family's computer was better than his. Which it wasn't. That asshole.
So I didn't play the game again in the 90s, but I never forgot about it. I suspected that it was one of those experiences from my childhood that would not hold up if I tried to recreate it as an adult. (Have you ever seen the movie D.A.R.Y.L.? I sure did! I also saw it as an adult...) When i finally found the game online 14 years later, I decided to try it out. And it was a fantastic experience! It was a bit different from how my 8 year old brain perceived it, but it was better! Star Control 2 is one of the very best games I have played.
Am I looking forward to this game? Yes. Do I have confidence in Frogboy and Vaelzad? Yes! This looks very promising.
Best regards from Norway
Hi everyone, my name is Greg. Same story as everyone else plus I remixed the Yehat victory ditty for Ur-Quan Masters (would have done more but time...) I'll keep this brief as it's all been said already... Spent many nights of my childhood on SC1 against my brother and the same for SC2. That game was deeper than any other game around at the time in terms of gameplay, story and music. In fact I drop little nods to Starcon whenever I can... such as this synthesizer sound demo on youtube:...and even this Dave Smith Instruments Tempest unboxing video and soundtrack was inspired by the SC2 intro... probably the best unboxing video you will ever witness, and we all know how stupid unboxing videos are.Looking forward to chatting with everyone here and seeing how this game progresses. I'm happy that it's in good hands!
Hello all.
Hello Frogboy.
Introductions are in order then, I'm a huge huge fan of starcontrol 1 & 2. I played SC3 but let's not talk about that now for a while
StarControl 2 was beyond a shadow of a dougt THE game of my life. I played it with such eagerness that i have to say it's been the only game i've played to 100% perfection several times in my life. I've explored every planet in the sheer hope of finding an extra easter egg or piece of lore hidden away. I've researched this game to death in search of simple things like a minor piece of radio transmition locked away in a remote moon.
To put into perspective, i've played over hundreds of games in my life. Only a few games even remotely come close to SC2 in importance to my life and that was Larian Studio's Divine Divinity (1), the first X-COM Enemy unknown, and perhaps Lands of Lore - The throne of chaos from Westwood sudios. Suffice it to say games haven't been all that amazing in the last decade or so, with very rare exceptions.
When i heard Star Control would be revived, i was both ecstatic and terrified. It was a near two decade dream come true, but considering the current state of video games, i am somewhat skeptical that a sequel can be of comparable quality to the original. Please don't get me wrong, it's nothing personnal or against your current work (wich i'm not very familiar with I must add with all fairness), it's just that SC2 is THAT important to me and i selfeshly think i'm probably the only one that could make the sequel and no one else in the entire world would give it justice, probably not even it's original creators (cof cof). (I Know, i Know... it's not even a rational thought, but hey i'm being honest here).
With introductions being made and you can see what kind of a fanatic fan i am of the series, hopefully we can all get along and you won't kill my dreams of reliving my youth in a video-game and show it to my sons! ahahah. No pressure realy!
It appears from what i read on the forums that you are interessed in fan input, hopefully i can give some useful help if needed. I'll be lurking around the forums and if some kind of fan alpha/beta program comes along i'll definately pitch in.
Cheers and good luck ! please don't make me upset! think of my children and the joy they would have of playing a good game in the StarControl universe!
Hi, my name is Joseph. As a kid I played a ton of StarControl on the Sega Genesis and then MORE THAN A TON of StarControl 2 on the 3DO. I didn't actually get my own computer until I was 16 - so don't judge! My siblings and I spent hours exploring, getting every single dialogue choice, and doing vicious melee competitions. I never played StarControl 3 - perhaps out of fear that it'd ruin my vision of StarControl - but I figure I really just should eventually. To me, StarControl 2 is simply the greatest game ever made.
Aside from being a mega fan like everyone else in this thread, I also have modestly popular Twitch and Youtube channels - and every couple of years I subject my fans to a StarControl marathon around Christmas.
I'd love to be part of the Skype group - so a private message here or a DM on Twitter (@Swiftor) would be fantastic!
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
