One year ago I wrote the September 2015 update. You can read that here.
A lot has happened in the past year. So let's get right to it!
Greetings!
With Offworld Trading Company now released as well as Ashes of the Singularity released, the Star Control team has gotten reinforcements. The team is now a who's-who of some of the most experienced game developers in the industry.
Broadly speaking, the Star Control team is made up of the leads of Civilization IV, Civilization V, Galactic Civilizations and numerous other classics. Never before have I worked with a team with this much experience. So many people love Star Control and want to bring it back.
Challenge #1: The technical challenge
Star Control is an immensely difficult technical challenge to do today. You really wouldn't think that given that 24 years ago, Star Control 2 was done as a DOS game. How hard could it be?
The challenge is that Star Control is really five games. Let's walk through that:
Game #1: A planet exploration game. You could make an entire game around Star Control's planet exploration concept.
Game #2: A galaxy exploration game. Space is big. In fact, some say the universe has hundreds, perhaps even thousands of stars. In Star Control's case, the galaxy has over ten-thousand planets out there.
Game #3: An adventure game. This is the meat of the game. Going on quests, getting an interesting story to drive you to new objectives is what, ultimately, ties the game together. Without the alien adventure game, Star Control would just be some game where you explore a big galaxy full of planets to land on to get resources to upgrade your ship to get to the next planet. And who would want that? ...
Game #4: The combat game. Super Melee. This is where you battle with other ships that have unique weapons and defenses. It's an action game.
Game #5: It's an RPG. You are the captain. You have a ship. The ship is, ultimately, your character. Your allies are your party. You level up, get equipment to upgrade your ship so it's better and more interesting.
It's a big project and one we're happy to tackle. But it won't be easy.
Challenge #2: The budget
The new Star Control game is the biggest game we've ever made. Its budget is bigger than the combined budgets of all the games we've released in the past few years. Stardock is the oldest independent game studio left in the industry and this game is a huge challenge for us budget-wise. When people get excited about this game or that game, it's easy to forget that most of those games are from publicly traded companies or are funded by a publicly traded company. The new Star Control is not. It's directly funded by the individual sales of our games by you guys.
Challenge #3: The Setting
Star Control takes place in 2085. The humans are about to discover that the galaxy has been busy for a long long time.
Challenge #4: Hardware requirements
Star Control uses the Nitrous engine. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a next-generation 3D engine that can handle CGI like visuals in real-time. However, that comes at a price: Hardware. We are working hard to make sure Star Control will run on almost any system that supports DirectX 11, DirectX 12, or Vulkan.
Founders and setting up canon
A year ago, we let in a tiny tiny number of people into the Founders program.
We needed the thoughts and feedback of some die hard fans of the classic Star Control series that featured the Ur-Quan story line. It is not commonly known but the full name of Star Control 1 back in 1991 was Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan conflict Volume IV.
Star Control 1 and 2 deal with the Ur-Quan conflict.
And there's also...Star Control 3.
We've now had almost a year of listening to their thoughts and their ideas on all this. The biggest challenge we had was determining what is and isn't canon and how to have new adventures without overwriting what came before.
Most people who get into the new Star Control will never have played or even heard of the classic series from the early 1990s. But for those, like me, who have, it has a very special place in our hearts. So the challenge has been, how do you support both groups?
So to that end, we have concluded (this is only of interest to super fans of the original)
There is a single Star Control multiverse. Star Control 1 and 2, the Ur-Quan conflict epic, takes place on the universe we designate as Earth-UrQuan. Star Control 3, however, takes place on Earth-Crux. Earth-Crux is similar to Earth-UrQuan but is not the same universe. Thus, if Paul Reiche and Fred Ford, who today work for Activision working on Skylanders are able to return to their Ur-Quan stories, we presume they'd continue from the events in Earth-UrQuan (or whatever designation they'd prefer).
The new Star Control prequel also takes place in its own universe. That doesn't mean it's a universe without the Spathi and Ur-Quan and so forth. But if you run into them, it won't be until at least 2122 (after this prequel takes place and only if Paul and Fred are involved in that story).
For all players, the new Star Control prequel is a clean slate.
For people who aren't familiar with all this lore, we still sell Star Control 1/2/3 from the 90s so you can get into that lore.
Founders: Phase 2
This Fall we anticipate starting up Founders phase 2. This will be a much larger group that will continue to help provided feedback and ideas and this Winter begin testing out builds of the game with a select few being given the multiplayer Melee build to help us with multiplayer testing.
More to come this Fall.
Five games in one?
Come on, how do you not understand how games are supposed to work in ($Current_Year).
You release one game but cut important bits out so you can milk it for all it's worth with DLC.
I kid, i kid. It sounds like an awesome game, I look forward to seeing it.
If takes place as a different dimension in the multiverse, I gives the ability for a second story, in the future, of the dimensional wall breaking open and having a crossover story that ties in this prequel and the SC2 universe. This could be a very complicated and interesting story/couple of stories - along the lines of making the universe better in one of the dimensions and fixing another. This would also allow for crossover races in a future game.
Just a thought
The need for 1v1 combat and hyper-melee will always be there and I dare say it would be a crime to call it StarControl without it.But that doesn't mean the game shouldn't also take advantage of the better hardware. I'm hoping this is much more than just SC2 with better eye candy. I'd like to think the game can grow and break new ground while still staying true to the core of what made SC great. Epic story, solid exploration, funny but with dark undertones, great races with lot's of interesting/entertaining dialog, etc...
I agree
Hopefully mod tools that Stardock promises will suffice for somebody to recreate original SC2 experience and more.
I'm pretty excited to see how all of these "parts" come together. i know I am patiently waiting to see a more grown-up version of my beloved SC1 and even SC2. Very much hoping the experience doesn't change drastically, although some mechanical changes would be well received by me. I am also hoping for a game that is incredibly rich in the canon that has already been created in the legacy, but definitely keeping my eyes open for new things as well.
I remember you mentioning somewhere that as a makeup for Servo not delivering, those folks would be getting into the Founder's program at some point- how is that going to work?
I didn't even know you were making a new Star Control game. I hope you also take some concepts from the game series that inspired Star Control, Starflight. Also, please tell me #2 was sarcasm and you know the universe is made up of trillions of stars. Funny shot at No Man's Sky btw, and I wholeheartedly support it. That was, simply put, the worst 60 dollars I have spent on a game in my 39 years on this planet.
No Man...?
I am looking forward to Star Control, it seems like it's going to be a great game, but I wish you guys invested all of this effort into a Sins 2! I support Stardock completely, and love Sins.I feel that a Sins 2 would be a gold mine for Stardock, especially with the Ntrious Engine. Sigh, With Star Control in produce still we most likely wont see Sins 2 for another 3-5 years.
Hooray! I really want to be a founder for this game - SC2 was my favorite game as a kid, and I've played through it numerous times over the years. I wish I'd known about the founder options in December!
I was just thinking, it may be a neat mini-game thing to have a star control 1 kind of domination game, as a separate mode, time permitting
My only issue with SC2 was the simple fact you were put on a deadline to finish the game. From game start you had 5 in game years or the Kor-ah, would win their civil war and begin exterminating the rest of the races.
I wanted to explore more worlds, build up my tech more, finish more side quests.
But because of their mandatory game run, I had to focus on completing just the primary quests in order to complete the game in just over 4 years game time.
To those at Stardock, I do not mind having some primary quest we must solve in order to complete the game (game victory condition), but do not hard code in some lame time limit on our game play. Create some way we can "extend" this time parameter. We can kick the can a little further down the road and each time we do this, the time between kicks gets smaller and smaller until we must deal with it; but make it so we can deal with it in our own play time and not in game time please. Thank you.
I brought up that same concern in a post some time back. I'd also like to have more of an opportunity to explore and not feel quite so rushed by a firmly imposed time constraint, especially considering the scope of the new universe is bound to be larger with more things to discover.
If there IS still a time constraint, the idea of being able to push it back by completing certain tasks or quests is a good recommendation.
I actually like the time constraint.
First of all, it was so 'not-really-a-problem' in the original that I only found out about it in my third playthrough.
And also, it gives you the feeling of a living world. The Ur-Quan weren't just lounging about, waiting for you. They were fighting a war and whoever won it, you were going to lose.
It wasn't a big time constraint, it was just the Melnorme telling you, "Shit's going down and we're getting out of here before it hits the fan so you should do something about it too."
I would love it to have something like that in Origins too.
I created an account just for this thread. I'm really excited to see the updates. I've been a SC fan from way back. I often tell my friends that finishing Star Control II was one of the best gaming experiences. Also, I signed up for the even slim chance that I can be a part of the testing.Keep us posted!
I have played Star Control 2, at minimum 10 times, and never knew there was a time limit.
An Ur-Quan dreadnought with its "Launch Fighters" and Pew Pew Pew fusion blaster is easily the most recognizable aspect of star control.
Are you saying that this is NOT in this game?
Jesus Christ.
That's the great thing about moddability, I'm guessing all the original Star Control ships will be available in some form within a month or two of the game being released. It's the computer game industry's own form of "nefarious activities", haha
No worries, you'll come around. Like 99% of the Founders.
Greetings All,
Of all things....please please please make sure you open up the coding to modding, and hopefully provide us with mod tools same, if not better than you did with Sins of a Solar Empire.
If this is implemented, I will have no problem modding the game, and brining our much beloved SC2 races over to the game. They already have a nice home in my mod for Sins, and porting the models over to the new engine shouldn't be a problem so long as the coding supports it and the tools are there.
As a founder, I cannot thank you enough for bringing my favorite space childhood game to life again. This is a time cherished story and saga that I now share with my own children. They love all things Star Control, and are so excited for this game.
Star Control is the passion, the epic saga, the glory, the music, the gripping story the sucks you in, the epic space action exploration drama that we have all come to love. The original aliens can't be in for obvious reasons....Paul and Fred won't be involved....so it won't be right. That is their story, so they need to be involved. However, if after the game is released and the mod tools are there, then I promise that I will mod it to the best of my ability to pay the homage that is due. I already have the Arilou, Kzer-Za, Kohr-Ah, Mycon and the Sa-Matra waiting in the wings. The Chmmr and Ilwrath are in development. So....I'll be ready when and if the time comes from modding this new endeavor providing it has support from Stardock.
Frogboy, love ya man....keep up the passion, the drive, and the good work that will bring this glorious masterpiece. Make Star Control live again!
DANMAN
Make Star Control live GREAT again!
FTFY.
What I would like with a mod tool is the ability to make a new campaign and perhaps the ability to add new ships+cut scenes, for that campaign. So that (not that I would want to) I could in theory make the SC2 campaign.
So.. not sure where to post this, so here'll do:
1. How long will the lifetime founders packs be available? Until November? December? Do the packs include the game on Steam (I'm assuming yes)? What about DRM free?
2. It says that you won't immediately receive a key, when can founders expect access to early builds of the game, and for how long, roughly, will the game be in that stage before release?
3. I did not play the original games, though I'm loosely familiar with them (saw a Let's Play once, and of course heard of them here and there). I watched the gameplay video, but I'm still not 100% on what type of game this is exactly. Sid Meier's Pirates in space? Freelancer but more of an isometric view? A little bit of Spore? A little bit of Mass Effect? This isn't the first time I've looked into it, so I'm really hoping some of the vets around here can tell me what set it apart from everything else.
Thanks!
A big part of the Star Control 2 experience was the fact that it was not easily categorized into one genre. It blended several types of gameplay into a single experience. We're very much looking forward to the new game not being an exception to that either.
I don't know about the marketing stuff, but this is a really great re-make of the original Star Control II that is still a great game today. This is the version that is most inspiring the new Star Control: Origins.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/urquanmastershd/
So you can play this to see what type of game it is. It is so revered because it is very unique, there aren't really other games like it. It is an adventure game with a great story, with some minor RPG elements, and two different action games within it for landing on planets and fighting in space.
Many people who were young gamers when SC2 was new, like me, consider SC2 to be one of the best games ever made. Right up alongside games like Civilization and Team Fortress. The original SC2 is still a great game today, and the HD makeover makes it at least tolerable graphics wise compared to other games of its day.
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