Task 4

Game Research:

Faster Than Light:

Faster Than Light (FTL) was one of our main influences when researching an idea for the game. This is where we got our art style from as well as parts of the module system that we plan to implement into our game. While FTL focuses on single bigger battleships battles that are turn based however, we are turning away from that and instead want to create a real time combat of many ships at once. Apart from it's art style and the modules it shines on other things, such as in depth management, good AI and good way of implementing things like currency. Overall it's a very good game to take inspiration from.

Master of Orion:

Master of Orion was another major inspiration for our project, it's expansive world and things like enemy variety really stuck to us. But the biggest inspiration that we took from this was the very intuitive module system that allowed players to create ships from scratch and make it look and play however they liked. This was the major inspiration for the system that we planned to implement into our game. Other than that, Master of Orion has an amazing art style and great AI.

AI War: Fleet Command:

AI War was another good example that presented to us what a good and successful art style is supposed to look like for a 2D space game. Other than that AI War: Fleet Command presented us with some great AI to try to replicate as well as a great RTS-like system for selecting and commanding as well as fighting many units at once. Overall, it was a great example of scope and AI advancement.

Gratuitous Space Battles:

Gratuitous Space Battles is another game we have looked at, It has that same module/building concept of FTL or Master of Orion (the one that pioneered it) but it also combines that with (as the title suggests) big and gratuitous space battles that have RTS elements and RPG elements alike. It is a great combination allowing it's players great freedom along with a fantastic art style. Our main inspiration that we took from this one was how organised everything seems, the UI so complicated yet easy to understand from just looking at it, as well as how simple yet effective the module system is, not as sophisticated as the one from Master of Orion maybe but still very good and effective.

Elite:Dangerous:

While this is a huge 3D game, Elite: Dangerous still managed to give us some direction in terms of how a Sci-Fi game should look and feel as well as  gave us ideas about spacecraft design and different weapon systems that we could implement into our own game in a 2D form. Overall this wasn't a huge inspiration but any kind of influence and idea boost we can get is very good indeed.

Destination Sol:

This indie game was also very good in providing some ideas to us, mainly, things like fluid movement of the player, the UI design as well as enemy variety and enemy design. The art style and sound design was also a good lead for my partner in creating our own assets for our game.

Star Control 2:

Star Control 2 wasn't that much of a direct inspiration, but it was an inspiration nonetheless. It's amazing story, varied enemy (races) types and amazing combat really inspired us to try to mimic at least some of that greatness. And since our game wasn't really story oriented we tried to study the combat and create something of a similar thing in our game. We also took particular note of it's art style, trying to take some elements of it and add it on top of all the other art styles from other games that we noticed already.

Overall, the game research that we conducted was our main source of inspiration, from art style to parts of the game that we wanted. Including the main ones, such as devious AI and the modular system that allowed player to flesh themselves out within the game.

Books/Novels:
Isaac Asimov:

Isaac Asimov was the main influence when it came to taking inspiration from books and novels. Being the founder of Sci-fI as we know it and influencing pretty much every Sci Fi production in one way or another, we could not miss looking at his books either. In his books, there are descriptions of everything, including those about various spacecraft. Different types of spacecraft, how they are supposed to look and what they are supposed to have on board as well as offensive and defensive capabilities. All of this greatly increased our pool of ideas, mainly including what modules we want to be in the game as well as of course gave us directions in terms of how we want some of the spaceships to look like. This in turn allowed us to direct our art in that direction and make the spaceship look much better. Overall, studying those books was a great influence.

James S.A. Corsey:

James S.A Corey was another one that influenced us through his books, mainly, the Caliban's War. In that book he talks greatly about our "Future World" including talks about spacecraft of many varieties. Similarly to the books of Isaac Asimov, the main influences that we took from this book was that of how the spaceships are supposed to look like and what are they supposed to wield in terms of defensive and offensive arsenal. But also we learned of some drawbacks of these ships, which in turn allowed us to balance the game well as well as give our enemies some variety in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. Overall this was a very enjoyable book to read through.

Overall, studying those couple of books really gave us a great insight into some of the Sci-Fi elements that we were trying to replicate. We got influenced by a lot of ideas, especially of those drawings of mighty spacecraft as well as their insides.

Technical Research:

With game research I moved onto researching into my duty for the project, which was coding, I wanted to learn a lot of things, first off, I wanted to learn how to code efficiently and quickly so that no time would be wasted. This tutorial greatly helped me in knowing how to code efficiently and use many systems of organizing code within Construct 2.

Other things included things like researching particular things, such as coding a high score, a QTE (quick time event) sequence  or basic/complex types of AI.

This video taught me how to use the sine function within construct 2 to create more sophisticated AI for our game. Which was a great help since I didn't really understand the function or mechanics behind sine before.

Series of videos like these also taught me a lot of useful things that I was able to use within my work as well. Videos explaining the specifics of something are great, but videos related directly to something that I want to do are even better.