Back in the Saddle!
We’re back! I took quite a hiatus there, sorry about that….
Got distracted by making music, making a shmup, programming the Nintendo DS, playing Satisfactory… feels good to be working on Orbital Dawn again!
What’s New
Mainly I’ve been working on a new station view scene, which allows for multiple locations, altitudes, inclinations, and a day/night cycle! It’s been a bit of work untangling everything that was hardcoded into the old scene, but it’s at 95% functionality now. One of the tricky parts: since I’m not using shadows, the planet/moon doesn’t actually block sunlight. I had to dust off my high school trigonometry and re-learn how to compute the angular size of a sphere, using that to find the angle at which the sun dips below the horizon, so I can turn the light off… it works! More or less.
I’ve somewhat increased the scope of Phase Zero. Instead of just making a moon station, the new goal is to create a small but sustainable economy in Erua orbit. There’s an extra moon now, Tiris. It’s a small moon in high orbit, full of hydrocarbons and exotic gases. What is its origin? It’s sort of like a cross between Titan and Enceladus. Perhaps it can be mined for fuel? Research the right engineering projects and unlock its potential!
A limited form of surface bases is coming. At first it won’t be too exciting, you’ll only be able to see them from the Orrery, but it will be your foothold to the Moon and Tiris. Mining outposts, starports, research stations, lots to do!
I’m starting to drift away from the historical spacecraft/rockets. They don’t fit the lore, such as it is, plus I’d like to show off some originality. I’ll be leaning more on real life designs for inspiration, but might pull some ideas from sci-fi, especially as we get into near-future tech.
On a personal note… well, I’ve been reflecting on this project and how it’s been affecting me. I’ve gone through several cycles of hyperfocus and burnout now, and I don’t like it - for one, it’s a rough ride, but for another, I think the work suffers for it. I ended up taking a week off my day job, and specifically told myself to relax: no game dev, no music production, just play some games or work on my backlog of model kits or something. I ended up playing Satisfactory the whole time, but that’s beside the point. I’ve decided I have to learn how to moderate a little better, take breaks, change stimulus, and most of all to ignore that little voice in my head that tells me to work harder, if you’re not working you’re missing out, look how much time you’re wasting. Pretty obvious in retrospect, but, well, these last two years I’ve had a lot of change in my life, and there’s some lessons I never learned when I was younger because of untreated depression. I’m committed to making this game, but I have to commit to myself too!
-Silver