I had so many ideas for my next project(many good and many bad ones I’m sure). Unfortunately, when it comes to a one person dev team, you can really only spend so much time fantasizing before you have to pick something(for time and space and physics reasons). Otherwise, in my case, I would probably just think about potential projects forever.

I found myself playing around a lot in Unreal Engine 4 and I have developed an affinity for it. The cohesiveness of the engine is something that with current technology only seems to happen over the course of thousands of man hours of some of the best software developers in the world thinking and working on something(as well as years of feedback and testing). I’m very happy to be able to use it to make something and I hope that people will enjoy the final product.

Above Earth will be a survival game set aboard a space station in the near future. Development is in progress in Unreal Engine 4. Screenshots and more info to follow.

Greenlight page: Steam Greenlight Page

I also created a new splash screen for my DBA name. Let me know what you think:

Watch the Greenlight trailer and if it looks like something you might enjoy – head over to Steam and give it a “yes” vote: Steam Greenlight Page

I also plan to take it to some game dev meet-ups and if possible some small indie conventions to have people give their feedback.

The feedback I get from these various sources will determine how much more time I invest in polishing the game and what additional features I end up adding. It will also determine how I end up beta-testing and ultimately releasing the game.

 
Thanks for following and I hope you enjoy the Alpha Trailer for Icarus Starship Command Simulator:

The music consists of about 17 full songs plus a bunch of smaller musical phrases. They were produced by me using my VST of choice.

They are in the game, they are playing when they are supposed to and I am generally happy with how they have turned out.

Each species has its own song with a few different versions for different scenarios.

Here is the battle music for the alien “space lizards”:

Here is the battle music for another species of “alien cyborgs”:

The in-game versions of these songs are much more ambient and much less structured, but I cleaned these versions up a bit for the purposes of posting them online.

In addition to all the species’ songs. I also have a few miscellaneous songs for the beginning/ending of the game, as well as the main menu screen and some other things.

As for the sound effects, they were for a plethora of things ranging from species’ voices to ship-to-ship weapons.

Here is the voice of one of the species – a robotic type:

This is played when these robots first see the player.

The lions share of the art for the game is now done. My main focus now is on balancing gameplay – which will consist mainly of editing text files and some programming.

In fact, I am getting almost to the point where I could have a very limited closed alpha – which is something I am looking forward to.

I hope you find the music enjoyable. Thanks for listening.

But I finally did that last thing (it was particle effects btw). A lot has happened since last year.

 
I finished ship floor plans and interiors:

I optimized the game:

I added a leveling system for ship crews. They now level up when they get kills. I also added a reserve crew mechanic:

I did particle effects for ship destruction and FTL jumps:

I got started on some text dialogues:

And of course I fixed a bunch of bugs:

My TODO list is getting pretty small now.

I’ll try to get another dev blog update out soon. Thanks for readin’.

P.S.
I’ve had the main menu done for a while but here is a shot of that as well(keep in mind the game will probably never have multiplayer):