Just published, free and fan made, for now on Android, soon (I hope) iOS, web and computers. An easy and casual simulator of the Galileo shuttlecraft. You can learn more in the FB page And download from Google Play And please, make your comments here or in the FB! LLAP
Hey, that's a fun little game. I really liked the look of the game. I'm really surprised how well that music from The Motion Picture fits. It gives it a really floaty in space sort of feel, yet matches the ST feel of the game. Also, I loved all the beauty shots of both the Enterprise and the shuttle. When landing I hit the top of the entry way and there were sparks, that was a nice touch. There was only one glitch I noticed. Whenever I approached the hanger deck I would see a random shuttle jump across the screen through the ship and towards the planet. It only lasted a couple of frames. I realize this is just the first iteration of the game, and I don't know what you have planned for it; so I'm just going to list all my thoughts I had while playing it. Interface: - The menus need some work(understandable though) Controls: - Allow toggling of up and down. I'm used to pulling down to get the ship to go up. - create more realistic space flight rather than banking. Two sets of three axis controls (roll, pitch, yaw as well as vertical translation, lateral translation, forward/reverse thrust) - ablity to control the speed of the shuttle( I would lok to just park the then and stare at the Enterprise) - It took me forever to figure out how to control the camera. It's an ingenious set up you have, but I didn't feel like I could get the camera where I wanted it. Story: - I liked the communicator chirp with the characters. I thought perhaps you could create an original character(Chief of Flight Deck Operations) to actually read the main instructions and then have small cameos from main characters using clips from existing dialog. - The automated landing system is down? How many times does the Enterprise break? Which was kind of ironic since all I had to do was get the shuttle into the opening an dthen the landiung animation took over. I'm wondering if there is some other way, plotwise, to justify manually landing a shuttle without having something broken. - I'm excited to see what missions you have in mind for this game. It could really be fun. But then I got to thinking, how many different ways can you land a shuttle in the hanger deck? Perhaps some other mission other than just landing on the Enterprise. - Perhaps instead of a landing animation the player has to actually touch down inside the hanger deck. The closer they get to the center square the more points they get. This would make each landing unique as the player would be trying to get the maximum points for each landing. Visuals: - The textures need some work. The Enterprise was really blurry up close and the shuttle has strange circular line bump maps. - The red and green running light seemed to flash too large. They looked like explosions. I think this game has some amazing potential and I look forward to seeing what you will do with it. It's definitely a game I'll be playing during moments of free time. Good job!
Thanks MantaBase and uniderth for your interest and your great review. I'm so glad that you're enjoying! I will respond briefly to your cuestions: Sure! Now I'm working in the iOS version, then Windows, and then web. I'll have to check if it can work with WebGL or needs to go with the Unity plugin. Then I will think if publish it in standalone. Yes, it is an old animation system I used and have not updated. It also produces some weird jump with automatic camera. Now I use the internal animations Unity for almost everything, with its state machines, which are very useful. In future versions will use only that system. On the control and realism, my point is that the current control of the simulators is based on the joystick of real aircrafts. In the 23 century that's ancient history, and the controls are more abstract, apart from the technical constraints, and very 'assisted' by computers. I would like to delve into this aspect in future versions: When we see Sulu pilot we don't see him with a joystick, is pressing and sliding some 'abstract' controls, maybe establishing paths and speeds relative to the movement and rotation of other vessels or objects. I think this will be very interesting way and distinct from the classical simulators. Meanwhile, yes, I will include the option to reverse the vertical control Camera: A small glance of this concept is the behavior of the camera. You have no direct control of the camera, but it keeps oriented so that you always have in sight your own ship and the target you have marked. Once you get used makes sense, and it thus always keeps a nice view… Now its fully automated, but in the future will have more precision options. Yes, now the story, as the game itself, is just schematic, just an excuse to provide some fun and basic explanations on the situation and controls. Rather than delve into the details of the simulation (although I like the idea of 'fine' maneuver controls) I intend to expand the contents, adding some other large ships (both rescuing and being rescued) and some orbital station. Of course we would have to travel from one to another maneuvering through asteroids… Surely the thing damaged would not be the 'automatic landing system', but the 'middle range tractor beam', as Scotty can reverse our direction when we are too far away, and he can also lead us to the landing platform when we reach the entrance to the hangar. In fact, the excuse is not so much to justify the manual landing, as to justify that Scotty (a rookie in these conflicts, as the player) is at the controls of a shuttlecraft. The intended future argument is that things are actually worse. In short, a serious cosmic anomaly is destroying the planet and also affected the Enterprise. While Scotty repair it, we will rescue other ships and defend them (including own Enterprise) from the collision of asteroids and other debris and threats. …and all this could be tremendously fun in multiplayer Yes, the Enterprise texture is something old and I also cheated a little with the bump of the Galileo. Sure can be improved. Thanks again… and LLAP!