One of the most difficult challenges we've had in developing a new Star Control game has been the delicate balance between the need to start fresh and the desire to satisfy hard-core fans of the classic DOS games. Today we will look at our solution to that conundrum. Star Control will be a brand-new game for most people. Given the number of comments we've seen on Facebook that can be summarized as "Oh this is inspired by Mass Effect!" or "This is just No Man's Sky with a stor...
Most fans of our previous games know that we make a lot of strategy games. Strategy games are all about having as much data on-screen at one time as possible. But Star Control isn't a strategy game, it's an action RPG. It took us a very...very long time to nail down the user interface we wanted for Star Control: Origins, mostly due to having to quit trying to make a strategy game UI for an RPG. Who is looking?Star Control: Origins was in development long enough for an e...
In one of our other dev journals, we showed the pipeline of how aliens came to be in Star Control: Origins. The process started with the artists and the writers working in parallel. The artists would sketch up lots and lots of alien shapes, and the writers would design the history and lore and roles of the aliens. From there, the process would begin to merge to ensure that the final alien visual expression matched up with the lore for them. Today we're going to begin walking you t...
Not all ships are created equally. This is particularly true for the ships of Star Control itself. In the year 2088, the United Earth Advanced Space Vehicle Program (UEASV) had done its best given the politics involved. But ultimately, what Star Control starts out with is a ship with very much the capabilities that a ship in 2088 would have, which is to say: it can... turtle around the solar system. The first long-range ship program - the Vindicator program - was designed to...
For most people, Star Control: Origins will be the first Star Control game they've ever heard of. But long ago, back in the DOS days, there was a trilogy of Star Control games. The first Star Control game was essentially a Space Wars style game with a strategy layer. There wasn't really any "lore" with it. The second one, my favorite, was Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters. This game was filled with an epic lore that dated back over a quarter million years. The third one, Star C...
Star Control: Origins is a space action adventure game. You are the Captain of a ship with a mission to protect Earth and explore the galaxy. From a technical perspective, Star Control is a story engine. We don't generate new quests. Instead, we are looking to populate a deep and rich world with hand-crafted Sci-Fi stories. But we won't be doing it alone. Much of our effort has been to create consumer (i.e. user friendly) apps like Adventure Studio, the Cit...
The Star Control universe is rich with interesting characters and species. From the cowardly Spathi to the horrifying Kohr-Ah, players will be frequently caught off guard by the juxtaposition of so many different experiences. In Star Control: Origins, the ever-so-needy Tywom are introduced. They will be your best friends whether you like it or not. Stardock is best known for its strategy games. Well, technically, we're best known for our software and technology, but we've...
Greetings! Space is big. We know that. But how interesting is it? That remains to be seen. Let's take a look at the orbital bodies in our own solar system. Orbital Body Image Comment Mercury Basically a hot rock. Venus A poisonous, toxic hell. Mars A really cold desert. Jupiter Big ball of gas. Saturn Another big ball of gas with cool rings. Uranus Ice gas ball. Neptune ...
Greetings! We now have an official release day: September 20, 2018! Almost five years since we began our adventure with Star Control. For this occasion we have begun to number these journal entries to count up to week 13, which is when the game gets released! 13 weeks...Not much time. So even though it's a Sunday as I write this, and my birthday, I'm pleased to share this blog to let you know where we are. The Living UniverseYou are the captain. This is yo...
Greetings! Lots of exciting things happening! Star Control at E3 Stardock had a big presence at E3 this year where it announced the release date for Star Control: Origins - September 20. The last day of Summer! Stardock's Patrick Shaw on stage at E3 presenting Star Control: Origins!You can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-EnCjcxsJE Music Many fans of the classic series will be happy to learn that Dan Nicholson has joined Riku Nuottaj&...
Greetings! This is the LAST month for monthly Star Control updates before release....because now we're moving into weekly updates because things are moving so fast. The Menkmack arrive!FINISHINGWe will be announcing our official release date soon. You may have heard that we will have a big E3 presence and we anticipate announcing the final release date then. For those of you who are familiar with Stardock, you know we tend to run a bit "hot". With Star Control: Origins, b...
Star Control: Origins continues to head towards its September 2018 release date! Here's the week in screenshots! The galaxy is a busy place We will be keeping these journals spoiler free. With that in mind, the year is 2088. Earth exists in a part of the galaxy called Orion's Spur ("The Spur"). It has recently become a much busier part of the galaxy and you will be uncovering why that is. Star Control is a single player RPG where you command a single ship but the ga...
April 2086 Good afternoon. Thank you for attending this meeting. We have been taking your questions via the Google document. If you will enable your FaceGoog implants to turn to the topic of Precursors from the 2085 lecture we can begin. We will assume you have gone over the classified materials from the recent Emdrive test. As a reminder, the general public has not been brought up to speed on everything that was found on Ceres. The rumors of the so-called "Arilo...
Check out a brand new Star Control preview trailer We’ve got less than half a year left before Star Control: Origins is set to release. So much is happening! Before I get into this month’s updates, here’s a bunch of answers to questions: What is Star Control? Star Control is a space adventure game where you are the captain of a starship exploring the cosmos, meeting aliens, landing on planets, engaging in battles in space and on land, and frequently savi...
You know the phrase, “Space is big”. Today, let’s walk through just how big space really is, and how its scale fits into the Star Control multiverse. Star Control: Origins takes place in a sector that is 120 by 120 light years. This is a staggeringly big area, but it is nothing compared to even our local super-cluster. Let’s zoom out. Way…way out, and we get to Lanikea: Nature video has a fantastic segment outlining just how massive this super ...