Looks like the wait was far from endless. Amplitude Studios has just announced that their space 4X game Endless Space will release on July 4th 2012.
In their official announcement the devs state to be quite confident with the new content, improvements and bug fixes that have been injected in the game since the Alpha version. Amplitude says that “we believe we can be ready with a game on July 4th”.
Well, the game did look very polished at Alpha state by early May, so, it’s not that much of a surprise that the devs will be able to release the final version a couple of months after. Not saying that they didn’t have a lot of work since then, which I’m sure they did.
Amplitude said however that this 4th July release will not mean the end for Endless Space, but that it will be “just a step in the life cycle”. The devs stated that they are committed to keep on improving and expanding the game for “many months” after release.
They say that the main motives behind this release are the need to reach a broader audience and get some reviews from the press (this proofs that they are really confident) to cash-in the game.
Surprisingly, at least to me, is the fact that they say to have earned little money with the alpha and beta pre-orders, or as they say “the game is not profitable and we have to survive as a company to continue making great games and adding new content to Endless Space”.
They don’t seem to be running out of cash, at least that’s what they’ve stated: “we are not releasing because we have run out of money, but we think the game has reached more than sufficient quality”.
So, in summary, Amplitude expects to cash in substantially with this July’s release. They also expect to engross their ranks through their forum community’s increase, and they promise to keep evolving and improving the game for months to come.
It’s some time since I played an Endless Space game (only played the alpha). Looks like I’ll be returning in a weeks time. And, ain’t that lovely?
We have an Endless Space preview (at alpha state) in case you want to know more about the game. You also have a bunch of nice screenshots here.
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I am interested to see how things have progressed since I played the beta and created the AAR. I didn’t realize it was going to be releasing so soon. It should be interesting!
All development of all future 4X games can cease on July 4th!
“All development of all future 4X with real-time combat can cease on July 4th!”
– Fixed :P
I’m still waiting for a tactical turn-based space combat game, and at the same time, working on one! So I’m not going to stop after July 4th :P
me too!! the next game i’m eagerly awaiting comes (hopefully) out until end of july. it’s “legends of pegasus” and i hope it will be what i expect, all the information released until now seems atleast to put it on the right tracks. there you have a turn-based strategy map and realtime battles (i would more like tbs-battles too, but realtime battles in an overall tbs game are although good). besides these two important aspects (detailled & controllable battle) you can build improvements on your planet (not just production score enhancements), build improvements which circle the planet (like shipyards and space stations) and can even build deep space settlements. on top of that you have not only single planets-to-planets starlanes (like SINS), but whole solar systems with asteroids & etc. which seem to actually matter in the game / combat (hiding & etc.). detailled ship & starbase design and pretty graphics (NOT REQUIRED for me) round up the package. :)
Looking forward to this!
Hi there, the game is not bad, but it lacks balancing and an interesting combat.
the ai too isn’t quite ready yet. i don’t want to stumble the game, i bought it and i played it a substantial time. the user interface for example and the artworks are great. other games could take an example from these guys how to make a good / understandable user interface.
BUT…many people in the forums are still reporting huge balancing issues and the combat is quite boring (after some hours) and quite irratating or lets say…”too random”. i hoped until their first announced release date, they would improve on these terms, but as it stands now, the seem to rush out the product. i hope they don’t make a mistake with it!
greetings
Regarding combat I’ve read people praising a new battle camera feature in the ES’s forums: http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?6212-I-m-ecstatic-about-the-new-battle-camera! Do you, or anyone else, know anything about this first hand? I had issues with combat on alpha, maybe this could improve it a bit.
the camera don’t change the problem that the combat still feels totally boring. for the limited interaction you are allowed, is combat far too long in my opinion.
Sorry to say, for me feels the whole game after several hours of playtime just boring as hell. really nice artwork and good UI, but techtree, ship creation and combat are lame.
Hi again,
fixing issues with the battle camera doesn’t resolve – as fimbul already stated – the shortcomings of the game. it is or will be a solid 4x space game, but nothing more … and certainly nothing i would advise anyone to hasten and spend his or her hard earned money on until testing it with a demo or seeing several LP’s.
i will say it again, the artwork and the UI are made great, it will be a great game for 4x space game beginners and that i would vouch for, but nothing for experienced / demanding 4x players. it is although clearly streamlined for multiplayer matches, because the game don’t need too much input from the players. but with that also come the problems.
like fimbul said, the techtree is nice but besides your typical hull and weapon unlocks you have nothing really special in the tech tree….nothing i would especially looking forward to play with or try in the first playthrough. the standard unlockable upgrades of your weapons for example aren’t so great either, because they just give you some little bonus in damage….no further features or special abilities. no special ship modules or planetary improvements are researchable. the ship creation is far too limited and the difference in most cases are far too little for my taste. not only are the modules very limited in number, but also in their function or the overall design decision you have to make (or can make).
the resources of the game are: “dust” (like money), industry and food. you can specialize every planet with a so called “exploitation”, which will increase one of the resource productions of this particular planet. besides that you can also build improvements for the whole star system (expect one “exploitation” you build only on stellar level, but you already knew that^^). with this there is no problem, they tried to streamline the whole process of managing an empire, especially for multiplayer, and the whole system overall doesn’t feel bad. BUT … 99% of the improvements you can build are only things like “+1 industry per people on planet type X in your star system; upkeep 2 dust.” …thats it….these improvements are only for further specializing your planet production. with improvements like that there are also no problems in general, but they make ~ 99% of the improvements you can build. i simply miss other (or more) special buildings like “shields” or even “minefields” (remember, no battle control…things like that could easily be implemented…i think). the fleets consist at a maximum of 7 ships…sometimes less because bigger ships take more command points. can we even call that a “fleet”? sorry….but i’m not the only person which would like a higher count of ships per fleet (read the ES-Forums)! the battle is played automatically (even on “manual” mode), you can only play cards, which give you a boost in certain aspects like “+25% missile damage, but -25% shield strength” … you can play 3 cards in total…thats it! you can’t define a battle formation, you can give your ships commands like which ship they should attack (or even which kind of ships to prioritize). just some buffs as you could call them. on the ES-forums many players have already made detailed suggestions in how the developers could implement further features for an more in-depth combat, without breaking the whole battle-design…no comment or reaction.
and thats also another problem i have (personallly) with this developer. “games2gether” …the only choices we could made were things like choosing a faction logo, a hero biography or choosing a ship design. we couldn’t vote or actively take part in the decisions about design aspects of the game or which features should / could be implemented. i’m very active on the site indiedb.com, where you can find hundreds, maybe thousands, of indie-games….where in many games the users can take an active role during the development of the game. shining examples are games like stardrive or kenshi, where the developers are active in their forums and are happy about every suggestion and try to implement as much as they can and of course think, which would fit into the game.
and that’s one aspect why my main focus shifted from AAA-titles to indie-titles….the user can take an active role during the development, you can test early and sometimes you can also get a very good discount on the games at the alpha stage, which helps the indie-developers and make the gamers happy, which can play / test early the game and help the developers. letting the community take an active role during the development isn’t just a special service which some developers are too kind to make, it should be a new standard! from this both sides gain profit!!! the user which gain early access or even an discount on the game and which can also help shaping the game…..and the developers which receive much feedback and suggestions which should help them to shape a game, which the later costumers actually want / love and therefore reaching are bigger audience and having bigger profits eventually. endless space claimed to developed a system to make this happen more easily / streamlined…but the results are far from the expectations.
greetings (sorry for the wall of text!)
This seems very premature. The game itself is good enough for release, but the content isn’t. The game could really use a another beta to work on balance — especially since at least some of the content won’t be present in the game until the release version.
I hope they will fix the AI, there’s a load of posts on the forum that report many many bugs.
Some great comments from a lot of you. I can not say yet what my final impressions of Endless Space will be until I play their “release” version. It will be interesting for me to compare my thoughts based on the alpha and early beta time I spent with my thoughts on the game after release. The one thing I feel is clear based on feedback both here and other forums I’ve visited is that this game is not going to be loved by everyone.
yes…it’s not a bad game, it has a lot of potential….but if these potential will be fullfilled is up to the developers. but by the reaction / comments …. or rather the missing of them i think, that the won’t make the changes which the community suggested.