Heads up space sim enthusiasts. There’s a new Kickstarter game project that I think you’ll be interested to know about. It’s called Rogue System, and it’s a space trading and combat simulation game proposal with a unique twist, which is a more realistic and hardcore approach to space sims. The project creator proposes clickable buttons on the cockpit, dozens of systems, many different types of damage taken and pilots modeled in detail allowing mental and physical conditions to be monitored.
The man behind the project is Michael Juliano, an aircraft enthusiast, and a flight sim and space sim lover. He says that complex flight simulators make him tick like nothing else, and that he also feels the same way about space sims. So, the idea here is to merge the complexity of hardcore flight sims with space sims and achieve something that he says no one else has yet achieved. By the way, he says that he loves aircrafts and that he’s served 8 years in the air force, and worked on the B-1 bomber.
Michael says that Rogue System will be different then say, Star Citizen or Elite: Dangerous, in the aspects dealing with gameplay complexity, realism and attention to details perhaps. But, however, he admits that a big chunk of the core gameplay will probably – not so surprisingly – be in the same lines as those recently kickstarted space sim projects. However, he says to have been working on Rogue System’s concept and prototyping long before Chris and David have launched their Kickstarters.
Michael says that he needs 24 months to finish the core gameplay, which will be a single-player story-driven campaign, and for that he asks for $300,000. A $500,000 stretch goal would unlock the creation of mod tools to allow new content to be made for Rogue System. If he achieves $700,000, a 3D Character Artists/Animator would be hired to allow the campaign story to have more interactivity (more NPC interaction perhaps). $1,000,000 would inject voice-overs and cut scenes. $1,250,000 would unlock a special module called “Maverick”, which should introduce a more open-ended trader/explorer style gameplay, to come at a later point.
The features list is quite extensive, but in there you will find things like: dynamically-generated galaxies; dynamically textured planets/moons (procedural generation perhaps?); time acceleration on large distances but real-time measured in seconds; keyboard, mouse and multiple joystick support; ability to walk around in first-person mode inside some ships using FPS style controls; Newtonian flight model; Thruster-based maneuvering. Seriously, combat sim enthusiasts should really check out that full feature list :)
Juliano’s Rogue System in a nutshell:
- Space trading and combat sim
- Hardcore/complex flight mechanics
- Hard science fiction setting
- Highly moddable
- Story-driven single-player campaign (core module: $300,000)
- Open-ended trader/explorer gameplay (maverick module: $1,250,000)
- Persistent multiplayer mode
- Joysticks, keyboard and mouse support
- PC platform
- $20 pledge to get game’s core gameplay
- ETA: April 2015 (core module)
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Hi, Thanks SO much for the write up. Every bit in helping to spread the word is GREATLY appreciated. I would like to make one correction, just so there is no misunderstanding. The 1.25 million stretch goal will help us get a jump start on the Maverick Module so that it can be released sooner than expected. But, unless the KS REALLY over performs my expectations they won’t be released at the SAME time. The Core Module will still come first (although for the effort we may be able to introduce some elements of the MavMod as a taste of things to come).
Thanks again :)
Michael Juliano
You’re welcome Michael. I’ll clarify that point better, thanks. Good luck!
This looks amazing. A space-sim from a guy who actually KNOWS sims? It’s a dream come true.
This is more exciting to me than the new Chris Roberts game. I had sworn off kickstarter (SO MANY PROJECTs….so few ever finished) but I think I’ll sign up for this.
Good sir, it’s not “An hardcore…”, but rather “A hardcore…” in your title. Otherwise, looks awesome!
“Hardcore” starts with a vowel sound (not vowel, I mean vowel sound), so, why is “an hardcore” wrong?
How is it a vowel sound? You pronounce the “h” in “hardcore”, so it would be a, not an.
See here. See “an hour” and “an honest”. Why is “an hardcore” any different from those two cases? Any way I thought either case would do, but I’m interested in knowing why would not that be the case. I’m not english native, so these details may escape me.
With those two words, you don’t pronounce the H, however you pronounce the h in hardcore, much like you would the word “however”.
English is weird. I know you don’t speak it natively and that’s why I figured I’d give you the heads up :) Trust me, though, it’s a, not an.
With the two words you used, honest and hour, it would have been an, not a. Weird, right? We just don’t pronounce the h in some words that start with h.
I speak English natively and minored in it. Your title should read “A hardcore trading…..”. I promise :)
Look at the link you provided me. The top section, “When to use A”, uses human as an example. That’s because it’s a “hard” H, just like hardcore. It is just like “hello” or “how”.
Okay, sorry about that little comment run, haha! Hope that helps!
Ok. That’s 2-1 then, you win, since another guy also complained about it on the facebook page. Changed and learned. But, I’m still not convinced that this isn’t some kind of regional thing (UK, US, AUS, etc) :) However, Google also seems to prefer “a hardcore”, although “an hardcore” entries are also plenty.
Devildogff is correct. It’s “a hardcore.”
The sci-fi can’t be *that* hard if he’s putting wings on his spaceships. Of course if society at large uses star was as a base-line, i guess most sci-fi is “hard”, but that’s not a very useful definition.
Perhaps those winged spaceships also are capable of entering planetary atmospheres? Who knows. Faster than light and ability to maneuver in space both theoretically consumes a lot of fuel, so if those are not issues, then some wings shouldn’t be an issue to the fuel consumption ;)
These pre-Alpha ships were very quick designs just to get some material prepped for the kickstarter. The final art will look considerably different–much more based in what you’d expect in a strictly space-bound vessel. The Orbital Station concept is more representative of what that will look like.
I guess “hardness” is a relative concept in SF :)
Wings can also be radiators, I would not mind about those: in fact, spaceships should have tons of them (look at the radiators the space shuttle had, and the crew barely used more than a toaster on board). The ‘hard’ bit gets a ‘soft’ (hmmm that sounds kinkier than intended) when you forget things about inertia/ energy storage and fight like in a Sopwith biplane.
Then again, I appreciate the attempt at tying the universe and technology up in a coherent package. The real hardcore sim would be too boring.
Here is how it would be (my guess):
“the IA informs us that there was a partial occlusion of the star gamma persei ahead. Lidars identified the target: a cruiser at 75.000 kilometers, class X, signature confirmed that it is the USS painful. Trajectory projected on your retina right now. Train in the optronics and find a thermal weak spot on the hull, fill in the capacitors, unmask the turrets, compute a fire solution, heat up the laser pumping circuits, release the valves of the cooling system, orient the cooling panels, activate lidar telemetry, connect the heat sink… eh, and WAKE !!!).
A little science in a game is like sugar on top of a cake. It improves the taste. But you never make a cake of 100% sugar :)
As TB mentioned in one of his community youtube vids some time ago, Kickstarter game projects should really be more transparent with their funding. We need budding devs to spell out how $X will be spent.
$700k for what? Rent, engine licensing, wages for artists and programmers, a mid-development trip to Hawaii etc etc? For an initiative funded on trust of community, there’s a surprising lack of info being released especially on how the money raised will be spent and a detailed project timeline (a cornerstone of any good business project). If I went to my boss for $700k on a pet project with nothing but a promise of delivery in 24 months….
You have to figure that an typical artists or programmers salary will average at about 50K per year, and this is a 2 year development cycles. Each tier adds 2 additional employees, which I estimate to come in at 175K to 200K.
So yes, in this case almost all of the money is going to salaries, with remainders going for software licenses (such as seats of MAX that can run at about 5K) and operating expenses.
Actually, I’m pretty accurate with my goals without going into each and every specific.
Now, your opinion of transparency may vary, and that’s fine. But I have actually done my best to spell out how the funds would be used, albeit in a generalized manner.
That said, I will add some info to the kickstarter to try and clarify these costs a bit more…
Hi, I just added an update that hopefully clarifies how funds will be used. Again, as I stated above, the majority of it goes to wages–basically adding two more people, be they programmers or artists, per 200K goal…
Hope this helps…
“that an typical artists” — sorry about this. Was just making a small jest to the discussion above :p
Ahh.. A Germanic language with heavy French influence with Nordic pronunciation complexities but none of the accents that would let people know how to say the world correctly. The memorized language, and don’t worry, most native speakers of English only ever learn a few thousand words and have a limited grasp of the grammar. I can speak it well enough, but writing and communicating a complex thought without constant attention to detail or careful thought… Well, it’s easier to just get it wrong and hope people get the point then always get it right.
Excuse me? Some of us “native speakers of English” have much more then a few thousand words in our lexicon. Please refrain from castigating those of us with a complete grasp of language, spelling, and grammar from those who have never read a book :)
I believe Timmy made his point clear enough. He was not generalizing his observation. He said “most” and you said “some”. So, nothing contradicting here. I think this applies to any language really, at least the second half of his comment I mean.
I think is a great idea, I would prefer to see some switches on the cockpit but the idea is great I fly a lot of flightsims and always thought why noone makes a “privateer style game” with the cokpit full of switches and things to do…I used to fly orbiter but it gets as boring as FSX when you have nothing to do just fly.
There will actually be “hard” switches as well as the interactive “HUD” Sadly, I only had so much time to put this pre-alpha art together, so I had to focus on what you’d see the most of…
Oh my god this is going to be great, thanks very much Michael I really hope you success on kickstarter
A new video is up. No music or any of that other silliness. Just me talking though a manual start-up and explaining a few systems along the way. 1st of a 3 part series. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nohF6uLkvvQ
Cheers…
The second vid in this series is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF2cW7ovAdU
Cheers…
This game definitely looks great, and worthy to be played in 2 years! Sadly, this game don’t receive much attention as Star Citizen do, though in fact, this game looks as great as Star Citizen. Notably, I praise the developers decision to have some “Easy Mode” to incorporate people who are new to space flight game (like me, for instance).
I suggest that the developers, instead of offering decals for people who pledge much, offers ships, like Star Citizen did. Sometimes people are not interested enough in the decals, although they wanted the game, thus they buy the lower tier. Personally, I will support this game.
The sheer amount of featured things, things that have been done, and ship modules really made me want this game. Another suggestion, aside from Kickstarter campaign, you should also put up efforts on your site. Maybe you can also contact Chris Roberts, as sometimes in Star Citizen he promotes another space simulation games. Maybe, you will be able to grab the attention of Star Citizens base fans (and surely, they will like your game!) and can complete this game.
Good luck in your campaign!