eXoSpace Development Blog

Hexagons in Space (2024-10-29)

While the strategic layer I added tied the combat encounters together nicely, it still felt a bit too static for me. Each "layer" of the game (action, tactics, strategy) should be a fun game by itself. The solution, of course, is hexagons.

Strategy, Tactics, Action! (2024-09-12)

I had a bit of radio silence the past few weeks, but that was definitely not because nothing was happening. I was on vacation for a few weeks, but I’ve also been hard at work developing the "strategic layer" of eXoSpace. This part of the game was barebones and not yet well-thought-out, but it is now shaping up nicely.

Estimating Game Development (2024-07-23)

The game eXoSpace that I am developing is supposed to be in a fully playable form (either early access or full release) in Q1 2025. That is still quite some time away, but it does not feel like that at all. There's SO MUCH to do and so little time to do it all. So how do I estimate how long features take, and how do I plan the development work on eXoSpace?

Sector Map and Ranking System (2024-07-08)

While I have not posted in the last few weeks, I have been hard at work implementing the meta-game in eXoSpace. The meta-game ties the combat encounters together and provides progression: unlocking new modules to build with and increasing rank to build bigger ships. This work has been a bit of trial and error before settling on something that really works and is fun to play.

Meet the Factions (2024-06-21)

Meet the 3 factions new to eXoSpace: the (preliminarily named) Trapezoids, Triangulars, and Squaroids. When starting a new game, you can choose one of these factions, each offering different shapes to build with and different weapons to fight with. This means that each faction will provide an entirely different playstyle.

Procedural is not Random (2024-06-12)

Over the past few days, I have been working on the combat encounter system in eXoSpace. An encounter consists of several waves of enemies spawning, and when the encounter is completed, the player gets a bit of rest and may, for example, adjust the design of their ship.

A Library of Spaceship Designs (2024-06-06)

While tuning the spaceship AI scripts for enemies and the designs they control, I became annoyed by how difficult it was to set up a test for one ship versus another. After some deliberation, I added a new "spaceship design library" to the ship editor where you can get an overview of stored designs, load or update an existing design, or save a new one.

eXoSpace Steam page is up, also game loops (2024-05-29)

The pre-release Steam page for eXoSpace Combat Engineer is up! So from now on everyone can wishlist the game. Of course that will not happen automatically, but it marks the start of my attempts at getting some visibility for eXoSpace.

One Year of Development (2024-03-15)

It's been exactly one year and one day since I seriously started working on eXoSpace Combat Engineer. I've been creating game prototypes since I was a kid, but this time, I'm dedicated to developing a game until release, and it's a LOT of work.