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.

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"Designer" is a rather vague term; it's my role on Star Control: Origins but it doesn't communicate particularly well what I do on the project. So how do I explain when someone asks me what it is that I do? Professional modder, is what I tell them. I create ships, but I'm not an artist. I create quests, weapons, and transform stars, but I'm not a coder. I work with the in-game ship editor and Adventure Studio, our powerful modding suite for Star Control: Origins. I'm creating content for the campaign in the same way modders later will, our entire single-player campaign is built using the tools that will be available to everyone when the game launches. My title is designer, but practically I'm a modder getting paid to make stuff for the campaign in synergy with the rest of the talented design team. So why does this matter?

With Star Control: Origins, we're allowing everyone to be their own designer of their own universe; modders can create and shape their own galaxy, making it as rich and vast as the one we're working on. Have a story you'd like to tell, or a race of aliens you like to draw? You can bring them to life now in a matter of hours. Create a planet or entire star system for your aliens, assemble ships and scatter their colonies amongst the stars, write some dialog and scripts with our visualized conversation tree, import your drawings and assign some behavior. You now have your new aliens, ready for befriending or conquering. 

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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 

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Celebrate 25 years with us with awesome deals on our All-Star RTS games! From June 7-20, you can get the Gold Editions for 3 of our top RTS titles for just $19.99 each! Each game's Gold Edition contains all DLC and expansions for that title. Learn more here.

Experiential unit design is the realm of making units and other game components feel different from each other, players have to think completely differently about Siege Tanks and Zerglings because of good experiential unit design. It may sound like a simple topic, but many RTS games have failed due to not executing it properly, resulting in a bland game where unit control is unsatisfying. Today I'll be exploring examples of superb experiential unit design from a few of my favorite RTS franchises, including Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. 

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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!

FINISHING

We 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, being that it's a role playing game, we actually have to "finish" the game this month.  That is, the..how would you guys describe this? The GAME part.  That's because we need lots of time to iterate on the story.

Star Control is a space RPG that focuses on the story. It's not exploration for exploration's sake
even though it's in a very big universe.

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When our CEO Brad created Galactic Civilizations from his dorm room at Western Michigan State University, he had no idea that it would lay the groundwork for Stardock growing into what it is today. Celebrate 24 years of the series with us and save 66% on Galactic Civilizations III! Learn more.

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 galaxy is filled with characters with their own agendas.

Players travel from star system to star system via Hyperspace.  Hyperspace is a hyper dimension that forms an alternative space-time adjacent to what we call "true space".  It can be a bit..trippy to travel through it but it allows for travel between stars in a faction of the time it would take to go via true space.

This week we updated the visuals in hyperspace to give a better sense of movement when no stars are around.

There are a lot of different alien species in the Scryve sector alone (let alone the outer spur).  Humanoids are quite exotic due to their rarity.  Beings are fascinated in seeing a hairless bipedal ape.

The Phamyst are the classiest aliens in the known galaxy. 

Much of our focus right now is in polishing and iterating on the story and the AI.   There are thousands of planets but also thousands of other ships running around doing their thing as well. 

On a personal note, this week my design work has been spent on helping with story and pacing which meant I have to...gasp, travel the worlds without any cheat keys.  This was particularly enjoyable but also embarassing because the AI controlled aliens really want nothing to do with us because...well, we're newbies on the galactic scene.  This means that they tend to avoid us and our early game ship just can't intercept them because..well, we're newbies.  But it's highly enjoyable to see the subtle but definite effort the aliens put in to avoid me.  It's so effortless and insulting simultaneously.

Play through the single-player campaign or join us online
all weekend long for exciting multiplayer games
The free weekend runs from 1pm ET on 5/3 through 1pm ET on 5/6.
Load up Steam and check it out for yourself!
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You can also snag Offworld Trading Co. for 50% off or
Complete your collection with the Gold Edition for up to 65% off
Live streams will be running all weekend on the Offworld Trading Co. Steam page, too.

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Take on the role of entrepreneur and travel to Mars for an economic showdown against
other companies in Offworld Trading Company! Buy out your competition and take control
of the Martian market in a strategy game where money, not military force, is your greatest
weapon. The real-time, player-driven market is the foundation of the game, allowing you to buy
and sell resources and materials - even the food and water that the colonists need to
survive. Build up enough capital and gain access to the lucrative offworld markets so that
you can buy out your rivals and claim the Martian economy for yourself.

Claim victory against other corporations  Leave Earth behind and start up a major corporation on Mars to claim your fortune! Establish yourself as the dominant offworld company in a game that's unique every time you play.

Use the Black Market to trip up your enemies Battle isn’t limited to the board room; you can employ some more... underhanded methods for victory. You - and your opponents - should prepare to deal with pirate raiders, or hackers trying to disrupt production, or a covert electromagnetic pulse to your base, and much more.

Play solo or connect online with friends Play online in games for up to 8 players, or try one of the single player campaigns, skirmishes, or daily challenges.

Check out some of the special livestreams Soren, other members of the dev team, fans, and staff will be streaming live on the Offworld Steam page all weekend to showcase the game throughout the weekend. Stop in, say hello, and play a game or two, then share your thoughts with us!

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You can also snag Offworld Trading Co. for 50% off or
Complete your collection with the Gold Edition for up to 65% off
Live streams will be running all weekend on the Offworld Trading Co. Steam page, too.

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Balancing an RTS is difficult. It’s a long, iterative process and, inevitably, there will be mistakes along the way.

Today, I'll be exploring what makes balancing an RTS such a challenge, and explain my intentions for some of the changes I've made throughout my time with Ashes. In a previous Dev Journal, I discussed why balance matters, so read that first for additional context.

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