Star Control: Winter 2019 Update

Greetings!

Star Control has definitely been the most...dramatic franchise we've ever worked on.  No doubt the diabolical work of the Crimson Corporation indeed!

So what's next? What's happening?  

Right now, we're working on Part 2 of Earth Rising which revolves around the Lexites.  You might ask, what is the process for creating these?  Well, broadly speaking it goes like this:

1. General story.  What is the overall meaning for the story.
2. Design up the quests for players to go on.
3. Write up the quests.
4. Playtest the quests.
5. Decide what writing is going to be voiced by voice actors.
6. Send to translation

1,2,3 are reasonably fast to get to the first stage.  The longest part is the play testing.  Are these quests fun?  The first part of Earth Rising, Aftermath, actually took a month longer than anticipated because of iteration on the quests. 

Quests are...tough.  I should say, quests are super easy to do but hard to make worthwhile.  I mean, how hard is it to whip up a fetch quest?  Go bring us back 25 Krizak tails and we'll give you a new weapon.  Fetch quests are pretty standard but that isn't why people play Star Control.    Star Control is about telling a story and in the case of Star Control: Origins, the story is about Earth's entry on the intergalactic scene in the late 21st century, far earlier than anyone would have expected.

We are hoping that the Lexite story will be ready to send to voice acting by the end of the month (and simultaneously sent to translation) so that we can get this out to you guys next month (depending on QA resources which will be pushed to their limit with OTC expansions, GalCiv expansions and multiple new titles in development).

Beyond Earth Rising

Then there's the question of what happens after Earth Rising.  

The engineering team is focused on porting our underlying engine so that we can have console and even mobile releases of Star Control games in the future (including Origins).  We anticipate that work to be largely done by the time we're done working on Earth Rising.  So then what?

That really depends on a lot of factors.  One path is to go and do a sequel.  Another path is to do a second expansion for Star Control: Origins.  Which path we ultimately take depends a lot on you guys and what you want and where you want us to take Star Control next.

Let us know in the comments!