Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins Prelude 4 of 13 - The Mid Spur

Star Control: Origins is a space action adventure game.  You are the Captain of a ship with a mission to protect Earth and explore the galaxy.  From a technical perspective, Star Control is a story engine.  We don't generate new quests.  Instead, we are looking to populate a deep and rich world with hand-crafted Sci-Fi stories.  But we won't be doing it alone.  Much of our effort has been to create consumer (i.e. user friendly) apps like Adventure Studio, the Cit... [read more]

Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins Prelude 3 of 13 - Creating interactive stories

The Star Control universe is rich with interesting characters and species.  From the cowardly Spathi to the horrifying Kohr-Ah, players will be frequently caught off guard by the juxtaposition of so many different experiences. In Star Control: Origins, the ever-so-needy Tywom are introduced.  They will be your best friends whether you like it or not. Stardock is best known for its strategy games.  Well, technically, we're best known for our software and technology, but w... [read more]

Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins - Freedom to Fail

Star Control: Origins lets you do a lot of dumb things. Starting off in command of humanity's latest and greatest spaceship, your orders are to travel to Neptune's moon of Triton. On the way there, you're free to fly into the sun and melt your entire crew or explore the planet Venus and watch your planetary lander immediately get obliterated. This game doesn't hold your hand in the way most RPGs do, where you're forced sit through a tedious tutorial and it takes a long time to encounter a pos... [read more]

Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins Prelude 2 of 13 - So Many Planets

Greetings! Space is big. We know that.  But how interesting is it? That remains to be seen. Let's take a look at the orbital bodies in our own solar system. Orbital Body Image Comment Mercury  Basically a hot rock. Venus  A poisonous, toxic hell. Mars  A really cold desert. Jupiter  Big ball of gas. Saturn  Another big ball of gas wit... [read more]

Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins Prelude 1 of 13 - The Living Universe

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. The Living Universe You are the captain.  This i... [read more]

Dev Journal

Star Control: Origins - Professional Modder

"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 cam... [read more]