G A M E S T O R M

“A friend and I were discussing how we would like to do a space combat game, focusing on problems we saw with popular games like Homeworld. We wanted combat to be much more tactical, likely reliant on missile and kinetic weapons rather than pew-pew beams which tend to be rather dull I think. One idea we had was to simplify the z-axis drastically, perhaps knocking it down to three ‘planes’ that ships could maneuver within. The central plane could be largely filled with a great nebulous belt, making it the equivalent of forest or swamp, allowing ships to hide.  We also wanted to do away with ships that simply explode when destroyed. Ships would become drifting hulks when crews are killed, but they can still be salvaged and refitted. This could become an integral part of game strategy, with new ships prohibitively expensive to produce, a fleet could be based around its convoy of salvaged hulks. A player must make hard choices on which ships to bring into the caravan, and which to abandon. An overburdened convoy will be slow, and difficult to conceal.”

Submitted by Peter Queckenstedt in Ontario, Canada.

“I’m a huge space nerd, working on a fully 3D game about landing on Mars.”

Submitted by Nick Rudzicz.

“These are some analysis on vintage space shooter ships to get ideas about my own prototype.”

Submitted by Nicolás Coronado in Bogotá, Colombia.

“Creature concept for Die In Space Repeatedly, a game I’m working on. It’s hard to come up with new creatures from a totally blank slate, so designers often look to more mundane beasts for inspiration. For this guy I was looking at most alien critters available, those freaky horror things that live under the sea. It always seemed to me that sea creatures would be well adapted to life in space, what with the zero-g and all.”

Submitted by Rod Gillespie, Toronto, Canada.

“Early ship designs from what later became Operation Spacehog.”

Submitted by Johan Peitz.

“Character design sketches for our Global Game Jam 2011 submission Glitchhiker.”

Submitted by Paul Veer in Hilversum, the Netherlands.

This glorious piece shows what happens if you take a 10-page game design document and cram it into a single-paged doodle. I prefer it this way, personally.

Alien creatures and video games have a long history.