Update: Now Available!
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Original post
After failing to complete my own game several times, I decided to lower my sights a bit and try to create a collection of assets instead. I’ve already learned tons, and I’m looking forward to completing it and sharing it with the community, and possibly even creating a full game using it.
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Background
The idea came about when I wanted to play a game about being the captain of a starship. Ideally, you’d be able to explore the ship in first person, and could command your crew to maneuver the ship, prioritize repairs, and carry out missions. There didn’t seem to be anything like this available, so I thought I might take a stab at creating a game in that flavor myself.
I quickly realized this was way too much to bite off without having ever finished an actual game project before, so I decided to narrow the focus. Given that an *Enterprise-*type ship would be utterly massive in size and scope, I thought it might be better to start with something resembling everyone’s favorite freighter from the other universe.
Again, not wanting to start something and abandon it halfway through, I decided to focus on the elements of building the ship itself, and in a way that would allow easy creation of various ships with varied layouts. I wanted fully-realized interiors, with good-looking exteriors for fun on and off the ship. The pieces will tile nicely so the designer can snap pieces together without fear of holes in the geometry, overlapping, or mismatched textures.
Progress So Far
I have roughly 60 pieces built, including both exterior and interior tiles that fit nicely together, windows, and some decorative pieces. I’m learning animation as I go, so while I have a ramp that opens and extends, there’s still a lot of work to be done to get it functioning properly.
While testing the assets, I’ve been building a ship, the Centennial Eagle, that should showcase most of the features I want to include. The screenshots attached are of that test level. All textures are placeholder and will be tackled once modeling is nearly complete.
Goals
Since I’m a web developer by profession, and have no real art skills, I wanted to make sure anyone using this package would be able to enhance it with their own abilities as easily as possible. I’ll be including PSDs for all the textures, so designers can re-skin as they see fit. The tiles fit the standard FPS controller nicely, and stick to fairly even Unity units and right angles where possible for easy snapping.
Every feature included should work natively with Unity Basic.
Once the hard stuff is done (modeling and texturing), then the fun begins. I’m going to create a bag of scripts and prefabs to quickly add life to your ships. Panels that can be attached to objects via Editor assignment to easily perform functions like opening doors or operating lights, chairs you can sit in, etc.
I’d like to have the first version available within the next couple months (March/April). This may change, as I’m employed full-time, do a bit of freelance work on the side, and have a baby on the way in June.
Any feedback would be very motivating! And feel free to share any suggestions or wish list items, as well.
