Hey everyone!

I think I've settled on my idea so I can hopefully start working soon. I'm thinking you start out as an abandoned asteroid mining robot trying to find its way in space. Upgrading from scrap equipment and power sources as you explore your asteroid belt. You'll probably have to manage your size and equipment depending on your power source size, maybe some drilling through asteroids and climbing.

It's going to be a 2D side-view adventure game. I'm just using libgdx and MS Paint / Adobe Photoshop.

Well, finally started after being sick and having to put it off until after holiday with the family. I just set up the project and I have decided to use box2d collision to check between entities and use a grid based system for collision with the environment, I also want to try out the box2d lighting but don't know if I'll have time. I haven't used box2d before so I hope it makes things go faster rather than slower.

Right now setting up a few of the utility classes like switching between menus/gameplay and keyboard input. Then doing some character/character parts design on paper. I should have all the framework done today and will try to get some screenshots if I get far enough.

Gameplay wise what I have so far: You power on at the bottom of a cave and have to climb out. Your starting equipment will be wheels, a drill, and some sort of winch and cable system. Some possible upgrades: rockets, zero-gravity control system, magnetic tracks, grappling hook, armor to protect from collisions, and power system upgrades.

Mostly finished with menus/save files, and that kind of junk. Still need to replace all the place holder art eventually. Now Im planning out the actual game mechanics and coding structure. I don't have much time to work on it today though. And I still need to come up with a name.

Now that Im actually starting the game things are getting cemented in place. I have decided not to use box2d after all in order to save time. I think it would be faster for me to program some simple collision detection. The reason I wanted to use box2d was for easy rotating the player and for checking collision for shapes that are rotated.

Instead Im just going to strong-arm collision by checking ~40 or so points on the player. In order to do this all asteroids and space debris will described by a 2D array and I will check each cell that the player is in to see if you come into contact with a solid part. This will also be an easy way to have the player drill through the asteroid by changing a value in the array.

Now everything I have to do before I finish my game:

-Finish art assets and find some free auido space sounds.

-Make a character and simple on the fly editing system for parts.

-Physics for collisions and rotation.

-Make all the parts and add all the physics that describe them. (wheels/rope swinging/magnet wheels/ etc)

-Asteroids and parts/fuel spawning and despawning.

-Come up with a name.

I have a strong enough physics background that angular acceleration/ swinging on ropes/ orbiting around asteroids shouldn't be too hard. Right now there is not much of a point to my game other than explore and customize your robot. Maybe my game theme will be that life in space for a robot doesnt have a lot of meaning ant that its up to the player to decide what your goals are.

Here's what I have so far:

Since coming up with names isn't fun I've settled on calling my entry "Archivate" its a mixture between architect and excavate. Still working on the asteroid generation shown in the GIF above, I need to add fuel crystals and other materials to mine. The red dot is what I have so far for the player, it will be the center of the robot that you build from. Im still polishing game mechanics as I go, and I'm getting excited seeing it start to come together.

I figured I would give one more update before I submit my game tomorrow. Along with a story I have decided to add enemies to the game. The story is finding out what happened before you were damaged and left behind. And the enemies enemies are scrapping ships and obviously they want to turn you to scraps. So look for Archivate tomorrow if you want to do some robot building and fighting in space.