itch.io

Since I’m already working on the underlying setup, I’d like to get a much better technical understanding of the game itself so I can build the systems around what you actually have in mind. You do not need to answer everything formally. You can just explain how you imagine each part working.

For the galaxy and map, is the galaxy going to be a fixed map that you design, procedurally generated, or a combination of both? Roughly how many star systems and planets do you expect the full game to have? Are star systems connected by specific routes, or can ships travel freely between discovered systems? Can the player eventually reach every system, or will some systems remain inaccessible? Is exploration itself a gameplay mechanic, or are planets simply revealed as the player progresses?

For planets, is each planet going to have its own screen, or will planets mainly be represented through menus and UI? What can the player actually do on a planet? What types of structures can be built? Can structures be upgraded multiple times? Will different planets have different resources, bonuses, environments, or limitations? Can a planet eventually become fully developed, or will there always be something available to upgrade?

For resources and the economy, what resources do you want in the game? Are resources generated automatically over time, manually collected, or both? Do buildings generate resources continuously? Can resources be transported between planets? Are there storage limits? What are resources used for besides basic construction? Will they be needed for ships, upgrades, research, colonization, or other systems?

For ships and travel, what types of ships do you want? Does the player directly control them, or do they simply choose a destination and let the ship travel automatically? Does traveling between systems take real time? Can multiple ships travel at the same time? Can ships be upgraded? Can ships be damaged or lost? Do ships need to physically appear on the galaxy map, or can their movement mostly be represented through the UI?

For progression, what determines when a new planet or star system becomes available? Do you want a research or technology system? Are there upgrades that affect the entire empire? Is there a specific end goal, or is the game intended to continue indefinitely? Do you want different stages of progression as the player expands from their starting planet to nearby systems and eventually across the galaxy?

For the idle and incremental side of the game, do you want resources and production to continue while the player is away from the game? If so, should the game calculate everything that happened while they were gone when they return? Do you want automation systems where the player eventually stops manually managing certain things? Do you want progression to become increasingly faster as the player expands, or should the growth remain relatively controlled? Do you want any reset or prestige system, or should progression always be permanent?

For saving and technical behavior, should the game have multiple save slots? Should saving happen automatically, manually, or both? Should the game work completely offline? What platforms are you targeting initially? Are you thinking Windows only, or would you eventually want Linux, macOS, or mobile support? Do you want the game to support different resolutions and screen sizes? Are there any accessibility features you already want?

The biggest question I have is what you imagine the player actually doing during a normal five to ten minute session. If you could walk me through what the player does from the moment they launch the game until they have made some meaningful progress, that would probably give me the clearest picture of how all of these systems need to work together.