I've always been a huge fan of Space and Science Fiction. Growing up watching NASA's Apollo era take us to the Moon I had always wished it could be me up there. I loved it so much I even attended Space Academy in 1987 and 1988.
Manning those Shuttle simulators and performing maintenance on a satellite inside a mock up of the Shuttle bay will always be burned into my memory. So much so that in the late 1990s I dabbled with the idea of creating a bridge simulator but came up short. The technology to do what I wanted just didn't exist quite yet, so I put the project up on the shelf.
Fast forward to late August of 2012, I was talking with friends at local hacker-space (757 Labs). I had just played a game called Artemis. It was the first published game of it's kind... a Bridge Simulator! After playing it for 30 minutes I was convinced it was time to dust the cobwebs off of my pet project and get to work. As I explained my desire to create a deep bridge simulation experience, the few people that were there that night had a good laugh. There was NO WAY a single developer could pull off something like this in his spare time right? As fate would have it... there was a MAKER convention coming up in less than two months. I asked them to give me a 10x10 booth and I'd show off a working concept. They took the bait. Challenge accepted! I started coding that very night.
When the weekend of the MAKER fair arrived, I indeed pulled off a working proof of concept. Basic Flight and Tactical operation with some DMX effects and additional screens. I had a basic working structure in place. People lined up to give it a spin around Galaxy. We pulled it off.
That of course was back in 2012, and here we are nearing the end of 2020 and the game is finally making it's way to Steam as an Early Access title. So... What's the story? Many indie developers know this plight... Your real world day to day responsibilities don't care about your passion projects. But I never let that kill the passion I have for Starship Horizons. I plunged ahead, working at night little by little I chipped away at my 'to do' list. By 2016, we started distributing the game on our website as an Alpha/Beta. I have to say, the community that slowly build up out of that has been wonderful. Finding people with the same passion for playing games like this as I had making them.
During this time we also started taking Horizons to various conventions around the States. Serving as both a way for people to learn about the game, but also real world beta testing. Being able to talk to players about what they liked and didn't like was invaluable. MAGFest and GEN CON both stand out as experiences I'll never forget. At MAGFest we would regularly have as many as six bridges running almost around the clock.
That brings us to today. T-Minus 4 days to the Early Access release on Steam. It's been in development for 8 years and it's still early access you say? Why? Content! We are in the process of creating much more in game content as well as a full campaign to immerse players for session after session. Plus we have more features to show you!
We can't wait to see what the community will create and share with the modding tools we are constantly improving.
Second star to the right, and straight on till morning...
David