InfraSpace News

Hello everyone,

this weekly update is going to be quick, since we're almost completely focused on finishing the core features for the next update and are not creating art concepts for new stuff. The details:

• Our artists Andreas and Lasse are working with the new procedural generation tools to make the generated world look like their art concept
  
• Our programmer Ben figured out the issue with terrain painting and has also finished the grass system for pre-made terrain building blocks (there is some other grass in the crater and highland biomes that is generated instead of artist-placed, but that's easier)
  
• Our programmer Sepehr has taken over the laser task. Marking rocks and destroying them already works, but need to hook up the visuals.
  

While the core team is finishing the main update features, our concept artist Adriana has time to work on additional materials to be used in the game and in marketing. Without giving away too much information check out this piece:



I realize you're all waiting for the big update to drop and wanted to thank you for the patience. Happy playing!

Hello everyone,

let's start with the cool pictures this week: Check out the new laser that's coming from your spaceship to help you clear map space!





You will be able to unlock the laser cannon by repairing it on the spaceship Antares:



Now that the Founders' Fortune update is completely out and most bugs are fixed, our programmer Sepehr is taking over and is making all of the art for the map clearing laser actually work in game.



There are 2 main news on world generation:

We were not satisfied with the terrain painting method, so Andreas and Ben are working together to improve it. It's a small hiccup, but I think it's good to spend some time now because getting the terrain colors right first is important because it influences the look of all the other assets later down the line.
Terrain painting in the procedural version works slightly different than in the art concept, that's why we have a programmer working on it.

The second news is that we have done quite some work on grass engineering. Sounds simple but we need to make sure performance is fine outside of an art concept and we need to make it part of the procedural generation. With other assets, we simply put them into a prefab and use the prefab building blocks to construct a full world out of it, but foliage works a little different, because it's part of the terrain system.

Finally our concept artist Adriana is working on some special extras, but those are not part of the terraforming update and will stay secret for now :)

Happy playing!

Hello everyone,

tomorrow we're releasing the big bonus update for our old game Founders' Fortune. After that, the dev team will shift their focus back to InfraSpace completely - this includes one extra programmer.

In the meantime, we can show you the 3D model for the magnetic field generator (textures + animation to be done):





The magnetic field generator is the final ingredient for terraforming: It's a monument structure you have to build once in order to get a magentic field to shield you from the radiation from the nearby star.

[h3]Targeting Station[/h3]

Last week we showed you the targeting station to adjust the giant laser from your space ship to destroy rocks in your way. The model and textures are done and Lasse is currently working on the laser itself.



[h3]Terrain Generation[/h3]

The river is slowly filling up with assets and our programmer Ben has started working with our artist Andreas to get the rest of the concept scene art into the procedurally generated terrain. More pics probably next week!



Happy playing!

Hello everyone,

when we designed the new map, we ran into an issue that has been there since the beginning of InfraSpace:

There is a sizable portion of the playerbase that just want flat, empty maps in order to be unrestricted to build their own utopia city - but if the InfraSpace environment was just an empty field, it would look boring to everyone else, especially in the beginning of the game.

Now we wanted to make the terrain more interesting and add different biomes and make it look good, but were afraid to add too much that blocked the player's vision. The solution: a huge laser from space.

Hear me out: Antares is your space ship and it's hanging out in orbit. You can repair its components and get some small goodies as rewards. We want to introduce a large component called the laser cannon that can be targeted towards the planet.



The laser will be able to slowly cut through the rocks blocking your way. It's quite powerful and dangerous, so you will need to build a targeting station to make sure it doesn't hit your city by mistake.

We can already show you the concept and the preliminary 3d model, but coloring and texturing is not completely done yet:







The river is the hardest biome to generate because it has such an organic shape that needs to look fully connected and consistent throughout the map. What I mean by that: Volcanoes can also have a complicated shape, but artists can just make a couple of volcanoes and we can randomly select one and place it on the map. But since the river shape is fully procedurally generated, we needed to spend some time we can place art assets properly without clipping or looking weird.

I can show you a programmer screenshot of the cliff edges along the river wall: It's missing a lot of plants and artist work, but once the walls are placed properly, the rest is not that hard to add.



Happy playing!

Hello everyone!



In preparation for the next big update, which includes modding, we created a series of modding tutorials for you to get started:

https://forum.dionicsoftware.com/t/introduction-to-infraspace-modding/3134

The tutorials cover:

• How to get started by downloading and running the example mods
  
• How to change simple game values and upload your own mods
  
• How to add new models, textures, and buildings
  
• How to use the in-game developer tools to learn about the game, test your mods, and cheat
  
• How to decompile InfraSpace and have a look at its code (allowed for modding and educational purposes!)
  
• How to make your own script mods and change gameplay in a bigger way
  

Last week I introduced you to the sensor tower which is going to unlock the next parts of the map. Back then it was just a concept, now we also have the finished model:



Implementation to be done.



After randomly generating rocks and plants in the desert and crater biomes, we have now turned to the river, which is a lot harder. It's shape poses more constraints on how the environment assets can fit without looking weird or clipping badly. We should be able to show you pics of it next week!



Since a part of the team has been working on the Founders' Fortune update for Sept 30th, the InfraSpace update will be some time after that. We try to be quick, but with modding, new environment, 4x bigger map, and terraforming, it's the largest update we've done so far. Appreciate the patience!