Xcylin: A Sci-Fi open-world voxel RPG [Updated][Greenlit :D]

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#141

Unlocked upon request :point:

#142

So apparently my last post was so far back, that I wasn’t even able to post something … but thanks to Riven the thread is open again :slight_smile:

What happend with Xcylin in the meantime? A lot of things! First the good news:

Greenlight

>>>Xcylin is on STEAM GREENLIGHT! ;D

And I’d really appreciate it if you guys could vote for it. To be honest, the first days went quite well, but now it is complicated (at least for me) to do PR that helps to get people to vote for it :-\ (I’m just so not the PR guy :wink: ). If you have any suggestions for that, please reply to this post! Thanks!

Update/Trailer

I took the liberty to update the first posting to reflect the current state of the game. I added new screenshots and
put the current greenlight trailer up:

FXk4c14asQI

Development state

After close to four years of development, Xcylin’s engine is nearly finished. Here are some of the highlights that I added to the game after my last posting here:

  • I redesigned the whole UI to make it appear more futuristic and also to be as functional as possible
  • equipable slots were added (at the bottom) and two special equipment slots for armor and energy were added
  • a simple crafting was added, which I call “Microcrafting” - you only have four slots and only the types of the items involved and their amount is important for crafting (but not the arrangement) - this way I want the player to find crafting recipes on their own without having to look them up in some wiki. Later I’ll also add Replicators which will require blueprints to replicate more complex items.
  • I also integrated a mini-map in the left upper corner, as well as a fullscreen map with three zoom levels. The player has access to these maps from the begining and they can set markings for important places
  • on the top of the screen we now have a time tracker kind of UI that shows the current ingame time, the position of the sun, the direction as well as the player’s current Cartesian coordinates on the planet
  • I replaced the old blocky style items with new low-poly style items


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00499.png


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot03.jpg

I also added a special world that I call “the Construct”, where I can build things that can be put into the game later. Like for example the ship wreck, in which the player wakes up at the begining of the game. This is a screenshot of the construct:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000486.png

It also has special items that help to build up walls quickly (like the red wand thing).

I’ve also finished adding ingame wireless systems to control doors, lights etc. It uses so called “Frequency Chips” that come in pairs and two with the same transponder id can be used to connect two devices:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00502.png

And for more complex systems, there is the ingame computer, that allows to do some boolean logic:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot076.jpg

This also makes hacking in puzzles possible. :slight_smile:

Next are shaders: I was able to archive water effects and glass (even tainted one):


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00292.png

Then I updated the surface generation completely to include natural occuring water - which is not as simple as it sounds (you have to make sure that there is no cave directly below it or it will run into that cave):


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/water.png

I introduced drilling laser classes, so that some lasers are not able to destroy a certain kind of block - very important for the puzzels! Think of it like in Zelda: you need that special glove to lift these heavy stones.

A lot of new items were added:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00515.png

I started to build the first ship wreck:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000476.jpg

And fixed a lots of bugs (and continue to do so every day :wink: )

I hope I gave you an impression of how Xcylin progressed within the last year - if you have any question about a specific topic I mentioned (or did not mention), please go ahead and post it - I’m glad to answer all questions!

And please don’t forget to
>>> Vote for Xcylin on STEAM GREENLIGHT!

Or visit our website:
>>> Xcylin.com

#143

So apparently my last post was so far back, that I wasn’t even able to post something … but thanks to Riven the thread is open again :slight_smile:

What happend with Xcylin in the meantime? A lot of things! First the good news:

Greenlight

>>>Xcylin is on STEAM GREENLIGHT! ;D

And I’d really appreciate it if you guys could vote for it. To be honest, the first days went quite well, but now it is complicated (at least for me) to do PR that helps to get people to vote for it :-\ (I’m just so not the PR guy :wink: ). If you have any suggestions for that, please reply to this post! Thanks!

Update/Trailer

I took the liberty to update the first posting to reflect the current state of the game. I added new screenshots and
put the current greenlight trailer up:

FXk4c14asQI

Development state

After close to four years of development, Xcylin’s engine is nearly finished. Here are some of the highlights that I added to the game after my last posting here:

  • I redesigned the whole UI to make it appear more futuristic and also to be as functional as possible
  • equipable slots were added (at the bottom) and two special equipment slots for armor and energy were added
  • a simple crafting was added, which I call “Microcrafting” - you only have four slots and only the types of the items involved and their amount is important for crafting (but not the arrangement) - this way I want the player to find crafting recipes on their own without having to look them up in some wiki. Later I’ll also add Replicators which will require blueprints to replicate more complex items.
  • I also integrated a mini-map in the left upper corner, as well as a fullscreen map with three zoom levels. The player has access to these maps from the begining and they can set markings for important places
  • on the top of the screen we now have a time tracker kind of UI that shows the current ingame time, the position of the sun, the direction as well as the player’s current Cartesian coordinates on the planet
  • I replaced the old blocky style items with new low-poly style items


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00499.png


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot03.jpg

I also added a special world that I call “the Construct”, where I can build things that can be put into the game later. Like for example the ship wreck, in which the player wakes up at the begining of the game. This is a screenshot of the construct:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000486.png

It also has special items that help to build up walls quickly (like the red wand thing).

I’ve also finished adding ingame wireless systems to control doors, lights etc. It uses so called “Frequency Chips” that come in pairs and two with the same transponder id can be used to connect two devices:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00502.png

And for more complex systems, there is the ingame computer, that allows to do some boolean logic:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot076.jpg

This also makes hacking in puzzles possible. :slight_smile:

Next are shaders: I was able to archive water effects and glass (even tainted one):


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00292.png

Then I updated the surface generation completely to include natural occuring water - which is not as simple as it sounds (you have to make sure that there is no cave directly below it or it will run into that cave):


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/water.png

I introduced drilling laser classes, so that some lasers are not able to destroy a certain kind of block - very important for the puzzels! Think of it like in Zelda: you need that special glove to lift these heavy stones.

A lot of new items were added:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot 00515.png

I started to build the first ship wreck:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000476.jpg

And fixed a lots of bugs (and continue to do so every day :wink: )

I hope I gave you an impression of how Xcylin progressed within the last year - if you have any question about a specific topic I mentioned (or did not mention), please go ahead and post it - I’m glad to answer all questions!

And please don’t forget to
>>> Vote for Xcylin on STEAM GREENLIGHT!

Or visit our website:
>>> Xcylin.com

#144

Good news, everyone: Xcylin got greenlit! :smiley:

I can’t say how relieved I am now that Xcylin got the go to be on Steam. I was a bit worried that most people would only think of it as a stupid Minecraft clone because a lot of people wouldn’t even watch the first 10 seconds of the trailer much less read any of the text … they would just check the first screenshot, see that the world consists of blocks and conclude that it is just a clone. That’s like saying Planetary Annihilation is just a StarCraft clone.

Whatever - in the end there were enough kind people that spend more then 10 seconds to get informed about the game and it got greenlit! :smiley: I guess a lot of them came from here - so: thank you! :slight_smile:

So what’s new besides that?

I created the first ship wreck and a few puzzles by hand, to get a feeling for what kind of puzzles I want to have in the game:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000519.png

This is where you wake up in the wreck. I might add some kind of cryo tube for the player to wake up in later.


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000522.png

A lot of ways are blocked - some with normal stone that can be lasered away with the emergency laser, some with harder stone that this laser can’t destory (remember the glove in Zelda?).


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000523.png

One of the first rooms that are accessable is the cargo bay - look at all those nicely stacked containers!


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000524.png

The first puzzle - how to cross over this gap? Maybe the stone blocks you got from the cargo bay may come in handy?


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000526.png

You’ll find a lot of locked doors on the ship wrack that need access cards …


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000531.png

More doors - this time one with a blue lock …


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000532.png

A container normally serves as the reward for solving a puzzle. In this picture though there might be another hidden reward :wink:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000533.png

And finally after solving all puzzles in the wreck - the transporter room that will teleport you to the top of the ship into freedom!


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000534.png

It’s always nice to see where the placement algorithm put the ship wreck.

Next?

Next is creating an algorithm that creates sites with puzzles at random. I think this one won’t be easy - but now that I built one site myself, I’m confident I can figure something out :slight_smile: If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

#145

Good news, everyone: Xcylin got greenlit! :smiley:

I can’t say how relieved I am now that Xcylin got the go to be on Steam. I was a bit worried that most people would only think of it as a stupid Minecraft clone because a lot of people wouldn’t even watch the first 10 seconds of the trailer much less read any of the text … they would just check the first screenshot, see that the world consists of blocks and conclude that it is just a clone. That’s like saying Planetary Annihilation is just a StarCraft clone.

Whatever - in the end there were enough kind people that spend more then 10 seconds to get informed about the game and it got greenlit! :smiley: I guess a lot of them came from here - so: thank you! :slight_smile:

So what’s new besides that?

I created the first ship wreck and a few puzzles by hand, to get a feeling for what kind of puzzles I want to have in the game:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000519.png

This is where you wake up in the wreck. I might add some kind of cryo tube for the player to wake up in later.


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000522.png

A lot of ways are blocked - some with normal stone that can be lasered away with the emergency laser, some with harder stone that this laser can’t destory (remember the glove in Zelda?).


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000523.png

One of the first rooms that are accessable is the cargo bay - look at all those nicely stacked containers!


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000524.png

The first puzzle - how to cross over this gap? Maybe the stone blocks you got from the cargo bay may come in handy?


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000526.png

You’ll find a lot of locked doors on the ship wrack that need access cards …


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000531.png

More doors - this time one with a blue lock …


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000532.png

A container normally serves as the reward for solving a puzzle. In this picture though there might be another hidden reward :wink:


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000533.png

And finally after solving all puzzles in the wreck - the transporter room that will teleport you to the top of the ship into freedom!


http://xcylin.com/img/screenshots/screenshot%2000534.png

It’s always nice to see where the placement algorithm put the ship wreck.

Next?

Next is creating an algorithm that creates sites with puzzles at random. I think this one won’t be easy - but now that I built one site myself, I’m confident I can figure something out :slight_smile: If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!