Jump to content

Solar 2: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 31: Line 31:


== Development ==
== Development ==
''Solar 2'' was developed by Jay Watts under his video game studio Murudai.

<!-- from <ref name="dealspwn"/>
The original Solar was a development of the concept of a sandbox universe where you play as stars into a fun, playable game. Solar 1 laid the gameplay framework that was very popular, so Solar 2 was mainly expanding on that original idea and polishing it to perfection.

I'm proud of how balanced and fun the sandbox is. I spent a lot of work refining it and balancing it, and it's all come together extremely well; very happy with how that turned out.

**With the game being released on both XBLIG and Steam, did you face any problems specific to either platform?**

Jay: The lack of keyboards and the aging Xbox 360 hardware were a bit tricky, and updating the Xbox version is a huge pain to do. PC was tricky to make the game work on all resolutions and all systems, but was otherwise much simpler than the XBLIG version.

-->

<!-- from <ref name="indiepub"/>

"I could write a novel on how the Solar concept has evolved," Watts explained. "The simple, streamlined, addictive gameplay took dozens of design iterations to get to. I played with many, many ideas before finally settling on what I have now."

"I've never been educated or trained in programming or game development, I've never worked in the industry or anything and I've only been making games for a few years. You wouldn't believe that seeing where I am today, indie game dev is just the perfect fit for me."

The game is primarily a solo project with the exception of the music by JP Neufeld, which Watts said he commissioned because, as he put it, there was "no way I could do music as good as he can."

"I carefully designed Solar 2 to make the most of my limited graphical skills," said Watts. "That was actually how the idea was first conceived, because I could draw a nice planet. Working on my own has allowed me to make all aspects of the game seamlessly work together and be greater than the sum of its parts. However for future games I will probably work with an artist, as there are many game ideas I'd like to make that I just can't do myself."

-->

<!-- from <ref name="FEZ"/>

I was working on Solar 2 full-time for the last 10 months. What allowed me to do that was Solar 1, which sold 30,000 copies on Xbox LIVE Indie Games, giving me the savings I needed to complete the sequel. Solar 1 was just a casual thing though, in the holidays of my Uni degree at the time.

"The Solar 2 interface used to be less elegant, but I couldn’t get the background how I liked it, so I just removed it entirely and kept it like that!"

And development started on Solar in July 2008 back when it was a Flash game, which was before Spore’s September release. There are some early threads about it on the Newgrounds forums around August 2008. Those great elements in Solar 2 such as the infinite sandbox, collecting life planets on star systems and crashing through a physics sandbox were all developed with Solar 1. However, flOw was indeed an inspiration. I loved the simplicity of the game and the ambiance.

There aren’t any game developers I draw inspiration from, except maybe Tom Fulp of Newgrounds/Castle Crashers/Alien Hominid fame. He has a great intuition on what makes a fun game and has a wonderful attitude towards gaming and game development as a whole.

I designed the game very carefully to play to my strengths, so I never really struggled with anything. The hardest part was trying to balance and build the sandbox, it takes a lot of complex work to make something so simple!

I put a lot of effort into Solar 2‘s Achievements to make them reward skill rather than just grinding or things you’d just encounter during the game anyway



-->

== Reception ==
== Reception ==
== References ==
== References ==

Revision as of 22:16, 9 April 2014

Solar 2
Developer(s)Jay Watts (Murudai)
Publisher(s)Jay Watts (Murudai)
Platform(s)Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, iOS
Release17 June 2011
Genre(s)Sandbox
Mode(s)Single player

Gameplay

Solar 2 is an open world sandbox video game played from a two-dimensional perspective. The player is given an asteroid, and their main mission is to accumulate enough mass to become several astronomical objects.[1] The game ends when and if the player manages to accummulate enough mas to become a big crunch, which then produces a Big Bang. However, the player is free to not finish the game, and is able to stay at the form of the object of their preference. Six different object are available in the game: small planet, life planet, small star, medium star, large star and black hole.[2]

The game takes place in a borderless and randomly generated universe, filled with asteroids, planets, stars and solar systems.[1] Life forms are also present in the game. They appear on planets sufficiently big to store life, and are represented by a variety of ships of different size and attack power.[1] Spaceships are coloured green if they belong to the player's planet, or to a planet that belongs to the player's solar system; red if they belong to an enemy planet or solar system; and white if they don't belong to any planet or system.[2] All the spaceships in the map are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI), and they will constantly engage in combat against enemy ships, asteroids or planets to destroy them.[1]

At the beginning of the game, the player accummulates mass by colliding their asteroid against other asteroids until enough mass has been accumulated to become a small planet.[1] From there, the player has to absorb other asteroids to make their planet grow enough to become a life planet; crashing against other object will decrease the player's mass. At this point, life forms will evolve in the planet, creating spaceships, planetary shields and cannons.[1] If the player wishes, they can accummulate more mass until their planet becomes a star. Life forms will dissapear, but the player will be able to attract planets to form a solar system, further grow the star by absorbing other planets, or a combination of both.[1] The player can also create multi-star systems by selecting planets from their system and make it absorb asteroids unbil it becomes another star.[1]

Growing the star will increase its gravitational force, which increases the number of planets the solar system can have.[2] They will also be able to attract solar systems composed of stars with lower mass than that of the player, or being atracted to stars with bigger mass. If both stars collide, they will be reduced to a lesser size within the same type of object. For example, if the player controls a small star and collides against a medium star, the player will be disintegrated while the AI-controlled star will be reduced to a small star. Being reduced from small star to life planet is not possible, as well as being reduced from small planet to asteroid. In these cases, the player is respawned, with random mass, close to the place where they collided.[2]

Solar 2 also includes a variety of achievements and object-oriented missions that can be played at any time. Missions can be found following the directional arrows in the interface, and the AI keeps track of which missions the player has finished.[2] The game also keeps record of several accomplishments the player has reached, such as the distance travelled, the amount of objects and enemies destroyed by the player or the spaceships belonging to the player.[2] Solar 2 allows the player to save progress at any point. A "save system" feature is also present; it allows the player to save specific configurations of stars and planets that the player has created. The player can respawn from them at any time.[2]

Development

Solar 2 was developed by Jay Watts under his video game studio Murudai.



Reception

References

Sources

Already used in Solar 2
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Solar 2 Review". IGN. Ziff Davis Media. July 14, 2011. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Watts, Jay. Solar 2 (tutorial). Murudai. 2011.
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "dealspwn" is not used in the content (see the help page).
  • Markovic, Denny (July 12, 2011). "Solar 2 Review". PALGN. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
New
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_2&oldid=603514243"