Frontier Explorer

I’ve been thinking about, tinkering with and procrastinating over making a game for years. I have untold gigs worth of Unity projects clogging up, not only my desktop & laptop hard drives, but also our network storage drives! I sat down to do some serious thinking at the start of this decade and realised, the main reason I so often don’t follow through (or get anywhere near even alpha stage) is because there is no actual story or driving idea behind my projects. Every few months I sit down to make a game. Once my prototype goes beyond the most bare bones mechanic, I eject like a boulder from a trebuchet. That or I spend several great night’s working on getting a level designed, only to realise I have absolutely no clue what I’m going to do with it!

This time it’s different! This time, I have an idea. An idea based on a game that has already been made and works really well. Yes that’s right, I want to make a game very similar to and inspired by one that already exists! I want to make a space exploration game where each world you visit is unique, each solar system different from the next, a game where there is basically no end as it all gets generated on the fly as the player moves through the universe (except for maybe when the data needed to run the game gets so massive I/the game can’t keep paying for hosting that much data). I am of course talking about a game very close to No Man’s Sky.

If you’ve read this far, you’re no doubt thinking, “But that game already exists?!”, and that is a very valid thought! The best rebuttal would be, one is not enough. Call of Duty isn’t the only military fps, Fortnite isn’t the only battle royale, Destiny isn’t the only looter shooter. More of a good thing, especially in gaming, is never a bad thing.

To be completely honest though, exploring space is the coolest damn thing ever, plus it’s one hell of a challenge! The shear technical backend that will be needed to even get a tenth of the way to NMS would be a major feat for a single dev game! My goal is actually to do mobile first, because I want to cruise around space exploring new worlds on my phone when I’m on the porcelain throne. Obviously with the ability to port your account to PC at some point, and who knows maybe one day even console 🤣 
For now, watch this space 😉