Development Diary

Contact

 * Follow us on Twitter!
 * outdated development blog, we stick to Twitter for updates these days
 * email us at surrealcoder@gmail.com

August 2016
A lot of delays in development updates while refactoring major parts of the game. In current build:
 * Player Movement! this is HUGE. Originally there were no plans for animated player movement and instead was going to be all text/terminal based. Check out our twitter posts for videos of walking around a mocked up space station!
 * Public transportation - added this back in. As you walk around the space station, you can now interact with the ticket terminal to travel to another stellar system.
 * Goods and Stock Markets - working to add these features back in. The major rewrite changed the way in which panels are loaded and require some tweaking.

March 2015

 * finishing up some website coordination with this wiki
 * reload resources, added new classification: rare-paranormal
 * code refactor for stock market terminal
 * navigation of the QUOTRON terminal established in the main class file
 * ASCII art finalized for QUOTRON start screen
 * server methods setup for basic stock market actions
 * selection of broker setup, but only for testing, lacks acceptance and broker info screen
 * cron design for market downtime

Jan/Feb 2015
designed the following concepts:
 * created the data model for the stock market
 * populated the stock market companies
 * created the initial tickers for 5 years of market activity
 * finished the panel for trading stocks
 * finished the framework for handling keyboard shortcuts in the stock interface
 * general goods trade
 * gambling
 * player run banks
 * player run brokerage houses
 * in-game email
 * currency markets
 * black market trade

Dec 2014

 * completed raw material data model and application to populate initial test set

October-November 2014

 * built controls to let players travel via public transportation
 * included controls that allow players to use a galaxy atlas to see the systems in the galaxy
 * completed the game clock code. The game officially started on 1/1/1967. I hope the full release happens, in game time, on July 16, 1969.

September 2014

 * began populating the databases with raw materials

August 2014

 * set the attributes for raw materials
 * set the classifications for raw materials
 * created the application for generating the randomized materials
 * applied the new game panel system to the main controls
 * added new security to the game server API
 * received permission to use the trademarks for "digital electronics corporation" in the game.

July 2014

 * redesigned the layout of the game screen
 * removed the last of the "Star Trek" style screens
 * set a color palette for all ROM panels
 * designed all ROM panels to be fictional PDP panels largely based on KL-10 and PDP 8-12.

June 2014

 * took a break
 * bought new computer
 * created the task list for planet population
 * set direction of the starting game
 * began naming the initial set of planets

May 2014

 * connecting new game panels to game engine
 * connecting variables for use in player terminal
 * rewriting the travel engine for the new engine sequence written in April

April 2014

 * created 4 primary panels for controlling the power grid, stellar engines and the mini-bridge control panel.
 * dropped all LCARS (Star Trek) inspired artwork from previous panels
 * changed stellar engine start sequence
 * made the "normal" ship speed faster
 * increased size of solar system from 500k units to 4mil units
 * set average time to cross a solar system to 40 minutes

March 2014

 * completed icons for website and in-game branding for Monk James
 * finalized the storyline presented in pieces on the blog
 * created a bare bone website

February 2014

 * finalize the basic storyline, hippies take over the earth
 * decided to use Monk James in the storyline
 * proved many concepts in code for space travel
 * established critical path for alpha build