Kevin Karsopawiro @engineerbtc

Interstellar travel is now working for astra.game Star systems can now be linked through warp gates, letting the player travel seamlessly from one system to another. Visuals are still very WIP, but the system itself is working. Coming in the next release. #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #buildinpublic

Cargo hauling one crate at a time got a bit old, so we added a trolley! Those crates don’t stand a chance now. astra.game #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic

Been quiet for a bit because I’ve been focused on getting the Astra 0.1 demo into a state I’m actually happy to ship. A lot of the systems I’ve been posting about are finally coming together into something that feels like a game. No multiplayer yet, that’s coming soon. Here’s 30 seconds of where it’s at. Try it yourself at astra.game

Small update on hab/outpost generation. We’ve updated our kit to support even more possibilities. This gives us a lot more flexibility when generating different structures and layouts for astra.game #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #buildinpublic

Day 15 of building the space sim we got tired of waiting for. After a few unexpected detours, I’m back to preparing for our demo in a couple of weeks. On the menu today: fully procedural habitation modules (still WIP).

Day 13 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. We’re one step closer to our first major milestone: a fully working cargo-hauling job between two planets in a server-meshed environment. The site is live now too: astra.game If you want to support development, we’re accepting donations. As a thank-you, supporters will get some cosmetic, strictly non-P2W rewards. Still a long way to go, but it’s starting to feel real. 🚀

Day 10 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for: astra.game Sorry this took a bit longer. I present to you server-meshed localized physics grids. A problem that became years of R&D at another company took us just a couple of days to get running. - One player is piloting the ship. - Another is running around inside the cargo hold. - A third is watching from the ground. If you're about to buy another ship, maybe consider funding Astra instead. We're actually building a working game.

Day 8 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for: #Astra. Did a lot of infrastructure work and website work today, none of which is particularly interesting to show off here, so instead here’s some progress on the cloud tech. Still not quite production-ready, but it’s getting there. Join us at astra.game! #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic #StarCitizen

Day 7 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Spent most of today dealing with the less glamorous parts of building an actual game, but still managed to get real-time, volumetric, planetary-scale clouds taking shape (taking a small break from networking). Very early, but it already makes the planets feel completely different. Come help shape development at astra.game #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic #StarCitizen

Day 6 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. 100 players, 3 workers, one continuous world. Authority transfers when a player crosses a boundary and the client never sees it. Server meshing works. Three or thirty, the code does not care. #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic #StarCitizen

Astra now has a home: astra.game To reward the earliest supporters, the first 100 people to sign up and join Discord get Founder status: no paying for anything in Astra, ever. Come join us early and help shape what Astra becomes. And please reposts for reach!

Day 5 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Networking is now running on an actual cloud server with real latency, not a convenient localhost demo. It survived well enough to play some football. Next I start throwing load at it and find out which parts actually require years of "revolutionary technology". #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic #StarCitizen

Still Day 4 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Busy day at the day job, but I still got dynamic server workers in. Workers can now be added or removed at runtime, each simulating part of the world, with seamless entity handoff between them.

Still Day 4 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. It’s early, rough, and nowhere near the scale I ultimately want, but the core architecture is starting to hold together. But I was told this was the kind of foundational technology that takes years. So far, it took a Sunday night.

Day 4 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Started the custom networking layer today. Clients can now connect and spawn into the world. And since some of you questioned the scale of the planet tech, here’s the answer.

Day 3 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Improved lighting and Hillaire-based atmospheres are in. Still needs tuning, but planets finally look like places instead of textured spheres. Imagine what I could get done if I had ~$1B in funding and 14 years.

Day 2 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Procedural noise is in, and the quadtree terrain can already produce believable moons. Performance definitely needs some work, but it’s getting there. The plan is to get the planetary foundations right from the get go. I’d really prefer not to ever announce Planet Tech v4. #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #ai #buildinpublic

Still on day 1 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. Spherized-cube planet, quadtree terrain LOD, and edge fans stitching the cracks between different resolutions. Getting the planetary tech foundations in early. I hear terrain can become a bit of a project if you leave it for later. #indiegamedev #ai #buildinpublic

Still day 1 of building the space sim I got tired of waiting for. 1,000,000 rotating cubes at ~2–3 ms. Build for stupid scale first, or spend years rebuilding for it later. I’ve seen how that story goes. I have AI and considerably less patience. #indiegamedev #ai #buildinpublic