Vegastrike:Project

Project Information

About

Vega Strike is an Open Source 3d Space Simulator. Work is proceeding on both the Vega Strike game engine and a Vega Strike Universe game data set. Both, engine and data, are in a playable state, but under continuous development.

The Vega Strike engine serves as the foundation for the Parallel Universe, Privateer Gemini Gold, Privateer Remake, Vega Trek, and Pi Armada projects, whose websites can be reached via the sidebar to the right on the project web page.

Vision

We enjoy the futuristic genre, and we enjoy creating content for this genre in an interesting, vast, and profoundly complex but believable universe with endless expansion and enhancement possibilities.

We want to create a generic, open, and free space simulator game of outstanding quality, both in technology and content.

We want to be the vehicle for the creation and recreation of other space games and provide the possibility for users to create their own stories.

Mission

We have three development drivers:

• The Vega Strike Game
• The Modding capability
• The Engine that enables both

VS (the engine) is a vehicle for groups of people to produce content in a set of genres that they enjoy creating and playing.

The particular universe (VS game) that the Minister of Information (jackS) has been working on for some time now should be the target game, to help focus and separate required features from nice features. We also want to create an entangling, profound, and believable space game whose story is set in the Vega Strike Universe.

We want to maintain close relationship with and provide to the freedom loving community a moddable open source space simulation engine that can be used to create other independent space games.

We develop feature sets for the underlying content that requires those features: a campaign, a story, a well defined economy model, well defined game play mechanics, modding requirements.

Our approach is not myopic because of a particular perception as to what resources/technology will be available.

Users can write their own stories for the universe and share them around - and if they're good we can include them as well. Think of it as universe supporting easy-to-make fan-fiction (which can include mod-based fiction).

Factions are given the ability to make their own decisions ... God's (campaign) commands are suggestions ... the campaign evolves as the players force it, and the goals need to be written to handle that.

Shortly, Vega Strike will become a space combat/simulator game and engine with fully dynamic universe creation, scriptable ai responses with dynamic decision ability, completely non-determinant campaigns, fully functional economic system that responds to the real-time gameplay state of the universe, shader-fied openGL graphics with nifty special effects.

"One universe, infinite possibilities"

Features

See Vegastrike:Features

Active Development Team

Project Leads and Lead Developers

• Daniel R Horn aka hellcatv,danielrh (overall coordination, lead programming, ...)
• Patrick Horn aka ace123 (lead development, multiplayer, python, forum support)
• Jack Sampson aka jackS (Minister of Information, VS Universe development, art directing)

Programmers and Developers

• Claudio Freire aka klauss, klausfreire (engine and python development)
• Ed Sweetman aka safemode (engine development)
• aka pyramid, pyramid3d (art development, python scripting, documentation)

Developers and Contributors

There are also developers that have in the past but do not contribute actively at this moment. Those are listed in the credits.

Besides the developers, there is a large number of contributors from the community, be it for the engine or art and other content type for VS game.

And not to forget the modders, who give significant direction and contribution to engine development.

See: Vegastrike:Credits

Artistic Organization

This is the artistic organization for unit model (ships, bases) development in Vega Strike - Upon The Coldest Sea.

Art Director - provides the design briefs, gives the model final approval before it goes into the game.

• jackS

Art Administrator - knows what models go where, organizes the wiki, prioritizes development

• pyramid

Technical Liaison - tells artists what to do with regard to technical stuff

• chuck_starchaser

Concept Artists - come up with concept art

• Fendorin

Modeling Artists - model the ships and other assets

• Fendorin - senior modeling artists
• Deus Siddis
• rivalin

Texture Artists - texture the ships and stations

• Fendorin - senior texture artists

Voice Artists - provide speech voices

• Turbo (tutorial quest voice, alien speech audio)
• CLoneWolf (andolian speech audio)

Data Integrators - contributors that integrate the models into the game data, fill in missing simple textures and placeholders, do file format conversions

• jackS
• esgaroth
• pyramid

Front End Artist - does overlays, wallpapers, screen savers, renders, runs the ModDB page, a deviantart page, conceptart.org thread, Game-Artist.net thread

• rivalin

Project Setup

Open Source Principles

We often hear the complaint that features don't get implemented for a long time though they are being requested over and over again.

Being an open source community, most developers or contributors have their day-time jobs or commitments. Time is a scarce resource for those people and naturally they tend to prioritize their work on things that they are personally most interested in. Active developers do not dictate what gets contributed and what doesn't. The dictate is solely coming from contributions.

The really best way to see a particular feature implemented quickly is to pull up your sleeves and start implementing them, first integrating with your local VS copy, and when a particular feature is working satisfactory, submit it to one of the active developers for inclusion. Bear in mind that only, and only working code will get committed fast. If code or data needs additional work it will most certainly have to wait either for developer time or interest.

In this way, contributors who submit a lot will become developers.

Don't know how and what to contribute? Have a look at the HowTo:Contribute page for a starter.

Communication Structure

Developers communicate between themselves on a need basis via forum personal messages, email, and irc. In addition there are frequent project meetings scheduled to discuss online ongoing developments.

In addition, we communicate with the community primarily through the forum, the web page, the dev blogs, the wiki, and equally through pm's and irc.

History

I read it somewhere but can't find the text right now.

In any case, it was hellcatv who started it all. The first news entry on the project page is from March 1, 1998 with news about flight engine completion, basic AI functionality, and 4 available ships. This suggests that development was going on already before that time.

On The Web

• Vega Strike Wikipedia entry.
• VS on YouTube.
• Vega Strike on facebook.
• Vega Strike on linuxlinks.com.
• Vega Strike on OnlyLinuxGames.
• 2010: Go On Space Adventures With Vega Strike in makeuseof.

2010: Vega Strike 0.5 on dodownload.

• 2009: GNU/Linux Gaming – Vega Strike for All on The ERACC Web Log.
• 2009: Vega Strike: Free, Open Source Space Simulation Game for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.
• 2009 (DE): Das Spiel zum Wochenende: Vega Strike on linux-community.
• 2007: Vega Strike - My kind of fun in the Free Software Magazine
• 2003: Vega Strike Released for Mac OS X on insidemacgames.
• Vega Strike on tvtropes.
• Linux Game: Vega Strike on About.com.
• Vega Strike on reloaded.org.
• Vega Strike on absoluteastronomy.

Roadmap

See Development:Roadmap