3DArt for Lord of Rigel (4x Space Strategy Game)

Ace

So a few of the other developers for the freeware BSG Diaspora and I a few months back decided we wanted to start work on a commercial 4x space strategy game project. This led to Lord of Rigel getting started.

There's a number of indie 4x games out there like Stardrive and MORE, but we're hoping to add a bit of extra polish and character above some of the current titles out there.

We're aiming for basically an updated Master of Orion 2, fixing some of the more flagrant gameplay issues (micromanagement) and adding quite a bit of character into the game in the form of backstory and the design and play of different species.

We've had a bit of progress over the past few months, particularly on the programming front of things. But art wise we have some fun ships from two of the species so far the Humans and the Kzinti-like Katraxi.

Overall the idea behind the different fleets for each species is to have them instantly recognizable in silhouette. Each ship class (ex. frigate, destroyer, cruiser) has a set model, but ship classes themselves are fully customizable.

We also recently launched the website:
http://www.lordofrigel.com

Human Frigate (.p3d)
http://p3d.in/6D4sq

With the humans we wanted a symmetrical look that felt somewhere between the sleek look of the Federation and the more militaristic look of Star Wars' Empire.

Katraxi Cruiser (.p3d)
http://p3d.in/iVrpR

With the Kats we wanted something that felt like many of the honorable warrior species in scifi (Kzinti, Klingons, Kilrathi). Their ships are "spiky" and asymmetrical too for a quick contrast.

Anyway I'm hoping to occasionally update this thread as art gets done. At the moment we are also looking for some additional art talent although our current team is rather small (currently two dedicated 3d artists and one 2d artist).

Also attached is concept art for the frigate and two early screenshots of how things are looking.

sorceress21

Dude...I thought you were dead man!

Lookin good...nice to see some art from ya!

evil_genius_180

Nice ship design. The game looks good so far too. I like strategy games, though I usually prefer RTS to turn-based. But, I have been known to make exceptions to that rule.

Zeropoint

Best of luck to everyone involved! I'd love to see another classic turn-based 4x game. We can never have too many!

Ace

Thanks for the kind words.

Newman just finished up the Katraxi battleship and so here it is!
http://p3d.in/4MkuI

We've also been working on setting up our concept page on Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323788034

We wanted to go turn based since there's a few good real time ones out there like Sins of a Solar Empire and Stardrive.

On the turn based side of things, although I've really enjoyed Endless Space, it just didn't quite have the combat side and feel we're aiming for.

Ace

We just released our galaxy generator demo. There's a few kinks we're working on but it should give a good sense of where things are going:

http://www.lordofrigel.com/Downloads/Galaxy_Demo.zip

Next will be the tactical combat demo, which will showcase the various ship models posted earlier (and more).

Ace

So over the past six months we've been making some slow but sure progress and aiming towards a tactical combat demo where there will be the fleets of two species and up to mid-game technologies.

But here's the new Human fleet and a fleet size scale chart!






Also the logo of our furry friends the Katraxi who just want to wipe out humanity.

evil_genius_180

That's all looking great. Slow but sure progress is always a good thing.

Ace

Thanks, our marketing guy has started up twitter and facebook stuff again after three months of silence. Today was the Katraxi fleet size chart:

evil_genius_180

Nice, I love the designs.

Aresius

So the Katraxi Battlestation is just a bigger version of the Starbase?
Or is the starbase like a drident and the battlestation a "ring" with a bow?

Anyway nice work in general.

Ace

The Battlestation follows the same basic layout as the Starbase but is significantly larger with and has more hangars and docking ports.

Skipping ahead straight to what I was converting into the engine today, the Selach our aquatic trader species frigate:


Pretty heavy influences from the Xindi aquatics and Seaquest.

evil_genius_180

That's really sweet. I can see (and don't mind) the influences.

count23

Welp, that's 3 years of my life down the toilet. Awesome... /sarcasm.

Good luck with the project, looks good.

Ace

A little peak at our Reptilian species, the Tharrn:



Tharrn female.

Basically we wanted to evoke Klingons, Romulans, and Narn designs with them.

Well the plan is to support the game with a few expansions that will add onto the core of it (so things like gas giant species, star living species, and fully nomadic ones in DLC things that require new mechanics) so eating four years of life is the plan

Aresius

Looks more like a Gorn....

evil_genius_180

Yes, it does indeed resemble a Gorn from Star Trek Online. It also resembles the Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla.

Ace

Yeah the species is Gorn-ish (except that the Tharrn eat people), but the fleet is more a mix of Romulan and Narn design.

Aresius

Well, the fleet shot we see there is deffo stemming from the Narn, yes...

But I'd rather say whoever they're fighting looks more Romulan....

Ace

To give another small update on how stuff is progressing we've put up the old galaxy generator demo on IndieDB but the new demo will be using 4k planet textures:


We've also been working more on our aquatic species the Selach:


Here's the Cruiser, Destroyer, and previously shown Frigate:


The Cruiser is a bit more Whitestar like.

We're also aware of the newly announced Master of Orion game, we're doing something a bit different than their direction and I'm looking forward to playing both games. (personal note the Selach wouldn't beat the Trilarians in a fight, they'd just sell them their guns and crush them under interest and debt)

BlueNeumann

I like your aquatic species! I've got to design my own and have no idea what they'll look like yet, but you're inspiring me to think outside the box. I also dig their ship design as well, reminds me of deep sea creatures.

evil_genius_180

4K texture maps may not seem like so much to people who do CGI, but that's actually way better than you get with a lot of games.

I'm loving the aquatic species.

Armondikov

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

4K texture maps may not seem like so much to people who do CGI, but that's actually way better than you get with a lot of games.

I remember the days of "1024x1024, are you f**king mad?!?!?!?"

I also second/third the comment on the aquatic species. It's nicely alien and also quite believable.

evil_genius_180

Armondikov wrote: »

I remember the days of "1024x1024, are you f**king mad?!?!?!?"

That was probably back in the days when 1GB of RAM was a lot.

Ace

Because everyone here loves the Selach, we just finished up the starbase:
https://p3d.in/GGy0n

Design influences from the Cylon Hub and Minbari starbases should be pretty apparent. The Battlestation will likely draw a little more from some of the Minbari designs from the defunct Into the Fire game for B5.

Also, the Tharrn fleet (to scale):


Here's also a sheet of some of the early Tharrn head concepts, we settled on a hybrid of T-Rex and Godzilla:

Aresius

bulky and sturdy. I like it.

Ace

So here's an image of the Tharrn wrecking a Tulock starbase. With some of their ships still undocking:


The Tulocks are our silicon based species who live in extreme environmental types.

Ace

As a little update, we're bug fixing on tactical but here's what the Selach look like in game:




Also, showing off the Tulocks fighting the Kats:

Armondikov

Looking sweet.

Question RE game mechanics... is "destruct" basically "self-destruct" and if so is there really a need for it to be a prominent option It seems somewhat defeatist to say "hey, you'll need this button frequently!!"

evil_genius_180

It looks great in the game engine. Your UI looks really nice too.

Ace

Well we did want to balance out the buttons. We are adding a radial menu for subsystem targeting, and might reduce that top bar down and put them in context-sensitive radials. But for now we'll keep it up there.

As for it being really prominent, well it is a good option for when you're being boarded or if you're outclassed. Warp core breaches can pack a pretty heavy punch!

Edit- Instead of making a new post I might as well show off the Selach battleship model here:
https://p3d.in/Q3aS0