Star Control: Origins - Professional Modder

from StarControl Forums

"Designer" is a rather vague term; it's my role on Star Control: Origins but it doesn't communicate particularly well what I do on the project. So how do I explain when someone asks me what it is that I do? Professional modder, is what I tell them. I create ships, but I'm not an artist. I create quests, weapons, and transform stars, but I'm not a coder. I work with the in-game ship editor and Adventure Studio, our powerful modding suite for Star Control: Origins. I'm creating content for the campaign in the same way modders later will, our entire single-player campaign is built using the tools that will be available to everyone when the game launches. My title is designer, but practically I'm a modder getting paid to make stuff for the campaign in synergy with the rest of the talented design team. So why does this matter?


With Star Control: Origins, we're allowing everyone to be their own designer of their own universe; modders can create and shape their own galaxy, making it as rich and vast as the one we're working on. Have a story you'd like to tell, or a race of aliens you like to draw? You can bring them to life now in a matter of hours. Create a planet or entire star system for your aliens, assemble ships and scatter their colonies amongst the stars, write some dialog and scripts with our visualized conversation tree, import your drawings and assign some behavior. You now have your new aliens, ready for befriending or conquering. 

 

 

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There's no barrier to entry for anyone who wants to create within our powerful multi-core engine, and we're actively trying to make it as simple and intuitive as possible. Alongside development of the game, we're improving and polishing Adventure Studio as well as increasing the amount of available design parts. Recently we finished working on a Building Designer to create various structures and scatter them across worlds. Customs designs can even be assigned to critters or celestial objects, so you can make your own freaky drones or massive space stations. 


Another reason why our Adventure Studio and Ship Designer tools are so incredible is that we can continue to release more content and carry on the saga of Star Control easier than ever. Our fantastic writing lead, Chris Bucholz, could create an entire expansion single-handedly without need for artists and engineers in the development process. There's so much we want to with the series and are excited by what we, and a passionate community of modders, can deliver. 

-Callum

 

43,496 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

I've done some level design and cut-scene scripting--professionally, I mean--so I grok what that's like. And I'm really looking forward to doing some fun stuff with the Adventure Studio.

 

However, there is one sticking point: the aliens. We don't seem to have any way to create some which are visually new. We'd have to ask anyone playing our new universe to accept the Origins aliens as...something else (assuming we've not basically doing Origins fan fiction).

 

I've asked about this many times--including in its own thread (which has zero replies)--but Stardock folks strangely seem rather reluctant to engage on the topic. Sure, we can do new ships and planets...but that seems to be about it. And, sure, that's a lot...but...well, having new aliens is kind of important, yanno?

Customs designs can even be assigned to critters

Okay, I see this, but...well, I'm not even sure what this means. It sounds like life forms on the planet--like those we could collect with our landers to sell to the Melnorme in SC2--rather than aliens in starships with whom we can have chats. Perhaps there could be some cross-over on this front...?

import your drawings and assign some behavior

I'm also curious what this means. Is this what I'm asking for? Can I put images of my 3D-modeled aliens (if the models themselves are not possible) into the game? Can they be animated, like with GIFs or MP4s? Is there a way to make smooth transitions from neutral to emoting/speaking and back again, without jump-cuts?

What can we do? I'd really like technical details on what's possible so I can begin planning; I have some nifty ideas, but those plans kind of hinge on having these details.

Thanks in advance.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

I heard you can import video (mp4) files into the conversation screen to create new aliens and I presume you can also import audio files too.  Combine those two together and you can create new aliens.  What you can't do is the fancy auto-lip synching because that requires 3D modeling not importing an mp4.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

I suppose importing MP4 files--which have audio, after all--for each and every last conversation wouldn't be feasible.

 

Personally, I'm okay with having a generic loop of visually speaking; not ideal, but I can work with it.

My only concern is whether, when dialogue is finished, the babble-loop can finish playing, then a transition from end-of-babble-loop to idle-loop can play, so we don't have jump cuts. Speaking as someone who does animation and video editing, that's...kind of important to me.