High Frontier: Space Settlement Simulation Game

Many of you may know me from the mailing lists back in the day, and from my work on Xojo iOS more recently. But in the last half-year or so I haven’t been around much, which I regret. I’ve been heads-down working on a new project, and I guess it’s time to share!

In short, it is a space settlement simulation game called High Frontier. Players design, build, and then manage giant free-floating cities in space.

It’s already the most detailed and accurate space colony simulator that’s ever been made; in fact work on it has produced a couple of novel scientific insights, one of which led to a paper. We wrote a custom physics engine to handle the dynamics of large rotating bodies, and also take into account energy balance, artificial gravity, radiation, and more. High Frontier is going to be a really great tool for educating and inspiring kids about science and engineering!

But it’s not intended to be primarily a space settlement CAD or educational program; it’s a game, and it should be lots of fun. The next big step for that is developing the city sim for what goes on inside each colony. Here you’ll lay transportation lines, assign building zones, and manage public works (yes, it’s similar in some respects to other city simulation games you may have heard of). That’s going to require a lot of artwork, so we’ve got a KickStarter campaign going on for that. That includes a video where you can learn about the project, and also see what I look like for those of you who haven’t met me (if you find my avatar picture unconvincing).

I hate having to self-promote like this, but it’s the only way these sorts of crowdfunding campaigns can succeed. I’ve always loved the Xojo community (since before it was called that!), and done my best to help out, and so I turn to you guys in our hour (OK, month) of need. Thanks for your support!

Is Jodie Foster in charge? :slight_smile:

This looks really cool. Good luck!

How did you already get 35 backers? Did you ask schools, friends and family? How much did they help?

I would be pleased to know as I would like to start a kickstarter campaign sometime in the future for my project.

Thanks

Good luck with the campaign!

[quote]How did you already get 35 backers? Did you ask schools, friends and family? How much did they help?

I would be pleased to know as I would like to start a kickstarter campaign sometime in the future for my project.
[/quote]

self promotion before hand and something to show before you do the campaign… saying that even with all of that it can still fail, a friend of mine severely crashed n burned with his campaign, he must of spend !000’s before the campaign and over the month, he already has a successful game, “Scratches” and one in production… Asylum which did get funding via Kickstarter

[quote=140559:@nige cope]Good luck with the campaign!

self promotion before hand and something to show before you do the campaign… saying that even with all of that it can still fail, a friend of mine severely crashed n burned with his campaign, he must of spend !000’s before the campaign and over the month, he already has a successful game, “Scratches” and one in production… Asylum which did get funding via Kickstarter[/quote]
Thanks.

I’m in. Looks like a lot of effort! Good luck, @Joseph Strout.

I guess you can say that… over a decade ago your NUG posts really helped me and many others learn RB!

I was sorry to see you go. It felt like a huge loss to the community!

I’m not in a position to help you out…but seeing that video I realize the picture I had of you in my mind from your posts was WAY off! For one thing you look to be a lot younger than I thought!

Sounds like you are no longer working on Xojo iOS. Sorry to hear that. Good luck with this project!

Best wishes,

  • Karen

Me too :frowning:

How come?