This week turned out to be quite mixed — I worked on two very different areas, each gradually helping to “cement” the foundation of the game. There were plenty of experiments, a bit of pain, but as usual it was interesting, and overall progress keeps moving forward.
TL;DR of the Week
- corporate mechanics finally got a unified UI
- missions became part of player progression instead of an isolated mechanic
- the Skill Shop appeared — tying together economy, factions, and character development
- the introductory world story finally took shape
- I made my first steps toward visualizing that story
Corporations, Missions, and Skills
The main task this week was to finally bring all the previously scattered mechanics into one place. Missions existed on their own, corporations lived only in some backend architecture, and player progression was basically floating in the air. I wanted a system where everything connects logically, and the player clearly sees who gives them tasks, why they’re doing them, and what they gain from it.
Unified Corporation Window
Honestly — I went through several UI concepts, and each one looked “meh.” My goal was to give the player a clear interface to view their active corporate contracts, the progress within those contracts, and the opportunities those contracts unlock. Now missions finally have a “home”: they’re no longer an isolated mechanic but a natural part of corporate interaction. Complete tasks → relationship grows → new opportunities open → and new skills become available.
Skill Shop
In the Skill Shop, players can buy skills that a given corporation specializes in. Pure logic: want to learn advanced space mining tech? Work with a corporation focused on deep-space resource extraction.
Or maybe you dream of becoming a master of laser-engraving your enemies’ tombstones — then you’ll need the support of corporations guarding the far cosmic frontiers. Complete missions, raise your Trust Index, earn credits.
Each new skill can be upgraded further — creating a progression system where missions, faction interaction, and the economy all fit together naturally.
And all of this is already available in version s0.3.1/c0.3.0. You can open the corporation window and see how contracts tie together with the Skill Shop and missions.
The Introductory World Story — “Through Hardships to the Stars”
I’ve long had a general vision for the game’s lore — philosophical, a bit dark, touching on consciousness, identity, and the role of AI. But having an idea in your head is one thing… trying to express it so that a reader sees the same images and feels the same emotions is something entirely different.
Unfortunately, I’m not a writer at all — my brain is wired firmly in a technical direction. So I ran into a serious challenge when trying to translate the emotions I feel about this world into words. Searching for the right images, the right metaphors, the right tone — something that could evoke in the reader a feeling close to mine, without slipping into shapeless poetic fog, over-philosophizing, or a dry, lifeless narration.
I’m not sure if I succeeded, but I’m still ready to share this small story with you.
Visualization: First Steps and First Realities
In parallel, I started thinking about how to visualize this story. I wanted to create a small atmospheric video intro that would set the tone for the world. The first step was writing a short script. The second — exploring existing AI tools that could help turn the idea into reality.
And that’s where I hit the first “reality check”: video generation is not cheap. Especially for someone without much experience, where you need many iterations, experiments, reworks, and fine-tuning. All of that can easily turn into hundreds of dollars.
So for now, I’ll probably take the simplest route and leave the blockbuster version for better times. ))