Colony Management

High Frontier version 0.11

Joe Strout2 Comments
v11-inside-cylinder
High Frontier version 0.11

Wow, what a couple of months!  We spent most of November working on our KickStarter campaign, which was a big success thanks to all the awesome folks who supported us.  Then we got back to work on the code, working hard to write that “city mode” (which we’ve decided is a snappier term than “internal colony management mode”) that everybody’s been clamoring for.

That’s a very big job, but we’re excited to announce today that High Frontier version 0.11 is now available, and adds this city-mode view to the game for the very first time.

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On the Beach in Kalpana One

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Last week we posted about placing water in the High Frontier internal colony prototype.  Since then, we’ve improved that feature quite a bit, as you can see here.

Beach scene in High FrontierWe’ve developed a custom shader that draws much nicer grass, without the usual tiling artifacts that made it look so artificial before.  And, we now switch to sand for any land below the standard “grass” level.  This is combined with a much nicer user interface that makes it easy to paint smooth, gentle coastlines and beaches.

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First Traffic Simulation

Joe Strout3 Comments

We’ve begun early prototyping work for the internal colony management.  You can see one of our early graphics tests here.  But this week, we’re thinking mainly about the city simulation itself.

The growth of a city is primarily a function of demand for housing, jobs, and services; and transportation of people and goods.  Transportation will be especially interesting in High Frontier because available land is constrained, but we have lots of options to choose from.  Roads will certainly be possible, but we’ll also have things like monorails, moving walkways, and good old-fashioned walking or biking. Continue reading →

First Peek at Internal View

Joe Strout2 Comments

We’ve started prototyping the internal colony management mode for the High Frontier video game.  This is where you’ll actually go inside the colony you’ve designed, and help the residents lay out roads, parks, public works, etc.  (Building houses and commercial buildings will be up to them.)

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