This site is being used as an online log of informal notes on progress in the making of Kuiperbilt. It is a developer’s log, filled with complaints, angst against conventions and cope in addition to marks of progress major and minor. Good news and bad belongs here, and things will be “fleshed-out” as time passes.
Kuiperbilt
The name is derived from Kuiper Belt—the area around a star / solar system filled with asteroids and small planetary bodies—the German word for Image (“Bild”), and the English word “Built” (constructed [past tense]). All together, Kuiperbilt is a mishmash of these terms to stand on its own.
The Style
Originally, this was known as The Xenominer Project, which was foreclosed after intervention from the original lead developer. However, such an early 2000’s style is being carried over with coloring schemes, layouts, naming conventions (see above) and the explorative attitude to development. When it comes to game development, I am an amateur, so the aesthetic matches.
Black & Red?
Initially I was planning to use a bright & light Cyan-blue secondary with a deep grey primary color scheme. This was so it would naturally match the nature of white dwarf stars that can cool down to such an extent that the surface becomes nearly “livable”, in the sense you won’t be immediately disintegrated. However, a Red secondary w. a deep grey primary seemed more appealing to the eye. This isn’t absolute nor permanent, but it’s the coolest thus far.
Development
There are two developers as of today. Myself, and Buddha. I myself am spearheading the project, whilst Buddha is handling the site and networking. He’s a busy man, so if you want to send a radio distress signal anywhere, send it in our discord [whG3QZ4MwZ] and I will likely be the first to see it.
Funding
A promise made in the XMP is holding firm: there will be no patrion or donation plug until the game is in a state viable for testing, and with satisfying prospects that in the event of my (LukeZurg22’s) absence, the project can continue. My work means a lot to me, but I am under no illusion about its monetary value in an oversaturated games market. If we ever get to the point where sales and money is involved, a player-first approach of keeping the game at a reasonable price. In all sincerity, the economy just isn’t in the spot for a game made on the budget of ramen and coffee to be sold for a price any higher than $10.00 USD.
On Piracy
I understand why pirated games exist, where they are most done and the kind of people whom crack games. If somehow you (yes, you) pirate Kuiperbilt, there is not much we can nor will do about it and I frankly wouldn’t blame you for our past and future misfortunes. Our best hope is that you enjoy it.
Vision For The Game
I vividly imagine a voxel survival game (how unique, I know) that takes place on a Kuiper belt. I have a story in mind but the limitations of my own knowledge in engine programming, and the limitations on the gameplay-level means it’s still up-in-the-air.
Furthermore, the inspiration derives from the defunct Xenominer as its “spiritual successor”, as well as communal, Space Engineers and Gregtech New Horizons (a difficult, and lengthy mod for Minecraft) with the latter two setting especially lofty expectations. Food & Water aren’t as appealing as manufacturing and logistics, to me at least, so there is plenty of room for healthy debate.
This coincides with the slow and gradual resurgence of Castleminer Z—
The community of which I highly suggest checking-out. There is no sponsorship on my part, they’re just cool folks over there.
—in addition to Vintage Story which is far more established, organized, and developed than what we have here thus far. Unprofessionally, I observe a slow rise in Voxel-based games; the reasons for which I cannot say why, as I don’t really know.
The game would play like the games above, in that it would be in the first-person view and that the player possesses a tool and the abilities to Dig, Place, Construct, and Destroy at their own leisure.
The thought of using over (and under) -sized weapons to break blocks is interesting to me as it is humorous, though I am very aware that this isn’t a completely novel idea on its own. The player itself would be a non-descript spaceman; a faceless gender-neutral person in a suit of which I aim to derive its design from an old British prototype, with some liberties.
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- A character designer on top of the game’s already-daunting premise (programmatically-speaking) is a masochist fantasy that I don’t hope to undertake.
- If the game is completely in first-person, where one will not be able to see oneself, then some mechanics such as a designer have no place here.
There is an inside-joke. We aren’t adding space Nazis, don’t worry.
The game would / should (of course) take place on a Kuiper Belt, or a large asteroid belt of some kind. A lot of thought has been put into whether or not it should physically “wrap” around a star in which the player traverses an entire circle with visible bending, or to simulate scale using a skybox with an infinite “line” of asteroids. The looping-around is still certainly possible, but for now is remaining merely a concept.
You will doubtlessly notice a lot of artistic mistakes in the concept art images. I am an amateur artist doing (for now) all of the art and sound for this game with what resources I have at my disposal. This is just how things are. These images were drawn with a screen-less Wacom Tablet. Certain people may even recognize “The Wanderer” as the inspiration for the above.
Other ideas have floated around. In the realm of Minecraft modpacks, I very much enjoyed Antimatter Chemistry, which takes place on a completely barren “antimatter” world. In short: you start from nothing and build an industrial facility using chemical formulae and machine mods. I learned about chemicals from that modpack more than pre-university classes.
This is all the art I have to share. Surely, I can, have, should and will share more.
SKSSL
If you are a member of the discord, you probably might have noticed the occasional update mentioning something called SKSSL. Short for “SolKom Standard Shared Library”, it is a mess of classes taken from my other projects all merged together in what is slowly becoming a very rickety game engine. This engine is open-source, you can see it right now on Github, and it will doubtlessly see continued improvements and usage in other projects.
Kuiperbilt is not built on SKSSL, but in fact, upon KBSL which is built on SKSSL which is built on Monogame. KBSL and Kuiperbilt are both private and proprietary, whose assets are used for the game, the former contains the Voxel Engine which you will not find in SKSSL.
What matters is that because SKSSL is open-source, it means folks experienced but kind enough to contribute can in very minor ways that make development slightly less insufferable, and to be something for others to return to if Kuiperbilt ever went under. It’s a way of giving back from the time spent.