Star Trader Game (In-progress)

[rdc]

It has literally been years since I opened FbEdit but I got the urge to make a little space-trading game. It has been so long that I need to relearn FreeBasic but it turns out it is like riding a bike. It is slowly coming back. Here is a shot of my dialog window that you get when you start a new game. Not much dialog in the game but this sets up the "goal" of the game. https://imgur.com/a/LtbRfj0 It will be a while before it is playable, but I am happy with the current progress.

[paul doe]

Hey! Nice to see you're still at it after all these years!

Looks really nice. Really excited and looking forward to seeing more

[rdc]

Thanks! I am glad FB is still being updated too.

[BasicCoder2]

@rdc
I assume essentially text based?
When I looked at simple role playing game programs the big obstacle was not the code rather it was the artwork, music and making up all the dialog for the characters. Capturing sounds is easy enough and I guess today you can use AI to generate some music or even images. Maybe chatGPT can write some dialog Maybe it can write the whole program

[paul doe]

...
Maybe chatGPT can write some dialog Maybe it can write the whole program
...

It is surprisingly good at the first, not that good on the second

[rdc]

Yeah, it is basically text based. I am not much.of a pixel artist and assets are not easy to come by. The AI art generators are good at doing portraits, I am using some, but not too good at making game assets. Graphics aren't really essential to the gameplay in this game so I am making it mostly text with some graphical embellishments.

[coderJeff]

It has been so long that I need to relearn FreeBasic but it turns out it is like riding a bike. It is slowly coming back.

A similar situation for me a few years ago. You can take the man out of the freebasic but you can't take the freebasic out of the man. ('Person', I guess to be PC).

Nice to hear from you.

[rdc]

Haha. Thanks. Strange how it is all in there somewhere.

[BasicCoder2]

@rdc
How is your little space-trading game progressing.
After reading your post I have spent some time trying to learn what is involved in such trading simulation games starting with one of the first games "Star Traders" coded by Dave Kaufman.

[rdc]

The game is moving along slowly but moving. Trying to get back into the swing. I look at my old code and wonder who wrote it. Haha. Not super happy with it at the moment but I want to get most of the gameplay in place to see how it plays. I may then do some changes at that point.

[BasicCoder2]

.

[Dr_D]

Wow... This is good news. Welcome back!

[dodicat]

Got a fart in a space suit feeling here, I'm off into the ether.

[rdc]

Wow... This is good news. Welcome back!

Thanks!

[rdc]

I have made some progress on this but I am not happy with the format of the game right now so I need to look at a different presentation and gameplay model. I am going to put this on pause for July as I have finished my outline for a novel that I want to write, so I will devote July to writing the book and trying to get the first draft done. This will give me time to think about the project some more and to look at some pixel graphic options that I might use for the game. I think using some sprites and background will make the game more interactive and interesting if I can find a set of graphics that I can cobble together. Anyway, just FYI. The project is still alive just going to change, for the better I hope, after July.