Spacing Out: Procedural Generation Gets Me Hot

1 - Busy Galaxy

I Do Love Those Random Galaxies…

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that there are two words — as well as variations of these words — that get me more excited than almost any other. Those are “procedurally generated”, as well as its cousin, “randomly generated”. I mean, I’ve always loved randomness in games because replayability is a big factor in my enjoyment of a game, but lately this one factor has been even more important than ever. I started thinking of this topic because recently a game I had NO interest in called Don’t Starve shot to the top of my interest meter once I read “Randomly Generated New Worlds” in the list of the game’s features. I don’t even LIKE survival games that much, but randomly generated worlds? Sign me the hell up. This made me begin to wonder both why I love procedural generation so much, and how it figures into the realm of space gaming.

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Kerbal Space Program: One Small Step for Rubin…

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Kerbal Space Program Preview
This isn't an image from the hangout itself, but from the official KSP site.

I Went to There! ;)

Hey kids, how are ya? I’m chiming in because I just had a Google+ Hangout session with some friends over on Broken Forum in which they graciously took the time and helped me learn Kerbal Space Program a little better, and it was hilarious. With their help, I made my first orbit and also landed on the Mun! Yay!

It’s on the long side (as these things can get), and I’m still learning about these Hangouts, so for a spell I forgot to click on my little chat window to focus it on the game. I also think I need to learn to use some of the programs my buddy Paul told me about after the last hangout. I apologize for any quality issues, but please bear with me as I’m still learning. :)

Aaaanyway, I hope you enjoy it!

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Spacey News and Deals 5/15-17/13: The Bring On the Weekend Edition

Drowning in News

SO MANY NEWSIDEALSNESS!

Hellllllloooo my friends, and happy Friday! The weekend is FINALLY upon us! YES! Sorry about the lack of news for the past couple of days, there was some other stuff I needed to get done first before this, so I hope y’all don’t mind. :) Even though my time has been consumed with Distant Worlds: Shadows, I’ve still managed to fit in some X3: Albion Prelude, so I’ll have something on that early next week. I also hope to tackle some more TIE Fighter this weekend as well. But enough about me, there’s a LOT of newsiness to talk about!!!

Now we have deals!!! First, I suppose to celebrate the release of its major 3.0 patch as noted above, some of the X games are on sale at a few places, such as:

Next in deals, Amazon is having a HUGE Digital Games Mayhem sale, yet it only includes a few space games (of which are of questionable quality, but I mention ‘em regardless), such as:

Finally in deals, we have some randoms, such as Dawnstar (which I still need to play) for $5.00 on Green Man Gaming and Unstoppable Gorg for…whatever you want on IndieGameStand.

Finally in related stuff, the folks at the amazing Three Moves Ahead podcast had a great podcast on 4X games.

That’s it!! WHEW! Have a great weekend everyone.

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Distant Worlds: Shadows – Here There Be Pirates (and Love)

Welcome to the Age of Shadows!

Welcome to the Age of Shadows!

Back in January, I got a PM on Matrix Games’ forum asking if I wanted into the beta for Distant Worlds: Shadows, the third expansion for what’s become my favorite space 4X games (and one of my favorite games period). I would’ve been excited at the time…had I thought to visit the forums themselves. ;) I totally missed the boat in getting in on the beta MONTHS ago, so yeah, sadface. Thankfully, however, I was brought into the beta until a couple of weeks ago, and crammed several hours of playtime with one of the more recent beta versions. Make no mistake, this expansion adds a TON of stuff to an already bountiful game, and in this preview, I’ll look at the main additions to the game — pirate factions, ground combat enhancements, the Age of Shadows and so on — and discuss how these affect the game on their own, as well as how they affect the traditional empire play that the game is known for. With that said, let’s dive in. :)

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Distant Worlds: Shadows In Yo’ Face! (via Google+ Hangout)

A Taste of Things to Come...

A Taste of Things to Come…

Hey guys and gals. I’m chiming in because I just finished a massive Google+ Hangout on Air with some folks from Gamers with Jobs in which they asked me to show them Distant Worlds with the new expansion, Shadows. It kinda goes all over the place, but it shows a good bit of gameplay from the empire’s side of things. You can expect my formal review of Distant Worlds: Shadows likely tomorrow.

Enjoy the video! (Also, this is my second Hangout on Air ever, and I barely had any idea what I was doing, so please be gentle ;)

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Spacing Out: The Trouble with 4X Games

So Close, Yet So Far...

So Close, Yet So Far…

Hey guys, welcome to my weekly op-ed column that I’m calling “Spacing Out” (the name was a joint effort between my girlfriend and I ;). I realized I’d not been really writing enough op-ed pieces, and came up with the idea of doing them weekly, both as a writing exercise and a way to put thoughts and ideas out there to share and discuss with y’all. :) I’ll be doing these every Wednesday, because if I don’t set a specific day to do ‘em, I never will, you know? ;) Recently, 4X games have been on my mind after the recent release of StarDrive. After I made my decision to put my review of the game on hold, I was taken to task on a forum I frequent for not liking other recent entries in the 4X space race, such as Endless Space and Sword of the Stars II. This got me to thinking, what HAS been going on with spacey 4X games of late?
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SGJ Podcast #13: Dominium Q&A with Malcolm Sparrow

What Does It MEAN?!

What Does It MEAN?!

Hey kids, welcome to episode #13 of the Space Game Junkie! This time, Jim and I get up early in the morning to talk to Malcolm Sparrow, the lead developer of space combat and trading game Dominium (formerly known as Dominion) and it’s current Kickstarter campaign. This podcast is a bit shorter than usual because we did it at 6 AM my time, and I had to rush to work afterwards, just so y’all know. ;) As a treat, you’re all hearing me pre-coffee. ;)

As always, we invite you to comment on the podcast below, invite you to subscribe to us via RSS or iTunes, and thank you for listening. Enjoy! :)

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Spacey Game News and Deals 5/10-14/13: The Very, Very Late Edition

It's the News!

Yes, You Read Right. News. ;)

Helllooooooooo my good friends. How are y’all doin’? Sorry about missing posting the news yesterday, just been a bit crazy around here, but good! Spent time with both X3: Albion Prelude and Distant Worlds: Shadows, so expect stuff on that soon (once I have time to actually write it up), and recorded a podcast to talk about Dominium, which you’ll hear soon. Now, onto the news!

Whew, that’s a heckuva lot of news, but we’re not done! We also have DEALS!

  • The folks behind Show me The Games are having a huge sale, which you go to their site and get codes for discounts. This includes:
  • As part of a larger Deep Silver Sale, you can get these games on Green Man Gaming for a discount (the deals aren’t available in my region, so I apologize, but I can’t see the prices):
  • Green Man Gaming also has an EVE Online starter pack for $4.99

Finally, in unrelated news, the Kickstarter for CDF Ghostship has begun. The dev is a really nice guy who frequents our forums, so I wanted to do him a solid. ;)

Thanks for reading guys and gals, and have an awesome day!

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SGJ Podcast #12: A Potpourri of Pew Pew

So! Much! Color!

So! Much! Color!

Haaaaaaaaayyyy guuuuuuuuys, how are ya? Sorry for the delay in this week’s podcast episode, but Jim and I were both busier than usual this week with the real life nonsense. That said, we had no guest this past week, so we just caught up on what we’ve been playing, the news and all sorts of other stuff. It was a fun time, so we hope you enjoy it.

As always, please feel free to comment on the podcast below (I’m not creating specific forum threads anymore, no one uses ‘em ;) and follow us using RSS and/or iTunes. Thanks for listening!

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Spacey Game News and Deals 5/9/13: No Clever Headline Edition

News RSS Image

Lookit! Stuff!

Hey folks, happy Thursday! I hope y’all are having a great week and looking forward to the weekend! I spent some time flailing about in X3: Albion Prelude, but honestly I wanna see if I can get past the flailing and find the game sometime this weekend, so hopefully I’ll have an article on that soon. ;) What are you kids playing? :) On the news front, some good stuff today, so here we go!

In deals, we have one today! Iron Sky Invasion is “only” $9.99 at GamersGate right now. I tried to watch the movie this is based on…so I’ll wait for a deeper sale. ;)

Finally, in related news, GOG has converted ten more games for use on Macs. None of ‘em are space games, but there’s some great stuff in there regardless.

That’s it for now folks. I hope y’all are having a lovely day!

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