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[MrWiggles]

What cha mean by High Level?

C++ for the computer?

[Trapezohedron]

Single and Multiplayer combined in one large universe? If he can pull that off, then maybe I'll have a much better opinion of this game.

Starting to sound interesting. Let's hope it doesn't end up like patchwork cloth.

I mean, Notch has a track record of saying something and delivering less of what he promised.

[Trapezohedron]

Whoops.

[fenrif]

As I said in the other thread, the biggest problem with this game is that Notch wants it to have the exact same development process as Minecraft, and the same procing model. Which essentially means that the list of features he wants in the game are going to get scrapped as he finds them too difficult to impliment/gets bored of working on them.

It's kind of annoying he's going for the same pricing model now too. Mojang is a billion dollar company now, not a one man studio. At the very least get some more people than just Notch working on it,

[MrWiggles]

There are probably other folks work on the game. Just because Notch is the only person known now. Notch is marketable. Ergo, Notch is the noteworthy name that well, notch can apply to it.

And the pricing model worked well for his previous game. He got stupid rich during Minecraft, but no one was really decreeing the pricing model then.

And why shouldn't he do the same price scheme? What pricing scheme is acceptable?

[hemmingjay]

A couple points of clarification.

1) Not a billion dollar company, they have made $80 million over the life of Mojang.
2) The pricing model makes good sense in order to stay profitable and not risk backlash from the community by gouging now that they are successful.
3) Nowhere was it stated that he will be working on it alone.

[Trapezohedron]

A couple points of clarification.

1) Not a billion dollar company, they have made $80 million over the life of Mojang.
2) The pricing model makes good sense in order to stay profitable and not risk backlash from the community by gouging now that they are successful.
3) Nowhere was it stated that he will be working on it alone.

@3

Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson's next major project will likely be an open world space game inspired by classic trading sim Elite and cult sci-fi series Firefly.

Speaking in an interview with PC Gamer, Notch revealed that he hopes to make a space game in the same vein as David Braben's ancient 3D classic, but "done right".

"I want the space game that's more like Firefly," he explained.

"I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here."

Although he still hasn't decided for sure whether the idea will indeed be Mojang's next big title, he suggested that if it is, it will follow a similar development model to its breakout hit.

"The goal is to do it the same way I did Minecraft," he said.

"Just basically have me work on it for a while, and then we'll add people as needed, and try to charge as soon as possible, because it's probably going to be open ended sandbox game as well, so it doesn't need to be completed before people can play it."

He added that he wouldn't be put out if another developer takes the idea and runs with it before he has a chance to get started.

"If someone steals the idea before me, that's totally fine. I just want to play that game."

Notch then later clarified his stance on Elite via Twitter. "Please note that I did not wish to imply Elite wasn't done right. I wanted to imply it hasn't been done right since," he wrote.

See the first few words of the bolded sentence. That doesn't mean that he will work it alone, but I guess he'll set the framework first before bringing in others.

[Metalax]

It is sounding from the way that they are wanting to charge for monthly access to multiplayer because they are going to be simulating your stuff all the time, that people aren't going to be able to set up their own servers for multiplayer, or that if they do that they are going to be so heavily reliant on the official servers that really significant modding will be difficult/impossible.

[Fredson]

I wonder how long it will take until first software for the architecture is written. I bet next month we will already have basic-like "high" language compilers floating around the internet.

Next month? You underestimate programmers. I would give it 2 days from now.

Now that I thought about it, I could probably crank out a basic simulation of the architecture in C++/Java in a few hours too. Seriously, it would not take much more than about 1-2 lines of code per machine instruction, simple string comparisons. I once did something similar in school when we learned about Assembler. Writing a compiler for Basic (or something similar) would, again, just be reading and interpreting some strings.

Emulating Basic on an Assembler emulator running in Java running on a virtual machine... programmingception anyone?

[Trapezohedron]

I wonder how long it will take until first software for the architecture is written. I bet next month we will already have basic-like "high" language compilers floating around the internet.

Next month? You underestimate programmers. I would give it 2 days from now.

Now that I thought about it, I could probably crank out a basic simulation of the architecture in C++/Java in a few hours too. Seriously, it would not take much more than about 1-2 lines of code per machine instruction, simple string comparisons. I once did something similar in school when we learned about Assembler. Writing a compiler for Basic (or something similar) would, again, just be reading and interpreting some strings.

Emulating Basic on an Assembler emulator running in Java running on a virtual machine... programmingception anyone?

That needs to go deeper. Emulate something in that emulator in that ingame computer thing.

As for monthly fees, I'm afraid I'll have to pass. I was never once interested in paying monthly fees to play.

[White Kitteh]

My main problem with this, as well as Blockade Runner and that other game I can't quite remember the name of, is that they just seem to fall just that inch short of what I'm after.

"Spaceship Simulator" has been on the top of my most wanted list for a very long time, and I've tried/failed my own hand at concept many times in the past, but for whatever reason nobody ever really attempts this sort of thing, and the few times they do it just doesn't seem right.

I have the same opinion regarding in-game computers too.

[fenrif]

There are probably other folks work on the game. Just because Notch is the only person known now. Notch is marketable. Ergo, Notch is the noteworthy name that well, notch can apply to it.

And the pricing model worked well for his previous game. He got stupid rich during Minecraft, but no one was really decreeing the pricing model then.

And why shouldn't he do the same price scheme? What pricing scheme is acceptable?

Noone decried the Minecraft pricing model because he hadn't yet advertised features that he couldn't be bothered putting in the game. He also hadn't kept hiking the price up as he slowed down on adding features/fixing bugs. I wish he'd just finish the game then charge for it, rather than do the bare minimum, get the money coming in, and then have no incentive to finish anything.

And yeah he didn't specifically say "i'm going to be the only one on this game" it's pretty clear that this is going to be his new pet project, and he wants to run the development like Minecraft, which means it's basically his game, and his game alone. As I said in the other thread this is kind of a problem because Notch doesn't seem to finish what he starts, gets bored and stops working on things half way through. Hopefully he'll get someone else to finish stuff for him with this game, but when you're adding new features each week and abandoning old ones the game tends to end up unfocused and a bit of a mess.

A couple points of clarification.

1) Not a billion dollar company, they have made $80 million over the life of Mojang.
2) The pricing model makes good sense in order to stay profitable and not risk backlash from the community by gouging now that they are successful.
3) Nowhere was it stated that he will be working on it alone.

Ok my bad on the company worth, but it doesn't really change the fact that it's no longer a single dev studio with "indie charm" as a defense for things you'd expect from a single dev studio. The pricing model makes sense in order to stay profitable, because he can throw out a tech demo instead of a game and get paid for it with no real incentive to actually make a game. I don't think it's completely outside the realm of reason to suggest he make the game, flesh it out, make it fun to play, then start asking for money for it?

[hemmingjay]

Ok my bad on the company worth, but it doesn't really change the fact that it's no longer a single dev studio with "indie charm" as a defense for things you'd expect from a single dev studio. The pricing model makes sense in order to stay profitable, because he can throw out a tech demo instead of a game and get paid for it with no real incentive to actually make a game. I don't think it's completely outside the realm of reason to suggest he make the game, flesh it out, make it fun to play, then start asking for money for it?

He has that model still. Just wait until the game is finished and decide if you want to pay retail for it. I am pretty sure most of the people who bought Minecraft would still buy it now, even at full retail, without any hesitation. True it's not what he originally envisioned, but it still turned out pretty good.

All of that being said, I'm not sure if I will be interested in the game. He may be a fine programmer, but I have yet to see any clever game design from him. His concepts are decent, but his execution is lacking imho.

[TempAcc]

I love how people instantly jump at the BILLIONS OF DORRA COMPANY bangwagon, without actualy thinking about how much that represents on an economical scale.

Nitpicking aside, notch is going to use the same pricing model because it worked for him with minecraft. Even if people don't like it, notch got a lot of reliable practically confirmed buyers for this, he has the whole minecraft fanbase. Even if it doenst turn out to be a game worth half a dime, it'll still inevitably sell because it is going to capitalize on minecraft's fanbase (or rather, notch's fanbase).

As long as it sells, its a valid pricing model in an economical sense.

[Cthulhu]

pff.

it's just gonna be full of bots and hacks.

That's the point!

Just like planetary invasions would never happen in real life because it's way easier to de-orbit a space station (Or if you're a real dick just launch a suicide vessel at .9c and blow off the atmosphere) and there's nothing on an inhabited planet you can't get more easily somewhere else, there's no reason not to just hack into the other guy's computer and detonate his missiles in their tubes.

That would be an interesting premise for a Sci-Fi novel.  Ships have no onboard weapons, they fight via electronic warfare, with every battle ending in explosive engine malfunctions and atmosphere venting.