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[Graknorke]

We have a Prospector thread? I have nothing to contribute really, but I'll post to get it in my unread replies.

[BigD145]

Then there's my experience with roguelikes. ADOM, angband, DCSS, their variants, years of 7DRLs, etc.

Zero mention of Prospector by name. Not as inspiration or anything of the sort.

[Gabeux]

It looks and sounds TOO much like Prospector, if it get more factions, faction related features, storylines and a more graphical UI.
Or, in other words, if Magellan went indie dev and Kickstarter.
So I don't like this

I'm almost finishing my savescummed-run, and as I always said, the game has a LOT of potential, and currently there's a lot of fun to be had in it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Got 50 securities, plus the crew (with surplus doctor and science officers), more than 70% of them armed and armored with enhanced disruptors, adaptive armor and augments (they are so loyal!). Plus some 20 robots on my alien scout ship, once I finish exploring everything then I'll go for retirement.
Then I might play without savescumming, and cry.

[getter77]

Well David Gervais definitely knows about Prospector. It does indeed look very similar to Prospector, the worrying thing is because Prospector is open-source, similar game is one thing but copy-pasta sauce code is another, still it could just be coincidence or even inspired by Prospector which is probably more likely so could just be good by adding another game to the rogueliike list.

I'm rather very confident that the game is NOT copying source code and whatnot from Prospector---IBOL, the dev, has a fair number of prior Roguelike projects to his name and has always done his own thing while often snagging some help from Gervais on the graphics front since the latter somehow wound up in The Game Creators community in the years after his classic Roguelike tilesets became a thing.

[SharpKris]

I dunno, still smells fishy to me

[puke]

The source is in FreeBasic, and if I remember correctly was a learning experiment Magellan.  So it's probably not great stuff to go basing a commercial application on.

BUT, the gameplay elements of planetary landings and ship interiors and even the station menus look like he lifted the themes straight from prospector.  There is actually nothing wrong with that.  Magellan should be flattered that he inspired another game.  You don't get to make a product and then forbid anything similar from being created, that isnt how it works.

Similarly: minecraft, dwarfcorp, gnomoria, towns, game of dwarves... these guys dont owe Toady royalties.  He can't demand that they pull their crappy knock-off games off the market.  He's created a genre, and people can make similar works.  Usually, having more products out there foster a healthy marketplace and actually boost your sales, unless you stop innovating and creating. 

Sometimes not.  In these cases, you're probably innovating wrong so it's time to adapt and overcome.

I'd still love to play some prospector, if it keeps updating.  I'd also love to play a new game by Magellan, if he keeps making them.  If this guy draws more attention to this sort of game with his crazy kickstarted knockoff, good for him.  good for me, it means more games that I like being made.

[Neonivek]

Similarly: minecraft, dwarfcorp, gnomoria, towns, game of dwarves... these guys dont owe Toady royalties

Those are sort of pale imitations that don't hit the same notes.

Everytime I think of an example (Monster Rancher and Princess Maker for example), it turns out they were made by the same company.

[puke]

How about every resource gathering base building RTS ever made?  Do they owe it back to Westwood for Dune 2?

[Neonivek]

How about every resource gathering base building RTS ever made?  Do they owe it back to Westwood for Dune 2?

ALL made by Westwood for the longest time.

[puke]

why do people try to "win" threads?  I mean, what the fuck?  Tell me when Prospector updates, I'm going to the park.

[Tilla]

There's a demo version of Approaching Infinity on the kickstarter for free download. While it definitely has a lot of the same ideas and mechanics (an understatement even), it's definitely not running on stolen code. The whole thing is a lot slicker usability-wise than Prospector ever was and things are just different enough that copy-pasting code would not really be a plausible scenario. Almost definitely someone who played Prospector though.

[IBOL17]

Hi, my name is Bob Saunders, and I hear you're talking about my game, Approaching Infinity.

Let me start by saying, I talked to Matthias (Prospector's developer) in October, and we got along well.
Approaching infinity is indeed inspired by prospector, and Matthias gave me this blessing:
"I haven't looked at approaching infinity yet, but if it was inspired
in some ways by prospector that's very flattering, and I say thank
you! "

Secondly, if you enjoy prospector, please do check out my game. kck.st/16WbPeY
And even more-so, if you found prospector hard to get into or understand, then definitely look into Approaching Infinity.

Approaching Infinity is meant to be accessible, and it has quite a different focus from prospector. There are huge stories, and you can take part in great wars and other things that certain alien species see as important goals.
And the game is designed to be infinite. No level cap, no "this is the best gun and that's it", no "sector 999 reached, turn back now"
Play for as long as you want, or pursue game-ending goals with vigor. The choice is yours.

Regarding kickstarter
Yes, my video is not great. I have remade it many times. I find it's not one of my strong suits.
I am a programmer. I am a designer. I am not an actor, and I am not a video editor.
I am not kickstarting my video, I'm trying to get support for my game, which if you read about it, is pretty awesome!

And regarding "open source":
I don't know what your motivation is, but my code is my own. I've never looked at prospectors code. The only code I've borrowed is my LOS() code, from a friend, who in turn took it from a roguebasin article.

You can read my dev blog and see how the game has progressed over the last few months:
http://ibol17.wordpress.com/

You can also check out my other games, which are many and varied:
http://ibol17.wordpress.com/other-projects/
Including "Random Realms", a fairly well known classical roguelike where even the monsters are procedurally generated with each new game. And there you'll also see that I've had the privilege of working with David Gervais many times in the past.

In closing,
thanks for noticing,
try out the free alpha for PC if you're so inclined,
Bob

[Gamerlord]

Might take a look.

Is it just me or is having a post/thread/username on Bay12 requred for indie devs, particularly roguelike devs?

[getter77]

Considering this is a place where a good number of players have congregated over the years with much visibility and a reputation for digging deeply into more complex games---probably sensible.

[Neonivek]

why do people try to "win" threads?  I mean, what the fuck?  Tell me when Prospector updates, I'm going to the park.

Ohh no, you mean if someone disagrees with a statement you say... that they will actually argue their point?

Whoa... Why do people keep doing that?

the game is designed to be infinite. No level cap, no "this is the best gun and that's it", no "sector 999 reached, turn back now"
Play for as long as you want, or pursue game-ending goals with vigor. The choice is yours

Sounds like a design flaw to me. Games tend to function if they have a hard cap or soft cap. So I'll just assume this is an exaggeration and it is "infinite with no end goals" like The Sims is.

In that you can play forever, but you can "max out" so to speak. After which you will just experiment.

Unless I guess this is procedural and it will continue to generate tougher planets, enemies, and ships as well as equipment... until you are flying around with universe destroying doomsday weapons.