[Kamikaze]

I was browsing the top 10 indie games of 2005 and found this neat space sim called Cellblock Squadroms.

The background story is that you're a prisoner that is fighting aliens for the United Earth military to pay off your crimes. Each week in the game you take on missions to pay off your crimes. In each mission you get a rank based on your performance which affects pay and other things. You can also have a huge number of wingmen in one mission, up to 99.

Here's a screenshot from the website:

[Turnsky]

i see lights, and square floating pegs.

[Rott3]

 The perfect game to kill some time. It is fun when played in small sessions, else it gets repetetive. At least for me.

[NGTM-1R]

Lighting pretty, modelling crap.

[aldo_14]

Lighting pretty, modelling crap.

Albeit, the likes of Photoshop and Max (or Maya, LW, etc) are somewhat costly, and having the best tools always produces the best results........so I'd tend to allow them leeway in that sense.

[Fineus]

It's well constructed at least, there has to be some credit there.

[aldo_14]

It's well constructed at least, there has to be some credit there.

I think it looks ok, although it's not the best shots to tell.  Although I do get a sense of 'I could do better than that', you also sometimes get that with proper big-budget games, anyways.  And it is at a budget price.

[Fineus]

That's what I mean... I tried the demo and although a lot of it was static undetailed renders, the interface was smooth and while the game wasn't as impressive as FreeSpace, FreeLancer or Independence War... we have to remember that that's the whole point - these are entire games made by indie programmers.

[Flaser]

All it has on the SCP engine is HDR-ish shader effects.

[Black Wolf]

Lighting pretty, modelling crap.

Albeit, the likes of Photoshop and Max (or Maya, LW, etc) are somewhat costly, and having the best tools always produces the best results........so I'd tend to allow them leeway in that sense.

There are some good, Free alternatives out there (Blender springs to mind - I can't use it, but I know it can produce some damned fine results.

And besides - what stops you obtaining the software you need, then buying it legally prior to release when you're ready to release, i.e. When you're going to make some money, rather than making a quarter of a game then getting bored and taking up go karting instead?

[aldo_14]

Lighting pretty, modelling crap.

Albeit, the likes of Photoshop and Max (or Maya, LW, etc) are somewhat costly, and having the best tools always produces the best results........so I'd tend to allow them leeway in that sense.

There are some good, Free alternatives out there (Blender springs to mind - I can't use it, but I know it can produce some damned fine results.

And besides - what stops you obtaining the software you need, then buying it legally prior to release when you're ready to release, i.e. When you're going to make some money, rather than making a quarter of a game then getting bored and taking up go karting instead?

Um... perhaps because it still costs the same, and you can't make that amount of money without actually having begun to sell the game? Licensing costs are ridiculous; I remember having to research AAC convertors, and being quoted 15 grand to licence a (recommended by the 'client') simple wav-aac plugin (needless to say - we're onto freeware/open source).

[Unknown Target]

Milkshape 3D costs $20, and you can make some stellar models with it. They couldn't even afford that?

[Kamikaze]

I'm sure they could afford that, but even with the right tools 3d modeling is hard. It's probably easy for some of the incredible modeling folks here, but for programming geeks like me it's hard.

[Flipside]

Just played the demo, not too shabby, the sounds need work in places, some of it sounds like 80's arcade game effects, and the beam weapons are very Freespace in the way they behave.

Oddly enough, partly because of the music, the feeling I got from the game was 'Incoming in Space'.

I think some of the models are so simplistic simply because there are situations where you are going to have over 100 ships knocking around the combat area, so poly counts had to be kept to a safe level

[Flaser]

Milkshape 3D costs $20, and you can make some stellar models with it. They couldn't even afford that?

I'm pretty sure that the License won't allow you to produce games/anything that sells with it for that ammount.

[Unknown Target]

I'm not so sure - I wouldn't be suprised if it did.
And anyway, just played the demo...not bad, it's way too quiet (wimpy lasers, no voices, technotronic music), so the sound needs to be improved...the models are pretty bad, as already mentioned, and you can't really see anything but the big bad guys, the fighteres are just a target box, even up close, because they're so hard to see (they're there Just hard to see, that's all) - so that whole thing with the massive amounts of enemies doesn't work, because it just feels so empty. The effects are nice though, the SCP could learn a thing or two from their engine glows and 3D explosions.

The game itself is pretty straightforward, the communicae interaction is a nice touch. The Warden is a bit too much at times, but he's an interesting thing to have around, because you can communicate with him. The whole "debt to society" thing is pretty interesting; generally, when you're not flying, the game has some good tricks and is pretty interesting.
When you are flying, it's basically just you and big bad ship, because, like I said, you can't see any of the fighters, they're too small, darkly texured, and move too fast. The fighting is pretty bland, mostly due to the sound effects, and the fact that there is almost nothing on the HUD is a big departure from FS2's nice and detailed HUD info. The missions all seem to be "fly out and kill this crap", which can get pretty repetitive, although that might just be the demo

All in all, an interesting, if not particularly astounding, indie title. Worth the demo, probably not worth the cash (unless it's under 5-10 bucks).

[Thor]

does anyone have any other space sim suggestions?

[Deepblue]

Starshatter. (screenshots from the WIP sequal/expansion pack are shown here)

(you can descend into the atmosphere)

(Milo's modeling and texturing skills have certainly improved...)


Make sure you check out the B5 and BSG mods by DemoclesX as well.

[NGTM-1R]

Escape Velocity: Nova.