Varitech Games

Colony Game Section

Released! Available on Steam!



Thanks for the support!

Jamie (GeeksGoneBad)




Update #7

Hey everybody! Still workin on this! :) 

Today I worked out what I think is a pretty cool behind the scenes update - I worked out loading all of the planet data from a CSV file. I know it doesn't sound like much but it's a huge help to me on the back end because I can now edit the list of planets that are in the game in an easy to use editor like Excel rather then trying to edit all the data in the Engine (which is a one by one kind of thing)

For those geeks out there that want to know how I did it. Basically I edit the CSV in Excel and when you import that into the Unreal Engine you have to pick the structure that it's based on, I picked the planet structure that I already created and it creates a data table inside the bame that can be accessed via blueprints. 

Rather than re-write ALL the code that generates the planets, I then copy the data from the data table into the already existing array of planets to choose from when generating the planets for the game.

Boom - done :)

And because I think pictures of blueprints look cool - here's how I copy the data from the data table into the array :)

Kickstarter Campaign

Hey everybody! I started a Kickstarter campaign to raise some funds to finishe the game! Please check it out here

and here's a video I made for the intro :)



Update #6

Here's a small update (with nothing to show LOL) 

I've worked out the element combining system, right now you can combine elements and make Fuel and Warp Fuel - it's not much but it sets the stage for any other combinations I come up with.

Also something in the update from Unreal has caused my rotating videos to not play anymore and the engine crashes if I try to mess with them, so it's back to still pictures for now until they fix that or I figure out something else - that feature in the Unreal Engine WAS experimental and not ready for a working project yet so lets hope they get if finished soon so I can have the rotating video :)

Anyway - still here - still plugging away at this on the side of life :)

Thanks for checking in


Second Video Update!

Hey guys - Jamie here with my second video update for the game. Sorry it's so long between updates but sometimes I have to figure out how to do stuff for a while :)

Check it out!



Update #5

I've gotten a lot done since the last update! I need to update more often so it's not so much all at once and spread out LOL

So for this update I'm sharing my new cockpit background, added some controls to make it look a bit better and added a screen to display messages on.

I've also worked out MANY of the systems I need to - here's a list of the new systems I've worked out

  • Alien detail display, with rotating video of alien model
  • Factored in the alien presense when trying to colonize a planet
  • Fuel usage system
  • Main Menu and Varying Game levels
  • Colonization System

I'll be recording a video shortly because talking about all this is the easy part - video will show things way better!

In the meantime check out a few pictures!


Update #4

Here's a quick update!

I've worked out the system for storing Alien Life forms, their description and whether or not they are hostile, advanced, etc... Again I've used a custom Struct similar to the Elements and when generating a planet I grab a random Alien Life form to put on the planet. Now I just need to make up a few hundred alien races and we're good! :)

I've also started cleaning up my Blueprints a little using Functions. Functions are a way to split off a chunk of nodes and put them in their on little section, leaving just the one node in the main Blueprint. It's also a good way to reuse nodes in several places, for instance if I needed to use the code to set the Alien Race text for a planet, or grab a random element, I could put that functionality in a Function and call it in several places. Pretty cool :)

Here's a shot of my "Set Alien Race Text" function...


First Video Update!

Here's my first video update! More to come soon!!!

Update #3

Hey everybody! Made some really good progress over the weekend! 

  1. Worked out the Planet Class - The Planet class is a Blueprint that will be randomly generated across the galaxy, each planet will have a random texture and size, random number of elements, and a random style of life (or no life at all)
  2. Worked out randomly generating planets - at the start of the game a specified number of planets are randomly generated at random locations across the galaxy - since each planet also randomly generates it's own elements and life each game will really be totally unique.
  3. Planet "Discovered" indication - I wanted to have a way to make sure that you know you've discovered a planet or not, for now, when you discover a planet, I put a blue ring around the planet that makes the planet easier to see from a distance to mark it.

Here's a few screenshots!

Colony (Space Exploration Game)

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