Overview / Usage

At its core, Voyage is a space combat simulation. In combat, the goal for the player is to destroy or disable the enemy ship by targeting weak points for its systems on the ship's surface. Weak points are hidden until fired on, and so the player must find them by firing on different places on the ship. The ships crew can repair system weak points, but they are vulnerable to enemy fire when they do.

Outside of combat, the player travels between signal locations on a procedurally generated map. Each signal has a different encounter, which challenges the player's skill in ship combat or strategic decision making. The main objective for the player is to reach the final sector on the map with at least one living crew member.

• Voyage is currently in development and so details about its design and mechanics may change

Methodology / Approach

Voyage has some unique systems that required a different approach to its technical design. Because Voyage is a roguelike, it has different elements of procedural generation. This includes both the traveling map as well as the weak point system for ships. For the weak point system, we use vertex colors on ship meshes to define where weak points can be positioned. From there, we randomly select vertices to determine where on the ship surface the weak point is placed. The player has the ability to place their own weak points, which gives them control over their strategy in hiding them.

The damage system for ships in Voyage relies on a custom built shader. The shader uses vertex colors to determine whether the base texture is shown, or the damaged texture. The shader also tessellates and displaces the vertices in the damage texture to make it look like it is underneath the top base layer. From there, decals and debris particles are created on weapon impacts to create the overall ship damage effect.

Technologies Used

• Unity 3D
• Visual Studio
• Pro Tools
• Maya
• Photoshop
• Substance Painter

Other links

• Download the combat prototype on Itch