Starship Industries
Space Mechanic is my current fun practice-level design project being created within the Unreal 4 Engine.
The player takes control of a Space Station orbiting some distant planet and opens their own business. The idea is to take job offers and fix customers' ships. As the business grows, they open new areas of the station, expanding out that brings in more work. The player needs to maintain the station as they work, so keeping the oxygen and power systems fully stocked by purchasing refills. This game is in early development, I will update with a trailer once the mechanics are working solid.
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Inventory system that has an upgradable system when the player levels up.
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Unlocking different areas of the station, granting access to more tools and bigger ships.
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Access to the internet for real, using the monitor in the station office, allowing real internet searching.
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Refurbish, dismantle, and upgrade the workbench.
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Test flight of ships.
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Access to space debris for spare parts.
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Fix or construct your own ships to earn credits.
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Keep the station maintained, making sure oxygen is kept plenished and structural integrity is good.
Here are some screenshots of the station, showing the different areas. The station art assets are from the Unreal Engine marketplace. The larger ship and docking area I created using 3ds Max. The TV monitor works with the internet, as a player, you can access the monitor and load google, then search online. I had tested this by actually logging in to my Amazon account, then purchased something through the game.
Level Design
The design had changed a few times during pre-production. The original idea was to have one small room where the player used different small stations to add, fix and modify ships in a couple of small hangers. The idea was practical but seemed a little boring and basic. When talking to people for feedback, it was suggested to make a large station and have multiple large hangers with different areas that can be unlocked via a console when spending XP and credits. Using different assets from the Unreal 4 marketplace, I put together the level using the final design blueprint shown below.
The station now has large multiple areas to unlock with extra features (such as the power room, and galaxy-class area). Each area allows the player to use the space to fix larger ships and bring more jobs into the station at one time. Each area is blocked off by bulkhead doors which unlock when the area becomes available.
The large design opens up future options to add VR mode and possibly Co-op 2 gameplay.
