Infiniverse
| Infiniverse | |
|---|---|
| Alpha Project | |
| Developer | aave |
| Theme | Space, Exploration |
| Influences | Noctis, Dwarf Fortress, Infinity: A Quest for Earth, Doryen |
| Released | Feb 08, 2010 |
| Updated | Feb 08, 2010 |
| Licensing | freeware |
| P. Language | FreeBASIC |
| Platforms | Windows, Linux |
| Interface | ASCII |
| Game Length | indefinite |
| Official site of Infiniverse | |
Infiniverse is a space-themed multiplayer exploration and trading game in development since 2008. While not a roguelike in the strictest sense, it features common elements of the genre, like procedural content generation and ascii graphics.
Concept
The goal of the project is to create a huge, almost infinite, yet interesting and varying universe for the players to explore. This is achieved through heavy use of procedural generation techniques such as Perlin noise. Some articles written by the developer are available on the subject.
Engine Features
- The universe contains billions of stars
- Each solar system is visitable, with accessible planets
- Most things are generated dynamically on-the-fly, with zero loading time
- Multiple "zoom-levels": galaxy, starmap, solar system view, orbital view, planet surface and planet detail level (+ special level for things like starship interiors)
Development
The full multiplayer game is not yet released, though some techdemos and media is available. The game engine, as well as the server, is functional, but most of the actual gaming features are missing. The best source for progress updates and current state of development is the homepage.
Lone Explorer Edition
LEE is a single-player version of the main game. It is designed to quickly showcase the universe and core gameplay while the server and network code is not stable enough for user testing. The first version of LEE, alpha1, was released for Windows and Linux on 2010-02-08. The source code for it was later released under GPL version 2 and is available from GitHub.
Stalled development and the future
Infiniverse has been on hold for quite a while, but on 5th February 2012 it was announced at the game's blog that a reboot is coming: The developer plans to implement an HTML5/JavaScript version of Infiniverse as an entry to the 7DRL Contest 2012. A screenshot of a proof-of-concept prototype was given in the said news post. It was also revealed that this new web browser version would serve as the basis of Infiniverse's renewed developement.