We've been working hard to get Oddity ready to be showcased to the world! In this devlog I want to showcase what we've achieved so far and share our plans for the future.

What We Have So Far

Flight Model

The flight model is the core of any space sim.  Oddity has a Newtonian 6 DOF flight model. The current iteration is in its most basic form, with just the basic flight added in. You can try it out in the uploaded demo build! It's not perfect yet, but I'll make sure the flight model will always remain fun!

Player

We are using the command architecture to make the player decoupled from any entity they're controlling, allowing us to be more flexible with our approach with vehicles. The player currently can only move, jump and interact with objects, but much more is planned!

Frame of Reference

A frame of reference is our way to enable localized physics. (I am really proud of what I achieved with this system so far!)  Every body inside a frame of reference moves and rotates along. Frame of references can also support gravity! 

This is still in its early stages and kinda starts breaking if a frame of reference is moving too fast, but I'm sure I'll be able to find a solution. Be it rewriting it into c++ or anything else.

Plans for the Future

Oddity is my passion project and I will keep working on it until it is perfect. I want to outline my goals and my vision here.

The World

Oddity will at first only take place in a small region of space that is referred to as the "Gateway Systems". The Gateway Systems are a collection of star systems on the frontier of society, only connected to the main bubble of civilization through an abyssal gateway. This region is more lawless and unsafe, but harbors many opportunities. 

The Laikan are a highly advanced race of anthropomorphic animal creatures that inhabit many star systems in the Scutum-Centaurus arm of the Milky Way. Most Laikan live in the Bubble, a densely populated region of space, built out with a lot of infrastructure. Few humans have survived and currently live along Laikan society.

As Oddity grows in size, more regions of the galaxy will be built out.

Star Systems

A star system will include stars, asteroids, landable planets with moons and space stations. For gameplay reasons, the star systems won't be at 1:1 scale. The player can traverse a star system with their ship and can freely choose where to go and what to do. 

The Abyss

The Abyss is anomalous reality that acts as a shortcut through space. Ships are equipped with a Abyssal Jump Drive to create a tear in spacetime to access the Abyss and connect one star system with another through an Abyssal Tunnel. One can also directly enter the Abyss without opening a tunnel to another system, but it is considered extremely dangerous.

Abyssal Tunnels are unstable structures that shift and bend. The stability of the tunnels depend on the capabilities of the Abyssal Jump Drive and the weather. The Abyss is a dynamic environment and it's weather varies. During Abyssal Storm, travel through the Abyss is extremely unstable and dangerous and only skilled pilots should attempt to traverse through.

The only known entities in the Abyss are Sirens.

The Ships

The star ships are the core of Oddity! Each ship will be uniquely designed to match the aesthetic oft heir respective manufacturer.  Every ship will have an immersive and interactive interior. Ships will be modular. Components, Thrusters, Rooms, etc will be able to be replaced, modified and tuned by the player.

The Gameplay

Planned gameplay includes the basic gameplay loops of a space sim. Bounty hunting, trading, mining, etc. The player will be able to freely engage in these loops or take contracts or missions from space stations. Engineering will be a core part of the game. Every module of a ship is modifiable and tunable. As Oddity grows in complexity, more dynamic gameplay opportunities will exist.

The end goal is to include a big overarching story line, that slowly takes the player through the galaxy on an epic quest! Building up a ship and a crew along the way.

The Crew

Oddity is being developed as a diploma project. 

Zoe McFife  / @zoe27 - Lead Developer and Project Manager

@julz. - Music and Sound Design

@bergdoktor - Procedural Generation

@buchidotcom - Modelling

@tobiliiii - Modelling, Player Characters