At long last, an update.  Apologies for the radio silence, we've been neck deep in game guts.  Its funny, in many game site blogs that I periodically check, I see this same type of ‘sorry bout not updating you’ post, and now I'm doing it.  Much of this recent time has been spent with designs, and gameplay mechanics. We are just now transitioning into art production now that we have a pretty good handle on how this first iteration of Blackspace will be structured.

First iteration?  Yeah, as we mentioned in our press releases, this will be an incrementally released game.  What that means is that we plan to grow it in scope and depth over multiple iterations.  We are targeting our first release sometime in the last quarter of this year.  This first release will be to introduce the the game and its mechanics.  We plan to release a focused experience, really targeting the core mechanics that we think will make for a great game and provide the fuel needed to make it bigger, better and deeper.   Most importantly, it will give us some insight into the communities thoughts on the game which can then be folded into future releases.

What have we been doing exactly?  Well, going over our change lists, it looks like we've been working on the following…

• Lander vehicle (LGOV) controls
• Level and Unit editors
• Coarse LOD path finding
• Game state management
• Base monetary operations
• Enemy behaviors
• Weapon characteristics
• Asteroid deformation
• General rendering features
• Particle rendering
• Art pipeline tools
• Asset creation
• Misc. visuals
• Performance
• Bugs

One of the larger features in our game, that had not previously been revealed, is the deformable terrain.  During the course of your mining operation, you will be physically manipulating the geography of the asteroids you visit.  Digging ravines and building hills, you will be able to reveal mineral deposits as well as change the course of enemy advancement.  We hope to have a video put together soon to highlight this feature and show how it can be used.

There's a ton more to come, so please stick with us.  Here's a first look at the user controlled vehicle (LGOV) at various locations on one of our asteroids.

This is news, not about our game, but about the asteroid mining business, which up until last week was complete science fiction. Planetary Resources is actually doing the real thing, the real Blackspace. Except Planetary Resources won't have as much fighting up there, well at least not yet...