Where is Stellaxy 2 development wise?
Currently, I am working on core areas of the game still, I've gone through a few iterations of what I think will work with the new style, but I think I'm settling on full 3D for some parts, and the 2.5D effect for others.
Recently I've been testing a surface/rover mode that is entirely 3D, the models are currently placeholders, but the gameplay is coming out a lot nicer than the 2.5D version:
Areas that I anticipate will continue as 2.5D:
Current Star Map test
Current Solar System Test
What is the Roadmap?
COMPLETED AREAS - (approx. 18mo Jan '25-Jul '26)
-Core Engine (Cross Platform, .NET8, 3D extension)
-Solar System
-Star Map
-Galaxy Map
-Landing
-Rover
CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
-Cities
-Combat
-Inside Building Areas
-Menus
-Tablet Apps
-Tutorial
-Quest System
-Convert Story to Quest format
-Cutscenes
When will this release?
To be brutally honest: I don't know.
For a longer, more heartfelt answer: I have been working on Stellaxy since ~2012 when it was first called "Space Game", potentially "Ecroso Space Program" (Very original I know). When I first started working on the game, I was learning how to develop games as a solodev, and trying out different ideas to improve more and more over time. Space Game was my skunkworks project where I'd try everything that was "cutting edge" to me at the time, and eventually I made enough content for some to call it "a game", this made me very happy. Over time I met individuals through streaming that would help me make the game better, become a better developer, some became friends, and many encouraged me to keep going with this idea. It eventually got renamed to "Poor Man's Sky" as my game was free and reminded others of No Man's Sky, which was a pretty cool game to be compared to considering how many people worked on it while I was playing around with my silly sandbox game. This is where the problem started: "How do I make my game less like No Man's Sky?" purely out of wanting to have my own unique idea. I started coming up with every feature I could think of in order to stand out, and sometimes I beat them to an idea, and released it as an update, but it was never enough to stand out, and I could not stop comparing. This lead me to keep working on Stellaxy obsessively after the Steam release, and I completely stopped making other games in an attempt to "keep up in the arms race" against a company with VASTLY more resources. Eventually No Man's Sky absorbed most of the similar planned ideas I had, and I started to feel like I was running out of ideas to make my game different, so I pivoted to Stellaxy Stories, an idea where I'd juice up the story and change the gameplay around to blend up ideas, and it wasn't enough still. I made around 8 or 9 spinoff games of Stellaxy on paper, I pitched them to friends who knew about Stellaxy, and not a single idea felt right. I want the game to be fun.
Fast forward to today, and I have not released a single game after Stellaxy, outside of Cell Defender which was meant to prevent me from Scope Creep, and in hindsight was a bit of a mistake to release. I desperately want to work on a new game, but I can't leave Stellaxy unfinished. Ecroso Games is just me and my dream, in my spare time. I've had a full-time career while I've been doing this for a decade, I have a family, and unfortunately not a whole lot of spare time.
I am doing my best to rewrite my entire game engine and Stellaxy, and make it the way I should have learned to years ago. I'm still trying to put my own unique spin on it, and it's still 100% in Visual Basic. At the current pace, it's going to take years, but I will post more screenshots as areas become completed. Since Stellaxy is technically complete, I have everything I need for the remake, and I have notebooks full of stories from when I was pivoting. It's going to be a while though.
I am open to all feedback (including negative) on the sequel progress and the original game. If you would like to leave thoughts or feedback, it would be much appreciated!
Thank you all for your patience, your encouragement over the decade+ is invaluable to my human experience.
~Space