Ur Quan Masters sequel Free Stars: Children of Infinity, by original devs | Hacker News Reader

Ur Quan Masters sequel Free Stars: Children of Infinity, by original devs

pistolshrimpgames.com

69 pointstigerlily20 comments

Interesting to see "fully open source" as a stretch goal, even though I don't think we're realistically going to get there. It's an acknowledgment, in my view, that much of the game's enduring legacy is due to their decision to release Star Control 2's source code for the 3DO, which allowed for ports to various other platforms and distros. It made the game widely accessible to Windows and even MacOS/Linux users who missed the game in its heyday.

I love the fact that in most Linux distros I can just install the package `uqm` and have a properly packaged, working copy of the game.

I have some hope that they'll still release the source in the future, once sales of the game have run their course and it makes more sense for the community to support the game.

While making it an extremely distant stretch goal feels a _little weird_, after reading the campaign it seems like their heart is in the right place and they want to make this a game that can be enjoyed in the long term without all the restrictive bullshit of modern gaming.

For context. The original Ur Quan Masters was released as Star Control 2 in 1992. The source code was released in 2002, has been maintained as an open source project since.[0] They are referring to it as "Ur Quan Masters", since Star Control 2 is licenced.

[0] https://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Love that the devs are doing this. They created a successful game studio, Toys for Bob, and could be quite content to sit back and enjoy their success. But they’re going back to a labor of love that is surely never going to be a big money spinner, all for the fans of a game from 1992.

Star Control 2 set my imagination alight as a kid. I maintain it still has one of the most engaging sci-fi universes I’ve experienced. Can’t wait for the new chapter.

"The Ur Quan Masters" is the updated open-source version of Star Control II, but can't use that name because Stardock owns that trademark.

Oh dang … Star Control 2 was such a great game. Fun fact, I worked on SC3 which was shelved.

I remember playing a game called Star Control 3 ages ago. What happened? Was there multiple attempts of making SC3?

Star Control 3 was built by a different group of designers and developers, since the original ones decided to pursue other projects. Its history is a bit murky. Some say it's great and true to the originals, while others think it deviates too much.

You can think of it as The Curse of Monkey Island vs Return to Monkey Island. The original designers now wants to come back and build a sequel to the game they created.

Doh, maybe I was shelved … I do remember being very stoked to work on a franchise I really liked. Accolade, I believe.

The new studio that’s developing this:

https://pistolshrimpgames.com/

Here is the blog of creators

https://www.dogarandkazon.com/

Stardocks lawsuite settled in 2019

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/06/stardock-and-star-con...

Have anybody successfully saved Pkunks? I tried but they always get killed by Ilwrath or assimilated by Yehat.

They “unify” with the Yehat. I suspect we’ll see the result of that union in the sequel and they’ll be more Pkunk-y than Yehat-y.

The Hyperspace theme from SC2 is one I still regularly find myself humming.

Whoever does music has their work cut out for them.

I sampled it for my ringtone on iPhone.

This makes me very happy.

Ditto. I consider Sc2 the best game ever.

Aww yeah, it's finally time! They've been streaming parts of the development process on Twitch, you could pop in and watch @pebby doing.... things... with code... It's not the most riveting viewing, I suppose, but the chat was neat.

What? They are asking $100$ for the basic version and 4.4 MILLIONS to make it open source?

That's disappointing. At least they could have used a time-based license like BSL.

> They are asking $100$ for the basic version

Where did you get that? The "Digital Standard Edition" is listed at $30.

It is indeed disappointing, but I can also understand. Hit releases on Steam can easily rake in millions, and they're probably talking about an Ur Quan Masters type release where it's free on platforms.

That said, they wouldn't open it for two years after release, so they're eating their cake and having it too. But hey, I don't care that much; I'm just happy that they're considering it. When was the last time we saw that?

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