Project Slartibartfast – Introduction

It’s been some time since I last wrote (a little over a year, yikes!) and with a new year I’ve decided to finally take on some projects that I’ve been putting off for far too long, as well as getting back into writing and keeping a log of what I’m working on and why. I’ve spent so many years, and so many hours researching, reading, and consuming writings and code related to game design and graphics techniques that it’s time for me to give back to the community what I’ve learned over the years, and what I’ll be learning as I progress through this next project of mine.

I’ve been a gamer since I got my hands on my family’s first computer back in the early 90s. Running Windows 3.1, I was immediately enthralled with the device, and when I discovered things like Minesweeper and Solitaire, that was fun, but the game that hooked me was Treasure Mountain! If it wasn’t for my parents constantly yelling at me to get off and give my sisters time to play I would have sat there forever. Thinking back, it is a good thing that my parents got on my case about playing games, as I’ve learned to pace myself, but they were never able to dull that need to play something. Then I discovered programming.

I attribute my love of programming to Texas Instruments and their graphing calculators. I had messed around with QuikBasic (Nibbles!) but it didn’t click until I was teaching myself TI-BASIC on the TI-83. From there I was able to teach myself C to build apps for the TI-89 using TIGCC, and with these tools at hand, I was making my own games!

From then on I knew I was going to be a programmer, and initially wanted to get into the games industry, though for plenty of reasons that are a post in and of itself, I ended up choosing to stay out of that realm. I spent plenty of time tinkering, researching, and just keeping up with game development, but I never really sat down and made a game, or spent enough time on one to consider it “finished”. This year it’s time for that to change.

And thus was born Project Slartibartfast.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Science Fiction and Outer Space (favorite books of all time: the Dune series by Frank Herber, followed by the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov) and as such I’ve always looked for and played games in that setting. Outside of the classics, like Descent and the Wing Commander series (which sadly I never did get around to playing), and modern games like the X-series and EVE Online, there really isn’t a whole lot out there actually set in outer space. The game I played the longest was definitely Freelancer, but even that was a flawed gem of a game; so many good ideas, but so much it could have been and wanted to be. There’s also Infinity: The Quest for Earth but that’s a long way from being released, and it might be too realistic to actually be a good game in the end, though that’s something we’ll have to wait and see.

As I cancelled my World of Warcraft account last month for what is probably the last time, I started thinking about the next game I wanted to play. It needed to be something that wasn’t fantasy (in the MMO realm, it’s either fantasy or post-apocalyptic, neither of which are terribly appealing to me right now). There’s Black Prophesy but that’s more like an MMO Counter Strike in space. There is no exploration, everything is instanced, and it feels very small. There’s also Jumpgate: Evolution, the successor of the cult hit Jumpgate, but that game is so mired in politics and a black-hole of information that I’ve basically given up on it until it comes alive again. EVE Online is simply too much for me, I’m looking for a game I can play on and off as I want and not forced to dedicate hours of time (woo WoW raiding!). Then the thought hit me, “screw this, I’m going to make the game I want to play.” And thus here I am.

Project Slartibartfast will be a game, set in space, in a procedurally generated galaxy. You explore systems, gather materials, set up trade routes, build transit networks, and eventually do this all with other people. It’s hugely ambitious, I know, but hey, reach for the starts, right? I’m basically taking as best I can all the features I loved about the various games I’ve played or researched to make the “perfect” space-based game.

What’s with the name? Well if you haven’t been able to tell by now, I’m a huge fan of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and as such a lot of what I do is someway or somehow a reference back to this series. The name comes from a part where Arthur Dent ends up stranded on the legendary planet Magrathea he runs into a very strange man


"You chose a cold night to visit our dead planet," he said.
"Who ... who are you?" stammered Arthur.
The man looked away. Again a look of sadness seemed to cross his face.
"My name is not important," he said.
...
[Arthur] looked at the old man, his face illuminated by the dull glow of tiny lights on the instrument panel.
"Excuse me," he said to him, "what is your name, by the way?"
"My name?" said the old man, and the same distant sadness came into his face again. He paused. "My name," he said, "is Slartibartfast."
Arthur practically choked.
"I beg your pardon?" he spluttered.
"Slartibartfast," repeated the old man quietly.
"Slartibartfast?"
The old man looked at him gravely.
"I said it wasn't important," he said.
The aircar sailed through the night.


As I don’t really have a name, story, setting, or in fact anything really set yet with this game, other than it’s in space, the name Slartibarfast felt like a perfect fit. Who knows, maybe that’s the name that will stick for good, wouldn’t that be something?

As usual my work is up on github. I’ll also be tagging all related posts on this blog with the slartibartfast category to make them easy to find.

My next post will be about the component system I’ve decided to implement, stay tuned!