Monday 10 February 2014

Behind the scenes ~ Space Pioneer

Have you watched Star Wars? Star Trek? Do you want to be a part of such a mission? Or command such mission and join hands with aliens?

Space Pioneer is a space sim created by real astronauts, cosmonauts, scientists, writers, architects, designers, programmers to give us a gaming portal which opens a window to our Universe.  It is a new game (single and multiplayer), DRM free, in its project stage. The idea was developed by Space Enigma Studios. The game can be viewed in English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Japanese when released.

What is the ground breaking idea?

  • Build colonies and cities with real time strategy and building mechanics.
  • Pilot a fully customizable spaceship into the vast regions of our Universe
  • Colonize planets beyond our Solar System
  • Research scientifically accurate theories to upgrade spaceship,  build space stations and terraform in-hospitable planets
  • Based on images and resources from Hubble Telescope, NASA, Getty Museum, European Space Agency, Memorial Museum of Space Exploration, Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum, National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics



I had the honor of interviewing the Director of Space Enigma Studios, Maximillian Kovtun.

Welcome to 4m my Eyes!
Please tell us a little about Space Pioneer.

Maximillian Kovtun: Our game is best described as a space sim RTS that’s partially developed by astronauts, scientists and architects. Space Pioneer is a conglomeration of different genres and we think that our game has the potential to become one of the best spaced based games in existence.


When did Space Pioneer start and what were the motivations behind it?

Maximillian Kovtun: Well, as an idea; Space Pioneer has been around for a couple of years. Our motivations for making this game are relatively simple – we want to make the best space sim ever! Some of our team consists of people who have actually been in space and we feel we can contribute immensely to the space sim and RTS genres.


What contribution do you make in the project?

Maximillian Kovtun: Officially; I act as the director for our studio, but our team’s structure is actually relatively flat. Everyone has equal say and we’re all free to steer Space Pioneer in the direction that we see fit. In other words - I don’t rule with an iron fist so to speak… I also came up with the idea of Space Pioneer.


How has your journey been so far?

Maximillian Kovtun: It has definitely been a learning experience! The great thing about Kickstarter is that your backers are vocal if you aren’t doing something right and it’s relatively easy to fix those mistakes. All in all though; our experience with using crowd-funding has been overwhelmingly positive. For the most part; people want to see you succeed and will try to help you in any way that they can. The backers on our Kickstarter have given us great tips and even ideas towards making our Kickstarter better!


We see you have kept a target of $150,000 to raise at the kickstarter.com. Why this figure specifically even when it is such a great idea?

Maximillian Kovtun: This is the amount that we need in order to realize what we have set out to make. If everyone that reads this interview contributes – then we will have reached our funding goal. So what are you waiting for; go to our kickstarter and contribute! Well actually, finish reading this interview and then go to our Kickstarter and contribute!


Tell us some interesting facts about the team of Space Pioneer?

Maximillian Kovtun: Well; there a couple of interesting tidbits about our team… For one, Aleksandr Zheleznyakov wrote a book about soviet experiments on sex in space – apparently this was classified for a long period of time. He hasn’t published it yet, and we’re thinking of adding a reward tier in our Kickstarter that includes this book. Granted; Space Pioneer itself won’t feature express lewd acts in space… Yuri Artsutanov was the creator of what is now the modern space lift, and inspired a lot of Arthur Clarke’s writing. They exchanged many ideas amongst themselves, and some of these ideas will be incorporated into Space Pioneer! So we have some interesting people on our team to say the least!


When will Space Pioneer be released?

Maximillian Kovtun: We are hoping to release by the end of 2015.


When it releases will Space Pioneer require high end graphics card?

Maximillian Kovtun: No – while we can’t reveal minimum specs just yet – we can say that Space Pioneer scales back nicely to fit mid end graphics cards.


What more will we see in future apart from the present ground breaking idea?Would you like to give us a few hints?

Maximillian Kovtun: Good question! We’re always brainstorming stuff and I’m confident that our team will continue to make innovative games long after Space Pioneer is released.


Any tips to the young developers and creators?

Maximillian Kovtun: If you have a good idea – don’t give up on it and don’t be intimidated by the video game industry. With the emergence of the indie scene; right now is the easiest time in the history of our industry to develop and release your video game!

*Interviewer's take on the whole conversation

The interview is copy-pasted as is and was done on 9th Feb, 2014 with my real name Debdatta Bhadury.

What to expect in-game?

  • Your own upgradable and customisable space ship
  • Command squadrons of units and spacecrafts
  • Build your own cities and colonies while preserving the elements from the RTS genre 
  • Expect other sentient species either co-exist or combat with them
  • Inter-planetary battles with rival civilization

What are the perspectives?
  • Standard top down god mode like Civilization, Sim City, XCOM
  • 3rd Person Spacecraft view like Star Citizen, Spore
Dear Reader,

If you really like this new project, please back them up at Kickstarter. Your pledges will not only enable Space Pioneer to reach its market, but also help the general audience to try an educational game. Your pledges will give you rewards. Know more about the game at Space Pioneer.org.

Thanks and Regards.

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