Guide to the Galaxy – Planets of Sector 99

Now that we’ve met your crew, lets find out more about the galaxy you’ll be flying through in The Chaser’s Voyage. All of the action takes place in a small section of the galactic map called Sector 99. To the wider galaxy, it’s known as the last bit of territory before one enters The Frontier (an unexplored and enticing section of space), which makes it coveted by all sorts of galactic powers, such as the UGS, the Empire, and even gangs of pirates. Your adventure always starts on your home planet of Azedo (a small backwater farming planet), but from there the worlds you can visit open up as over 260 planets become possible destinations requested by your clients. While your stays on each planet will only be brief,  your Crew Journal will give you little hints at the much bigger world you just happen to be visiting.

 

A small shanty town on the Snowy Mountain world of Porons.

 

One of the most difficult things of operating on an indie game budget (or really any kind of game budget) is that it’s not often possible to make the world you’re exploring as vast and deep as you’d want it to be. Since The Chaser’s Voyage’s inception, we knew the player would be hopping from planet to planet. Of course, it’s immersion breaking and boring to always just be heading towards some unnamed “planet”. How’s this universe supposed to feel lived in if you know nothing about it. So, we decided to name our client planets, making one for each combination of several factors, such as land to water ratio, primary biome (borrowing the ever classic single biome trope), population density, and civilization type. So pretty soon, we were able to visit places like the sparsely populated shanty towns of the snowy world of Porons or one of the massive factories that sprawl along the wastelands of Neraka or even the modern cities of the jungle world, Shirenko.

 

A modern city on the Jungle planet, Shirenko.

 

We felt like this made each planet have it’s own identity. After enough time playing, planets like these would becomes as familiar to the player as some of the crew or key figures mentioned in the Crew Journal. With this kind of identity also came a desire to make the planet feel more alive. We didn’t want to always just show static images when the player was landing and taking off, so we added in some simple weather events. On Korri for instance, it could be snowing when you visit it, while on a jungle or forest world, it might be raining. Some buildings also have smoke effects to help make them a little less static. Background ships were added as well, to give the feeling that you are in a space port town, with ships landing and taking off every day.

 

A large factory complex on the Wasteland world of Neraka.

 

Ambient sound effects were also crucial. We made sure they were subtle, so as to not be intrusive, but if you listen carefully you can hear the winds blowing across a desert planet or the moving of machines on an industrial world. Finally, with each planet becoming more alive and characterized, we gave them small snippets of backstory that fills out your journal whenever you visit a planet for the first time. They are little comments left by your crew reflecting some of their thoughts, observations, or even the history of the planet. We sadly can’t let the players freely explore all these worlds, but we wanted to give the impression that you are just one part of this larger galaxy that is full of adventures and stories to tell. Ironically, I think it helps grounds the story we are telling.

 

A fancy city on the Snowy Forest world of Korri.

 

The art for the landscapes of each planet as well as the different kinds of buildings we use was done by Felix Yuniar.

 

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