As sad as it is, I appreciate it when we see a developer being really honest. Limit Theory was a promising open-world space sim that was Kickstarted back in 2012 and the developer has reached their limit.
Writing in a post titled "The End", the developer talks about how they've essentially exhausted not only their finances but their energy emotionally and physically has been drained trying to complete it.
It is with a heart of lead that I write this announcement. Not in my darkest nightmares did I expect this day to ever come, but circumstances have reached a point that even my endless optimism can no longer rectify. I can not finish Limit Theory.
They go on to talk about how far it still is from completion, with plenty of half-finished bits. The silver lining here, is that they're going to release the source code:
Well, I will prepare the source code for release. It's not a working game, and in my frenzy to get things working I've left huge swaths of code in a half-refactored or half-complete state. But releasing it is the least I can do. I don't imagine it will be of any use to anyone, other than as a monument to a failed dream. Perhaps those who are interested in game engines will glean a thing or two from the engine, as it is a fairly solid piece of engineering, much more solid than the Lua game code.
This. This is how it should be done if you cannot finish a project funded by other people through crowdfunding. For one, other people can possibly pitch in and attempt to make something of it. Not only that, it means everything they've done up to this point won't go to waste and be lost forever. Hopefully they choose a good license.
It's also really nice to see quite a number of positive comments, when this sort of thing usually happens people end up getting a little heated.
For a look at it, they posted this video some time ago:
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Kind of sad to see things like this happen, but at least this time the code will be released and maybe someone will take it up or at least learn from the project.
Totally agree that this is the way it should be done.
Totally agree that this is the way it should be done.
13 Likes, Who?
Did they want to release only source code or also the assets?
If the assets are made open, this could really help others when making their own game.
If the assets are made open, this could really help others when making their own game.
6 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje 30 Sep 2018
If it's going to be open sourced, there's always the possibility of people stepping in and releasing *something*. At least it isn't going to be one of those things where the source is lost forever, like so many commercial games.
5 Likes, Who?
Sad to see, was looking forward to the game since the Kickstarter.
As liam said in the article, let's hope for a nice libre license.
If it's going to be open sourced, there's always the possibility of people stepping in and releasing *something*. At least it isn't going to be one of those things where the source is lost forever, like so many commercial games.
As liam said in the article, let's hope for a nice libre license.
0 Likes
And there we have the problem.Is it using its own custom engine?
Yes, it is indeed.
I think that when you start, you really have to be certain if you want to develop a game, or an engine/middleware.
If it is the first, don't do the second. Most of these attempts fail. I'd know, I lost two years to that myself ;)
Also reminds me a lot of Voxel Quest - though that project had the point that there was no engine out there capable of what it needed.
Not sure Unreal or Unity couldn't do what Limit Theory attempted.
All of that said, this project DID get very far.
4 Likes, Who?
Dash it all! Such a pity, I always thought this looked really cool. In a perfect world, someone would hire him and a couple of other people to finish it.
0 Likes
TheRiddick 30 Sep 2018
It will be interesting to see if it can be compiled and loaded up like in the fashion of his dev blobs to take a look at things or if its completely broken and missing executable components to even launch. I think the editing and dev work was done in engine.
In reality this sort of game needed a 500k-1million backing and at least 2-3 people working on it full time if not more.
I don't believe these engines have baked in procedural engines like what was attempted in LT, they need lots of custom coding and work to get them to function in such a way.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 30 Sep 2018 at 10:17 pm UTC
In reality this sort of game needed a 500k-1million backing and at least 2-3 people working on it full time if not more.
Not sure Unreal or Unity couldn't do what Limit Theory attempted.
I don't believe these engines have baked in procedural engines like what was attempted in LT, they need lots of custom coding and work to get them to function in such a way.
Last edited by TheRiddick on 30 Sep 2018 at 10:17 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Very sad to hear it. :(
The gamelooks looked highly promising and interesting. Always high risk involved when doing everything on your own, thankful that we don't have more projects crumble like this.
What alternatives do we have then?
I thought up a few, super simple description below. Tried to include all the big ones and hopefully only listed 'good' games...
All of these should be available on Steam, possibly on other places too.
Linux native
Everspace, SP rogue-lite explore/combat
Overload, SP/MP combat (from the makers of Descent)
Endless Sky, 2D SP trade/combat (free to play)
Strike Suit Zero, SP combat
Astrokill, Early Access, SP combat
Drifter, Early Access, SP explore/trade procedural open world (dead?)
Avorion, Early Access, SP/MP explore/trade/combat
Windows titles
No Man's Sky, SP/MP explore/craft/survival procedural open world (Proton OK)
Elite Dangerous, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (does not work in Linux)
Star Citizen, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (most likely not working in Linux)
Maybe GoL could make a space shooty game article, in honor of a fallen project? :)
edit: forgot to mention Star Citizen which isn't available on Steam.
Last edited by dpanter on 1 Oct 2018 at 8:12 am UTC
The game
What alternatives do we have then?
I thought up a few, super simple description below. Tried to include all the big ones and hopefully only listed 'good' games...
All of these should be available on Steam, possibly on other places too.
Linux native
Everspace, SP rogue-lite explore/combat
Overload, SP/MP combat (from the makers of Descent)
Endless Sky, 2D SP trade/combat (free to play)
Strike Suit Zero, SP combat
Astrokill, Early Access, SP combat
Drifter, Early Access, SP explore/trade procedural open world (dead?)
Avorion, Early Access, SP/MP explore/trade/combat
Windows titles
No Man's Sky, SP/MP explore/craft/survival procedural open world (Proton OK)
Elite Dangerous, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (does not work in Linux)
Star Citizen, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (most likely not working in Linux)
Maybe GoL could make a space shooty game article, in honor of a fallen project? :)
edit: forgot to mention Star Citizen which isn't available on Steam.
Last edited by dpanter on 1 Oct 2018 at 8:12 am UTC
0 Likes
What alternatives do we have then?I think you missed what might be the closest comparison, in looks at least: Helium Rain. Also Linux native.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 1 Oct 2018 at 8:29 am UTC
0 Likes
Very sad to hear it. :(
The gamelookslooked highly promising and interesting. Always high risk involved when doing everything on your own, thankful that we don't have more projects crumble like this.
What alternatives do we have then?
I thought up a few, super simple description below. Tried to include all the big ones and hopefully only listed 'good' games...
All of these should be available on Steam, possibly on other places too.
Linux native
Everspace, SP rogue-lite explore/combat
Overload, SP/MP combat (from the makers of Descent)
Endless Sky, 2D SP trade/combat (free to play)
Strike Suit Zero, SP combat
Astrokill, Early Access, SP combat
Drifter, Early Access, SP explore/trade procedural open world (dead?)
Avorion, Early Access, SP/MP explore/trade/combat
Windows titles
No Man's Sky, SP/MP explore/craft/survival procedural open world (Proton OK)
Elite Dangerous, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (does not work in Linux)
Star Citizen, SP/MP MMO trade/combat (most likely not working in Linux)
Maybe GoL could make a space shooty game article, in honor of a fallen project? :)
edit: forgot to mention Star Citizen which isn't available on Steam.
There's also...
- The X series from Egosoft (SP, trade/combat), which are available natively for Linux (minus the first one).
- EVE online (MP, trade/combat), which I've heard works very well in Wine; one of the devs had even released a native launcher that runs a Wine-wrapped version of the game
Last edited by silentprocyon on 1 Oct 2018 at 9:17 am UTC
0 Likes
That is so true, especially if it's your first game.And there we have the problem.Is it using its own custom engine?
Yes, it is indeed.
I think that when you start, you really have to be certain if you want to develop a game, or an engine/middleware.
On the bright side, although the end story is a bit sad, I'm sure he learned a lot by coding all that.
Not sure Unreal or Unity couldn't do what Limit Theory attempted.
I don't believe these engines have baked in procedural engines like what was attempted in LT, they need lots of custom coding and work to get them to function in such a way.
Looking at the Kickstarter video, I think one or the other could have handled this kind of procedural generation. It's a fine tech, but it's not rocket science either ;)
1 Likes, Who?
I wonder whether Houdini engine would satisfy the requirements in terms of building procedural worldProcedural generation is 99% maths and engine-agnostic algorithms.
The result of which then has to be displayed, interpreted for gameplay, etc.
Therefore, every engine that features programmatic generation of geometry and gameplay objects can feature building a procedural world. And I have yet to see a professional engine that doesn't.
Features like a big world without loading times can be implemented in most engines or are present to begin with.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 1 Oct 2018 at 12:16 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
I think you missed what might be the closest comparison, in looks at least: Helium Rain. Also Linux native.
There's also...Thanks guys, great additions. Quite a nice list even without touching on strategy/4X games... :)
- The X series from Egosoft (SP, trade/combat), which are available natively for Linux (minus the first one).
- EVE online (MP, trade/combat), which I've heard works very well in Wine; one of the devs had even released a native launcher that runs a Wine-wrapped version of the game
Looks like we aren't exactly without games in this area, awesome indeed! (Still sucks that Limit Theory didn't make it tho...)
1 Likes, Who?
Did they want to release only source code or also the assets?
If the assets are made open, this could really help others when making their own game.
Aside from the soundtrack, the game does not actually have assets. Everything is procedurally generated - ships, planets, textures, systems, backgrounds etc. That's one thing that was really neat about it.
1 Likes, Who?
@switches
> "Totally agree that this is the way it should be done."
Well, when it comes to abandoning a game, yes. But if the game maker had developed the code in the open right from day 1, maybe they would have attracted some other developers to help, and they would have been able to finish the game instead of abandoning it?
I also agree with The Sheep that the game makers may have set themselves a less ambitious task if they'd built on an existing free code engine, or forked one for their purposes, rather than starting entirely from scratch. Although, for all we know, they could have been using some existing code under non-copyleft licenses ("BSD", "MIT", Apache etc), while still keeping their own code secret and proprietary.
> "Totally agree that this is the way it should be done."
Well, when it comes to abandoning a game, yes. But if the game maker had developed the code in the open right from day 1, maybe they would have attracted some other developers to help, and they would have been able to finish the game instead of abandoning it?
I also agree with The Sheep that the game makers may have set themselves a less ambitious task if they'd built on an existing free code engine, or forked one for their purposes, rather than starting entirely from scratch. Although, for all we know, they could have been using some existing code under non-copyleft licenses ("BSD", "MIT", Apache etc), while still keeping their own code secret and proprietary.
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje 6 Oct 2018
Well, to be more precise, Star Citizen is A) no where near finished, B) Supposedly getting a Linux native client eventually...
Think they still make releases occasionally (I get emails about them) but it's still mostly just arena fighting and some ships. Game does look amazing though, but been following it for years...
Think they still make releases occasionally (I get emails about them) but it's still mostly just arena fighting and some ships. Game does look amazing though, but been following it for years...
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