Stellae in Igne

Stellae in Igne is indeed not the first computational art piece I've ever created. In fact, it's not even the first video game I've ever had the pleasure of working on. This is, however, my first completed video game (albeit with some glitches that I did not have time to work out). The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, but that just means that if I ever decide to release the game to the public that I will have something more to work on. The game engine is coded in RGSS3, which is a special derivative of the Ruby programming language.

I can definitely say that Ruby is a bit different than any other language I've experienced, though most similar to Python. Despite that, the game has over one hundred different if statements and while loops, as well as some switch statements that were specific to RGSS3. Creating the artwork was actually the easiest part. It took much longer to actually implement the artwork into the game than it did to actually create them.

I had a lot of fun working on this game, though I ended up putting nearly 40 hours of work into the game (almost 6 hours of work every day). I feel the game turned out extremely pleasant, as it does exactly what I had envisioned - to create an interactive experience while also being able to show my artistic ability twofold. Not only was I able to include several new pieces created in NetLogo and NetLogo3D, I was able to unleash my creative ability through the storytelling of the game.

The title of the cohesive piece is Stellae in Igne, which means "Stars on Fire" in Latin. There are a few reasons for this - the stars are indeed on fire, which is why we see them in the night sky. The game is based in a futuristic universe where humans have finally colonized the Milky Way. The Latin gives a nice little ring off the tip of one's tongue. Blaise, the "star" protagonist, was on fire while creating the game (metaphorically speaking of course).

There are several smaller pieces included in the game, such as Icecatcher, Bent Razor, Circular Calendar, and Flyingstar. I feel that the titles have their own little niche for these pieces. Each were combinations of various objects I saw in my work. Icecatcher, for example, reminded me of my Dreamcatcher piece, but a bit more icy. Bent Razor was so named because it looks sharp enough to cut, yet mangled in such a way that it would be useless to use. Circular Calendar saw me reminisce about the 2012 Doomsday that we all survived, with the circular Mayan calendar. Finally, Flyingstar was so named because it looks like a star, yet to get there it was required that the turtles fly out.

All in all, I am especially proud of my work and would like to work on it some more if I get the free time during the spring. I put in a few "Easter Eggs" for anyone that plays the game; you know, like shamelessly calling myself the Creator and telling you that you won't get past my little tricks and schemes. But I'll let you find the Easter Eggs, it's more fun that way.

 

Finally, I have included a download link for anyone that would like to play the game. It is a self-extracting executable which can be run on Windows and WINE for Linux. Unfortunately there is no port for Mac OSX, but you can still play it if you run it in a virtual machine. It is currently hosted on MediaFire, but I may move it to my personal website at a later date. 262MB of [compressed] data is a lot of bandwidth for one download, not to mention having a few connection problems with my webhost. But I digress. I hope you enjoy what I have created and if you find any bugs, feel free to let me know on either Facebook or Google+.

Download link: Stellae in Igne Download