Making it in Unreal: how Genesis Alpha One became the FPS you can build spaceships in

The clear glass windows of our greenhouse dome protect the plants from the elements, much as they would in a garden or allotment. Here, though, the elements aren’t wind or rain, but outer space. Those windows look straight out onto the huge vacuum, taking in nearby suns and planets we might plunder for resources. But our station is still under construction. Tabbing into build mode, we plug in a shiny new hangar. Sure enough, back in first-person mode, it’s suddenly visible through the glass. Stepping down a new corridor, we find the lander housed inside, set course for a nearby rock rich in iron, and initiate the take-off procedure. This is Genesis Alpha One’s pitch - seamless stewardship of an ever-expanding space base, switching between having your boots on the ground and getting a wider perspective in the management view. It’s been a tricky technical proposal for a small dev to wrestle with, but it’s been possible in Unreal Engine 4. Ship building was the very first piece of the game German studio Radiation Blue prototyped, knowing that its success or failure would make or break the game.

from PCGamesN http://bit.ly/2ScfIex