Only in the sense of a passengers going on a long journey. The JLaw/Pratt movie Passengers did that too, among many many others
Andromeda's ships arent that similar a concept. Generation ships dont have the luxury of cryosleep or cryostasis, thus you need a fully functioning habitat that can last many lifetimes. That's part of what makes generation ships so cool. They're basically social experiments. What cultural norms, history, memories would persist? What would be distorted or forgotten? The people who arrive will be nothing like the people who left.
Pretty much, which is what makes it a fascinating concept to explore. Imagine being born on a ship, knowing that you will spend all your life locked there, will never spend a single day of your life outside and breathe fresh air, all in the name of your ancestors' dreams and delusions. Maybe your grandkids - if you have any - would see that distant planet, if the ship ever arrives there, but what do you care about that?
This sounds awesome, can't wait. Except if the previous game is anything to go by, we will have to wait a minimum of 5 years, if not 10.
We worked part-time on AoD, had no experience, tools, or budget. Now we have all three and we're working full-time, so it won't take as long. From another update:
2016 – pre-production. The goal is to have all systems, quests, and locations designed and ready, so that we have a clear blueprint to follow.
2017 – laying the foundation. Once the dungeon crawler is released, we'll focus on The New World. The goal is to get to the content-building stage fast but that's a long journey, requiring the following 3 steps:
- Engine familiarity and systems/tools porting IF using Unreal 4; at least 6 months
- All systems (character, crafting, inventory, dialogue, stealth, combat); probably a year
- Models and animations. AoD has over 500 unique animations, so it's not as simple as it sounds, but we should be able to do it in a year.
So IF everything goes well, we'll have everything we need by mid 2018 and start working on the content. That gives me 2.5 years to develop the setting, factions, quests, characters and party members, which is plenty of time. I'm already working on the main quest and it's shaping up well (good range of choices plus a really great fork in the middle where you can disregard what you've been working on until now – or continue if you still think it's the best option – and change the goal and the endgame scenario and endings). More on that in the future updates.
Our goal will be to deliver a 4-location demo by the end of 2018 and start gathering feedback and tweaking systems, which is a crucial step. I assume it would take us about 6 months to make changes based on the feedback, at which point we'll be ready to move forward once again. The next step is to get to the Early Access stage, which will require 50% of the content (it's not an actual requirement but we don't want to offer less). I'd say it would take us a year to get there, but if we can do it faster, it's a bonus.
So, Early Access by the end of 2019, release by the end of 2020. So far it looks reasonable but it always does when the finish line is 5 years from now. Either way, we'll keep you posted of our progress and since you now know what to expect and when, you'll be able to tell the moment we get off schedule.
