Starpoint Gemini 3 has been released on Steam and GOG.

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Step into the laid-back shoes of captain Jonathan Bold as he travels and explores the open world of Starpoint Gemini 3. Encounter amazing characters, engage in unprecedented dogfighting space combat, mining, freelancing, trading and crafting as You uncover Bold's shady origins.

FIGHT

Experience action-packed space combat that pushes both you and your spaceship to the limit. Outfit your ship with the latest in high-tech weaponry. Pick off your targets from a distance with long-range cannons, obliterate your enemies up-close-and-personal using blasters and scatterguns or choose the middle-ground machineguns. Augment all of that with a large assortment of different skill buffs and become the ultimate agent of destruction.

EXPLORE

With trusty ADAH, your one-drone away team, explore Gemini and beyond. Scan anomalies, rummage through derelict ships and let ADAH stretch her legs by going into asteroid caves and strange alien ruins. Such places can be dangerous, but ADAH, using her weapon and energy shield is more than capable of taking care of herself.

PROFIT

Earn credits by doing an odd job or two, offered by the local bartender. If working for others is not to your liking, you can mine ore, scan anomalies, and gather salvage to sell to the highest bidder. For an even greater profit, collect blueprints and craft items. You can sell those for even more. And don’t forget, some of the best weapons, those of legends, can only be crafted!

UPGRADE

Combine a wide variety of ship modules to create the gunship of your dreams! Change the chassis, engine, wings and more in this one-of-a-kind do-it-yourself approach. The upgrades aren’t just cosmetic only. Each upgrade comes with its own bonuses.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

Work your way up to command one of the massive capital ships available on the famed Horizon automated shipyard. Purchase it, upgrade its core systems, weapons, and abilities, and show your enemies who’s the boss.

MOD FRIENDLY

Our proprietary engine powering Starpoint Gemini 3 makes it easy to create simple and complex mods, and even easier to start them up through the game launcher. Plug and play mods!

• The largest game universe in the Starpoint Gemini series spanning three different planetary systems
• Adrenaline-pumping, action-packed space combat that allows distinct play-styles and on-the-fly weapon switching
• A complete set of RPG skills to boost the player's capabilities
• Modular ship upgrading system
• Command a massive capital ship and show your enemies who's the boss
• Crafting system that allows the player to create new items and weapons to sell or use
• A variety of available activities including mining valuable materials and exploring the vast universe
• A unique chance to explore the shocking truth about the other imperial colonies and the fate of alien races
• A large variety of characters with unique personalities, different questlines and factions
• An engaging storyline written by Darko Macan, an official writer for numerous Star Wars and Marvel comics
• A unique digital companion, ADAH, that assist the player in uncovering Bold's shady origins
• Detailed interiors on different planets; visit them all!

@moddb Modding has been confirmed for Starpoint Gemini 3 and a release date of October 14th announced.

Starpoint Gemini 3 gets modding and release date!

Along with the official release data comes Steam Workshop support plus dozens of improvements to many gameplay features.

Posted by DanijelMihokovic on Sep 8th, 2020

Hi everybody,

We hope you're all well and happy, as we have some seriously good news this time!

 First of all, development of Starpoint Gemini 3 has entered its final stages, so excitement and stress are at expected levels! And, this is a good time to include so many talented people from your ranks as well. Hence the arrival of modding support in this update! Unleash your creativity and use the tools we've created to amaze your fellow gamers.

Also, we'd like to announce that this update is likely to be one of the last updates during Early Access! Full release is drawing close, and soon we'll be talking about expanding the full game rather than adding what's missing. At this point, we can say that full release and full unlocking of the game is set for October 14th. Many of you will notice that a few major chunks are still not in the game, but don't worry – we wanted to avoid splitting the remaining pieces into smaller content updates, so you'll get all remaining content at the same time in one huge update. Should be a nice surprise for all of you and allow you to be positively surprised even if you've already played the game. Yes, the entire campaign is nearly finished and will be unlocked on release, player owned capital ships too, and many more things!

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The release date for Starpoint Gemini 3 is set for the 14th of October.

We've got some seriously awesome news today! Starpoint Gemini 3 got a confirmed release date - October 14th 2020.

Alongside a sizeable update for current Early Access game version, LGM Games also confirmed an official release date for latest sequel to their open world space series. Game is set to finish Early Access on October 14th 2020. Today's update unlocks access to Steam Workshop and modding support, and also brings major improvements to many game features including new maps, new trading system, improved blueprints, Starchart navigation system, updated ship weapons systems and much much more.

Until release date, players can expect a number of additional updates in a quick succession, all aimed at preparing the game to accept the final update on release day. That release update will unlock the entire campaign, introduce player controlled capital spaceship mechanics and conclude all other planned features for version 1.0.

The announcement comes with a new teaser video.

The new update for Starpoint Gemini 3, brings improvements to sandbox game mode, new missions and events, entire new customization system for your beautiful spaceship, alongside expanded selection of various modules to assemble your craft and more.

We hope to find you all, despite challenges this year keeps throwing before us, still well and ready to play some more!

During last several weeks we've successfully „cooked“ another cool update for Starpoint Gemini 3.

Full changelog is posted below, but some highlights would be a number of additions to expand the sandbox experience, several player requested changes to accessibility of freeroam between missions, brand new customization panels so all of you can get crreative with your own ship, and a nice bundle of fresh ship modules to assemble your avatar of destruction!

Roadmap number five of Starpoint Gemini brings the game into beta.

As one awesome man once said: „ That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. “, our Starpoint Gemini 3 development process is currently at one such crossroad. With Roadmap milestone 5 being reached, we're entering the second half of the entire process.

First of all, you've probably noticed there was a longer pause between the last two updates. That was planned since the amount of assets and features needed for this cross into the beta stage was really huge. After all, you'll get the chance to check it all out!

The roadmap originally called this milestone „Narrative“, but we'll call it „Beta“, since the size of this update grew significantly in the past months. Everything planned for the Narrative update is here, but so is a lot of other cool stuff.

So, what's new? Well, to check this out, you'll need about 5 seconds of playtime - starting with the main character. Jonathan Bold was given a complete overhaul, from the 3D model to animations. The old model has been removed, since, you know... Gemini isn't big enough for two Bolds.

What's more important is that Bold's journey continues further with this update. For the first time after Early Access launch, the main campaign is unlocked several steps further. There are new places to visit, new characters to meet, new intrigues to uncover... In the new missions you'll be able to start noticing changes in the main character’s personality. These changes will become more and more significant later on as we near the final stages of the campaign. The beta game version does not enables the entire storyline, but pushes it several steps ahead.

All of you that already played through the game, will also notice that the first part of the campaign has also been upgraded with new animations and scenes. This is the plan till the end of development - to upgrade and polish everything, including the already implemented game elements.

For destruction-oriented addicts we also have a couple of treats. The first is the arrival of anti capital ship combat mechanics. You now have weakpoints to target and exploit on these juggernauts, but beware - they also bite back and usually aren't alone. Note here that this system is just a small part of what we'll need later for player commanded capital ships. The second treat in this category is the addition of ADAH combat mechanics - our sweet drone can now encounter bad drones and waste them. ADAH can also find and gather loot on her away missions. Oh, and did I mention that the ADAH model is also replaced with a new enhanced one?

...

A new update is available for Starpoint Gemini 3, which is in early access on Steam:

Just before the holiday craziness kicks in, we've reached the third milestone for Starpoint Gemini 3. That means we're offering, just in time, some fresh new ways to expand your experience of the game and fill any free days you might have coming.

This update looks exactly as a December gift basket is supposed to look – a little bit of something for everyone!

You've already explored the available game areas? Good – now you have new ones to check out, including some pretty familiar planets (EARTH anyone J ). Or, you've mastered the combat system and you're unmatched out there? Awesome – Boss mechanics will make sure there is something out there you haven't seen yet and that WILL be an adequate challenge! Also, if you're bored of your everyday bartender – new businesses have opened onboard new stations and planets.

The video shows the new updates.

Starpoint Gemini 3, which is currently in Early Access, will receive an update, named Gears 'n' Cogs, which is the second update on their roadmap.

No more easy pickings dear space captains. Your ship is loaded with missiles? Fine, your adversaries have plenty of decoys, and they are not afraid to use them! You're proficient with cut engines maneuvers? Won't help you – enemies will have tricks of their own with new AI and behaviour routines.

But you're not helpless – to give you a fighting chance, newly introduced crafting system enables you to be creative and engineer a plethora of items and equipment to enhance your survivability.

Focus points of Roadmap update No.2 are:

    Newly added crafting and blueprints system

    Newly added radiation effects system for nebulas

    Heavily upgraded enemy AI and ship behaviour

    Visual treats regarding impact hull damage on all ships

    New range of upgradeable ship modules

    Campaign storyline missions received first rework

The full list of changes and additions can be found here.

Starpoint Gemini 3 is now available in Early Access on Steam and GOG.

Why Early Access?

“Starpoint Gemini 3 has reached a stage in which we'd love to get players involved. There's a lot You can do in the game and a lot more is on the way, but what we're really looking forward to is Your Feedback, with a capital F. Our previous successful endeavors in Early Access have shown us just how crucial that is to create, not a good game, but a great one. We'd like to invite everyone to join us in this.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Starpoint Gemini 3 is far from finished. The core is definitely here, but that will also require more polish. We envision that the minimum we'll spend in Early Access is 12 months. We'll keep everyone up-to-date on the discussion forums and through announcements.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The essential features and a base layer of assets is already here. What is further on the menu is the rest of the gameplay features (the skill system and crafting are NOT yet implemented), possibly adding some following Your feedback, and of course the remainder of the planned assets (models, visual and sound effects...). These too can include some additions based on Your feedback. One of the larger „chunks“ that's missing is a big portion of the game world. The initial Early Access build features roughly one third of the entire game world, so this is one of the areas of the game that will be expanded significantly during our time in Early Access.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The initial Early Access build has the core mechanics in place: flying, upgrading your ship, combat, some base missions, trading, mining, scavenging, a tutorial and several of the storyline missions as well. Roughly one third of the game world is already here, though a lot more content will be added to the current in-game sectors over time.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes. The game's lowest price will be on entering Early Access and the price will go up over the course of Early Access. We will announce all price changes well in advance on the discussion boards.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We encourage everyone to join the discussions on the forums here. If Discord is more your thing, then you can join the public channel (linked below). We're monitoring both as best as we can, and we'll answer any question You might have as soon as possible. We can't wait to hear from You!”

The latest offering of Little Green Men is Starpoint Gemini 3, where you now get to leave your ship and explore the ship ports and planets. But, I wrote more about it in this preview of the game.

Starpoint Gemini 3 is the fourth installment in the Starpoint Gemini series, which consists of Starpoint Gemini 1, 2 and the spin-off Starpoint Gemini Warlords. Starpoint Gemini 3 is an open world space adventure RPG and has more focus on the story than its predecessors. The developers, Little Green Men (LGM), hired Darco Macan, a writer who used to work for Marvel on Star Wars novels, especially for this. He has created the storyline with lots of alien cultures and places to explore.

In the game you play as captain Bold and over the course of the game you will expand your crew and enhance your ship by making use of various modules. For the most part the game has the same feature set as the previous titles, including the RPG elements that were also present in Starpoint Gemini Warlords. This time however they wanted to have you fly smaller starships, to provide a wider range of movement and the option to build your own ship by choosing various modules to add to that ship. The game starts with a basic intro ship, which is equipped with weapons and is intended to be used as part of the tutorial. Once you have progressed enough through the story line, you will steal your first modular ship from a very dangerous corporation. During the rest of the game you will be busy escaping from them, while you improve your ship, advance your personal story and the stories of the people who have joined you. 

Starpoint Gemini 3 will enter Early access on the 3rd of September.

Starpoint Gemini 3 launches Early Access on 5th September

Zagreb, Croatia - August 29t 2019: Strap on Commanders everywhere! LGM Games officially announces the third episode of its worldwide known Space Saga: Starpoint Gemini 3, is launching in Early Access on Steam on 5th September.

Starpoint Gemini 3 is a Sandbox RPG Space Action game where you live the excitingly morally questionable life of Jonathan Bold, a charming trigger-happy space buccaneer with impeccable taste in ladies and a talent for finding trouble.

Fight your way through the main story and the side missions with a mix of strategy, combat skills, complete ship customization and exploration. Experience what a mercenary space adventurer existence tastes like!

FIGHT: Outfit your spaceship according to your favorite combat style. Long range fan? Cannons are probably your thing, while blasters and scatterguns serve you better if you like to run close and personal flybys. Machine guns can nicely complement both if you want to addsome medium range damage to the mix. On top of that choose your favorite skill-based boost to make for the ultimate space fighter!

EXPLORE: for the first time in the Starpoint Gemini saga you can explore othrer distant star systems. With the help of ADAH, your witty personal AI assistant you will be able to investigate the misteries abounding in the game universe. You will also need to get up close and personal, and that's where you you can use ADAH as one-drone away team.

MAKE A CAREER: nothing comes cheap in the universe of Starpoint Gemini and that's where your entreprenurial skills will be required. Jobs are always available from more or less shady partners, or you can run solo and exploit the resources scattered in the galaxy. Then you will be able to craft whatever you need for your questionable schemes or just sell everything to earn a buck or two.

PIMP YOUR RIDE: As for customizing your ships sky's literally the limit now as you can mix and match individual parts to form original models. Combinations are in the hundreds and you can strategize a build for every occasion. Dress for success!

The Press had already something to say about Starpoint Gemini 3:

"Sounds like a fair step forward from Starpoint Gemini 2, which we liked quite a bit..."  PC Gamer

"I like that skull-shaped ship that gets missile'd in the big metal face..." Rock Paper Shotgun

"There will be a much more personal focus to the game as you explore the universe..." WCCFTech

STARPOINT GEMINI 3 Key features:

• A huge, immersive space spanning three different planetary systems of former imperial colonies;
• A large variety of characters with unique personalities, different questlines, and factions;
• A unique adrenaline-packed combat system that enables mid-combat mounted weapon switching, allowing you to change weapon and damage types during combat without the need to dock for refitting;
• New out-of-ship drone control and exploration of space structures;
• A modular ship upgrading system;
• A complete set of RPG skills to boost the player's capabilities over the course of the game;
• Detailed visitable interiors on different planets;
• A universe populated with unique areas, objects, and characters that allow players to engage in many different activities while free-roaming between missions;
• The storyline is written by Darko Macan, an official writer for numerous Star Wars and Marvel comics

Here's the official gameplay trailer for Starpoint Gemini 3:

Starpoint Gemini 3

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Put on your pilot’s helmet, grab your spaceship rudders and play the first official gameplay trailer of Starpoint Gemini 3, to get prepared for your new exciting adventure in the Gemini universe!
Engage in action-packed space battles, visit amazing worlds and encounter interesting characters to find the answers you seek. For the first time in the franchise, Starpoint Gemini 3 brings animated 3D, NPCs that you can interact with, and this time your path leads beyond Gemini as you get to explore two new planetary systems. You are not alone on your journey. You have ADAH, a digital consciousness that runs your ship's computer and can download itself onto your drone, which you can then control in ADAH’s role to accomplish off-ship tasks you could never do alone. Buckle your seatbelts and prepare to immerse yourself in a world of space adventurer. Visit various venues, from pubs with shady clientele, to high-tech facilities and glitzy, noisy nightclubs, pick your targets and choose your allies. Your journey is about to begin.

Key features:

• A huge immersive space spanning throughout three different planet systems of former imperial colonies;
• Large variety of characters with unique personalities, different questlines and factions;
• Adrenaline-packed dogfighting combat;
• Unique combat system that allows player mid-combat weapon switching;
• New out-of-ship drone control and exploration of space structures;
• Modular ship upgrading system; - Complete set of RPG skills to boost player's capabilities over the course of the game;
• Detailed visitable interiors on different planets;
• Universe populated with unique areas, objects and characters that allow players to engage in many different activities while free-roaming between missions;
• Storyline is written by Darko Macan, the official writer for numerous Star Wars and Marvel comics.

Wccftech interviewed Igor Gajic about Starpoint Gemini 3.

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Knight Rider in space.

IG: Basically. Yeah. That character is the ship’s female AI, and her name is ADAH, and she’s quite confident. She believes that Jonathan is a bit of an ass because he is a bit of an ass. Yeah. So there is a scene in the game where they stumble upon a huge target ship, and she says, ‘Jonathan, we should avoid this.’ He says ‘no, we are here just because of that. I want that. Because I didn’t have that before in my life.’ He is a bit dumb. But we basically wanted to make the kind of character that is not the typical hero you see in games. So the story itself has been written by Darko Macan, he is a quite a famous writer, known for Star Wars. He also wrote comics for Dark Horse. And we believe he did a great job, and we hope that our fans are going to like the story as it unfolds.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Here's the Dev Diary #3 for the space RPG Starpoint Gemini 3:

Dev Diary #3

INTRODUCING NEW LEVEL OF CHARACTERS

Face to face at last

Hello everyone!

This third Devblog offers more information on one of the most significant changes we're introducing to the Starpoint franchise. Many of you noticed this change and asked numerous questions about it, so it is good time to reveal more info, but without spoiling too much of your future game experience.
One of the most important parts in this new approach were characters. You already learned humans aren't alone and alien races exist and share space with humans. But instead of offering aliens as a mere additional variable in the global scale of events, we wanted to give players a chance to really meet them face to face. See them firsthand, talk to them, observe how they adapted to living in mostly human populated territories. In addition, why wouldn't you visit their planet and learn how they live and what their ordinary day looks like? In Starpoint Gemini 3 characters are here to tell a story (both visual and in the sense of spoken words) and to show the player that they are real living creatures forced to survive and secure happiness in the same surreal circumstances as any other human. Each tragic event and each battle from the past left a scar on Gemini and everyone living there, be that human or alien. They might have different perspectives on many of these events, but the effect on their lives is profound regardless.

Preparing the technology

Given the fact that we still opted to keep our own game engine for Starpoint Gemini 3, and the fact we never used characters on this level before, creating the necessary technical support for this feature was a daunting task. First, our WhaleX engine had to be upgraded to receive and render high quality character models at all. Next, these characters don't just hang around drifting in space. They need to be placed in closed spaces, environments and rooms. That was also something we used before only in a limited capacity. It took several months to prepare the engine for the usage of internal spaces, appropriate lightning and details rendering. After that came the biggest task of all – the characters now needed to start talking and expressing emotions. Introducing blend shapes, proper expressions and speech synchronization proved to be very challenging. The selection of technology to record shapes and software to implement it took another few months, but when we first saw Remo Bo talking to us and making funny faces, we all knew it was worth the effort. He was, among other characters, now ready to tell his story and that felt awesome, especially for the things to come.

Pushing further than ever before

Ok, so an Exteran bartender smiled at us and offered us his first drink. That meant testing time was over, and we have established a system and a workflow that works. The available options suddenly expanded, and we wanted to use it to the maximum extent possible. Character lists were created, the storywriter gave them personalities and backgrounds while the animators worked their magic to give them life and expressions. Doing this for the first time was both fun and hard with problems appearing from everywhere. One day a Dogon alien is trying to relay a serious message to you when his teeth suddenly fall out. The next day a local trader is giving you a quest, but his body goes somewhere else and you find yourself talking to his lonesome floating head. Hey, we're not making a horror game, so this was freaky to say the least. It took some time to sort these glitches out, but in the end, we were happy with the overall quality and the impact we achieved.

Meeting future „friends“

Most players will probably be interested in what they'll get in the end. Who will they meet during the game? Well, now we're getting to the slippery terrain if we want to avoid spoilers. You'll meet humans; many humans. Both male and female. Aliens too, and we don't mean it as mere plural, but as in more than one race of aliens. When we talk about specific types of characters, your travels will offer the chance to meet ordinary people, traders, bartenders, heroes of past wars, twins, criminals and shady people, android like dudes, some non-humanoid creatures as well... All in all, Starpoint Gemini 3 takes place in Gemini and beyond as well, so it's a very big place and variety is mandatory.
The plethora of characters you'll encounter on various locations on planets and space stations will offer information, clues, quests and different services, pretty much similar to any classic RPG, but at the same time this new perspective will allow you to get a front row view on the regular life in Gemini – interiors, factions and their relations, design ideas, fashion...

In the end – what's the deal with aliens?

When talking about characters, we have to offer some answer to a very important question – Are Aliens bad? In previous games in the Starpoint Gemini series, the aliens were shown rarely and usually connected to some battle and destruction. Now, many players expected they are an „Independence Day“ type of aliens. Well, they are not. First – there are more than one race of them. Second – none of them hold an inherent hate of humans. They utterly hated the Empire but once that organization was destroyed and genome experiments had ended, they had no special desire to pursue destruction of the entire human species. In Starpoint Gemini 3, years after the fall of the Empire, humans are repopulating human territories outside of Gemini once again, and they slowly accept that the A'Shriari are here to stay, and that some form of coexistence will have to be found. Additionally, as you travel outside of Gemini and the story takes you to the other former colonies of the Earth Empire, you’ll learn about more and more species out there. None of them have any choice but to live with each other. Do they like each other? That depends, but that doesn't change the fact that all of you are here to stay and finding the best way to do so, and to navigate the complicated mutual relationships, is one of the crucial tasks that the protagonist, Jonathan Bold, will have to tackle. That is – alongside the even more complicated relationships between Jonathan's former/current and potential girlfriends

That's it for this Diary, thanks for reading and stay tuned!

@GameWatcher A new gameplay video for Starpoint Gemini 3.

Croatian developer Little Green Men Games promises no less than three fully-explorable and interactive planetary systems - all inhabited by animated, 3D NPCs with high-quality voice-over. One of the most exciting additions, however, will certainly be the chance for players to observe planet surfaces in real-time, as well as a chance to get more involved with the people living there.

[...]

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Dev Diary #2 for Starpoint Gemini 3 shows off some technical improvements.

Dev Diary #2

Improvements on the WhaleX engine: Part 1

Rendering Engine improvements

In the new Starpoint Gemini 3 development diary, we are shifting our focus to improvements on the technical side of the game. Our proprietary engine, WhaleX Engine has seen a lot of improvements since our last game, Starpoint Gemini Warlords; especially in the rendering aspect.

Check out what lies under the hood of Starpoint Gemini 3 in the first part of our technical development diary.

This development diary is also an entry to the first Starpoint Gemini 3 gameplay video, which is coming very, very soon!

Explosion System Improvements

Before, explosions used to be growing, glowing blobs that were meant to dazzle. Unfortunately, getting hit by numerous missiles meant that the player would quickly be coated in a potato-shaped glow. The game suffered from a limited visual variety and the details were hardly visible.



We've added support for high-fidelity explosion animations, with frame-blending support, local light casting (looks far better than simply stacking screen-space glow) and supported the creation of these effects via the game's new Editor.



What we're planning in the near future:
We've already had small debris flying into space when hitting or destroying spaceships. It gave the impression of actually fragmenting the enemy's hull during combat. This however, was never fully apparent (mostly due to our ambients being very dark), so in addition to improving those effects we're considering a more robust hull damage model as well as hull-bending during the ship's explosion to really sell the destruction effect.


Environmental Cloud and Particle system Improvements

Previously, the environmental particle system has undergone smaller changes from Starpoint Gemini 2 to Starpoint Gemini Warlords. The art team added more variety to the system and appropriately colored particles were used in various environments. The clouds, however, never underwent any changes. While traveling through space, the player would come across some flag-shaped clouds that would periodically appear and behave in a wave-like manner. This was present in every environment.

With Starpoint Gemini 3 we decided to add more variety and depth to those clouds. Artists can now craft cloud density, depth, color, add a variety of different shapes and animations. All in an effort to make nebulas, industrial areas and open space feel unique.



Tiled Forward Rendering (Forward+) upgrade to the Graphics Pipeline

Even though Starpoint Gemini Warlords featured local dynamic lights, they were never actually used because of their crippling limitations (up to 4 lights could be cast on any individual object in the game), so instead we focused our efforts on making the Gemini Suns cast impressive volumetric shadows.

The only other place we used an additional light was at the finale of each planetary battle – the moment when you fire the doomsday beam at your adversary's planet.



Starpoint Gemini 3 has had its graphics pipeline upgraded with Tile Based Light Culling technique known as Forward+ rendering. It's widely considered the best of both worlds when it comes to taking advantage of both Forward Rendering systems and Deferred renderers. Forward rendering systems typically use less memory, and are the preferred choice in games with less objects on the screen (such as games set in space). They are, however, a lot less performant when it comes to rendering lots of dynamic lights. That is, unless you sort them out in volume tiles before drawing lit objects.

We're still deciding on the final light limit but it soon became apparent that objects can now handle 100+ lights without noticable framerate drops.

Local Reflections for interiors via Reflection Probes

We've had dozens of interiors in Warlords and managed to make them look pretty good, but we've had to limit the amount of reflective surfaces. Starpoint Gemini 3 will bring significantly more interiors which means that a good variety of surface materials is mandatory. We've developed a known technique for capturing and displaying local reflections via Reflection Capture probes and added both box and spherical projection sampling to the mix to properly render reflections of both linear and curved spaces.

[...]

A new update for Starpoint Gemini 3 looks at the series timeline and the events that have taken place.

Hi everyone!

In recent days, we got a number of questions regarding the timeline lore of all games from Starpoint Gemini series. Since each sequel had a different perspective on the events in the SPG universe, but they are all linked, we've decided to make a quick rundown of all major events dating back to a period even before the original Starpoint Gemini took place.

Hope you'll like this little chronology, as it puts things in a linear, easy to follow chain of events.

Just to give you a heads up - timeline stops just as Starpoint Gemini 3 is about to begin. We wouldn't want to spoil it for you...

Btw, if you have any comments, questions or simply want to chat with some like-minded players in a more direct manner, feel free to join our OFFICIALLY VERIFIED DISCORD server:

https://discord.gg/starpointgemini

But, back to our ancient story of what really happened in Gemini (and beyond)...

GEMINI TIMELINE

2030.

First human expedition arrives on the planet Mars and establishes several permanent outposts

2040.

Construction of the first Martian city and a planetary shipyard

2050.

Colonization from both Earth and Mars spreads further to other planets of the Solar system

2065.

Horrible tragedy on Earth during testing of an advanced new ship propulsion for extra-solar travels. Main governments and corporations evacuate to Mars

2072.

Colonial Alliance is founded and includes all colonized planets of the Solar system

2091.

Colonial Alliance returns to Earth and starts a war with the remaining population in order to establish a new social structure

2102.

War on Earth ends, new Earth Alliance is established and it includes the planet Earth and six Solar colonies

2137.

Construction of the first Starpoint, a gateway to Sirius system

2140.

First scientific and military vessels enter Sirius system. A new colonization begins

2183.

Colonized planets in the Sirius system in open rebellion against Earth Alliance. State of emergency is declared

2184.

Earth Alliance crushes the Sirius rebellion. First Colonial Directorate is established in Sirius to maintain order

2185.

Foundation of the Earth Empire, all emergency jurisdiction is permanently in the hands of High Governor and his Council

2189.

Colonization of Orion system begins, second Colonial Directorate introduced

2192.

Science vessel „Nostromo“ investigates newly discovered wormhole and reaches the Gemini system, very unusual and unstable system with large number of habitable planets

2197.

Starpoint Gemini constructed, colonization begins rapidly, third Colonial Directorate founded

2210.

Empire begins the Orion Project, the creation of enhanced humans based on uncovered alien technology

2270.

First uprising erupts in now very populated and wealthy Gemini system

2271.

Enhanced human clones in Orion start an open rebellion. Imperial Command attempts to shut down the project

2273.

Colonial Directorate defeated in Gemini, the Starpoint incident closes the Starpoint and Gemini remains separated from the Empire

2274.

Empire makes the first contact with a presumably extinct alien species in the Orion system. Aliens help human clones in the rebellion

2279.

Imperial forces are driven out of the Orion system. Project Eulogy begins with great haste.

2280.

First two Leviathans cross to Orion system, both get destroyed in heavy battles

2290.

Human hybrid clones invade Imperial main space with the alien support

2295.

Empire is losing grip on its main space. It is driven to desperate measures. Two Leviathans travel to Sirius system but are lost without a trace. Spread out imperial armada abandons search

2296.

Starpoint Gemini is reopened, second Gemini war ends. Empire suddenly commands full withdrawal of all remaining forces to Gemini system, including the remaining Leviathans. Earth in the Solar system is no longer the foothold of humankind.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

The first dev diary for Starpoint Gemini 3.

Dev Diary #1

7 Mar @ 4:33am - mmihokovic - SPG3 Arrival

Everything starts with an idea

Starpoint Gemini is a journey that started ten years ago, and with each installment of the series, we tried something new in our attempt to provide a better experience for our players. We knew all those years ago, when the original setting was created, that it would take us several installments to tell the Starpoint Gemini story.

Let’s fast forward a little bit. Starpoint Gemini Warlords, at the time our largest and most ambitious project, combined several different genres and play styles. However, it lacked developed characters and a compelling storyline and our players had mixed feelings about the spin-off. With different reactions swarming the forums, it was clear that big decisions had to be made. And so, a new idea was born.
We decided to thoroughly analyze our previous installments to learn about their strong and weak points. Our research also included examining other space games to flesh out the idea of a gameplay that our fans would find most immersive. It goes without saying that this “research” was also a very fun one.


Public opinion


Starpoint Gemini series has a big fan base and it was important for us to take their suggestions into consideration. We received hundreds of ideas, many of which were not possible to apply to our previous games or were simply ludicrous, but entering a new development cycle, we were able to give them another go. Even though we faced many different ideas from our fans, their feedback was, as always, very helpful in deciding what kind of gameplay experience we wanted to create. Most people wanted to add the cockpit view, making the controls more intuitive for the players, and to enrich the Starpoint Gemini universe with interesting characters and an immersive story. The idea of turning one of our spaceships into a flying pink pony came up again, but, sadly, didn’t quite fit in with the general concept of the game 😊.


The solutions are closer than you think…

We decided to make an even better single player experience with a great story and developed characters. We knew that our newest installment should tell a story about a space adventurer whose journey takes him all over the vast universe we have been creating for all these years. We also knew that the players should experience that universe firsthand as they visit different locations, interact with characters, and get pulled into conflicts between factions.


And to tell that story, we needed a writer who would put it on paper in the form of a game script. Funny how things happen in life, but the solution to that problem happened to be in our very own neighborhood. And no, we don’t mean that we gave the scriptwriting job to a waiter from our favorite coffee shop, but to a professional writer with years of experience in the sci-fi genre: Darko Macan, known for his work with the Star Wars and Marvel series, lives and works practically next door. We contacted him and presented to him our idea for the new Starpoint Gemini installment. Macan liked the idea of working with us on this project and we got ourselves a writer.


A picture is worth a thousand words


A compelling storyline is only a part of creating an immersive world inhabited by interesting characters. Our artists took on the great challenge of coming up with ideas for the characters, spaceships, stations, and other elements that would enrich the Starpoint Gemini universe. For the first time, players will be able to interact with other NPCs and get face to face with the aliens who were ever present in the previous installments, but never seen before. The aliens did their own little Blitzkrieg on the Empire. They were always known as a mysterious force that manipulates everything in the universe and now the players will have the opportunity to meet them and find out more about them.


This situation with the aliens perfectly depicts the progress that Starpoint Gemini 3 has made, and why. For the first time in the series, players will get to experience all the aspects of living in Gemini and get a better understanding of how that universe works.


What’s next?

In our next blog post, we will shed more light on our project so that our fans would get the impression of what they can expect in Starpoint Gemini 3. All of our previous installments made big shifts from the original concept and this one is no exception. The new approach we are taking will give to our players an opportunity to experience our universe like never before.
Starpoint Gemini Universe is such a rich, complex, intricately detailed world. But to genuinely experience these details, you’ll have to land on a planet, find the nearest bar, and try ordering Liberland Temptation from a sarcastic Exteran barman…

Until next time!
LGM Games crew

The third installment of Starpoint Gemini has been announced.

LGM Games officially announces Starpoint Gemini 3

A BRAND-NEW TITLE IN THE FRANCHISE

Zagreb, Croatia, February 21, 2019. LGM Games^TM, creators of the Starpoint Gemini franchise, are proud to announce a brand-new title.

The new installment is an open-world space action single-player RPG that puts the player in the cockpit of Captain Jonathan Bold, a space adventurer travelling the vast universe of Starpoint Gemini 3®.

For the first time in the franchise, Starpoint Gemini 3® introduces 3D, animated NPCs that players can interact with, and this time the flight path leads beyond Gemini as they get to explore two new planetary systems, visiting various venues, from pubs with shady clientele to high-tech facilities and noisy, glitzy nightclubs.

Along with the action-packed space battles, Starpoint Gemini 3® comes with an array of novel possibilities. With the help of ADAH, a digital consciousness that runs the ship's computer, players can operate the ship's drone and accomplish tasks they wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

The immersive gameplay and the absorbing story of Starpoint Gemini 3® takes the players on an unforgettable adventure.

Starpoint Gemini 3 key features

• Adrenaline-packed dogfighting combat

• Brand new tri-system universe layout

• Immersive gameplay and an absorbing storyline with a copious quantity of encounter quests, characters and activities

• Detailed visitable interiors

• New out-of-ship drone control and exploration of space structures

• Rich, versatile free-roam content

• Modular ship upgrading system

A series of video development diaries

A series of Starpoint Gemini video development diaries on YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter profile and a textual development blog on LGM Games^TM official website at https://lgmgames.net will give fans and the community the opportunity to stay tuned for news of the game's development stages.