Planets³ logo
Stellar Overload (formerly Planets³, pronounced «planetscube») is a 3D open-world voxel-based RPG in first person, from Cubical Drift studio. It was successfully funded through Kickstarter on April 3rd, 2014, and its campaign ended on April 5th, 2014, successfully raising $310,708.
The game is inspired by other games like Minecraft, Skyrim, Starbound or Zelda; movies like Star Wars; and even construction games like Lego.
Key features
The key elements of the game are:
- The World & Story
- Player evolution
- Construction
- Multiplayer gameplay
Milestones
Some important dates of Planets³ development:
- Mar-Apr 2014: Kickstarter campaign
- Mar 09, 2014: Planets³ Steam Greenlight concept
- Mar 27, 2014: Prototype is released to the press
- Apr 21, 2014 - Jun 22, 2014: Online store opens with Kickstarter equivalent rewards (except for add-ons and top tiers).
- Jun 02, 2014: Backers can start registering, validating tier selection and optionally selecting add-ons with the remaining pledge amount.
- Jun 30, 2014: Official forum is opened.
- Aug 06, 2014: Official website is reworked, and now includes a development progress chart.
- Sep 01, 2014: Technical prototype (v0.7.7) is released.
- Oct 29, 2014: Decision to switch game engine from Ogre to Unreal Engine 4.
- Jan 07, 2015: Pre-alpha version is released.
- May 27, 2015: First alpha version is released.
- Jul-Sep 2016: First building contest, used to select the spaceship for Steam game cover.
- Jul 12, 2016: Game wins $15 000 via Unreal Dev Grants[1].
- Oct 12, 2016: Game is released on Steam early access.
Roadmap
The initial roadmap from Kickstarter campaign in March 2014
The revised roadmap after decision to switch game engine in October 2014
The intial roadmap from Kickstarter campaign has shifted by a few months, in particular due to unforeseen replacement of Ogre game engine with Unreal Engine[2]
Race to Space
The first release, named Planets³: Race to Space, is to be finalized, with all features complete, for end of 2015 and will include all the goals up to 500 000$ (with the Planets³ editor). It will take place in the first solar system, with the storyline suspended beyond that...
The estimated timeline (as of October 2014) is:
- End 2014: Race to Space pre-alpha
- Begining 2015: Race to Space alpha
- Middle 2015: Race to Space beta
- End 2015': Race to Space release
Space Enemies
The release of the 'full game', named Planets³: Space Enemies, will open onto the universe and lead to a climactic story ending. Some clues will be scattered in the first opus, though mostly in annex quests and dungeons.
The estimated timeline is:
- 2017: Space Enemies release
Cubical Drift
Cubical Drift
Current development team is composed of:
- NeoM (Michel Thomazeau) - CEO, Co Funder
- Cording Marmot (Fabien Perrot) - Dev Lead, Co Funder
- Guyk (Guillaume Grodwohl) - Dev, Co Funder
- Mick (Mickaël Parisot) - Dev
- Altaus (Olivier Fouques) - Web Lead
- ReyMantha (Alexandre Rey) - Lead Artist - [1]
- Martino (Martin Brunet) - 3D Generalist
- Merakline (Kelly Recco) - 3D Generalist [2]
- Liwhem (Wilfried Nass) - Sound Designer [3]
- Lexi - Administration
Former team members:
- C34 (Alex Vial) - 2D Artist
Trivia
- The ³ can be done on Windows using Alt + 0179 keys.
- Technically, if translated to English correctly, Planets³ should be pronounced «Planets cubed.»
- The Mac stretch goal on the Kickstarter campaign was successfully reached on April 5rd, 2014.