What is TorchShips?
TorchShips is a 3-D space combat game for Windows, Mac, & the iPad using real physics and procedurally generated single and multi-player missions.
Why is the game called TorchShips?
(from Atomic Rockets) – The term “Torchship” was coined by Robert Heinlein, and is featured in his stories Farmer in the Sky, Time for the Stars, Double Star, and “Sky Lift”. Sometimes it is referred to as “Ortega’s Torch”. Nowadays it is implied that a Torchship is some kind of high thrust fusion drive, but Heinlein meant it to mean a total-conversion mass-into-energy drive.
In our case we refer to a TorchShip as any type of high energy reaction drive starship.
What is it like to play?
The game is combat oriented, with brief interludes of managing your crew skill growth, ship configuration, and weapons load-out between missions.
All combat takes place around a mass of some kind, from clusters of asteroids to a gas giant. You face a series of increasingly difficult procedurally generated scenarios within the scope of a complex human and alien universe. Some of the available missions include – planet defense, planet attack, commerce raiding, convoy defense, interdiction, patrol/discovery, first contact, and large fleet actions.
You will only ever control one ship – but will sometimes work will allies and/or neutral vessels to accomplish a mission.
Who are the developers?
TorchShips has been primarily designed & developed by one person – John Gillespie – but does utilize a large amount of music, sounds, 3-D assets, and tools developed outside of the company.
What technology are you using?
TorchShips is written in Unity3D - this lets us utilize the Unity Asset store to speed up development and will let us release for multiple platforms fairly quickly. We are using Photon Cloud for the multi-player module.
Will you have multi-player?
Yes, player-vs-player and cooperative missions.
What platforms will you release on?
Mac & Windows, with an iPad version to follow shortly afterwards.
When is it coming out?
Planned October 2012 – we will have a closed beta before then – please subscribe to the blog or follow us on twitter and/or facebook to be notified when we start the beta.
Will there be a demo?
Yes – but it will be released alongside the official final release – after the closed beta.
