Spaceflower (internship)
Date: Sep 2020 – Feb 2021
Spaceflower UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is a small indie game studio based in Nuremberg. It is still a very young studio, but has already released its first commercial game, “Let Them Race”, the first game in the “Viewergames Arcade” game collection geared towards streamers. Furthermore, the studio is working on “Let Them Trade”, a strategy game with a comprehensive economic simulation and an impressive, wooden game board look.
Especially the pleasant atmosphere in the studio and also in the office, which is shared with the Pixel Maniacs, made the internship very enjoyable. I also got insights into many areas of game development in which I had not yet gained much experience, such as “3D Modeling” and I gained a lot of new knowledge, especially in the area of code architecture.
Viewergames Arcade
Viewergames Arcade is a collection of games aimed directly at streamers on the streaming platform “Twitch”, with a particular focus on increasing the viewer interaction. The first game in the collection is “Let Them Race”. Here, viewers can use the associated “Twitch Extension” to define a route for a car to follow along a race track, aiming to complete it as quickly as possible. In the trailer above this text, you can see all of this in action.
My contribution to this project, during my internship, was, for example, the control of the camera, some UI elements, timers and the idle camera system. I learned a lot about Unity’s corresponding systems, like “Cinemachine” and the UI system, and especially came to love Scriptable Objects.
Let Them Trade
“Let Them Trade” is a mixture of city building and economic simulation. As a player, you build towns that offer goods and raw materials to attract traders. When trading, however, taxes must be paid by the traders to the player, who can then build more cities. The objective is to find a balance between sustaining trade and expanding the kingdom. The development of the game is supported by a grant from the Bavarian FFF (FilmFernsehFonds Bayern).
Also, in “Let Them Trade”, I took care of the control of the cameras and worked on UI elements. Since the game is implemented with the “Unreal Engine” and I, until then, had quite little experience with this engine, I have made great progress learning the engine itself during my internship. I learned a lot about C++, and the Blueprint System of Unreal.