Available on PC: Steam | GamersGate | Demo
And on Xbox 360: Xbox LIVE Indie Games
FREE Solar 2 Soundtrack and Wallpapers
Media: Solar 2 on IndieDB | Announce Trailer | Release Trailer
Accolades:
Freeplay Awards – Winner: Best Audio – Finalist: Best Game, Best Design, Best Writing.
DreamBuildPlay 2011 Challenge – 2nd Place.
PAX10 – Selected for the PAX10 Indie Game Showcase at PAX Prime 2011.
IndieCade Festival 2011 – Finalist.
IndiePub Independent Propeller Awards – SemiFinalist.
Description:
In most games you see stars in the background, you shoot asteroids or you live on planets. But in Solar 2 you ARE these objects! Enter a universe where you must prove yourself to the resident god-like figure by doing its many bizarre and varied tasks. Or just ignore it and see how big you can grow!
Solar 2 is an open-world, sandbox game set in an infinite abstract universe. Play constructively: grow your system, nurture life on your planets and attack enemy life in huge space battles. Play destructively: crash into other objects and cause chaos, use your orbiting objects like wrecking balls, steal planets from other systems.
Features:
- Dynamic abstract sandbox universe. Changes and evolves as you do.
- Non-linear missions and open-world gameplay.
- No boundaries. Drift forever in ambient space bliss.
- Full of weird eccentric humor and stuff.
- Extensive custom sound track.
Solar 1:
Solar was originally released in March 2009 on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. It’s quite the old game now. It was a prototype of the full version of the game, now called Solar 2 (so I don’t get a naming conflict with the prototype). Solar 2 is my vision for how the game was always meant to be and I hope you enjoy it!
The original Solar is available only on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. The core gameplay remains largely unchanged between Solar and Solar 2 (why change what works so well?), although Solar 1 structures the gameplay and content differently. Worth checking out if you want to see how far the game has evolved!
Development:
Solar 2 was developed by a one man team! Just me, Jay Watts, doing most of the work. That includes all concept and design, all programming, all ingame graphics and animations, business, publishing and all those other many odd-jobs I had to do.
I can’t do audio though, which is why all of the music and sounds in Solar and Solar 2 were outsourced to JP Neufeld with Matt Wiesen of Symphony of Specters. I really love the music in Solar, but then again I should!
Right when I was preparing marketing assets, I realized I needed something really awesome to show off the game, and I wasn’t a good enough artist to do it. The awesome splash screen image you see of Solar 2 was done by Kamikaye.
Special Thanks, in no particular order:
- Nick Gravelyn, for his “EasyStorage” XNA code that saved me lots of time.
- Shawn Hargreaves, for his blog, which is an invaluable XNA resource.
- Cygon, for the fantastic XNA WiX installer used for PC versions of Solar 2.
- CN Ops for doing Alpha testing. You know who you are!
- All my friends who did Beta testing, thanks for the feedback!
Solar 1 took me 4 months to make, Solar 2 took me 10 months. They were both developed in C# with Microsoft XNA Game Studio using Visual Studio C# Express. No 3rd party engines were used. Graphics were done with Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop.
Pingback: Game Retail Store » Solar: Planetary Space Battles
I think my viewpoint on Solar 2 can best be summed up as “YEEEEE!!!” The Indie game was a great idea and a fantastic seed for something intergalactically epic, so I’ve got high hopes for Solar 2.
Baught me some Solar 2, and lemme tell you, this game is cash. I’ve spent way too long making a galaxy death machine, rolling around blowing the piss outa everything. Worlds of fun.
Only problem I’m having is I cant make a multi-star system. Im probably just doing something wrong, it is 5am after all!
Ya just keep collecting asteroids on a plent until you have enough mass to mass a star and that star will join yours
Yeah you have to get a planet in your system to turn into a star by absorbing asteroids.
Pingback: Trailer: Solar (Murudai) « Leviathyn
Pingback: Solar: Planetary Space Battles « Leviathyn
Pingback: Solar: Planetary Space Battles « Elijahkolton's Video Game Blog
Pingback: 沙盒探索类独立游戏-Solar | 泰奥斯兰德
esta chido solar xd
#
I’d buy it definatly if it where on ps3
, ill try to convince my dad to get it on the pc though i doubt ill be sucessful XD, but you never know.
Reply
#
Slug says:
January 6, 2011 at 9:11 am
i did however manage to get one of my friends who owns an xbox to buy it and i completed it for him lol. i really liked the first game and would like to see it on the ps3. But i am glad that your bringing it to pc.
I want this so badly for iPhone :p
Seconded.
This is one of the few games that I’ve actually been actively tracking since I heard about it, reeeeeeally want to play this game as soon as it’s released!
just to say : solar on xbox indie games is a very very good game. looking forward to purchase solar 2.
Pingback: Another Nifty Indie Game – Solar 2 | VonGeekenstein
Excellent little game, loved the demo enough to buy it and talk about it on my little blog. Hope to see more.
Awesome… I loved the first Solar. How long until we can expect this to be out on XBLIG? I’d rather play it on my console if possible.
A few days, not long.
Downloaded the demo today on Steam. Result: Great game! Bought it immediately.
My only criticism:
1. The .NET Framework installer also launches when the .NET Framework is already installed (prompts to repair/uninstall the framework). This might confuse less tech-savvy users. And it’s a very likely scenario, too: Windows 7 comes will all versions of .NET pre-installed.
2. Your progress in the demo isn’t saved for the full version. I totally understand, that you don’t allow loading in the demo, but it should be possible to carry the progress made in the demo over to the full version.
PS. I really loved the tutorial-characters nagging about this just being a demo (“twiddle twiddle”). Keep up the good work!
1. That’s actually a problem with Steam. Originally I was checking whether .NET 4 was already installed with the Steam installer but it wasn’t working all the time, sometimes it would say .NET 4 was installed when it wasn’t, so it wouldn’t show the installer and the game wouldn’t work. So to avoid this serious issue, I didn’t do that check through the Steam installer and just made it come up all the time. More annoying to more people, but at least there’s no silent, unexplained fails!
2. Man, you’re completely right. I should of made the demo restriction unable to load, not unable to save. Oh well, if it’s any consolation, you can’t build a big system in the demo anyway, shouldn’t take long to build it again in the full version!
I bought this at steam after playing the demo for about 45 minutes.
After playing the game for about 2 hours, I kind of feel let down. It’s certainly not horrible, and the music is awesome, and it was entertaining for a while, but its not really a game that has a ton of replays in it. The idea that something you spent a while putting together comes crashing down in seconds and you start over gets a little tiresome after a bit.
I am not saying this game sucks by any means, but its a bit disposable, and I feel a little dumb for paying 9 bucks at Steam for it. It fits more under the play it for a weekend or so and move on–something around 2.99.
Keep in mind that the full version has a lot of missions and stuff, where as the demo is just “free-play” mode.
Sounds like you need to wait until a sale! That’s what Steam is famous for, and it’s perfect for people like you who are a little unsure about the value they’ll get out of it.
No, as I posted above I said I bought it – I said I felt a little dumb for jumping and paying 9 bucks before I realized the game wasn’t all it implied or at least I thought it was going to be.
Like I said, it’s not bad, just wish I would have not spent the money after I played the full version I bought at Steam. I think its good for a time passing thing, like if you were waiting in an airport or something. An iPhone app would be perfect. But as a 9 dollar game for PC I felt it was not something I really wanted.
Just buyer’s remorse. I think you’ll probably go on to make something great, but this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.
Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that. Who knows, maybe give it time and you might try again and find you enjoy it.
I am thinking about an iPhone/mobile app. I just need to make sure the Steam version is perfect first.
I have some similar feeling but not as bad. I don’t regret having spent the money but I thought it would have some more between blackhole and big crunch. I was hoping for a bit scale.
Something like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Earth%27s_Location_in_the_Universe_%28JPEG%29.jpg
and this
http://www.dgeneste.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/800px-Star-sizes1.jpg
Really? Is 9 dollars really too much to pay for a short, simple game that still provides 2 hours of excellent entertainment? You could buy a cheap dinner for that much which would only last 20 minutes!
what you need is to make it free as solar 1 on minijuegos.com
I just bought the game on Steam but frankly, the cancer joke on the demo? A bit crass, almost made me not buy it.
Yeah, that was certainly not intended and I do apologize to anyone I offended. I removed it right away, and it will be live along with other fixes in a couple days.
No!! Don’t remove it! It’s very funny…. If some people don’t like it, you don’t care about it. You can’t say “yes” to all suggestion with no humor.!!
I bought your game on Steam, and i like it very much. Very relaxing.. Really good God-game.
If you search any composer for the futur, i propose myself, lol!!!
You can check my work here: http://www.myspace.com/norsklh
A French Fan.
Great potential for real sandboxing.. open a console in game and let us mess around with classes and object values! Especially max planets values.
It’s okay for it to break the game, but give us the option “Unsupported Dev Console” or something. Lots of numbers we can play with here!
Also, make the star’s size scale with their mass. I’d like to have a Cephei VV type star covering half my screen
Also maybe a confirmation to take the next stage of star. Like if i dont want to morph to large star just yet but i accidently swallow one last planet that put me over the edge.
Just picked up the demo for Solar 2 on my xbox. Love it.if i had the money for the points I would buy it as i have Solar 1 already. Both rated 5-stars aswell cause more people need to play these games. Id also buy the steam version if i owned a pc. Which leads me into agreement with above posters and how i’d love to see solar on a Iphone.
Just bought the indie version of solar 2 and I wonder why it’s not in the arcade game category. this game is seriously better than most arcade games and more money value in my eyes.
Sweet game! Really an unexpected gem, thanks for making this!!
Very relaxing and an addictive game systeme, very Nice graphics too and i m really impressed by your gravitation code simulation. I’had like many others tryers of the demo bought your game (sorry for my bad english, im french folks) immediately.
my réflexion after 10 hours of play is : why dont increase the number of planets allowed In your system as your number of star is growing ?
Anyway fantastic work
Thanks
I Occupate myself translating this Game into French…I’ll transmit this when it will be OK ^^
Your game is not possible to download on steam, and it is not only me who is having this problem. Other games work fine but yours do not want to start downloading.
No idea. Sounds like a problem with Steam, and I can’t help you there.
Found your game last night on steam while I was at work, went home and downloaded the xbox demo – bought it almost immediately! Really awesome. I played it for 3 hours this morning instead of going to sleep!
Tonight I’m back at work and am considering buying the steam version too (even though I already bought it on xbox) so I can play on my laptop at work!
My only disappointment so far is the lack of the galaxy intermediary step… you go from a solar system to a black hole. I understand galaxies would have necessitated a model would have been at least slightly inconsistent with the current items and physics, but still, I’m a little bummed. Getting a spiral galaxy going would be ultimate. Maybe you can find a way to make it work? Or maybe I haven’t found it yet – I’ve only made a 2-star system. Maybe I’ll work on seeing how many stars I can get in 1 system… I saw a 3-star one floating around so I figure we can go at least to 3, right?
you can at least go to four it seems
Try six stars, and I am working on seven.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/651/solar26stars.png/
Pingback: Xbox Live Indie Game Of The Week: Solar, Sums & Temple Death! | Dealspwn
I just buyed it on steam. Great game!
But it would be nice to be able to configure the controls. I would like to play it with my Xbox 360 Controller.
I bought Solar on XBL a while back, had some great fun with it, then I played the demo on Steam and I instantly ran over to the Xbox to buy it! Great improvements all around. However, there are a few small differences in the PC demo that I noticed are different in the Xbox version.
On the PC version, you can choose to show orbits and the velocity of your system, would it be possible for Xbox users to have this option as well? Maybe an option to toggle this on or off in the Start menu. The only other thing is that in free roam, I’d like to be able to monitor my system without having the mission pointers up, they can be a little distracting, so maybe an option to disable those seperately?
Thanks for your work on a great and unique game.
That’s a PC exclusive feature. Due to the price discrepancy I do have to give the PC users some bonus features!
you basically say that you can add this simple feature on XBL but won’t, only due to commercial reasons?
Not quite. The line drawing code is a bit intensive and crunches the Xbox CPU quite a bit. I need to draw a lot of lines to average out to a circle, and Xbox doesn’t like that. That’s part of the reason why this is a cheat and not a feature, as if you have a slow computer or heaps of stuff onscreen you can lag your system with it.
But yes, this is for commercial reasons. I’m still a business and my goal is to give the players value for money, and as the PC users are paying double then they should get more value. It wouldn’t be fair on the PC users if the two versions were identical.
This is a fun little game, but as someone else said, I can’t quite justify the $9 spent. Are you planning on some free DLC/updates?
I’m about to release an update which has neutron stars, greatly extends the replayability of the multi-star sections, adds more stats, rebalances the missions and various other tweaks. There will be plenty of free updates, until I believe the game is truly done. Check out the Steam forums where I’m discussing updates with the players.
I’m not sure why people are worried about the value of this game, it’s virtually impossible to beat all the content in under 3-4 hours, and most people will take 5-6 hours to beat all the missions and complete all the achievements as they are very challenging (most of the achievements have less than 4% of players completed them). And that’s not counting the infinite sandbox mode, which I’ve seen players put over 20 hours into!
will the updates also be for the xbla indie game? or is it just for steam on pc’s?
The above update will come to Xbox in about a week. All updates will probably come to Xbox eventually (except PC specific things) but due to the slow and annoying update process on Xbox it will be between 1-2 weeks behind the Steam version, which I can update instantly.
do you plan to update the XBL version too ?
Yeah, in fact there will be an update shortly as I fix a bunch of bugs in the Xbox version, and it’ll include a bunch of new things.
The Steam version is very easy and quick to update, so it’ll get major updates first, then I’ll test them there and get some feedback. Then when it’s all good, I’ll prepare an Xbox version, as the Xbox version takes longer to update and I can’t do it as frequently.
I stumbled across Solar 2 in the Xbox Indie store and really enjoyed it. Some of the missions seem very tricky – the “escape from the police” and “protect the planet” ones. I look forward to the update!
I just discovered solar 2 today being sold on steam. I played the demo for about 2 hours and loved every second of it! I just bought the game and I’m recommending it to all my friends! I think it’s awesome that a single person developer can create such a good game. Seriously, I’ll be watching closely to what games you create. Keep up this kind of development and pretty soon you will be raking in the money, if you’re not already
I love it! Got it on steam and can’t stop playing it. Very good job.
Is there a Solar2 wiki up yet? Or a forum?
I’m having trouble with some of the quests.
Oh, and thanks for fixing the asteroid quest where you fix up the galaxy’s artwork. One was too hard with the life forms trying to kill you!
Keep up the good work.
Head over to the official Steam forums: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1153 There’s lots of info there that the fans have written up.
Also there is my guide for beating the missions, hope it helps! http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1936855
are there cheats in this game like there were in solar 1?
Yeah. And like Solar 1, you have to beat the game to unlock them! Beat all the missions and you unlock all the cheats/god options.
Bought it yesterday night, enjoying it immensely!
Immediately butchered your splash/poster from IndieDB to make a dock icon. I should have been working … >_>
Can someone please tell me how to beat the final mission to the the “heist” star mission set? I mean, the stars come flying in two lines around you, what exactly am I supposed do? Am supposed to fly in the same direction or the opposite direction? And how long do I do it?
All you have to do is not die! Don’t need to move anywhere. You can beat that mission very easy if you think laterally about it
Ok, thanks. I’ll try.
That mission is hard as hell. I just can’t beat it. Straight forward when explained? Yes. Easy? No. Impossible? Yes.
I DID THE MISSION! Finally. Instead of surviving I ran out of the space between the stars and got the Steam achievement, “Lost”. Yay!
Now for the final “Duel” mission.
What, how am I supposed to kill “God” now?
I tried turning into a black hole while fighting him but he just left without saying anything.
Was debating whether paying for the full version of this altho enjoying the demo I was having doubts as for long term value. 10:44:15 playtime later (on full version) I am still enjoying the hell out of it… Defo a good buy. My planet now has 300 kills and I could wish “life” had more depth (200 kills = orbiting battle station, 500 = start mining asteroids for resources to build orbiting manufacturing plants or something of the sort..)
But great little game.
Please though consider adding support for people gaming in ridiculous resolutions as this game would do quite nicely on triple screen eyefinity, it scales to 5304×1050 resolution it seems, but crashes saying something about textures not supporting textures beyond 4000-something?
Keep up the good stuffs.
Well anyway, it tries to scale to my desktop resolution if set to “automatic”
Since it crashed I set it to scale for single monitor in 1680×1050, and am now digging for a settings file to try set it to automatic again and see if it still crashes.. Where is it hidden hmm..
Well, in shooters or racing games having a really wide setup is really useful to see more on your sides. But Solar 2 is a top down game, and the ideal monitor is a square monitor so you can see equally in all directions! The more you go from square the less it likes it, and it REALLY doesn’t like super widescreen setups like that.
Sadly I don’t have such a setup for testing so I can’t really work on it and figure out what’s the best way to handle that situation. I think you need to just play in windowed mode I’m afraid (or change to a single monitor).
I like your idea of upgrading the life on your planets. I think there should be an achievement for reaching 500 kills just as a life planet. I got one of my single “life planets” up to 1000 kills, hoping something would happen… it didn’t.
Maybe I will add an achieve for that in the next update
Yay
Favourite pasttime atm: Bobbing around as a single planet racking up kills.
Wishing that life on my planets could be continually upgraded with better planetshield/fighter efficiency, like…
500 kills: units improve in combat
1000 kills: orbital factory giving extra unit production.
I’d pay for that DLC
It’s a little gem of a game really, and the whole “nursing life on planet” aspect has more potential.
Maybe just a “hardcore” option for massively slowing down development rate of your planets. Would give opportunity to those who want slower development of life and combat efficiency, without scaring off more casual players as they can leave it off.
It’s Ok ! I’ve completed the French translation !
Where should I upload it so French people could obtain it ?
Email me at jay@murudai.com. HOWEVER I am currently doing a lot of changes with how missions are structured so more can be unlocked sooner, and there is quite a few changes from the current language file. That’s why I haven’t been requesting translations yet
I’ll need to go through the changes with you, and once that’s all sorted and the new version uploaded then I will make it available on a sticky in the Steam forums.
Oh, I see ^^ Thanks for listening
I am trying to finish the asteroid missions, but accidentally became a planet. If I go below 20 mass, it kills me. How do I do the last asteroid mission? Reset all progress?
Ok, respawned as asteroid. A note about that on missions start would help out others, I imagine.
Do you have any idea exactly when the update for xbox is coming out? and what exactly it includes? like does it have less than the pc update or the same?
Xbox update will come out in 1-2 weeks. I’ve already done it, it’s just due to the terrible Xbox update system that it’ll take a while to go live. Nothing I can do about it I’m afraid.
It’ll have roughly the same stuff as the PC version, just lacking things that don’t work on Xbox.
I purchased your game on Steam a few days ago. Great idea. Well worth the $9. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Pingback: Solar 2 Review | Grelik's Gaucherie
Jay, could you possibly outline the major/minor differences between the XBLIG and Steam versions? (horrendous console data-push time-lines withstanding of course)
Knowing me I’ll end up with both versions before too long but a more robust explanation of the differences would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Here’s the list: http://murudai.com/2011/06/solar-2-now-on-xbox-live-indie-games/
I just got this on XBLA and I have to say it is great. Very fun and relaxing. It’s nice to see something so different. Kudos to you for making such a great game by yourself. I hope you sell lots of copies.
i have a question. When you become a black hole, sometimes when planets are flung around you, they have a trail of red mist or fire behind them. what is this?
Probably asteroids being smashed into oblivion.
Is today (6/30) the only day it’s $4.99 on Steam?
Just wonderin’
I love this game! Bought it on XBLA and it’s been great fun to play.
The only problem I have encountered is that I have an 8 star system which I saved to one of the slots. Every time I attempt to look at the slot, it crashes the game instantly. I can play fine as long as I don’t look at that particular system, but I figured it might be a good idea to mention it since I’m assuming that this isn’t a desired aspect of the game.
Thanks for a great game!
Sorry for the quick post. The game now simply crashes as soon as I press start. I assume I would have to redownload it to fix the problem, but I’ll hold off on doing that in case there is already a fix, or sending you my save might help in the discovery of one (in the hopes that this is something you can fix)
I have a patch ready to go, but the terrible Xbox update system means it’ll be a week at least before it gets out there. So just hang tight, I am trying to have this fixed as soon as possible.
Hello, i just bought this game through steam. I run linux, and i don’t expect you to have support for it, but you could provide some clear information about what .NET versions are supported, does it work with mono and some information about how the installer behaves works, it said to me that i had .NET installed even though i know i do not, so how does it check that?
Sorry for my english.
.NET installer comes up anyway due to a problem with the Steam installer. You need .NET 4 and XNA 4 installed for the game to run.
Hello,
bought Solar 2 on steam today and had some real fun. Since its a sandbox game and its the universe we’re talking about, I thought there could be some more content. Now, I know youre occupied fixing the problems and so forth. I had the crazy idea that making it possible for people to mod this would be awesome…. and could resolve in a insane amount of new stuff!
I thought about some little things to add, first some technical stuff, later some content I’m dreaming about. These are no demands! Feel free to ignore =) Just some ideas, which may or may not are possible to realise and would be awesome (imo).
-it would be nice to somehow be albe to change the positions of planets in your system
-it would be nice to have a an option to confirm star growth (especilly between large star/neutron star an neutron star/black hole)
-it would be nice to be able to intigrate suns in your system, as long as your already got a multistar system and the target star no longer has planets
-it would be nice to be able to select a target for your units to attack
-it would be nice to get red arrows that point towards black holes BEFORE becoming one yourself (lost my 9-star-system to one that just flew at me from no where)
- more colours for the suns
-larger suns (higher scaling with mass)
-different sized planets
-planets with rings, giant asteroids
-different live forms -> different ships/cannons -> bilding your optimal system
-combinations to unlock special stuff, like becoming dark matter when havin 2 neutron stars and a large sun for example
-spance stations, maybe a feature to somehow de involved in fighting
-more achievements for bigger stuff! like 100 kills, 500 kills, 1000 kills, 5000 total in system; 9 or more suns (I had 10, dont know if its possible to have more), soecial combinations etc…
-maybe some tech that can be found somewhere in space / missions that can be applied to one planet (like double shields, special guns), would make he planet more valuable -> reason to actually protect them
-galaxies!!!! *spankling eyes*
-maybe, maybe, in the far future….: multiplayer =)
Hey everyone, and hey Jay, can you make it legitly possible to create black hole systems like SPOILER ALERT the boss?
I’ve made one though, but its not legit
http://steamcommunity.com/id/StaemIDinusegoddammit/screenshot/560912928356006469
The idea of growing into planet’s, stars, black holes etc. amazes me (the big crunch is the best
). The game concept is awesome. Can’t wait for Solar 3 
(galaxies, superclusters, nebulae, supernovae, omg. Solar 4, 5, 6 give me give me).
Not to forget: the music was also beautiful: matches the game perfectly.
I love the game idea, but I would like to see more ways to influence life on your planet, like having a particularly warm or cold climate could have certain bonus’s, and different technologies.. As well as more advanced civilizations that will eventually develop incredibly strong, and unique weapons and abilities.
This game is a turd. Don’t buy it.
Excuse me, I didn’t hear very well, could you please be more specific ?
I’m french and I’m sorry if my english is not perfect ( you can correct me ^^ )
I have actually a multi star sytem with 20 stars ( I playing it on XBLA ). But when I want to save my 21st stars, the game crash. I have contact Jay for this problem and I’m impatient to have the next fix.
Once again, the music is wonderful, thanks for the free download of it
For suggestion, I don’t think it could be great to change the position of planet because there is very not realist. Nevertheless, it could be good to have the possibility to keep spaceship in planet when we don’t want to lose asteroids for grow a planet. It’s very boring to see spaceships run to asteroid when we want to absorb it.
Anyway, this game is very fun, relaxing, and so original. The price is good for it. There is lots of more expensive crap on XBLA. Keep it up !
First, your game is amazing and Im really addicted to it
BUT, could you please tell me why is it so incredibly hard to complete the last misson for asteroid – avoiding the stars for 20 secs? Screen is too close, there is low time to react and the stars fly too fast. All other missions even for star are done, quite easy in my oppinion, but this one….. Or is there some way how to make it? I repeated it so many times that Im gettin angry.
In fact, this mission is not as hard. I you want, I can write my way to success but I don’t want to spoil the show ^^.
I’m not an hardcore gamer and I find mission are not very easy but this one is not as difficult as seems.
Pingback: Cult of the Malformed Fork » PC Game – Solar 2
Eyh !
I just discovered your game. It seems to be a very good game.
But i got some questions : what are you going to add in the game?
Will be a multiplayer or co-op game ?
Lots of my friends love the game and we want to play together !
Pingback: Solar 2
come on , i want solar 3 , a SUPER new version , like , you can control life , control ships , multiplayer , something like : you are the GOD/SUN/LIFE AT THE SAME TIME!
Love the game, esp. where asteroids loop into my system and get caught by the last planet!
Please keep developing this game – so much potential for Solar 3 and beyond!!!
Esepcially, please do gas giants with rings :=)
I just got this game a few days ago on Steam while it was on sale. Solar 2 is awesome and easily worth the full price.
Now, I’ve seen a few people saying they wish they could get some sort of confirmation before evolving, but I have to disagree. I like it when things just happen, for better or worse for whatever object you happen to be at the time. It makes it feel more suspenseful and real.
The humor is good, and the music is great
The only thing I’d possibly say I would tweak is to maybe give a little more distance between the planets’ orbits. Maybe. And just a very small amount. Sometimes I try to let my planets keep a few asteroids floating around them to be moons, but they usually end up hitting another planet or asteroid. Not a big deal though
Anyways, fantastic game. Thanks!
Bought this yesterday, both for me and a friend who had it on his Steam wishlist. I was very pleased with it. It was so good, I almost felt guilty getting it so cheap (Steam summer sales and all that). I’d like to see a bit more variation at the planet level. The two stages of planet growth seem a bit too short-lived, and at a point, it’s all pretty much the same thing and you don’t really feel unique.
I would have liked to see multiplayer as well. Two or more friends sharing a universe and competing with eachother to become the largest, or simply fooling around together, would have been awesome. Maybe in Solar 3?
Very good game, love the physics and the overall concept. When can we expect a multi-player version? Star system combat with friends would be huge fun!
Yeah !!
Xbox live update is online !!
Awesome, I grown my solar system to 27 stars for the moment.
Just one problem… Often, I finding a multi-star system bigger than mine :p
Nice job
Jay Watts, could you make an multiplayer upgrade for solar 2? im not saying that solar 2 need to be better , you know only the demo is completly AWESOME! PS: i want to buy the full game you know
)
like , some grab the bag (or grab the planet
king of the hill ( king of the BLACK HOLE… dont get eaten by your own hill… 0-O)
star slayer…
spaceships slayer
free mode multiplayer…
thank u for your attention
Multiplayer would be nice, it’s just FAR FAR too difficult for me to do on my own for such a complicated and chaotic physics based game. Online multiplayer is nearly impossible for indies to do (except with slow games, like RTS and turn-based) but this is such an unusual concept it makes it even harder.
Non-developers don’t realize this, but online multiplayer is the single hardest technical thing to do in the development of a video game, without question
ah , and i have one other idea!
you know , i both solar’s you play with a animated sun, full of life , can control left , right , up and down , so , can you make others suns , planets , asteroids , or even black holes , alive , like the player ? , well , the game will be a lot hard , so i was thinking making an option called “things alive” or whatever…you are the creator, not me
so…great idea right?
ok , i try to make games , too , in game maker (dude I SUCK!) my best game was called : cell of creation , i never published it , you control a cell , you can eat , fight , and reproduce , just be careful with anothers cells and viruses… LOL dude… i never finished the game
your game is soooo cool , i wish i could make games like you… :-/
i know i need to train , see tutorials , but i already did that , A LOT … well , i quit off the idea of making games…
The first game I started working on after I finished Solar 1 was a game like that, with cells and growing in a big cell environment. I never got past the prototype stages on it, here’s probably the latest screenshot of how it looked: http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1117/primordial.jpg
well , your game looks better than mine ,
good luck!
you really have experience!
as Spock says: live long and prosper: ___ ___
\ \ / /
\ \/ / __
| |/ /
|_______/
oh no!!
ignore the lines in my final comment , i was trying to draw the hand of spock , but i made a mistake…
i think u know spock, but if u dont , heres an image of him:
http://geekgear.com.br/2009/01/07/pagina-traz-citacoes-classicas-do-doutor-spock/
Pingback: Game Test : SOLAR 2 « germangameplay
It would be cool if there was a form of online multiplayer. Like, you and your friends could help each other and if you were a planet and your friend was a star you could protect them with your life. Also you could do missions together. Or you try to blow your friend up.
Any idea how you become that thingy just next to black hole? I just cannot figure it out :/
never mind, found it out for myself, could have guessed it would be that simple
Pingback: Solar 2: ovvero come diventare lo RE del Cosmo! | Gioca Giuè
Hi Jay I’ve seen the videos and I love the game concept. Is there any hope at all of it being ported to PS3? I’ve never bought anything from the PSN but would definitely make an exception for this game because it seems perfect for lying in bed on a lazy morning, which I can’t do with a desktop pc!
It’s available on Xbox 360 but I have no plans for PSN at this time. If I’m going to port over to anything it’ll be the mobiles!
Shame about the ps3, but mobiles would be a great platform too, in which case Android first please
So, I played for a few hours (Steam version) and got through to the end, and so I started messing around with the respawn as a system option to take on some missions and started building a multi star system. Saved my progress and quit.
Upon starting the game up today, I’m instantly greeted by an exploding star; my saved systems are blank (and it says unavailable in demo version), my stats are wiped, and yet I can spawn as any previously unlocked system and my mission progress was saved.
What the hell is going on? Files seemed to verify ok, I’m pretty sure it’s still the full version (that’s what it says in steam at least). I’m guessing my stats and saved systems are gone forever, but I’d hope to at least resolve my issue with saving new systems.
Email me your save file (My Documents > SavedGames > Solar 2 > solar2_save > AllPlayers) to jay@murudai.com and I’ll have a look at it and try and recover it for you.
First you can try closing your Steam client then reopening it, as that seems to fix issues when reverting to demo.
Well, restarting Steam seemed to fix the problem. Save files – ok. Stats – ok. Starting – ok. So I’d imagine the problem was it was in demo mode, hence the star exploding, lack of saves, and no stats.
Cheers for the quick answer Jay.
Awesome game. Good job =)
Will there be a Linux port? Just asking because the PC (Steam) version is not working on Wine (I know you don’t support Wine).
Pingback: 2011 PAX 10 Winners Announced
Love this game, and highly recommend!
Your game have huge potential, work improving your planet life phase and random ai to make decisions.
Pingback: Solar 2 - Deutsches Sprachpaket gesucht
Pingback: Dream.Build.Play 2011 Semi-Finalists: Shooters and Space | DIYgamer
Pingback: Dream.Build.Play 2011 Semi-Finalists: Shooters and Space | DIYgamer
Pingback: Freeplay 2011: Every One’s A Winner, Especially These Guys | Kotaku Australia
Pingback: Freeplay 2011 Winners | Capsule Computers Pty Ltd - Gaming News, Reviews, Interviews & Competitions
Pingback: Newsstreak: Ganadores del indie Fest, demo de PES 2012 y el juego más exitoso de XBL | www.17bits.cl | Videojuegos en serio... a veces
Pingback: Dream.Build.Play 2011 Winners Announced!! « Xbox Indie News and Reviews
Pingback: Congrats to the 2011 Dream.Build.Play winners! | xblafans.com
Will this ever come out for mac?
Probably. After I finish the upcoming challenges update a Mac/Linux port is the next thing I want to look into, so pending massive technical issues it should be available on Mac in November maybe.
Whens the mac client comming out i can really pay some cash for this good game.
Pingback: They Came, They Saw, They PAXed
Pingback: Ecco i vincitori del Dream.Build.Play 2011 – Indie Vault
Pingback: Disney, Marvel, Solar 2, Site Updates » Symphony of Specters - Home For All Your Audio Needs!
Pingback: Blue Lochiel › The Post Pax11:Prime Games Post
I got the game on steam, it crashes everytime I try to open it, I’ve reinstalled it and restarted steam several times, nothings helping.
Hi. Take a look at this thread: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1996170 and do everything I’ve listed there. I suspect it could be .NET4, so you may need to install it manually, there’s a link for that in that link. If nothing is working, email me at jay@murudai.com and I’ll work through it with you.
Damn! This one is addicting. Just like Tasty Planet
Though I find that the missions are some what difficult?! at least as an asteroid. All that puhching my friend business… And that dark matter asteroid – I pushed him WAY TOO HARD, now it’s drifting into the void with speed of light and now wassup with the mission? How I cancel it?
And as usual – the evolution of “me” is quite … ummm… short?!…well, idk.
But the game is good. One more – you should mention in your installer, that your game needs NET 4 and XNA 4, cause many folks over here were like “OMFG nice screenshots I MUST download… Installing… WTF??? O_O”.
Music is nice – 8/10 [OK, OK, I'm comparing to Freelancer and Deus Ex lol].
Grafics – 10/10.
Gameplay – 10/10.
P.S. When you’ll up to make Solar III, please consider doing it so it could be run not only on HD6990
Thanks. Bye.
Yeah, they are quite difficult! There are some guides on the stickied part of the Steam forum: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1153 But the general advice is to make a big system and to be careful and think about it. They are all quite possible, you just need to do them the right way!
I have one more question. With a triple-star system and 10 planets, my screen is “shaking” when I move my system. This becomes VERY-VERY irritating after a while!!! I’m curious is this a bug or a feature? LOL Something like “multiple-star-system movement caused instability emulation”?
One more – it would be cool for new and harder ships for different levels of XP. For ex. like in Galctic civilizations – add +1 to defence and attack for every *custom* hundreds of XP
Hey, ‘ts me again.
cool
1. I liked very much the stage
2. only one mission remains the friend one LOL, i almost getting it but the asteroid always is grabbed by a planet, fuuuuuuu….LMAO
3. i like the o & p thingy ;D
Brilliant game, great concept. I too would have hoped for more scale, I was hoping to get stars revolving around my black hole etc. I have a BSc in physics and this game satisfied a lot of problems I thought I might have. For example the gravity works VERY well, while playing as a black hole, you can get stars/planets to revolve if your careful. I found myself not really bothering with the missions and prefered to build a cluster of stars and planets, then proceed to take my armada to new solar systems. There is room for improvement as far as the graphics are concerned. Please invest in Solar 3
Gameplay – 4/5
Graphics – 3/5
Price – 5/5
Overall – 4/5
Pingback: 2011 IndieCade Festival Details/Finalists « His & Hers Gaming
Pingback: IndieCade finalists announced – GamingAngels
Pingback: 2011 IndieCade Game Finalists Announced « Saving Content
Pingback: IndieCade 2011 finalists announced! | Gear-Fish Reviews
Pingback: Stars Collide in Solar 2 » thriftyarcade
Pingback: Solar 2 - Digital Entanglement
Pingback: IndieCade 2011 Finalists Announced | Padinga.com
Pingback: Solar 2 – Interview | Ctrl-2-Crouch
Can someone tell me if it works in Windows Vista 64 Bits please??
The Steam version has a free demo, so download it and find out! But I haven’t heard any problems from Vista 64bit.
Pingback: IndieCade 2011 | Palette Swaps
This game is awesome but pisses me off so much! Auugghrghrhhh.
Heh, yeah, the missions are really hard! You can check out the Steam forums http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1153 and there are some stickied threads which can help you with the missions.
Pingback: SOLAR 2 – Review | Ctrl-2-Crouch
Pingback: IndieCade 2011 is a place where great games are discovered – FIND PUZZLE
i just got the game, and i have to admit, i love it
it satisfies both my need for creation……and the destruction of everything >:D
I wonder how high you can really go on number of stars. I got 6 so far. Looks like you can get at least 9.
Again, would be nice when your in star mode to get black hole alerts.
Can you make a black hole 1.850.000 or bigger? I have come close to that.
Yes you become a boa Khios then the big bang happens.
How do I make a multiple star system? Wanna know soon. Ty
get yourself a planet and make it a star (while all the time being a star yourself)
I just bought it off of Gamer’s Gate and I love it. The only problem is that it doesn’t see my gamepad. It’s a Logitech game pad, and the XP test panel can see the pad just fine, so I know it’s working. Solar 2 just ignores it. I can only use the keyboard.
Anyone else run in to this?
From what I’ve read, Solar 2 doesn’t support Logitech gamepads. I remapped the gamepad buttons using the Logitech Profiler and it’s working fine.
For non-Logitech gamepads, consider using JoyToKey.
i loved the game solar 2 but it went by way to quickly, is there any chance you are making another, but possibly an MMO or somthing that doesnt take a couple hours to beat.
Any games like i should check out, i really like the planet/star bit , but when it get to black hole ruins it for me
I am a habitual game pirate, because I learned long ago that you can’t return retail games and that a demo is often about as good as the whole game is. Most games, I install the pirated version, play for at most a few hours, and then delete. I am usually annoyed that I took the effort to try a new game only to be disappointed again, with my only consolation being that, unlike when I was 10 years old, I haven’t used my one-new-video-game-a-year quota up with my parents and no one is out $50 for a game that isn’t any fun.
I understand that on some level this is probably somewhat “wrong” and so have tried to make a habit of buying games if I actually play them enough to justify the $50 price tag. I don’t have as much time for gaming as I did when I was 10, and I’m much more jaded a gamer, so this justification process is much harder than it used to be.
I pirated Solar 2 and played it for a few hours, because I watched one episode of some kid’s gaming show from australia (?) and they did a review and it looked interesting. Then I noted how relaxed I felt when I played it, and how natural and human (?) and emergent the gameplay was. I enjoyed the soothing sounds of the soundtrack. I enjoyed the challenge of the missions. Then I googled the game and saw it was available for the very reasonable base price of $9.99, and was currently on sale for $4.99. Then I played it a few more times over the next week, and each time experienced this relaxed-yet-engaged gaming sensation.
A bit after that, I set the game up downstairs on the TV, and had fun watching my girlfriend play it for hours. She built up an even more menacing and experienced system full of life planets in no time! And she was using a 360 controller on the PC, which suggests that the Live version of your game is just as awesome as the PC version.
So I registered for a Steam account and bought your game. I figure we’ve already gotten way more fun out of it than $5 gets you anywhere else. It may be hard for me to justify to myself buying most games, but Solar 2 was a no brainer.
Thanks. Please make Solar 3!
sounds awesome but i cant purchase it for some reason, it says ‘offer is not valid in your region’. but what stumps me the most is that its an aussie game, it should work in Perth.
I love the game – paid the $1 for Solar and about to pay the $5 for Solar 2 on Xbox. But I’m confused about the listing as a finalist at Indiecade 2011. You’re not shown anywhere on their website. If that’s an oversight on their part you should tell them asap.
fosamax onj
Pingback: Top 10 Best Indie Games of 2011 – Indie Game Reviewer’s Favorite Game Picks of the Year | Indie Game Reviewer
One word, IPAD!!!
Needs multiplayer.
I really enjoyed Solar 2. Thanks for making such a unique game!
Though I did feel pretty bad when I got attached to my planets, only to use them to bludgeon other solar systems into submission.
Soundtrack is wonderful as well! “The Concert” track sounds like some sort of retro-Sonic the Hedgehog stage music, mixed with a badass guitar solo.
Thanks again!
Pingback: Gotta catch ‘em all: videogame studies of 2011 « VG Researcher
I really loved playing Solar 2 and am looking forward to experimenting more in this universe. Thanks for such a creative physics game.
pls, someone help me, how do u get a neutron star in solar 2??? do you just have to make a black and then there’s a certain chance u get one?
Very nice game. Too bad there is no Mac or iOS version. This game is great for iPad or Mac. (and you’ll get buying customers from the Apple Mac OS X AppStore with this piece of art)
This looks like a great game, and I would certainly buy it if there was a Linux version.
Unfortunately the demo doesn’t work with WINE in Ubuntu.
I think it would be a great addition to the Humble Indie Bundle too!
Can you release the XBLI version for WP7?
Will this game be available for osx lion in the future. If it was it would be great and i would definitely buy this game. But for now it is not and i only use MacBooks. please take time and make this amazing game available for lion. Thanks for your time.
Ready1299
Yup, Mac port is coming soon.
I LOVED this game,played 4 hous without stopping and i loved it sooooo much. Jay Watts you are now my idol