I spent no small amount of time this weekend trying to scratch an itch.

Do you ever have an experience like this? You have a hankering to play a video game. Not any particular game, just a certain style of game with a certain feel. You start up various games you have, only to discover that they aren’t quite it. You poke around online, downloading various demos and shareware games, only to be disappointed again. Sure, these are all fine games, just, none of them are the game you want to play.

The game I’ve been wanting to play is a space-based 4X game (“explore, expand, exploit, exterminate”) with a certain flavor. A certain, shall we say, battlestar galactica flavor (yes, yes, I know, I am obsessed). I want a 4X game where I can build massive carriers, outfit them with deadly fighters and, crew them with flamboyant pilots and then send them to invade my neighbours. I want turn-based tactical combat that is quick to resolve but still interesting.

I have been unable to find this game anywhere.

Usually when that happens to me, I end up writing some code, and this weekend was no exception. I haven’t got much put together, just some initial work on the combat screen. I am trying to make this as quick and dirty as possible, in the hopes that I might actually, I dunno, get something playable out.

Screenshot:

Red squad is fresh off the flight-deck. Blue squad got a little bit shot up somewhere along the way. The little boxes at bottom right are supposed to be remaining missiles, bombs and fuel, respectively. Yes, that’s a gas can. They’ll still use gas cans in the distant future, right? That star fighter runs on the same stuff as my dad’s lawnmower…

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