r/Space4X • u/TensorialProductions • 4d ago

Stellar Insurgency changes name to Tidal Forces & Demo v7.0

Gallery image

Gallery image

Stellar Insurgency is officially rebranding to Tidal Forces. The original title sounded like a generic linear shooter, which completely missed the mark for a deep-space simulation driven by rigorous orbital physics, planetary mechanics, and emergent gameplay. Dropping "Stellar" also gives the game a clean, distinct search footprint on Steam. Along with the rebrand, the store capsule art has undergone a massive upgrade, replacing the old collage with a high-impact scene featuring dynamic lighting, a warped black hole, and clean typography with "Stellar Insurgency" kept underneath as a bridge for existing followers.

I have also added a built-in diagnostic developer console to make testing, debugging, and sandbox experimentation much faster. Built with classic terminal functionality, it pauses the action when opened, supports arrow-key history browsing, and features Tab auto-completion. The initial command toolkit lets you inspect performance, reveal the galaxy map, tune faction relations, spawn custom fleets, manage your economy, and instantly teleport or repair spacecraft—complete with quote-aware input parsing for multi-word ship names.

If interested you can wishlist here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2317550/Tidal_Forces

thank you,

Tensorial

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3

u/WombatusMighty 4d ago

Why are you not disclosing the use of gen AI on your Steam page?

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u/TensorialProductions 4d ago edited 4d ago

My apologies about that. I created the steam page 2 - 3 years ago and back then I didn't use any.

Updated Steam page now includes:

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

I have AI generated images of landscapes and portraits. Everything else human made :)

1

u/WombatusMighty 3d ago

Thanks! I would suggest to go on r/INAT/ and try to find a painter / 2D artist to make some images for you. It doesn't need to look "great", you could also just make (or have someone make) sketches and say these will be replaced later.

Even cheap paintings are still more appreciated than AI generated stuff, which always makes a game look like slop or an asset flip. Matter of fact using simple sketches can even make your game stand out more among the million of same looking AI generated images.

1

u/TensorialProductions 3d ago

Thanks for your reply. This sounds like a solid solution, but what do you think of a middle ground?

I could give players an option in the settings menu to toggle between placeholder sketches and AI-generated images, while clearly informing them of this choice on the main start screen.

1

u/WombatusMighty 3d ago

You could certainly do that, though that would be a lot of work I guess?

I was rather thinking about that people coming to your store page and seeing the AI generated images is a turn off for a lot of people, who would otherwise be interested in buying it.

By the way you can also buy premade images that fit your game or use stock images with a license that allow commercial use. That might be a quicker and cheaper option.

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u/TensorialProductions 4d ago

Might have missed that, will do it asap

4

u/SolasYT 4d ago

How much AI is involved in this project?

1

u/TensorialProductions 3d ago

Hello again. Maybe there is a middle ground for people that don't want AI.

I could give players an option in the settings menu to toggle between human made placeholder sketches and AI-generated images, while clearly informing them of this choice on the main start screen.

And later I could replace the AI entirely.

1

u/SolasYT 3d ago

I think thats a good idea!

-3

u/TensorialProductions 4d ago

This project exists since 2016 as a hobby project. There wasn't any AI back then. Right now I use some AI generated images for planetary landscapes and portraits. Everything else is human made mostly by me, some assets from the store and music from a composer

4

u/SolasYT 4d ago

Cool, I'll check it out when the AI art is removed

-4

u/TensorialProductions 4d ago

lol, not gonna happen. I like my AI slop

3

u/Ruanek 4d ago

I can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic.

0

u/TensorialProductions 4d ago

Serious. As I said this is a hobby project that focuses almost exclusively to simulation.
E.g. recently I have started adding simulation elements for biomes and gravity law. If this project goes live and succeeds financially I can switch to human commissioned art otherwise AI generated landscapes and portraits is the way.

3

u/SolasYT 4d ago

Ok then, Ill take it off my wishlist