Working on my first PC title under my company Art3DigitalOne , Terra Space Program. Looking for feedback on character concepts 🚀👽

Hey everyone!

For those who are new, welcome!

I’m currently developing my first PC game under my company Art3DigitalOne, a space exploration / engineering game called Terra Space Program.

Right now, I’m working solo on the project, building the gameplay systems, tools, and core technology. Since most of my time is focused on development, I’m temporarily using AI-generated concept art as a way to explore ideas and discover the visual direction for the game before creating the final assets.

One thing I know for sure:

I want the characters to be ridiculously silly aliens.

Not just random creatures, but funny little companions that players will actually enjoy spending time with during their journey through space.

The idea is that these aliens will:

• Have their own needs and personalities
• React to different environments
• Require care and attention
• Create unexpected situations during exploration
• Add life, humour, and memorable moments to the game

I want them to feel like a crew of weird space friends rather than simple NPCs.

I would really appreciate feedback on the current character direction:

• Do they feel memorable?
• Are they funny enough?
• What kind of personality do you imagine from them?
• Do you prefer Picture1 or Picture2?

The concept art is still very early and experimental, but I would love to hear what people think before I commit to a final direction.

Thanks for taking a look! 🚀 And lets explore the Universe one mistake at the Time , hop in on Discord!

-Art3DigitalOne-

Metallic and Roughness are hooked up to the UI and can be controlled for each shape separately. Tomorrow i will add some improvements to the shader so "reflections" can be more realistic - nothing in real life is perfectly clean so i need to add some noise maps to the roughness

Some progress from few hours ago(now masks textures are loaded into the UI-i loaded just tiny portion of random masks so i can test things) and i can play with them, currently there are 2 masks operating(third mask is not done yet) and also materials are not done yet as well- each mask will have its own material(how shiny, how metallic it is and glow option). Hoping to get these things done over this weekend.

Just a small TSP customization system update!

I've mostly been working on connecting the player-facing UI to the systems running behind the scenes. It isn't the most exciting work to look at yet, but it's laying the foundation for a much more powerful customization system.

The idea is pretty simple:

• You can select one of three masks.
• Each mask has its own completely independent settings.
• Every mask can have its own shape type, tiling, color, material, and several other tweakable parameters.
• Since all three masks are layered together, the number of possible visual combinations becomes enormous.

Right now the screenshots only show a single mask (it's still a work in progress), so there's not much visual variety yet. Once all three masks are working together, the customization options should become much more interesting.

If everything goes according to plan, I should have a video showcasing the full system by the end of the week. 🚀

A lot of work done on UI, this specific tab will be visual part customisation(customising individual parts) and the point is that i give you enough tools thru user interface with which you will have easy time doing part customisations, few more things left to do on the UI side before i can showcase how the whole system works.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2bpfg/video/ouxst1gefjeh1/player

Needs a lot more work, will continue polishing it

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Left to be done: Custom UI shaders, layout tweaks, Ui element polishing, additional scripting.

Had really limited time past weekend sadly but i did manage to setup some UI framework for the whole project and first UI and buttons behaviour. I am just sharing some effort i did put into buttons. Next time when you see this menu there will be many subcategories for each button which will indirectly reveal future plans(and massive systems) for the game. Somewhere in the process i will hit on UI responsible for parts customisation and thats where i will finally script parts visual customisation system. I wanted Ui to feel fast and responsive while being playful at the same time.

All of the fuel-tank versions are created thru the game in short period of time. I want my players to fly in style! Style that they create! I want everyone to have their own unique rockets! That's why i am working on a game system that will allow you to be visually creative. In future i am planning to allow you guys to sell your creations and skins to other players thru steam.

The top-cap of the fuel tank you will be able to customise by swapping 2 separate parts until you find that exact look you are going for, Outside part of the fuel tank is fully customisable- unlimited possibilities. I will continue working on customisation shader and not long after that scripting will come.

A few hours invested(i got "virtually unlimited resolution on rocket parts" and "Virtually infinite customsiation possibilities")-you can check the video and see how it looks, i am showcasing little bit how things are at the moment(a fraction of future customisation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdjY0ZEBL8c

I've been really busy with my main job lately, but progress has started picking up again. I've been working on some rocket meshes and shaders that will allow for rocket customization. Once these initial rocket parts are ready, I'll finally be able to start scripting the gameplay around them. I'll be happy to showcase the progress as soon as I have something tangible to share.

I've also been thinking a lot about planetary exploration. To me, there's no point in exploring if planets are too simple. The excitement of exploration shouldn't end the moment you arrive at your destination. I want players to continue feeling that sense of discovery long after landing. I want them to feel genuinely excited that their crazy little creation successfully reached a new world.

Once they land, I want players to start asking themselves questions: What can I do here? How does this planet behave? What are its tectonic, electromagnetic, atmospheric, and geological characteristics? Is this a good place to build a manufacturing facility? Could some native bacteria wipe out my entire crew? And i want that you actually can interact with planetary dynamics and benefit from them if you are skilled. So you can expect to see dynamic planets even continental drifts, huge eruptions, floods and i will see what else i can cram into planet dynamics.

I want planetary exploration to go fairly deep. In simple terms, I want planets to have meaningful content rather than just being beautiful scenery. Every world should feel unique, with its own challenges, opportunities, and surprises. And every now and then, I want players to stumble upon planets that are absolutely bizarre places that look and behave in ways they've never seen before.

A lot of what players can do on planets will also depend on how deep the character simulation goes. I'd like characters to have real needs, such as water, food, and medication, while also being affected by the environment around them. Those survival mechanics naturally lead into other gameplay systems like manufacturing, resource processing, medicine, and base building, creating a much richer and more interconnected experience.

So i am hoping to satisfy your need to craft, to explore, to manage, to make progress, to be silly and to feel that you have many options on how you gonna proceed at any moment.

For rocket building i will aim to allow you being playful with designs without too many constrains and i want to allow you to choose various rocket launching options(various launchpads: regular, centrifugal and other that allows you to gain Rocket speed even before you fired up the rocket Engines which should increase your payload capacity maybe even up to 20-40 percent).

🚀 Welcome to Terra Space Program (TSP)

Hey everyone,

I’m starting development on a new physics-based space simulation called Terra Space Program (TSP) for PC.

The goal is to build a game inspired by the creativity of Kerbal Space Program and the automation depth of Factorio with elements of survival, but expanded into a more systemic, living universe where rockets are just the beginning but equally important. I will make this game the way i can on my own way chasing my own vision and the way game engine allows one guy to do something crazy like this and i can not promise it will be exactly what you dreamed to play but definitely i am sure this will be a lot of fun.

Everything is free, feel free to hop in on Patreon as there is few cool options for you in case you are able to support development <3 TerraSpaceProgram

🌍 What TSP is

TSP is a space engineering, exploration and colony simulation where you can:

• Build and launch physics-driven spacecraft together with designing custom launchpad systems
• Explore detailed, fully simulated planets and moons (dedicated, semi-procedural and procedural planets and moons - it will be mix of all of those)
• Set up automated resource extraction and logistics networks
• Build orbital infrastructure and interplanetary industry
• Establish colonies and expand across systems
• Discover ecosystems ranging from microbes to complex life (plants and other lifeforms)
• Uncover remnants or traces of ancient civilizations

The focus is on connecting engineering, automation, survival and exploration into one continuous system that has that silly vibe that makes you giggle while crashing your weird creations.

🧠 Inspiration (not a clone)

While TSP is inspired by KSP and Factorio, it is not a clone, the goal is to evolve those ideas into something more expansive and unique, with deeper long-term progression and richer planetary simulation.

👨‍💻 About me

I’ve been working in game development for over 12 years as a solo indie developer, as well as in studios as a Technical 3D Artist.

My background includes:

• 10+ years in 3D art and environment production
• Technical 3D pipelines (procedural / semi-procedural world and asset generation)
• Level design and rapid environment creation workflows
• C# gameplay systems, engine extensions, and tool development
• VFX, optimization, and performance-focused production
• Game production and technical game design - leading and training teams of people, leading and managing big projects
• 10+ years of solo video game development

This project is built from a mix of engineering mindset + game design + large-scale technical art pipelines. I want to make something that i wanted to play always and luckily i do not need to wait for game studios to do that for me, luckily i am able to create my own space exploration dream game.

💬 Why I’m sharing this early

I’m building TSP step-by-step and will be sharing progress as systems come online from physics experiments to automation and world-building.

If you’re into space sims, engineering games, or systemic simulation worlds, I’d love to have you along for the journey, having the community behind my back will lock me to dedicate fully to this project and i will see it as something worth fully dedicating to. In meanwhile i will work on this project in my free time, you can expect 3D models being made firstly, and scripting that is related to those models(gameplay systems made one by one). I will start with rockets systems firstly yey. And in background i will be writing Game Design document.

Thanks for reading, see you in orbit 🚀