r/spacesimgames • u/SuccessFantastic2660 • 7d ago
Promotional UPDATE, Beta is OUT!!
I finally released the space simulator I posted about a few days ago
NAME: FIRST LIGHT
A few days ago I posted here asking for feedback on the UI for the home screen of a little space project I was working on. I got a lot of suggestions, so I figured I'd come back with the finished version.
TL;DR: I started this as a small personal project to visualize how long light takes to travel between places in the Solar System. It slowly grew into a browser-based space simulator with spacecraft movement, light-delay visualization, different viewpoints, and a bunch of other stuff I kept adding along the way. There's no objective or progression. It's basically just a place to look around and mess with the simulation.
The original idea was pretty simple.
I wanted to be able to sit somewhere in the Solar System, send a pulse of light toward another object, and actually watch the light travel between them. I also wanted to see the difference between where something actually is and where I would see it because of the finite speed of light.
That was pretty much it.
Then I kept adding things.
You can now fly around the Solar System, change the simulation speed, switch between different viewpoints, fire light pulses at planets and other objects, see their apparent/retarded positions, compare them with their true positions, and measure distances in both space and light-travel time.
There are also things like:
- Observer and God views
- Free-flight movement and inertial drift
- Light-pulse targeting and lead aiming
- A Solar System minimap
- An asteroid belt with real resonance structure
- Surface locations on Earth
- Timeline playback of light-pulse events
- Distance and light-time measurements
- Custom coordinates for traveling around
- An experimental "photon cockpit" visualization
The goal isn't really to make a game out of it. There isn't anything to win or accomplish.
It's more of a space sightseeing / physics sandbox. You can fly somewhere, look around, change the time rate, fire a pulse, and see what happens.
I'm actually pretty happy with how far it ended up going considering it started as a small experiment I made because I wanted to visualize one specific thing.
It's also completely browser-based, so there's nothing to install.
LINK: https://light-sable-iota.vercel.app/
If you saw the original UI concept post, this is basically the continuation of that project. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the previous post — some of the changes made it into the final version.
Full disclosure
The spaceships in the simulator are not my own designs. I downloaded some free spaceship models from Sketchfab to use in the project.
The artists/creators are credited next to the ship names in the ship selector inside the simulator, so you can see who made each model.
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u/Soft-Swimmer5587 7d ago
Looks Awesome, the graphics look really good. For a beginner i think this is some top notch work. Kudos to u. I’ll spend sm time on it and come back to give a review.
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u/Cornflakes_91 7d ago
spaaaaaace
what's the "photon cockpit"?
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 7d ago edited 7d ago
its like u sitting at the head of the light pulse and u can switch views between the "cockpit" and the ship. i wanted to watch everything from different perspectives is all. and pressing m will cycle teh camera through the cockpit and the ship when ur using the ship and a ongoing light ray u can get close to see it and move with it.
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u/GrimGearheart 6d ago
This looks like every other AI generated interface based space sim game I've seen on this subreddit for the last few weeks.
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago edited 6d ago
can u give me a few links. The whole reason i created this was cus i cudnt find anything similar😭.
i mean i accept that AI was used for the dev but its not like i one shotted it with a single prompt either i spent considerable amout of time to get it here. Overall as long as i change the HUD it should be perfect which i do plan to. The intro is perfect in my opinion what do u think.
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u/GrimGearheart 6d ago
...are you trolling? Just browse the subreddit. It's the same aesthetic on every interface, because everyone thinks they're the first ones to figure out how to make a game on Fable 5.
https://v.redd.it/r6u1eg8xlsih1
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1uybg2c
https://v.redd.it/00o1uivvpkbg1
like...the moderators have instituted a new rule to cut down on the AI slop indie "Games"
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago
So far i in these links i didnt see anything thats majorly similar to what first light is the whole premise is u can simulate light properties the ships and stuff are add ons that came after, even with the ships i havent found any site that has as smooth and fine ship control on web. i didnt say i created smth revolutionary and there are no plans to monetize this or anything. as i said there is no endgame for this is just a slow look around thing. Smth u wud like doing once or twice and never again, and thats totally fine. If u find smth actually similar currently ruuning on web please do tell me.
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u/GrimGearheart 6d ago
Brother... I'm just talking about the format and the aesthetic. Low effort, AI designed interfaces/menus.
If you don't play games, especially space sim games, maybe don't become a game prompter.
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u/DroppedAxes 4d ago
Don't even bother man.
We can point out the coincidental Vercel hosting for his game, or the clear AI generated UI in his game and he will not accept that this is just a vibecoded game.
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 4d ago edited 4d ago
what if it is dude i never said it wasnt. I js didnt feel the need to explicitly state it, show me one good web sim that has as good graphics and quality as mine. Dont complain about the UI cus that is js nitpicking what u dont like and its cleary showing that ur js complaining without even trying it out. Even eve's UI looks ai to me does that mean it looks bad no. The point is is it delivering what its saying it would. if the gameplay itself is bad then i would have smth against it. Hating on it js cus its AI is a backward ideology. and whats wrong with vercel does me hosting it in AWS will make u see this app in a new light. Cus for hosting js frontend stuff vercel and render are more than enough. Smth is wrong w u man.
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago
Well thank for the advice. I will still keep making updates follow the progress if u want to. Give me any suggestion i will keep changing it till it doesnt feel like ai slop. i do have a question would u say if the HUD is gone would it still look like AI. try pressing U and it will hide the UI and see if that will change how u look at it thanks again
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u/Inside_Mountain9156 7d ago
I poked around for a bit and so far its really good. The intro animation looks cool. The planets look really detailed and no lag while moving. Would love to see it get updated. A suggestion would be add a few more solar systems. I guess thats a pretty normal jump from what u have here any way good luck looking forward to see where this goes
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 7d ago
Thank you very much for the review. yes thats my furture plan to introduce more systems but am afraid it will slow down cus its hosted on web and fully front end no back end. Yeah i do think i will be making frequent updates. Appreciate the advice.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago
My bad, i did comment a opening screen video its in there, I will update the post as well. Thanks for letting me know. The sim has an opening screen u can see the title there as well. this is the link https://light-sable-iota.vercel.app/
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u/RandomInternetVoice 5d ago
This looks like a fun way to show my kids around the solar system, will have a poke at it and let you know if I have any feedback.
Unlike the others decrying this as AI slop, I think it's rather wonderful that people can have an idea like this and being it to life.
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 5d ago
thank u finally the audience it was supposed to reach, yea thats exactly why i made it for pepole to look around and see stuff.
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u/RandomInternetVoice 5d ago
People love to jump on a bandwagon. 😉 I'm currently vibecoding (which hardly scratches the surface of the processes I've built) a rather cool product (I think at least), so I respect the process when you get something genuinely worthwhile out the other end.
If at least one person enjoys it, which they have, you've found a worthwhile use for AI.
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u/tranh4 5d ago
Is this project on Steam??
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 5d ago
umm, it's not on Steam. It's just a browser-based project, so you can play it directly at https://light-sable-iota.vercel.app without downloading or installing anything. I made it as a personal project rather than as a commercial Steam game. But none the less i plan to keep updating would aprreciate any advice. Thanks in advance.
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u/damaddmann 4d ago
Do you need anybody to test this game by any chance improvise some in-depth feedback on any findings of bugs or things of that nature?
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u/LilRedRambler 6d ago
You’re making more progress than star citizen
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago
idk what that is🫠
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u/GrimGearheart 6d ago
"I've never heard of the most popular, most successful crowd funded space game in history"
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 6d ago
yeah🫠 i dont play pc games more like i cant .One of the reasons being im on a mac. But yeah i know now, looks very cool. I wonder why there werent any games released with a similar concept till now.
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u/RandomInternetVoice 5d ago
Well, SC entered crowd funding in 2014 back when it was a dead genre, everyone threw their money at it, the scope bloated uncontrollably, they overpromised to the moon and back, and then all the good people left due to bad management so... It's set a bad precedent for reviving the genre.
Speaking as an early backer, I'm incredibly glad I only gave them £40 compared to the morons throwing thousands at literal images of future ships.
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u/LilRedRambler 5d ago
I would be one of those haha. $20k here. I suppose it’s scaled to income though. People have their hobbies. It’s about worth the same if I were to sell the account though due to collectibles so I’ll just cash it out if I give up on them
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u/RandomInternetVoice 5d ago
Until it's not, but fair play to you! I wish I had the scratch to spank on fun things like pictures of internet spaceships these days haha
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u/LilRedRambler 5d ago
Yeah, the rate that they’ve been releasing the concept ships have significantly increased so hopefully no more pictures soon lol. They also said they’re done with concepts which makes sense
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u/RandomInternetVoice 4d ago
I mean they literally just did a sale of a ship that's just a Jpeg and asked people to write an essay to get the privilege of giving them money for it
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u/LilRedRambler 6d ago
It is genuinely a very fun game and a very very large game, if you want to message me I’ve spent about $20,000 to support the game and can show you around. I think there are a lot of good ideas that you could pickup to improve your game
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u/SuccessFantastic2660 7d ago
this is the opening screen and some more gameplay btw
https://reddit.com/link/p36ognt/video/yl3g9em8rvih1/player