Unknown Horizons

Unknown Horizons

Developer(s) The Unknown Horizons Team
Publisher(s) The Unknown Horizons Team
Engine FIFE
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD
Release date(s) 2008
Genre(s) City-building, real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution Digital distribution

Unknown Horizons is a genre-mix of city-building game and real-time strategy game. It is released under the GNU General Public License and is therefore free software.

The game is still under active development. On occasion, a milestone snapshot is released. The current release is version 2013.3.[1] A first public alpha version was released on October 1, 2008.

Despite its incompleteness, Unknown Horizons already appeared in issue 24/09 of the German c't computer magazine, as a part of the Heise software collection 6/09.[2]

Unknown Horizons took part at the Google Summer of Code 2011 as a mentoring organization[3] and participated again in 2012.[4]

Gameplay

A screenshot from Unknown Horizons depicting an early settlement

The player guides a group of people settling in a newly discovered archipelago of islands. The player must provide miscellaneous goods (including food, lumber and tools[5]) and public services for the settlers' welfare. The inhabitants in return pay taxes which is the main source of income.

When supplied adequately, the population will grow and the inhabitants will rise to higher social classes. Currently, there are six different settlement levels planned[6] and more than 40 different buildings available.

The starting increment is called "Sailors". Players can set up a basic infrastructure and provide inhabitants with resources such as food. In the second increment "Pioneers", new buildings become available. Buildings begin to look like wooden constructions instead of tents. Increment 3 is named "Settlers" and progress is shown by half-timbered buildings. The remaining three increments "Citizens", "Merchants" and "Aristocrats" are designed, but not yet implemented.

Development

Unknown Horizons uses FIFE as engine and features isometric 2D graphics. Since FIFE also is in development stage and Unknown Horizons is the first major project based on this engine, the developers of Unknown Horizons have agreed to help with development on FIFE.

Python was chosen as the language for this project because it is the language best supported by FIFE and guarantees cross-platform compatibility. Furthermore, Python allows for very rapid development.

The models for Unknown Horizons are created using Blender and then rendered in four rotations (eight for units).

Unknown Horizons development currently focuses on implementing more game-play content (buildings, resource production lines). Next major steps in development include usability improvements and an island editor.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Downloads". Unknown Horizons. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  2. ↑ "c't - Inhalt 24/2009 - Seite 138". Heise.de. 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
  3. ↑ "Accepted organizations for Google Summer of Code 2011". Google-melange.com. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  4. ↑ "Accepted organizations for Google Summer of Code 2012". Google-melange.com. Retrieved 2012-04-30.
  5. ↑ "Build Your Own Virtual Colony With Unknown Horizons". September 15, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Increments - Unknown Horizons - Wiki". Wiki.unknown-horizons.org. 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  7. ↑ "Roadmap in project bugtracker". Trac.unknown-horizons.org. Retrieved 2011-10-08.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unknown Horizons.