A new trailer for Objects in Space is here, and it shows what’s possible with a little bit of wood, some nails, a can of spray paint and a little help from your local electronics store…
When we took Objects in Space down to PAX Australia late last year, we also announced that the game would ship with the ability to talk to store-bought buttons, switches, LEDs etc via a virtual serial port. What this would mean is that anyone can build their own physical controllers at home.
To prove it, we spent the two weeks leading up to PAX hand-building a set of physical controllers ourselves: a weapons panel, a ship control panel, a reactor panel and a damage display. The end result was a series of panels which worked in conjunction with the keyboard and mouse to make you feel like you were actually aboard your own ship.
The ship movement panel enabled you to rotate the ship in either direction, turn on or off the main engine, cancel autopilot or bring the ship to a complete stop. The reactor panel allowed the player to enter EmCon mode (short for emissions control – the game’s stealth function) or manually turn their reactor on or off. The weapons panel enabled the player to switch between torpedo tubes, spin up their weapon of choice and, with the lifting of the safety latch, fire at a nearby target. The largest of the four panels was the damage display – a Christmas tree of LEDs indicating the exact status of every system and module on the ship.
Of course, these are just our ideas! By far the biggest and best controllers won’t be made by us here at the studio, but by fans. Our entire mission here is to enable people to be creative with their own setups.
Watch the original gameplay trailer