I wonder how much has been done and hoe much must me done before we (you) can call this alpha and what are you guys doing now.

NOTE: This isn't a release date question (WOW that's rare for me)

This is a very frustrating part of working here. We are all part time and can not set deadlines. Having said that I can offer that we hope are major update will be soon. I hope we can call it Alpha.

There are a few big feature additions/overhauls in the works, which is why it's been so long since the last public build. Unfortunately, I'm probably not going to have much time to write code in the next month, as I'm hopefully going to be moving and starting a new job. But I would like nothing better than to get an update out by the end of the year, which might be feasible; the holiday season is usually the most productive time of the year for this project. So hopefully there will be some kind of update soon, even if I can't switch on all the new features that I'd like to.

A true Alpha build is feature complete, so an Alpha release is still a long way off. But "Alpha" tends to get misused a lot, so other projects may call their releases "Alpha" builds even though they are not.

First
Great Work so far .
That will be the best Star Trek Game ever.
So how far is the Game ?
(can´t wait to Conquer the Federation )

There has been little work on the code as we look for someone to take over that job.

i wish i can help you guys but i´m not a engineer
I can´t change the laws of physics of the Universe

I´m more like J.T.Kirk

close eyes and punching through....smile

Isnt Mike still coding Star Trek Supremacy?

Mike does not see himself finishing the game.

Damn.

Ive been following this project for years and even did the startreksupremacy.com website for Mike. I really want this project to succeed. I recommend we take this project to the next phase then.

My recommendation is to get a Manager for this title. Someone to help push this title for Mike. What needs to be done is to get funding for this project. I know you guys have resisted that since this is a fan project, and for fear CBS might get involved. If you have that fear put my name on the project. Ill have contacts at CBS I can talk to if it gets to that point.

What needs to be done is putting this project on Kickstarter. Get the funding you need to hire a team of programmers to finish coding this game. The backend... 2D art, Music, etc. can be done by The Supremacy dev team.

I will get in touch with Mike to pursue this.

If you want to persue this further I'm in.

CBS Paramount will be delighted to license a new game. It is good for them too. We would have to dump the fan content submitted with the understanding it was not for profit.

An existing game company would be the fastest avenue. They would not need Mike's OK but it would be nice.

I'm not an expert, but an existing game company would never use someone else's code or artistic work for many reasons.

In any case, I'm also interested in helping in any way possible

This is an interesting turn of affairs. It seems to me that Paramount is committed to the new timeline. Younger game-playing JJ Abrams era fans could be their target. It seems as if they wanted to make a game like this, they would be doing it. I'm not sure but I don't think that the original BOTF did all that well financially. Otherwise Atari might have brought out a sequel. Factor in that the younger game playing demographic is on Facebook and playing group games there. If we go to Paramount, they are not likely to use Mike's code and are also unlikely to listen to us as to what we think should be in the game. There are a lot of fans here that may be once again back to looking for a way to finish what Mike has begun.

Just thoughts as to what we might be in for... or up against. At this point what are our options other than to pay programmers to finish it? You can find programmers online for this.

By the way, there's already an official "JJ Trek" game coming out in a few months:
http://trekmovie.com/2012/08/13/new-tra ... trek-game/

And there's also Star Trek Online...

I still believe that we as the original developers might get a chance to at least work with them on the game as it is beeing developed.

For laughs, should we look into how much we would have to pay a programmer? Get a quote?

As long as we are not charged for the quote.

We don't really need a quote, do we? Google is our friend...

According to this site:
http://www1.salary.com/Programmer-I-Salary.html
the average programmer in the US gets a salary in the ballpark of 50000$ per year...

If we hire someone from Eastern Europe (say Poland?) perhaps we could get away with an annual salary of around 15000-20000$:
http://www.payscale.com/research/PL/Cou ... and/Salary

and if we outsource the project in India it would cost around 300000 Rupies or 5000$ per programmer per year...
http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Cou ... dia/Salary

Perhaps we could use Kickstarter to try and raise the amount?

Hmm, what about the Chinese or Koreans? They could be even cheaper and you know they are "crazy".

Look at us, sounding like some multinational company xD or like a bunch of Ferengi xD

So then, this is the start of the Supremacy Inc

Anyway, if we are really going through with this I still recommend using Kickstarter to try and raise the $$$ required, as obviously the regulars in this forum, we are too few to hope that we will contribute enough...

Anyway, our project falls exactly in the community guidelines of Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

(excerpt from the site, emphasis mine)

Edit:
For the time being Kickstarter is only open to US citizens:
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creators#EligRequ

We should consider talking to CBS Paramount about a license before openly funding.

Good point. Any idea how to proceed? Just sending an email and asking for permission just seems lame and bound to fail...

Well thats depressing. I imagine he is flooded with work and real life.

Need to come up with a devious plan to free up his time .

Regards Wolfe

It gets complicated. If we were selling it a license would be easy to work out.

As a free fan game it might be more like us asking if CBS minds that we are doing a Kickstarter to pay a coder for a free game using their product. That is where it gets odd if not impossible.

CBS Paramount already told us "no" when we tried to present at the Vegas Con. It was a matter of our free game competing for attention with their money making games.

I do not think a Kickstarter for a free game would get past CBS Paramount review in light of that.

Forming a game company and getting a license to sell a game would pass the CBS Paramount test but Mike has turned that down several times already.

Talking a game company into doing a BOTFII would be about the only option I can see happening.

Yeah, but I don't think they would do it out of the goodness of their hearts, which brings us back to the same problem: $$$$$$

Forming a game company I find not that a bad idea, BUT like BotE you'd have to get rid of all Star Trek content and more. And then there's quite some concurrence on the market. E.g. just recently released Endless Space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw87CXwjpKI
Doubtful to attract a team or company if not paying lots of money.

If not, you've to contact publishers currently in hold of the corresponding paramount licenses and sign a contract. With a well concept, a convincing team and references you might get them fund the project but with set time targets and probably alot gameplay changes they demand. And don't forget they want make money, much money!
Botf didn't sell well before, Moo3 and others neither, most similar indie games failed (or didn't gather any noteworthy) and Supremacy is outdated not only in terms of Star Trek universe, that's what they'll look on. I heavily doubt they'd come out with a good market analysis.

Before you even think on contacting anyone for something commercial make your own analysis and start to think on drawing the game concept as attractive as possible but still with realistic estimation and fail in mind.

That said, best option probably is talk Mike and his GF personally (and not all at once to annoy him) how to please their life and motivate both at best to free some time each month to advance with Supremacy. If then you find some helpful support or finally decide to learn on programming yourself, and with cutting goals to what's really essential for a first complete and joyful version, you've a good base to proceed. In case he has a nice boss at work, maybe he could be convinced for some more free time too, if that's the problem.

Hiring anyone who's not familar with the huge amount of code already, eventually with few knowledge on c# and used libraries specially if for low money and not even speaking your language is almost assured to end in a HUGE desaster!
A programmer you can't exchange that easily, lots companies already failed due to exchanging or loosing programmers. And not only the code written but also the code and concept in mind is important!

Maybe put out some postings on communities for game developers, there are many aspiring game developers there who are looking for projects:

http://forum.freegamedev.net/
http://www.indiedb.com/jobs
http://www.gamedev.net/classifieds/cate ... rder__desc

A bit of good news before the year is over. Mike has started working on the next public release!
Assault system is working again, and Emergency Morale Programs are working as intended now.

That's good to hear!