The combat demo for Free Stars: Children of Infinity is out, and it's free

While the returning ships from UQM have had their flight and weapon characteristics lovingly re-created in Fred Ford’s new SIMPLE game engine, there are some important differences this time around—chief among them the fact that, unlike in the 1990s, the ships now can turn much more naturally. UQM melee pros will find that their skills with existing ships will translate pretty well to the new melee environment—but they’ll also have some brushing up to do.

In the older game, at least for me, melee was the drug that got me hooked—it’s accessible, easy to figure out, and fun as hell. I can’t count the number of hours my little brother and I spent locked in mortal space combat, blowing each other up with different ship combinations. (My favorite matchup was to let my brother pick the Ur-Quan Dreadnought, one of the most powerful ships, while I would hop into the lightweight Arilou Skiff and, in cruel older-brother fashion, mercilessly reduce him to frustrated tears. Ah, siblings.)

So, so much more…

I’d love to spend some time discussing the whole game, not just the combat demo—but that discussion will have to wait a bit longer. Children of Infinity has walked a tortured path to release, with many twists and turns along the way, and while that path is nearing completion, we still have a bit to go. It’s been fascinating to observe the process of development from the inside, and there are so very many stories to tell.

In the five years since joining the team, I’ve written about 100,000 words of NPC dialog for seven of the game’s alien species—that’s a good-sized novel, and I’m only one of several writers. I’ve worked with Paul Reiche III to flesh out his story ideas and outlines with prose (Paul left the project in summer 2023 after the story had been largely completed, but I kept meeting regularly with him for a couple of years after that to get his input and advice on the NPC dialog writing as it progressed, and we’re still in regular contact).