Limit Theory's just had a new update, and will be funded in four days. The one-man team developing this game studies computer graphics at Stanford in addition to working on Limit Theory approximately 40 hours per week. What do you do, exactly? Oh, you're a freelance writer? A freelance web designer? An RPG Codex administrator? Yeah, that's what I thought. Josh Parnell is 748% more valuable as a human being than Morgoth, 5,173% more valuable than FretRider, and almost 30% more valuable than yours truly. He is reportedly infinitely more valuable than DarkUnderlord, which is understandable given what happened with Fan Made Fallout.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshparnell/limit-theory-an-infinite-procedural-space-game
Latest update:
Third tech demo:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshparnell/limit-theory-an-infinite-procedural-space-game
Latest update:
Congratulations to everyone on hitting that planetary ownership stretch goal! I'm sure you're all excited to build your empire! I'm really interested to see what happens in the last few days...particularly because I'm so enthused about being able to run my own faction. But regardless of where our total ends up, we've already garnered more than enough support to make Limit Theory a reality, so everyone should rest easy knowing that they'll be playing it in due time!
The $200K Stretch Goal Appears!
Docking Bays and Carriers won by an absurd margin on the forum stretch goal poll, so there's really no question that it should be next! Get ready to be able to carry your ship collection with you, because if we hit this goal, you'll be able to purchase and build ships with internal hangars that will be able to hold smaller ships (scouts, fighters, corvettes, perhaps even destroyers). You'll be able to use your carriers to repair, refit, and transfer cargo to/from docked ships, which would usually only be possible by landing on a planet or space station. In addition, you'll be able to use carriers to switch to piloting other docked ships, which, again, would usually only be possible at a planet or space station.
This opens up a whole new world of exciting gameplay possibilities! Imagine having your whole collection of fighters to choose from when a battle begins. You can pilot your carrier, then switch to one of your docked ships, go out and participate in the fight, then return, dock, repair, and carry on piloting the carrier.
As with the previous two stretch goals, this one will come as a free, post-release content update, so it will not ship with the first release of LT, but will come for free at some point in the months thereafter. Again, this is to ensure that I have enough time to properly implement everything without pushing back the release date of LT!
New Wallpapers
You can get the full-res versions at http://ltheory.com/media.html
New Badges
Yes indeed, I'm trying to see if I can set a record for the number of KS badges produced by one project. I think I may have already set it...we're now at 17 badges, so let me know if you know of any project that has more than that!
The Meaning of Limit Theory
Maybe you've already read the short little snippet that I wrote concerning the back story of Limit Theory and the meaning of the name, but I'm guessing most haven't. Well, I'd like to share a little bit of the "story" of Limit Theory, because it turns out that the meaning of the name runs a significant bit deeper than just two cool words that I pulled out of the air!
Limit Theory isn't just the name of the game. It's also the abbreviated name of a philosophy, which happens to be the philosophy that forms the back story for the game. The Theory of Nonexistence of Extrinsic Limitation, or Limit Theory for short, says that all limits, all things that oppose you, all challenges, are fundamentally located within your mind, and nowhere else. In other words, the only real limits are within yourself, not within the external world. This mentality directly implies that you can somehow overcome any limit simply by making the appropriate internal change.
To understand how radical of a theory it is, imagine applying it to a situation in your life. Let's say that you've got a corporate job that you're kind of lukewarm about, and that your dream job has always been to become a musician and travel around Europe on tour. Big dreams, but Limit Theory says that the only thing stopping you from doing so is yourself. It says that, if you feel that something external - your boss, financial situations, social obligation, etc - is the thing keeping you from doing so, then you are wrong. Limit Theory posits that a limit is, by definition, internal to your mind. Now, maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But the point is that the mentality, regardless of whether it's objectively correct, encourages one to take action. It encourages one to question whether anything is actually opposing progress towards a dream, or whether it's simply a mental unwillingness to take action.
So why does this theory matter? Well, it forms the back story of the LT universe. The explanation for why you have space ships, space stations, faster-than-light travel, etc. in LT is that you come from an extremely advanced civilization. How did they get to be so advanced? Simply-put, they were the original founders of the Limit Theory philosophy, and the greatest proponents of it that the universe has ever seen. They were rabid idealists, believing firmly that all limitations were internal, and that, with enough mental fortitude, any problem would eventually yield to the mighty fist of intellect. And they were right. They terraformed planets that should have been living Hells into magnificent Edens. They produced hyperdrive engines that made the laws of physics bow before them. They sung their song of idealism from one corner of the galaxy to the other, using technology that should have been reserved for gods, not men. And they did so because they believed in the theory of nonexistence of extrinsic limitation.
So that's the backstory. But it goes even deeper than that, because, as you might have guessed already, Limit Theory isn't just the philosophy of the civilization in the game. It's my personal philosophy.
Let's apply it to a situation that comes a bit closer to home. Let's say that you're a 20-year-old college student, and you want to make a space simulation game with a massive scope. Perhaps other people will tell you that it's too much work for one person. But suppose that you believe in Limit Theory. Then you believe, regardless of what other people might say, that the only thing standing between you and the finished product is your mind. You believe that with enough hours of work, thought, code, research, etc...you can succeed.
Perhaps the ultimate, mind-bending irony of the whole thing is that successfully producing the game Limit Theory will be the ultimate proof of the philosophy with the same name. Over the next year-and-some, I intend to complete that proof and show you all that my philosophy is valid, at least with respect to this application!
And there you have it, just thought I'd let you all know that the name is actually a lot richer than your average "select a handful of sci-fi-ish words" space game title!
So...do you believe in the theory of nonexistence of extrinsic limitation? If so, maybe you should stop reading this, and go achieve your dreams!
~Josh
Third tech demo:
. Here, you have a single guy showing how it is supposed to be done.
