Cosmos: The Secret Melody - free Ultima 4/5-like scifi RPG with fully simulated universe

[Infinitron]

Quietly developed by some French guy over the past few years. Cool!



http://www.gamopat.com/2018/12/cosmos-the-secret-melody-v.10.html

Cosmos: The Secret Melody, final version 2.1
Published on January 5, 2020 by Dr Floyd


Cosmos: The Secret Melody is a science fiction role-playing game (Windows PC) paying homage to the precursor of modern role-playing, the Ultima series by Richard Garriott, but also to the cult science fiction games of the early 80's: Elite (David Braben), Star Flight and especially Sundog (Bruce Webster). It is entirely freeware, ie free. It was designed for fun, and to be shared.

The rendering of the game is typed "micro 8bit" Ultima IV & V, ie via a displacement system by boxes, in low definition. The game remains in window mode so as not to distort the rendering and allow you to do something else on your PC at the same time. The concessions made compared to a real micro 8bit game from the 80s are essentially the number of colors on the screen, and the much more RAM, which allows to develop more in depth the universe and the possibilities of play.


The game simulates the entire universe: more than 200 billion galaxies, hundreds of billions of planets per galaxy, all of which can be visited (ground, building, caves and even underwater). The whole universe is represented in 2D, trying to respect the dimensions of it as well as possible, whether in space or on the ground on the planets. This makes it the largest open world in the history of video games

Little info: Saving your progress is done via the bunk bed in your ship.



I took 3 years to develop this game. This version 2.0 is the final version, playable in French and in English. There will just be updates if you find bugs while playing. I warmly thank all those who supported the development, and also and especially those who greatly helped me. They are mentioned on the home page of the game.

Good game to all! I hope this game will please all fans of Ultima, Sundog, Elite, Star Flight, all fans of Rogue-Like, and more generally all fans of science fiction!




Download / Download (ZIP 58Mo):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/earr1dopp0f3qqd/COSMOS2_1.zip?dl=1

 

[Mortmal]

First quotes in the trailer are from now defuncts french gaming magazines, hebdogiciel and tilt, as if we were in the 80's again and they reviewed it . So an old timer most likely.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Sci-fi Ultima? Put me down as intrigued. Gonna give it a go. This also seems relevant to CryptRat's interests.

Cool chiptunes for sure.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Looks great.

 

[Tweed]

This looks really neat, even if it does have endorsements by Lord British.

 

[Zerth]

I've tried for a bit. Field exploration and controls are pretty much streamlined in comparison to Ultima IV or V, only had to press enter in order to interact with anything, also the pickable stuff pops out randomly on tiles after you step through it (for instance drinks on barrels or veggies on crop fields).

Combat-wise, each turn you're given the opportunity to reposition the character several times before performing any other of the available actions(attack/defend/flee,etc.). Is quite annoying when you only want to stand your ground and just attack, since you have to skip every move action prior to doing somehting else though. Against creatures, sometimes the last standing critter yields and is possible to either finish it off or capture it, seems like the purpose of this is essentially to pit them on arenas for money (at least according to Npcs, haven't given the chance to try it out)

Spacefaring is really good stuff, you can go airborne, leave the atmosphere to reach orbit and explore planet's surface then land wherever you like, extract fuel from gas planets or jump to another star in the current system. There are refuel stations around, so you don't have to worry too much about screwing up early expeditions around the system. Galaxy navigation certainly is possible, you'll realize the proportions of this game's universe aren't quite exaggerated: albeit you only can peer over the observable collection of galaxies from where you are, the amount displayed across the universe is nothing short of overwhelming. However, you can't go nuts exploring galaxies yet, since a hyperdrive module upgrade is needed in order to perform the galaxy jump.

By the way, Looks like Lord British is a major npc on this game too.

 

[Roguey]

Why did he make his screenshots for ants?

Saving your progress is done via the bunk bed in your ship.

You could save anywhere outside in Ultima IV, save anywhere in Ultima V.

 

[Dr Floyd]

Hello, I am the creator of the game

Saving anywhere is not a good solution, you go out the game, there is no challenge

Exception made if this backup is unique and does not allow to go back

it is my opinion

 

[CryptRat]

This also seems relevant to CryptRat's interests.

Sure it is, thanks for the heads up.

 

[mondblut]

No party? Shame.

 

[Divine Blessing]

Hello, I am the creator of the game

Saving anywhere is not a good solution, you go out the game, there is no challenge

Exception made if this backup is unique and does not allow to go back

it is my opinion

after quite some time to decypher quoted "chiffe":

sado-maso nonsense, if the singular challenge of this game is NAZI-save(system), than this game has no relevant challenge at all.

convénience is a gameplay factor, eons before Gen Z (miilenials) the audience grew bored of sadistic gamedesign, like artificial barriers, with the singular intent of creating a pseudo-difficulty, cuz encounters, puzzles etc. cant.
there r plenty [games] on Codex incline with Quicksave option.
if the audience wants to save-scum, let them save-scum, its their playtru. cuz its entertainment, not a fukkn job.

any smart dev at least would apply an option to restrict saves, best via difficulty modes (ironman).

 

[Skdursh]

Is there a option for English or Russian dialogue? I don't speak Baguette.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Why did he make his screenshots for ants?

Saving your progress is done via the bunk bed in your ship.

You could save anywhere outside in Ultima IV, save anywhere in Ultima V.

Sooner or later people will realize how much the "saving the game" is steady becaming an issue in modern games. It is like if young programmers forgot how to implement a functional save game as they were commonly implemented in the past.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why did he make his screenshots for ants?

Saving your progress is done via the bunk bed in your ship.

You could save anywhere outside in Ultima IV, save anywhere in Ultima V.

Sooner or later people will realize how much the "saving the game" is steady becaming an issue in modern games. It is like if young programmers forgot how to implement a functional save game as they were commonly implemented in the past.

Almost as if games are becoming more complex and therefore more difficult to save and restore properly.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

An interesting game, lots of exploration and nice tunes. The universe seems to be massive and I really like the different layers of movement.

Is there a option for English or Russian dialogue? I don't speak Baguette.

Indeed there is!

Spoiler

 

[Nyast]

First quotes in the trailer are from now defuncts french gaming magazines, hebdogiciel and tilt, as if we were in the 80's again and they reviewed it . So an old timer most likely.

Indeed. I can also spot the logo from FTL ( the company that made Dungeon Master ). It's pretty over-the-top.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

An interesting game, lots of exploration and nice tunes. The universe seems to be massive and I really like the different layers of movement.

Is there a option for English or Russian dialogue? I don't speak Baguette.

Indeed there is!

Spoiler

Well that's awesome as I was just wondering by watching the vids. I finally got around to getting this. (been squeezing too much imaginary charmin)

 

[Junmarko]

Hello, I am the creator of the game

Saving anywhere is not a good solution, you go out the game, there is no challenge

Exception made if this backup is unique and does not allow to go back

it is my opinion

Dr Floyd, why haven't you put this on Steam? I'd gladly drop $ for it. So much tripe on there that makes it a crime with this being free.

 

[fax_]

Sharing a little mod I made because the human faces in the original were just too prosperous.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/x2cvacdmv4bln67/Cosmos_Facemod_v0_1.7z/file

This changes the human faces to stylised silhouettes. May not be to everyone's tastes and possibly one or two minor alignment problems for some combinations, but I use it in my game:

Spoiler

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

"it's a tribute to the good old times!"
no, it's a fucking horrible retarded interface completely disrespectful of 35 years of development and of its users' patience.

 

[Reapa]

No posts since 2020, one page thread. Is the game bad?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

What is funny is I had a Dr Floyd my my primary care physician for a long time. Can't recall when he quit the veneta clinic.

 

[CryptRat]

It seems an English version was just posted on itch : https://gamopat-studio.itch.io/cosmos-chronicles-international-edition-atari-st-windows.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

An very interesting game. Movement in the Atari version is awkward though - you have to press the key for every single step (you can't keep it pressed if you want to walk multiple spaces in one direction).

 

[Grauken]

It seems an English version was just posted on itch : https://gamopat-studio.itch.io/cosmos-chronicles-international-edition-atari-st-windows.

Wasn't this in English already?