Words are awesome. Given a dictionary and enough time, a good writer can produce stories of limitless scope and grandeur. Dune, Foundation, The Laundry Files, John Carter duking it out with the baddies of Barsoom – we owe all these stories and more to authors spending massive amounts of time stringing words together. Tau Station is a text-based game, so believe me when I say that we like words. But we also like the richness that good art brings to a game, and the way it can give players some insight into the world and plot before they’ve begun to play or even read a single word.
Blog
Tau Station’s Tech Stack
People have been asking about our technology stack, so this post will be a bit “tech heavy.” Further, it will be opinionated tech-heavy. You’ve been warned!
When I started Tau Station, I knew that I was primarily looking for a robust Web framework, a flexible ORM (object-relational mapper), and a strong database. Due to my having been heavily involved in open source for years, only open source products were considered.
Tau Station: A Two-Headed Dream
Like many big projects, the idea for this game started out as one person’s dream. What you’re going to read here is the story of how Tau Station has moved from being just a dream to a game that’s a few short months away from launching its Alpha testing phase. It’s a story in two voices.
Welcome to Tau Station
I’m doing heater runs in Taungoo when a contact I haven’t heard from in years asks me to quietly deliver a package to Nouveau Limoges, another station in the Sol System. The money’s good so I head down to the port, hop in Amethyst, and launch. Amethyst‘s an older ship and she’s higher maintenance than I’d like, but she keeps flying.
A little over 7 segments later (just over 1.5 hours, old Earth time) I arrive at Nouveau Limoges and that’s when the trouble kicks in. I’m a Consortium citizen, but Nouveau Limoges is a Gaule station and I forgot to renew my visa. Immigration computers notice my status and Amethyst‘s nav system is overridden to auto-deport me. Meanwhile, I was supposed to deliver the package in my hold within 8 segments and now it’s starting to change shape. I think I’ve been set up.