Prototype release (v.0.0.1c)

Hi! 

My name's Adam Zima nad I'm an amateur game dev (with particular interest in game design) from Prague, Czech Republic. Solar Winds is a game that I'm working on currently as a topic of my graduation project at the vocational school I have attended. Since my originally attempted idea of a 2D action platformer didn't pan out, I decided to go with something closer to my interests and to my first ever attempts at making games in GameMaker Studio, while exploring a rather undererpresented topic in space sims - solar sailing. 

To be fair, it's not that surprising that solar sailing is that rare in games. It's a very slow and undramatic method of propulsion, suited mostly for lightweight, uncrewed probes, which can profit from the fact that solar sails don't need to bring fuel with them. There are even concepts for miniature interstellar probes that would be accelerated by lasers up to 20% speed of light, at the price of extremely small available payload mass (and a whole lot of energy to power the lasers).

The probe in this game isn't that kind of probe. It's much heavier and thus slower and it has a powerful exploration AI on board - You. And something happened on the way, something that seriously damaged your databanks and compromised your ability to navigate interplanetary (and potentially interstellar) space. What do you do? Well, it seems like there's a convenient space station in this system that could give you something to work with. Or maybe not, but it's worth a try, right?

As this is just a prototype, there isn't that much to do in the game. The only goal is to "dock" with the station by staying inside its ring for at least 5 seconds. Other than that, feel free to just fly around, experiment with orbits and maybe try getting into orbit of the lone planet that orbits the central star. But be careful not to crash!

Fly safe!