starlight

Development

Development currently assumes a Mac with ghc 8.8 & cabal 3.0. You can install them directly, or use ghcup.

Initial setup:

brew bundle # for sdl2 & sqlite3
cat data/ephemerides.sql | sqlite3 data/data.db # to populate the solar system db with planets
cat data/factions.sql | sqlite3 data/data.db # to populate the solar system db with factions
cabal build # to set up dist-newstyle with the ghc package db

Run script/repl to load the project (both library & executable) into the REPL. In the REPL, :main will launch the game. Use :main --profile to enable profiling (timings for various parts of the game, shown on exit).

Alternatively, cabal run starlight will launch the game. Use cabal run starlight -- --profile to enable profiling.

Controls

Controls are currently hard-coded; I intend to eventually make them configurable.

• Up arrow: forward thrust
• Left/right arrows: turn left/right
• Down arrow: turn to face opposite direction from current heading (relative to target’s heading, if any, or absolute otherwise; helps you match speed and heading to target’s)
• +/-: increase/decrease throttle (controls rate of thrust)
• tab/shift tab: switch to the next/prev target
• escape: clear the target
• space: fire weapons in the direction you’re facing
• t: turn to face the selected target (if any)
• f: face in the direction the ship is moving
• b: brake/match speed to target
• j: jump to the target (if any)