TL;DR I'm creating a remake of a fun but abandoned strategy video game called Pax Galaxia. The
remake
is called Pax Two. Support development on Patreon.
Pax Galaxia (aka. Pax Solaris) is a small abandoned strategy video game created by Diodor Bitan
from
Romania of Dio Games in 2003.
In Pax Galaxia, you must conquer the stars of countless galaxies by taking the vast perspective of a general
directing
the movements of your galactic forces, setting up supply lines, avoiding flanks, protecting your front lines and
capturing strategically advantageous positions with special bonuses. On the surface Pax Galaxia doesn't look
like much,
but beneath the dated and sparse facade lies a game of surprising depth and good old fun. And there has never
been a
strategy game as easy to learn and play as Pax Galaxia: Just click-&-drag to direct your forces!
A screenshot of old Pax Galaxia:
Affectionately referred to simply as Pax, the game is still being played today by a handful of passionate and
crafty
people, for whom only Pax scratches that particular itch. But the game is definitely showing its age, and there
is only
so much that can be done to keep Pax going in its current form.
Pax Galaxia deserves a remake. The simple interaction, deep gameplay and tactile feedback is
timeless,
and it's hard to believe that Pax was created before the invention of modern touch screen devices—Pax Galaxia on
a touch
screen is a match made in heaven!
So let's make it happen! Let's make:
Pax Two
The primary features of Pax Two are:
- Gameplay: Faithfully recreate Pax Galaxia's original gameplay
- Graphics: Massively improve Pax Galaxia's original graphics
- Touchscreen: Full support for touch screens
- Multiplayer: Frictionless multiplayer
- Cross-platform: Completely cross-platform
- Level Editor: Completely redesigned level editor
Secondary features include:
- AI personalities
- Gameplay configurability and extensibility (modding)
- Customizable graphics (themes/skins)
- Option for pixel-perfect recreation of Pax Galaxia's original graphics (not menus)
Please do come with suggestions for other features you would like to have in the game, as well as thoughtful
discussions
on how you would like these things to work. This is a community effort and your voice counts!
Money details
My highest wish is for Pax Two to be free and open source. This is intimately connected with my choice to seek
funding
on Patreon. I don't want to degrade the game in any way for the purpose of soliciting payment. I don't want to
lock Pax
Two behind a login, or a subscription, or a payment, or plaster it with annoying ads. But I also expect my work
to
sustain me financially and my time to be compensated. And that brings us to:
How you can use Patreon to support the development of Pax Two
Initially there will be six basic pledges so you can choose the level of financial support you bring to the
table. You
may downgrade or upgrade your pledge at any time. I have a couple ideas on how to soon offer more exciting
extras for
each pledge. This is definitely something we should talk about. What kind of extras do you want to be able to
get your
hands on? Which parts of the development process would be fun for you to get access to?
Here are some of the things you will contribute to with your patronage:
- You're finally getting your hands on a true successor to Pax Galaxia
- You're getting a game that is equally fun to play on any of your devices
- You're putting free, fully featured Pax into the hands of those who love to play but can't contribute
financially
- You're keeping annoying ads away from everyone's eyes
- You're freeing my time from looking into other ways to make this project financially sustainable
- The code can be open source. This has so many advantages, one of them being securing the
possibility of
future development (haven't we Pax fans learned the value of that the hard way...)
- You're helping me work on something I love!
How to keep in touch
Since I have never used Patreon before, I will have to learn the ropes around here before I can make effective
use of
its communication features.
But we already have a Discord server where we can discuss, hang out, test preview releases or straight up play
some good
old Pax Galaxia together:
https://discord.gg/HWhxWGB
There is also a public Pax Galaxia Facebook group (not administrated by me) for all kinds of other Pax Galaxia
stuff.
You can head over there to read my post that contains much more of
the story behind starting
development
of Pax Two.
Trying Pax Galaxia is completely free and I encourage you to see if it's your thing. It can be
a little
hard to find a place to download the final version 1.15.3, but both Windows and Mac versions are generously
hosted by a
Pax fan here: www.campbelljc.com/pax/download
With all that said...
The golden age of Pax Galaxia is yet to come. Whether you're like most and haven't even heard about Pax Galaxia
before,
or you're one of the few remaining hardcore fans left in this Pax forsaken world, you can help bring Pax back to
life.
Bringing Pax into the modern era will expose so many more people to this forgotten classic, and Pax will live on
for a
long time.
I hope you have found this a compelling cause worthy of your investment. Let's make it happen together.
PS! I am well aware of the many, many Pax lookalikes available on platforms such as App Store, Google Play,
Steam and
many flash games sprinkled throughout the Internet. Let me tell you: None of them measure up to Pax Galaxia!
Stian Gudmundsen Høiland