GIF
Physics-based simulation of a black hole in our engine
GIF
Using a blackhole to slingshot the spaceship

Inspiration

We were inspired by the fact that Josh is red-green colorblind, so we made a more accessible engine. he couldn't see the close program button before, but he can see it now(?) in our new proprietary engine.

What it does

We built a proprietary game engine using the best features of some of the most popular game engines, and optimized it until it could run on just about anything. We then made Mission Kritikal Ultra, a space trucking friendslop racing game with combat and gambling mechanics to show you the full power of our engine.

First Principles supports:

macOS (Metal) and Windows (Vulkan)
Full scene editor
Standalone player
3D rendering
Spatial audio
Multiplayer
Proximity chat

How we built it

We built this engine with modular pieces of engine architecture that we repurposed and re-optimized to fit our exact needs for the game we developed in it, adding our personalized in engine tools like nanite, cell shading, ray traced audio, and non-euclidean geometry.

We then used this engine to build our video game from the ground up, only using what the engine provides. Our game development had to proceed phase by phase alongside the engine, since we could only use what the engine had.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was time constraints. We built the engine and built a fleshed out game in only 42 hours, all pretty much from scratch. We had a few problems along the way with the networking aspects of the project, but realized the networking issues were from eduroam's compartmentalized nature.

Figuring out a game idea that would both show off the full power of First Principles and fit the prompt was also a huge challenge, but being able to place the game in space made it straightforward to show the full power of our engine

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to create and deploy a full game engine in such a short time period, as well as fulfilling as much as we can from the prompt/rubric through a game made entirely in said engine.

What we learned

Engine level work is hard, but we work harder on no sleep :)

What's next for First Principles

A few of our members would love to release the game we made on steam after a little polish, it could even become the next popular friendslop game! as for the engine, that might just remain private and proprietary.