Fallout inspired indie hardcore isometric cRPG SpaceWreck

Jan 13, 2020
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Umm, hi!

I am hobbyist game developer (I was full-time but the company kind of went down) and together with my friend, just two of us, are working on a computer RPG, inspired by the original Fallout games of '97 and '98 as well as some ideas from New Vegas.


The game is set in relatively near future where space colonization has just started but not yet evolved pass the Solar system. Emerging market becomes a boiling pot since political systems on Earth are not ready to deal with companies so far out and away from their reach. Worker exploitation together with harsh reality of living in space drives a conflict between employees and employers which results in wide and unexpectedly bloody clashes in Asteroid Belt. The game takes place decades after the violent conflict; you are newbie captain fresh out of Space Academy on your first voyage. Unfortunately, "space pirates" attack the ship, damaging the engines. While you manage to escape from immediate threat, you are stuck in so called Junkspace among space wrecks. Only hope - getting a replacement part, a Fuel Controller Chip, from one of the wrecks.

And that's how the game begins.

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Most notable feature is probably the primary focus on non-combat solutions. While you can attack and murder anybody you see, any NPC, the game can (and is intended to!) be completed without ever spilling a blood in various ways. Every quest has more than one peaceful solution (+ always the violent one, if you want), there are skill checks everywhere and your decisions carry consequences. Not only game has multiple main endings, each of them has variations in form of different NPC/location fates you have impacted, not unlike classic Fallout games.

So yes, this is a game we are making and I am hoping there are people that - in the era of Fallout4s - that still can appreciate the hardcore role-playing focus of original games. At least that's what we are shooting for.


Steam page is de facto our homepage: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1063540/Space_Wreck/

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P.S.
This can probably be considered shameless plugging but it's very hard to fight for exposure these days so I'll take what I can get. If I am not banned and deleted immediately, I'd love to post some progress updates time to time, like I do on RPGCodex, RPGWatch and GameJolt, and, if anythings picks your interest, I'd be happy to discuss it. I've implemented quite a few suggestions from people on message boards.
 

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Jan 13, 2020
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Nice, it reminds me of Underrail. Did you play it? :)
Thanks! Yes, I found out about Underrail and bought it very soon after it became public. That game showed me that people still can appreciate pixelart/retro isometric hardcore RPG and was a bit of inspiration to proceed with my own project.

The game's quite good even if there are design decisions I don't agree wholeheartedly with.
 
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This game also looks cool and minimalist. I'm looking forward to hear from this game more in the future!
Thanks! I am happy you noticed -- I am going for minimalistic RPG, with as little stats as possible that still allow for great deal of role-playing.

This looks right up my alley. Added to my Steam wishlist!
Aww, thanks a lot! Wishlists is the currency of hobbyist indies; I really appreciate!
 
Jan 13, 2020
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It's #screenshotsaturday and many indie devs use it to report on the progress. And usually I try to follow the suit.

Last week I continued work on new game area, the rock ship "Kurbads". Here's an early visual concept of the wreck:

SW-rockship-Kurbads-concept.png


And there's a short clip of player traversing actual game map (work in progress):

SW-navigate-Kurbads.gif


These type of ships - called rockships - were primary means how ore, mined on asteroids, was delivered to the Earth. Usually asteroids with very high ore concentration (e.g. iron, Fe) are chosen for mining. Crews of miners with manual tools as well as huge rock mining machines dig material out and then it gets to the mobile refinery (though, must point out, iron is very pure on asteroids on account of there not being no oxygen) and then, in form of pure pellets, it is ready to be transported. That's when the rockship comes in - pellets are moved to the ship where they are frozen in place with a bit f water. So the pellets turn into a solid chunk of material that is fixed to the rockship. It then transports the "micro asteroid" to the orbit of Earth where it then thaws the contact surface and releases the ...errr... "turd". With precise manipulations and following very specific calculations the chunk of material is propelled into downwards orbit that eventually brings the lump of material down to Earth, to the specified area - desert, usually - where it crashes just like an meteorite. And then it is extracted with conventional mining methods.

This specific ship - "Kurbads" - has suffered catastrophic damage while maintaining overall structure. The causes of this damage is yet to be uncovered but player can explore the damaged below-decks and learn more.
 
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Dialogues now show requirement tags for skill checks without exact number but ▲/▼ icon instead to indicate the difficulty. And there's also post-check animation to indicate that roll happened under the hood.

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And, yes, previously almost all of the dialogues were skill gated (think New Vegas) but now I'm adding/changing to rolls in some places.

Oh, and I am aware that there is great shizm between players that want to see mechanics (skill check rolls) and those who want more of an immersion. So, you can turn this all off and looks like this:

SW-speech-roll-no-tags.gif


Of course, it would be better not to show them to don't break the immersion however many players might just miss the idea that speech/skill affects your dialogue. Like, I loved Fallout 1 but I learned that it had speech checks only some time after I completed it first. New Vegas was great in this - it shows that there are tons of options to approach the quest. But it does make it all mechanical and metagamey in a while. But umm, thing is, I kind of like both approaches and some days prefer one over other, other days - vice versa.

Just curious - what's your take on this whole metagaming aspect, e.g. skill check indicators in dialogues?
 
I think you've landed on a good compromise in showing the skill being checked and ballparking the difficulty without giving the player a concrete number. This sort of build reactivity is bread and butter for a decent rpg, but nowadays it's become rare enough that it's a comfort to see it referenced in-dialogue.

Digging the screenshots by the way, the greyscale displays are boss.
 
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Thanks for a reaction! Helps me assess the decisions I make.

This sort of build reactivity is bread and butter for a decent rpg, but nowadays it's become rare enough that it's a comfort to see it referenced in-dialogue.

I concur completely.

Digging the screenshots by the way, the greyscale displays are boss.
Awesome! I am happy with this approach myself as well, it seems to resonate well.
 

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