The science fiction genre has always been a source for creativity to flourish. Dangling just beyond our reach, the idea of bizarre space anomalies and strange new life forms hangs within the realms of the great void of space, and it’s through this mysterious veil that we cast our focus. For every story involving verdant new worlds or highly civilized lifeforms, there will in turn be the tales of the infinite emptiness of space and the malignant creatures that want nothing more than to invade your body.

The Swapper sits firmly on the latter of the two options mentioned above, with its emphasis on maintaining an aura of confusion and unease acting as a backdrop for the puzzling elements that drive the gameplay. You play as a stranded survivor on the Theseus, a once functional spacecraft that has since fallen into disrepair. With the crew unexplainably missing, you’re expected to discover just what has happened whilst looking for a way off the ship.

The game is heavily focused on the mechanics of the ‘Swapper’, a peculiar device gained near the start of the game that allows the user to create clones of themselves at both short and long range distances. What’s more, they are then able to swap their own consciousness between the active clones, so long as they have a clear line of sight to them. You can only have a maximum of five instances of yourself active at any given moment, including your original self, and many of the game’s puzzles derive from this restriction, forcing you to think logically about where you place your clones when trying to complete each obstacle.

To complicate matters, the game slowly introduces several other obstacles to restrict progress even further, by way of coloured lights. The blue lights allow you to fire your swapping beam through them but restrict any chance of spawning a clone inside the field of light. The red beam has the opposite effect where clones can be spawned, but no swapping beam can pass this field. While it may seem odd that a superior piece of technology that’s able to produce matter out of nothing can’t penetrate the altered hue of a beam of light, the mechanics behind this are sound. Each puzzle requires you to approach the situation of what you can and can’t do with a logical mindset, and whilst the way at first may seem unclear, stopping and analysing the options that are available to you will eventually yield the right answer.

One such puzzle greeted me with a room full of vibrant colours. A mixture of blues and reds cast liberally against a large portion of the chamber, with a few seemingly meaningless pockets of unlit space to fill in the rest of the area. A large chasm spanned the gap between me and the shiny token I had to acquire, and any attempts made to clear the gap by jumping were met with a swift and undignified death. After a few minutes of repeated dying and head scratching, the way became clear. In order for me to pass the challenge I had to create several clones inside the empty spaces and carefully manoeuvre them in sync as they traversed the areas I could not reach, triggering the necessary pressure plates scattered around and deactivating the lights that blocked me from swapping over the gap. There’s an odd sense of satisfaction that comes with completing a puzzle room, and it comes as a stark contrast against the otherwise bleak atmosphere of the derelict spacecraft.

Along with the puzzle-driven progression, the game features a large portion of the derelict ship for you to explore. Similar to that of a Metroidvania, the world is spread across a flat 2D canvas, and you’re expected to navigate throughout in your search for the various puzzle rooms. Fortunately, backtracking through previous areas of the ship isn’t very difficult as there are plenty of teleportation devices that allow you to fast travel between key points on the ship, helping you go back to any rooms you may have passed on previously.

By just focusing on the puzzles, you’re likely to miss out of the underlying story that surrounds the game, which is a shame as there’s a narrative hiding under the surface that makes for interesting reading. By exploring the expansive halls of the ship, the tone of the game becomes much darker than it first seems. There’s an eerie presence that lingers throughout, and as you clear more of the game’s puzzles, it becomes clear that the story is as morbid as the gloomy visuals of the game lead you to believe, with topics of ethical practises sitting at the forefront of the narrative.

Since The Swapper started life as a PC title, it was always going to be a challenge to see just how a controller could handle the dual input of movement and aiming. Since your cursor is always relevant to your player’s character, it was perfectly suited to that of a keyboard and mouse. Movements that required quick reactions we’re easily achievable with the freedom afforded to the PC control scheme. On the PS4, the controls are tied to the twin thumbsticks, with the clone creation and swap ability tied to the trigger buttons accordingly. I never had any issues playing with the default settings, but for those who do the game features the option to let you adjust the sensitivity of your aiming reticule, which should help those with issues acclimating to the controller layout.

As far as console ports go, The Swapper is a solid entry to the PS4’s indie catalogue. The game remains true to the PC version, excelling in deliverance of a compelling and atmospheric sci-fi horror story. The puzzles are well paced and engaging yet rarely stray past a high level of difficulty, meaning you’re unlikely to be stuck on the same puzzle for days on end. Top that off with an intuitive set of controls well suited for the console and it’s easy to see why The Swapper got ported to begin with. Those of you who’ve already completed the game might not have much reason to play through again, but for newcomers this is definitely one to pick up.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

This review is based on experiences from the PS4 version of the game.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

The cover and title says it all.

The Ice Cap and the Rift is the second novel in Marshall Chamberlain’s the Ancestor Series of Adventure Thrillers. John Henry Morgan, director of the United Nations’ Institute for the Study of Unusual Phenomenon (ISUP), is still reeling from the events in the first novel (The Mountain Place of Knowledge) when a combo-quake of unprecedented size occurs without any prior warning. The situation escalates when a team in Iceland detects the presence of strange, hidden structures within the newly formed rift that pre-date the birth of human civilisation. Morgan has encountered evidence of advanced, ancient technology before, and recognises these structures as having been built by mysterious beings they’ve named the Ancestors. He has to secure a UN presence at the rift, and balance conflicting international interests as different nations scramble to secure the technology within the rift for themselves.

Hounding Morgan at every step is Dick Murray, director of the CIA. Murray only cares about results and the protection of his country, a man desperate for success after being outmanoeuvred by the Chinese the last time they discovered Ancestor technology. Morgan needs his help, but every bit of assistance Murray offers is a double-edged sword. Thankfully, Morgan isn’t alone. Doctor Mary Ellen, his colleague, friend and partner, was also witness to the capabilities of Ancestor technology before, and uses her extensive scientific knowledge and force of personality to help ISUP succeed against the odds. Operating from within the shadows is Ling Soo, the Chinese Minister of Intelligence, a dangerous and canny opponent. Using deception and the co-operation of international allies, he proves an adept opponent equally capable in both the political and military fields.

The dual UN-Cambridge team investigates the rift in the ice cap while trying to prevent too much information from leaking out to the various international factions eager for a piece of the pie. What they find is a fully operational habitat, with several flying vehicles that are still in top condition. The flying vehicles are saucer-shaped crafts, and raise questions about humanity’s origins, and whether our history is as complete or short as we’d been led to believe. Before the full implications of the discovery can be worked through, the Chinese manage to secure the information about the rift’s contents and execute a daring plan to steal one of the flying saucers. It’s up to Murray and Morgan to set aside their differences in order to track and recover the stolen craft.

The Ice Cap and the Rift reads like a story-driven political thriller with a sci-fi twist. In style it’s reminiscent of Tom Clancy in that Marshall explains the workings of his world in great detail. His research into a variety of topics lends this text believability and weight. You get a very real sense that he knows what he’s talking about regarding the way the various organisations and modern technology works. The unfortunate trade-off, however, is that the narrative flow gets interrupted by lengthy exposition.

The blending of the science fiction into the real-world setting is handled very well, with a careful reverence that’s not often experienced in novels. The mystical and spiritual nature of the Ancestors is well defined because of this, lending a strange metaphysical feeling to everything centred on their works. From the get-go he manages to arouse intrigue as to what we have in the rift, and who its mysterious architects were.

The man himself

Unfortunately, this reverence seems to disappear when the aura of mystery vanishes. The UN team has no great difficulty in getting into the newly revealed habitat, and spend more time sweeping the area for CIA bugs. Once inside, the descriptions of the habitat’s controls give it a strangely ‘Fisher-Price’ feel. Scientists don’t spend much time puzzling through symbols or controls, and in fact have no hassle deciphering how everything works. The fact that much modern human technology within the novel’s setting seems on par with that of the Ancestors – virtual environments, advanced invisibility cloaking technology, satellite mounted lasers – makes the discovery in the rift feel a little underwhelming. There are even two chapters within the novel where we are treated to modern, living Ancestors as the viewpoint characters in order to understand their motives. Had the sense of mystery been preserved, then we’d be able to maintain the sense of wonder the Ancestors are supposed to engender.

One of the other stumbling blocks for the novel is the sheer volume of characters. Aside from Morgan, Murray, Ellen and Soo, the cast of characters is extensive. With so many individuals, running the gamut from pilots, secret agents, terrorists and academics, characterisation is kept brief of a necessity, with most characters getting a short introduction and a single defining characteristic. In the worst examples the supporting characters are ethnic or occupational stereotypes. This makes many of them feel more like caricatures than actual flesh-and-blood individuals. Fewer characters performing many of the same roles, or more face-time for some characters, would really strengthen the impact they make.

Chamberlain’s descriptions are stronger than his characters, but inconsistent. At times he paints a scene vividly using multiple senses; I’m still stuck remembering the nutty smell of a cup of coffee Morgan has towards the final chapters. At other times, it feels like Chamberlain is watching a movie and describing it to us, his readers, with a certain level of dispassion. This creates a distance, something dangerous in a novel that requires reader investment in order to get swept up in the action. The worry is that the weak descriptions far outweigh the good ones. Despite that, the tension of the final chapters prompted further reading, the reader trying to work out the intricacies of the Chinese plot alongside the protagonists.

There’s much to recommend in The Ice Cap and the Rift. Chamberlain lends his world both a sense of credibility and mysticism. However, the presence of many weak characters hampers our involvement. Sacrificing descriptions for exposition in order to preserve the fast pace of his novel created further distance between readers and the action. If you’re looking for a light adventure novel with global conflict and alien artefacts, then this might just be the book for you.

With a release date of 15th October 2014, you can pre-order the ebook on multiple platforms, or start with the first book in the series.

This book was reviewed using a copy provided by the publishers for that purpose

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Greetings and welcome back fellow strategists and gunners. Hope you have kept your wits sharp and your trigger-finger ready to go, because we are going back into Interplanetary for some more planet-bombardment action. The folks at Team Jolly Roger Games have made many improvements to the game since we last looked at it, including graphical fixes, network improvements, more weapons of mass destruction, a tech tree and research mechanic, a working spying mechanic, and other improvements and goodies. I have been purposefully keeping myself in the dark about the game’s development, so that way each iteration can become more of a surprise for my next skirmish. Boy I must say, they really have made some great strides since my initial preview, which you can read here if you haven’t already.

The first topic I wish to talk about is possibly the biggest and most influential of them all, the spying mechanic. Previously you could view your opponent’s planet and see where all cities and developments have been placed, allowing precision-based weapons to take a huge advantage and dominate the weapon selections. With the recent changes, you no longer have all that info readily available. In order to view possible enemy weak points, you must construct buildings which will allow you to view planet infrastructure. Depending on your planet’s level of intelligence – the number of spy buildings you have – the possible targets available range from a couple low-value locales up to the entire planet. To keep away prying eyes, you can counter by building “cloaking” or counter-intelligence buildings in order to hide your planet’s infrastructure. This feature alone adds much more strategic gameplay and flow to the system, as players are no longer just racing to get the biggest and best guns. Priority is now split between getting your planet ready for conflict and keeping your cities and important structures hidden, creating both an arms and intelligence race.

Along with intelligence comes the research aspect of the game. You now need to research technology in order to access the bigger and more advanced weaponry. No longer are you able to build missiles and laser weapons right from the get go. Now you must allocate time in order for research to be done. This is done via a simple tech tree, where various tech and bonuses can be researched and applied to your advantage. Techs include giving permanent boosts such as more power production or spying levels as well as the ability to manufacture one of the two new weapons of massive destruction.

Now we are getting to the juicy parts of the new additions, the new weaponry. A new laser and artillery weapon have been added in the form of the ‘Solar Laser’ and the ‘Asteroid Diversion’ respectively. Once I noticed these weapons in the tech tree, I just HAD to acquire them and give them a shot (pun intended).

FIRE THE LASER!

The Solar Laser is a satellite parked in the sun’s orbit which focuses the sun’s power into a giant solar death ray, obliterating anything you set its deadly sights on with pinpoint precision. I couldn’t help but feel like an evil genius, pinky to mouth, when I set loose the focused wrath of the sun onto my enemy.

As cool as the Solar Laser is, I felt that the Asteroid Diversion was more “in tune” with the sci-fi nature of the game. As the name implies, the Asteroid Diversion weapon takes an asteroid from the local asteroid belt and diverts it to a course of your bidding, into say perhaps a nearby planet that you dislike. Nothing beats the sight of an asteroid hurtling out of space at full speed and slamming right into your enemy’s precious home planet. Numerous blockbusters and B-movies have been made on that premise, and now it is in your hands to unleash upon your foes. So set an asteroid loose on that pesky planet and whip out some popcorn for the show (3D glasses not included).

Recreate a B-movie disaster film on your enemy’s home planet

While all these additions are great, I have merely touched upon a few of the major updates to the game. Many other improvements have been made to the game such as improved multiplayer networking and graphical fixes, all showing that Team Jolly Roger have been putting a lot of effort and love into this project. I was blown away by my first look into the game many versions ago, and the current build they have on offer is no exception to that statement. I look forward to the next iteration of the game. If the additions they have made so far are any indication of the future trajectory of the game, we are in for an Earth-shattering (pun intended) release once the full game is out.
You can check out Interplanetary on Steam Early Access for those interested in some tactical fun. Let’s get those guns primed and lasers flying!

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

So the story goes, an organization of scientists, in an effort to expand their knowledge, creates the “Chronova Device”, a tool that would enable them to unlock the universal ‘real-time’ and introduce it to their turn-based world. But, as these experiments often do, everything goes wrong, and a vortex sweeps them up from their world. Now it’s up to you, in your little orange “Nova-111″ starship, to rescue the crew.  Will your harmless research vessel be up to the task?

The player will be faced with a series of obstacles, such as alien enemies and puzzles. Your vessel won’t be completely helpless, as collectible upgrades and abilities will allow it to defend itself and fight back. As you advance, the world will slowly shift from turn-based decisions to making the player react in real-time environments. And gosh, what environments they are. If you’re not already interested, the visuals should definitely hook you. The game simply looks splendid, and the character portraits are to die for, really. The mix of pixel and painterly styles makes the levels truly shine. And the music ain’t too shabby either, apparently being dynamic and suiting itself to your individual play style.

Though no set date has been announced, Nova-111 is supposed to be released some time later this year for Windows, Linux, and Mac. To find out more, visit Funktronic Labs’ website for the game. You can also follow the developers on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

3089 is a first-person RPG in which you assume the role of an experimental android, sent down to the strange planet ‘Xax’ to be tested on your performance whilst under the watchful eye of a shady omnipotent figure called the Overlord. You’ll be expected to traverse the sprawling, randomly generated world as you complete quests, gear up your character, and eventually begin building your own base on the planet’s surface.

Explosions on my first day…

You begin your adventure by choosing from either one of the predefined classes – ranging from the typical melee, gunner, and thief choices to more unorthodox options like pilot and leader. Being offered the choice on how you want to play is a nice touch to help accommodate different play styles, but there’s way too little information available on this screen for you to make an informed decision on what some of the classes offer. The Pilot class, for example, offers a large boost to the piloting stat which allows you to drive the various ships found on the planet’s surface. Without picking this option and diving in, there’s no way a new player would know what kind of play style they are committing themselves to.

The planet Xax will be your ultimate test, providing you can survive the hostile inhabitants that roam the surface. While you may attempt to seek refuge inside one of the safe zones scattered throughout the world, your safety isn’t guaranteed as alien ships will frequently wander in and begin to slaughter the friendly inhabitants of your town. Luckily, turrets are commonplace in these safe areas so for the most part you can use the shop and workstation nodes without too much fear.

The nodes found in each town are used to purchase new weapons, armour and special gadgets like grappling hooks and hoverboards – the latter of which is highly recommended as it not only makes you feel badass, but makes travelling the world a whole lot faster. While each node serves a specific function, it can be somewhat frustrating to have to constantly run between the huts that house each node, especially when there’s usually a huge distance to cover between each house. It seems odd that the various shops and functions couldn’t have just been gathered together in one place, effectively cutting out this need to tediously trek between posts just to get your gear sorted.

The crux of activities in 3089 are handled with randomly generated quests that you pick up from the safe zones. Each quest is a mash-up of objectives which usually ask you to perform a number of tasks like diffusing bombs, spying on hostile NPC’s or being a courier for important info discs. While the questing system serves a valid purpose to help generate content for you to earn cash – which you then use to upgrade your character – it’s unfortunate that most of the objectives are repeated after completing several quests. It soon becomes more of a chore to complete these necessary side missions just so your character doesn’t fall behind on its progression for bigger and better equipment.

[Spoiler warning: If you want to avoid any story spoilers, skip past the next paragraph.]

Alongside the side quests is 3089’s main plot, centred on the shady goings on with the Overlord, the omnipotent entity that sent you to the planet in the first place. After jumping through a few hoops, you soon learn that planet Xax was once inhabited by another race of creatures, which were all but killed off. With their planet taken, they hid underground waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back against their attackers.  By enlisting your help, this hidden faction hopes to use you in their secret war against the Overlord. You’ll have to piece together most of the story via transmissions received whilst completing quests and defeating the various boss monsters at each interval as you progress, but the plot is engaging enough to encourage you to push forward and learn more about this secret war.

The Matrix, only with 100% more robots.

How you fight in 3089 depends entirely on your play style. There’s a full stealth/sneaking system in place to allow those who like to flaunt their melee and backstabbing prowess, whilst still accommodating the big guns and awesome firepower gun nuts will no doubt crave. What’s more, weapons are modular, meaning you can swap and change the individual parts of each weapon with newer pieces, allowing you to freely customize the stats of each weapon, or even add attachments like silencers for extra functionality.

Being the experimental robot killing machine that you are, you also come full equipped with a special device that lets you pause time briefly. This allows you to set up elaborate precision strikes on enemies, or perhaps just escape a tricky situation unscathed. This super power is balanced by making you seek out collectible clocks, scattered throughout the game world which replenish the charge that fuels this ability.

Perhaps I can build a bridge outta here?

Once you’ve progressed far enough into the main plotline of 3089, you’ll gain access to the building tools. This equipment adds a whole new layer to the gameplay, shifting away from the character progression and more towards building structures, turrets and useful utilities. This feature is quite robust, and easy to use for the most part with on screen cues helping you to place and shape your structures any way you wish. It’s a strange concept, as for the most part this feature didn’t feel like it was in any way attached to the main concept of the game. It didn’t seem in any way necessary for me to dive into this aspect, and yet I was drawn to it simply because of the new level of control over the world that it gave me.

3089 is a strange mash-up of genres, and one that is quite common place in gaming today with so many titles opting to meld genres in an attempt to mix up the formula and make something interesting. While this is an impressive feat pulled off by such a small development team (a single fellow by the name of Phr00t), it doesn’t quite hit all of the buttons to make it anything more than a fun sandbox adventure to sink a few hours into. The extra gadgets and the handy building tool help liven up the standard ‘run & gun’ aspects somewhat, but with the tedious quests and unnecessary ferrying between shop nodes it is easy to become annoyed at the feeling of repetition.

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

For more information on 3089, check out the developer’s website or Steam page.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Don’t you just hate it when you wake up inside a cryostasis pod and the entirety of humanity has become enslaved to an angry, paranoid human hybrid species? Well, that’s exactly what’s happened in Wake Up Call, an ambitious new game from Dark Synergy Studios.

You play as a ‘no nonsense’ ex-special ops soldier by the name of Kyle Rogers. Poor Kyle has been sleeping for the past 150 years and has since found himself in a bit of a situation. Humankind has evolved, and an entirely new species called the Kalders are now sharing the planet. The Kalders are a more aggressive variant of human and wasted little time in dominating their counterparts. Naturally, it’s up to Kyle to save the day.

Built with Unreal Engine 4, Wake Up Call is looking like an ambitious project. Little more is known about the game except that it will focus on ‘stealth-action’ FPS gameplay, and players will have the ability to make important choices as the story progresses. Only time will tell if the team at Dark Synergy Studios can achieve what they’re planning to with Wake Up Call, but the story has just the right amount of sci-fi and apocalyptic doom to grab my attention.

If you want to keep tabs on the game’s development, head on over to their official site or Steam Greenlight page.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Astrobase Command, a sandbox base-building RPG by Jellyfish Games, is a character-driven throwback to those old 70s style sci-fi ideas of what living in deep space would be like. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and as your crew struggle to make it through the day some will die. Players will be tasked with creating their own species and building up their base any way they see fit using a ‘Lego-style’ module system to slot in various rooms onto the space stations infrastructure.

Alongside the base building elements, Astrobase Command promises some interesting RPG elements as you explore the stars, with procedural content thrown in to help keep content fresh and unexpected. To get a better understanding of what the folks at Jellyfish Games are trying to achieve, we got to throw some questions at them, and here’s what team member Dave Williams had to say.

The Indie Mine: The game appears to have a big focus on the lives and activities of your individual crew members. How deep is the character development system?

Dave: Character development is a major part of the game, so it’s quite deep. The best metaphor is that when I played D&D in my early teens, it was all about min/maxing and getting that character which was completely optimized in his stats and abilities. And this was loads of fun. But what was even more fulfilling was playing D&D in college and as an adult because then it became about the character and solving challenges from the perspective of the character. The stats were there to inform the roleplaying and flesh out one aspect of character development, but they weren’t the be-all-and-end-all.

So Astrobase Command is really based around the premise that the characters living on your station are not just “bags of stats”. but they’re actually people in the same sense that characters in a well-made D&D universe are.

And I think this dovetails nicely with what’s interesting to us about science fiction. While lightsabers and Star Destroyers got me excited about sci-fi, I feel like it’s really the characters that make the genre compelling on a level so deep that fans go to conventions every year, do cosplay, and exhibit an uncanny willingness to wait in line for a day to get tickets for a theatrical release. This isn’t because of the awesome futuristic technology and panoramic shots of spaceships and pew-pew; it’s because of really compelling characters and their stories which take place in a believable sci-fi world (which is where the technology comes in).

So in my mind, science fiction isn’t about technology itself; rather it’s about exploring the conflict inherent in technological development and how characters meet those challenges. So I think if you dig into it, what’s cool about lightsabers is how this archaic technology (by Star Wars standards) embodies the values of ancient wisdom and tradition represented by the Jedi, and how this fundamentally clashes with the Empire’s need for relentless progress. It is against this backdrop that Vader proclaims “don’t be too proud of this technological terror that you’ve constructed, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” So what’s interesting is the storytelling opportunities afforded by the technology as a backdrop, not the technology itself.

As a result of this notion, we have a heavy investment in the personality trait system which hooks into our AI story engine in specific ways. There are 280 personality traits (so far) and a given character can have up to four. Each trait has a very long list of properties, affinities, and relationships and it’s actually these more atomic units that the AI story engine interacts with. But we wanted the mechanics of the system to be invisible to the player, because he or she should care about the character as an individual — the sum of its parts. It’s the code that does the work to make it believable, and we’ve put a lot of effort into this.

Our test as to whether the trait system worked was being able to construct our favourite characters from various sci-fi universes and have them behave as you would expect. Part of the iterative process was ensuring they could be represented in this system. Because if the trait system could theoretically use its Lego pieces to construct anyone from a believable Picard to a believable Vader, then you can make anything.

And just to be clear, the player doesn’t get to pick the traits of the crew. They develop over time as an outcome of the AI Story Engine. Personalities of characters emerge from the situations the player puts them in.

Much of the fun is taking these deep characters (who may have some great aspects combined with other aspects that don’t fit your playstyle), and figuring out how to best utilize them on your station. The Star Trek example is Lieutenant Barclay. He was an extremely talented diagnostic engineer, and he might have been the smartest human on the Enterprise — his intelligence was at the genius level, even by Star Trek standards. But he also was completely paranoid, an introvert, and plus he was pretty arrogant. And this is what made him interesting. And plenty of TNG episodes explored how his perceived weaknesses actually became an asset. His paranoia actually saved the day a number of times, as did his arrogance to insist that he was right and everyone else was wrong (which ended up being true).

So the idea’s that there are no intrinsically good/bad traits. It’s simply about the kinds of characters the player trusts and what characters best suit the player’s playstyle.

The Indie Mine: How will the player maintain a steady stream of crew members? Since you plan on having several ‘disastrous scenarios’ like alien infestations and accidental deaths amongst the crew, I’d imagine there must be a way to replace those unfortunate red shirts.

Dave: Yeah, there are a number of ways. The most fundamental method is recruits. One of the jobs on the station is Recruitment Officer, and it’s the job of the character in this position to feed the player a steady stream of recruits. Like HR in real life, better Recruitment Officers yield better candidates. Then it’s up to the player to accept or reject the application. Because Crew Quarters are a module that needs to be built/supported, you don’t necessarily want to accept everyone that comes your way. There definitely a danger of “dead weight” — which is something that can exist in any real-world organization, and indeed in Astrobase Command. Sometimes the player is looking to fill a need or role on the station, and then looking at recruit applications and deciding who the best fit is. Other times, a superstar may come along and the player may feel he’s a good hire even if there’s no immediate job for him.

Other than this, there are instances where travellers, or people you rescue, or defectors from other civilizations, etc, will want to join your Astrobase. The story engine determines these moments, and gives you the opportunity to do something about it.

I think red shirts are ultimately characters that don’t yet have a developed personality, nor has there been any particular investment into their skills. Since there’s no emotional attachment, sure they can go explore the Planet of Death because maybe there’s some needed resources on the surface. What’s interesting is that when those red shirts do something interesting, and maybe get a personality trait of it. Then you care about them. And indeed, this is how things worked on Star Trek.

Chief O’Brien is a good example about this. At the beginning of TNG he was a fill-in character, completely expendable. After awhile, you got to know him and he did some things. Then by DS9 he was a primary character. And you really cared about his story, even though he was still a Petty Officer. That’s kind of how things work in Astrobase Command. You want NCOs you can trust, just like you want Commanders you can trust.

The Indie Mine: How much customisation is available when building your space station?

Dave: We use a module metaphor, so the player essentially crafts modules out of parts and then the module has the cumulative attributes, including the relevant duty stations where the characters physically work. The characters assigned to build the modules also play a part, so better engineers will construct better modules. There are no map sizes or hard limits, so you can basically build whatever you want. You can make a Death Star, you can make a Babylon 5, you can make a DS9 — or whatever mash up fantasy is living in your head. These goals are intrinsic.Well, since Astrobase Command is a lot about sci-fi fantasy fulfilment, it was paramount to us to make it feel like you were actually building a believable station.

It is important that the game doesn’t push the player to building any particular thing. It’s more that every opportunity is a choice, and every choice is a tradeoff. So you’ll want to build the station that best fits your playstyle and accept the good with the bad. So for example, a Death Star has lots of points of failure. Security is a pain. Its energy needs are extremely high. It is a city that has everything, but this is also its weakness. It needs experts in every field imaginable to be fully operational. Whereas a small science station has a lot less points of failure, but the trade-off is inherent in the narrow focus the player gives it. Simply put, it’s about risk v reward but also playstyle.

So a lot of design has gone into these sorts of natural mechanics. One very simple example of a natural tradeoff is power vs. security. Power is distributed through modules which have resistance, so the farther something is from a power reactor the less efficiently it’s sucking that power. Power reactors have a set output, so in general you want to utilize the output by having modules that are nearby. Incidentally, the code works out the most efficient way for the modules to draw power given the distance and resistance of the modules in-between it and the reactor. The way the algorithm works, if you don’t have enough power then rolling brownouts occur naturally as the algorithm walks though the module list and tries to power everything. This was a validation of the process, because it’s what you would expect. We didn’t code it deliberately, but rather it’s a natural result that emerged from a sensible way to represent station power.

In terms of trade-offs, being extremely power-efficient trends towards a “highly connected” base, which makes sense in real-world terms. But this is the opposite of what you want for a very secure station. Security works by having checkpoints take up some of a module space, and security personnel will work out routes. Super efficient security means having a tubular (or ring-like) station, with choke-points where you can trap enemies. Because it’s a lot easier to sweep an area with just a few access points. So something that’s very efficient for power ends up being very inefficient for security, and vice-versa simply due to a natural outcome of module connectivity. That’s just one example.

The Indie Mine: You say the game features real-time squad-based combat in some situations, so how will the battles play out?

Dave: I could say that battles play out a bit like a cross between Rome: Total War and tabletop miniature games, but in a 3D space. But this is highly dependent on the conflict size.

Unlike Rome: Total War (or RTS games in general) where each unit is identical to others of its type, in Astrobase Command every unit is unique because it is a character. The player creates groups (could be squad sized, or regiment sized) and gives orders at the group level.  For small conflicts, the player is able to really take a hands-on approach and direct every movement precisely. For large conflicts, there’s too much going on for the player to micromanage every small action, and he’ll need to give high-level objectives to Commanders on the ground. The AI will execute those orders using the character personalities. So it’s about promoting Commanders you trust.

A counter-analogy I like to use is Starcraft. I loved Starcraft, but I could never compete at the high levels of play because it ultimately was about clicks-per-minute which required a lot of practice and a huge investment. And I felt like to be able to compete I would have to lessen my enjoyment of the game, and invest a lot of time doing that. Astrobase Command isn’t about how fast you can click — you have Commanders to do this for you, if you’ve cultivated them.

And this means the game scales up quite well. In the early game, where you don’t have a lot of characters and none of them are particularly well-developed leaders yet, you’ll be fighting small engagements and directing every squad yourself in the moment-to-moment gameplay. As you progress and the battles get larger, you’ll still probably focus on one area of the battle where you really want to take personal control, but for other areas where you can’t give your undivided attention you’ll put characters in charge and give them an objective which might be “assault this position” or “take this hill” or “hold my flank” or “bombard their capital ships to distract fire away from the fighters” and the AI will fulfil those orders, to the best of the ability and personality of the Commanders you’ve assigned. This is how we plan to support huge fleet battles and armies, without requiring the character move every unit by hand.

The Indie Mine: Astrobase Command boasts a “robust AI-generated storytelling system”. How will the game keep things fresh and exciting for the player?

Dave: I think one of the weaknesses of rogue-like games is that they often play like a series of disconnected events, where things happen randomly. We feel like that invalidates the concept of meaningful choice. Because a big part of player choice is having outcomes which are a consequence of player action.

The goal in Astrobase Command is to have events which occur in the game world that are a direct result of the actions taken by the player, and by the player’s crew. And that it makes sense when compared to the internal logic used for sci-fi shows. Because that’s the metric: “Could this string of in-game events be a Star Trek episode, and over time when story arcs emerge does it start to look like a season?”

So the idea is that we give the player a maximum possibility space, and ensure the game responds appropriately to his actions within a maximal set of reactions. This in turn prompts the player to make new choices to respond to the new situations. Then, it will always be fresh.

The Indie Mine: What’s the craziest moment you’ve seen when making the game?

Dave: I think being indie is necessarily filled with crazy moments. Obviously, Astrobase Command is very much a technology and systems driven game at its core. And the team composition reflects that, but it also means we won’t have an artist until after the Kickstarter. But part of doing a Kickstarter means showing gameplay, and we got to a point where we needed in-game assets just to proceed. We were like “who has the most 3d Studio Max experience?” and Adam our primary coder had opened it like once, two years ago. He had the most experience, so he’s now also our 3d modeller. We call it our “Inglourious Basterds moment.” Banjerrrno!

If you want to know more  about Astrobase Command, check out their Kickstarter campaign (In which 30 Canadian dollars will net you access to the beta when it’s released) and the game’s official website.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

It’s been a while since I swore on such a constant scale that passers-by would likely confuse the obscenities heard for that of a sailor’s tavern, which is exactly what makes Risk of Rain a worthy entry into the roguelike genre. On the surface, there’s not much to see and nothing will immediately jump out as anything spectacular. That is until you scratch away the unassuming top layer, to uncover a challenging 2D side-scroller with a ton of content to explore.

The rules are simple, you get one life to progress through a series of levels. Die and it’s game over and you’ve got to start again from the very beginning. To mix things up a bit here, there’s an ominous timer present in the top right corner of the screen, constantly ticking higher and higher as time progresses. Unfortunately for the player this is an increasing difficulty slider, so the more time it takes to complete a level, the harder things will get. It’s savage and unforgiving for those unfamiliar to the genre, but roguelike fans and sadomasochists alike will find a satisfying level of difficulty to make the pain worthwhile.

NO, YOU’RE DEAD!

From the get-go you’re given access to only one character class, with the ability to unlock the rest by achieving a variety of hidden goals throughout each session. At first this may seem like a clever addition to the game’s overall style, but the harsh reality is it’s nigh on impossible to discern what you need to do in order to get access to some of the more obscure characters which is pretty frustrating for those just starting out. A quick Google search and a few specific tasks completed later and the game will most certainly feel more varied as you pick between your favourite sci-fi inspired classes, each bringing a different skill set to the party. This doesn’t matter as much in single player, but for the multiplayer aspects it can be the difference between level completion or ultimate defeat.

The levels are all procedurally generated, and your goal on each level requires you to locate and activate a teleporter. Doing so triggers a timer which counts down for 90 seconds, and during this time an increased number of enemies will continue to spawn along with one big boss monster. These are frantic moments of panic, usually resulting in either glorious victory or humiliating defeat at the hands of the hordes. While these moments are more fast paced and entertaining, the build up to triggering the teleporter devices can be tedious at times. Sometimes you’ll have to back-track the entire length of a level in order to find the teleporter device that was five inches off screen in a corner you didn’t check which can be quite frustrating at times.

I have the worst luck…

Because of its roguelike nature, the story aspects take a backseat to the action of running and gunning. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no substance to what’s happening in the game, in fact quite the opposite. The intro video sets the scene, but most of the game’s lore is uncovered by playing through the levels slaying specific enemies to collect monster logs or by collecting the vast number of power-up items. As you collect each of these objects, an entry will be added to the item and monster logs which can be accessed via the main menu. Each item offers up a little bit of background information on the inhabitants and items found on the strange planet. This is a nice added bonus that provides an extra sense of depth for those who prefer to learn more about the lore of the game world.

Risk of Rain doesn’t bother to hide the fact that it wants you, your family and everyone you’ve ever known to suffer, and ultimately that’s its main attraction and what makes it a worthwhile entry to the roguelike genre. Despite a few minor issues with levels and character unlocks, Risk of Rain is definitely worth the number of broken keyboards you’re likely to burn through whilst playing it.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a PC copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Droidscape has a heavy science fiction theme, though the story is brief. I won’t divulge too much of that backstory, but the ultimate goal is to free the protagonist from his holding cell using a robotic avatar. Along the way, players will be introduced to factoids about the game’s universe and the occasional story advancement shown in a kind of animated comic book style. I actually would’ve loved to learn more about the history and motivations of the different groups involved in the plot. A few more cutscenes would have also helped it feel like the story was advancing at a steady pace.

Plot your course through robotic enemies.

Players take on the role of the protagonist who’s managed to remotely take control of an advanced robot. On each level, the player must navigate the robot to an exit path through a series of isometric rooms. Play on each level consists of two phases, and in the first phase players draw a complete path from start to finish that their robot will follow. Part of that path must include grabbing color-coded keys to unlock doors, stopping at energy recharge stations (movement costs energy taken from a finite reserve), and avoiding robotic sentries that will kill the player on contact. As the game progresses, other types of obstacles are introduced that add an extra bit of a challenge. I felt like these changes came too far apart early in the game, which led to some slight boredom before picking up speed later.

The second phase of play is where things get interesting. Now that the path has been set, players control the robot’s movement speed using a slider control. The robot will only advance along the path if the slider is shifted to the right, and speed is controlled by how far from the center the slider is held. The robot’s course can also be reversed by moving the slider in the opposite direction. The tutorial tries its best to explain the process, but it can really only be fully understood by playing through the early stages and making a few mistakes along the way. Since the robot’s path can’t be adjusted during this phase, the player may find that he/she has to go back to the path-setting phase to adjust the robot’s course for a chance of success.

The game offers a secondary method of controlling the slider using motion-tracking through the mobile device’s camera. A turn of the player’s head in either direction is supposed to shift the slider accordingly. I never could quite get this to work consistently on the iPad despite multiple attempts in different levels of lighting. Even when I could get the robot to move, I never felt like I had the degree of control achieved when playing using the standard touch controls. Because timing is so key, I stuck almost exclusively to the touch controls. I hope the kinks will eventually be ironed out just for the novelty of being able to use it successfully.

Control your robotic avatar once the path is set.

Players are rewarded on their performance in a few areas including how quickly they complete the level, how many gems they are able to pick up along the way, and so on. Perform well, and players can spend their hard-earned currency in the Droidscape store. The one-use wares offer some small advantages like extra shielding, a longer countdown timer, or an energy refill – each of which may be the key to success on the more difficult levels. If nothing else, the gold/silver medal system is there for completionists.

I think what I eventually found most interesting about Droidscape: Basilica is that it’s basically two games in one with each level containing both a strategy puzzle and an action-based challenge. Each of those elements are both tied to the player’s success, but they offer wildly different paces and experiences. I felt like the game had some early pacing issues to overcome, but by the end I found it a very recommendable puzzle experience for iOS users.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using the iPad version 0.2. It’s available for purchase through the App Store.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Team Disaster have released a demo for their game, Captain Disaster In: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots. The game is reminiscent of the point-and-click adventure games of the 80s and early 90s. Captain Disaster has a retro feel to it in both gameplay and design. With 320 x 200 resolution graphics, players take a trip back to a time when adventure games ruled the PC gaming market and the console mascot rivalry was fought between a hedgehog and a plumber.

Captain Disaster was created by Dave Seaman as the protagonist for his ebook sci-fi adventure series, which is full of high antics and slapstick humour. From the demo, one can expect the game to utilize both these themes in abundance. I was particularly fond of the satirical humour that referenced other overused science fiction tropes. The Flash Gordon and Star Wars text crawl intro scene made me laugh, as did the name of the ship from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, which Team Disaster unapologetically admits to using. And I couldn’t help feeling that the dense protagonist was a clear homage to Roger Wilco of the classic point-and-click adventure series Space Quest.

I won’t spoil the details of the demo here, due to the fact that I believe players should get their hands on it themselves. If you’re up for a sci-fi adventure to satisfy your inner nerd, or even just a promising adventure game, then I would urge you to try the demo for Captain Disaster In: Death Has A Million Stomping Boots.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.