I love that we’re at a point in game technology where I can look at a jagged pixelated line and know with absolute certainty that it’s jagged because the creators wanted it to be. It’s deliberate pixelation, and the upcoming isometric RPG Space Wreck is rife with it, combining a cartoonist’s eye for composition and lines with a sense of animation befitting its inspirations: classic Western isometric RPGs like Fallout and Arcanum. It is set to launch on December 5, 2022.
Space Wreck takes place in a collapsed space society where your ship is stranded in a rubble-strewn junkyard with other castaways as well as the people who live there. It’s based on the basics of classic isometric RPG design, including the option of non-violent resolution and wildly different paths based on your character’s stats and skills.
The developers give examples of this, such as characters with low speech skills who can’t strike up conversations with strangers, characters with low computer skills who accidentally crash terminals, or characters with high physical stats who can’t squeeze into vents to get a breather. shortcut to use. are just too fat.
There’s a demo for Space Wreck on Steam right now, and the developers updated that earlier this month. It has a version of the game’s first chapter designed to give you a feel for what combat, exploration, and interaction are like in the wider Space Wreck world. I recommend kicking as many people as possible into the void.
Space Wreck will be released in Early Access on November 5. It is developed by two-man Latvian indie outfit Pahris Entertainment SIA. It will have the full game with all intended launch content at release, but Pahris is releasing it as Early Access because it “has all the bugs we haven’t found yet”.
Playing through a single Space Wreck story fork takes about five hours, but the developers are very clear that it’s intentionally short to make room for many different “forks,” or story paths. They say you can see “up to 60%” of the game with one fork.
“By that I mean you’re missing out on entire locations – with their own stories, quests, NPCs and items available in the other fork,” says the release frequently asked questions. (opens in new tab) It’s a game that is “deliberately short but full of substance”.
As far as I’m concerned that sounds pretty neat, as does the clear design philosophy of just a few character stats and skills to choose from alongside weird perks and stuff, leaving you to focus on customizing your character when creating and then role-playing what your results yield you. I also like their profuse use of gifs, so here are a few.
You can find Spacewreck on Steamwhere it will launch into Early Access on December 5, 2022. You can also find developer Pahris Entertainment on Twitter.
Finally, the only truth you need that Space Wreck is at least worth looking at is that one of the developers has been post development updates to the PC Gamer Forums for the next three years. I have seen official websites with fewer development updates. Surely a forum connoisseur with such taste cannot make a really bad game?