I am amused they are called Still Alive Studios.
Ohhhhhh, gotta read that, thanks!
Ok, I’m having a weird day. I’m not a big Space Game fan, but I’m not overly opposed to them. Yet somehow, thanks to sales at Steam, I find myself buying Stellaris, Everspace, and MOO reboot today. Total cost is $32.50. That’s gotta be a pretty good deal.
So @BrianRubin and other enthusiasts, help me. What do I start with? Also, do you have a podcast/video/blog post or two that you could link me to that covers any of these games in depth?
Everspace is the best game on that list, start there.
Depends on what you feel most like doing. If you want a fairly quick space 4X, the nu-MOO is quite good now. If you want something more grand/serious, go with Stellaris. If you’re more up for just flying around in a rogue-lite space arcade fighter game, go for Everspace.
I keep meaning to, but I’m not that excited about it, so I keep putting it off, truthfully. I should try to make time for it, sorry.
Brian, can you take a look at this game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/894630/Final_Theory/
It looks to be more of a war game in space rather than a 4X.
Nice find, and I too am interested with what the space guru has to say on it. Two other curators gave it a Recommended rating.
You can get a vague idea of what he’ll likely have to say by trawling through this conversation.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/894630/discussions/0/1742220359688598200/
Spoiler alert: it’s not massively flattering.
Thanks for the link. It looks like another Gladius type game, where there is a lite-strategy layer as a framework for a meatier tactical layer.
I don’t mind the devs skipping a tutorial, but the lack of any sort of documentation is rather damning.
Ugh, well that didn’t go well.
Yeah, I was not happy the way that conversation went at all. :(
You’re more forgiving than me. I would have refunded it after that conversation.
I got it for free via Curator Connect. So no refunds. ;)
Sweet! So crush him in the review. I also remember “old school” gaming. Yes, games were much more difficult then. One has to learn via trial and error. But they had big beefy manuals, so even if you didn’t know what strategy to use, or even where to go, you at least knew the ground rules. He’s making things difficult just for difficulty’s sake…
Exactly. This smacks of laziness to me, and they’re gonna get slammed for it.
We also have to remember that “old school” games came on floppy disks. Which means that the game took any where from 500k to 10 meg depending on the type of floppy used (5 1/4 or 3 1/2) and the amount of floppy’s used. Those old games didn’t have room for tool tips or tutorials and needed manuals to explain the game. Now days developers have the “space” available to create tutorials, tool tips and any other documentation need to play the game. I don’t need to have my hand held while figuring out a strategy, but help with the basic’s of the game, explanations of what each unit/building is and what is does, err, um, yes, I do need that. I got the impression from that brief conversation Brian had with the developers that they were condescending, arrogant and a “how dare you question our vision” attitude.
Yep. Shame, because the concept of the game is something I’d like (looks like a more strategic Sid Meier’s Starships). Still, my fear is it will feel just as empty once the hurdle of “figuring it out” is done. If I had to guess, that’s what they’re trying to avoid. I’d love to be proven wrong, of course.