STASIS, An Isometric SciFi Adventure Game

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“Daddy, please help us…”[/CENTER]

Disoriented, drowsy and in pain, John Maracheck opens his eyes. There is nothing to greet him but the static of a nearby monitor and a cold steel floor. Thick, green liquid covers the floor and then his body, leading to trail to a nearby, steaming stasis-pod. He slowly gets to his feet, trying to take in his surroundings. Where is his wife? His daughter? What the hell is going on…?
Stasis is an adventure game that puts you in control of John Maracheck, a man searching for his family in a seemingly abandoned research facility. Going back to classic adventure game mechanics, you are required to solve puzzles and use objects around you to progress and to find Maracheck’s family.
Graphically, Stasis is fairly unique in the adventure game genre, opting for highly detailed isometric graphics, as opposed to the more classic ‘side on’ views of other adventure games. Richly detailed rooms and fluid animations create an immersive environment for the player to explore, with danger lurking in every shadow.
The stasis-plug suit gives you direct access to an Emergency Medical Kit. This is a piece of equipment that has the ability to break down any object of a certain weight and size into its base elements and store it for future use. While normally used to store small medical supplies, Maracheck uses it as an easy way to keep and transport object he has found. Objects can be stored, accessed, combined and brought back into the ‘real’ world at any moment.
At its core, Stasis is a story about an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation.
Trapped in a place where humanity’s horrors come out to play, how far would you go to protect your family?

Hey guys,

My name is Chris Bischoff, and I am the developer behind STASIS. Ive been working on it for around 18 months now, doing everything from the artwork to the music.

Recently the game has been featured on TIGSource, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Kotaku, and the outpouring of support has been astounding.
Its a very good time to be an Adventure Gamer!

You can find out more at www.stasisgame.com , aswell as the development blog at www.stasisgame.com/blog. I am also on TWITTER at https://twitter.com/StasisGame

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STASIS TEASER TRAILER:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ob6sBsxf2YE

STASIS GAMEPLAY VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ILFgiYaRU&feature=player_embedded

I would love to hear your guys opinions on the game. ;)

-Chris

Looking at these screenshots I envy you for being able to do both code and art.

Looks really good! For some reason I had not heard about it before even though I’m always reading TIGSource and RPS, and I’m actually intrigued now. Keep us posted.

For shame :) But seeing as you have all those other skills, I’ll give you a pass on copy editing.

Looks terrific. The art style is awesome. I hope it plays as good as it looks.

Looks awesome, definitely my kind of game and I’ll look forward to playing the hell out of it. I’ve missed the isometric perspective with prerendered backgrounds in games.

Wellcome and and congratulations, you have a excellent style.
I hope you success, this seems a nice adventure game you have here!.

I’m a copy editor and I don’t have a problem with someone writing fairly unique.http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA927#v=onepage&q&f=false

Looks amazing Chris, and for those that might not have found it on the main site (as the video linked on the main page is a second trailer):

Wow, it looks like Sanitarium crossed with Crusader: No Remorse. Very intriguing.

Sanitarium is exactly what I was thinking. God, I love that game.

Interest certainly piqued. I’m digging the art too.

It looks very good.

The only concern I have, from the ‘first five minutes’ video, is how much time is spent just watching the guy walk every so slowly from point A to point B. In that first room it looked like it took him about fifteen seconds to walk from one end of the room to the door.

Here’s hoping game design makes it so that as you work your way through a location you wind up near the exit point when you are done, so you don’t have to walk so far.

Oh, thank god - I was afraid I was the only one getting a Crusader vibe. Man, I really want to play Crusader again all the sudden.

Chris - thanks for sharing this game, it looks and sounds terrific. I’ll be keeping my eyes on this one.

The only concern I have, from the ‘first five minutes’ video, is how much time is spent just watching the guy walk every so slowly from point A to point B.

I though it was made pretty clear the character was unwell at that point in the game, hence the trip to the med lab. I assumed the walk speed would improve once his health improved.

Hey guys,

Wow! Thanks so much for the kind words.

You are correct in that during the gameplay video he is moving slowly, but he is hurt by this point in the game. It’s the opening scenes, and I really wanted to get in a sence of confusion and ‘dire’ circumstances. If you wait for long enough he actually doubles up and pukes.
I also did things like alter the layouts of the rooms, so you don’t exit in the same places that you entered to add to the confusion and disorientation. I’m hoping that the effect is subtle enough to not notice…

After you patch yourself up, your speed increases dramatically. I did play with having ‘insta exits’, but the rooms are quite small, and his normal walking speed lets you traverse the rooms quite quickly.

I do have a copy editor now, because my spelling is beyond bad. :)

This is looking awesome i must say! Will keep an eye on this one, loving the art style and the music!

From my blog: http://www.stasisgame.com/blog/

1000 YEARS LATER

Sometimes when working on a long term project the size of STASIS, you get a bee in your bonnet, and need to do something else.
After reading all the literature on WASTELAND 2, and with games like The Last Of Us, and I Am Alive coming out, I decided to take a small break from the bleak corridors and medical labs of The Groomlake, and try my hand at something a bit more…post apocalyptic!

I’ve always liked the idea of a more sandbox style approach to Adventure Gaming. *So I sat down with a pen, and quickly sketched out a very brief story and outline for a more open ended Adventure Game-something that gave the same feel of the original Fallouts.
What started out as just a little design exercise eventually spiraled into a sort of mini-design document, with quick a few really cool ideas! So I decided to take 2 weeks, and build a small tech demo.
The demo as it stands has a large map, and builds the world parametrically. So as you explore the world, you can zoom down to any part of the map, and walk around. If you revisit that spot, the same tileset will be loaded up.

There are of course towns that you can visit (the abandoned Railway Station being an example of a fixed location), as well as a system for random, and special encounters.

I also implemented a change of terrain tile set, so you can specify if an area is desert, grassland, mountainous, etc, although I only finished the Desert tile set.
I did write a story for the world aswell, whereby you play as a bounty hunter named George Washington, who is part of a specialist unit called The Dead Presidents. The story involves you hunting down an ex-dead-president member called Truman, who has stolen a vile of the disease that caused the death of the planet.
The world is inspired very much by the Wild West. Small frontier towns, homesteads, and settlements dot the landscape, with 3 larger settlements controlling the politics of the land.
The game would feature a day/night cycle, where certain parts of towns would only be accessible dependent on the time of day you visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRylpn1sqxk&feature=player_embedded <-Here is a link to a Youtube video showing it all in action!

As I said, this was really just a small distraction from STASIS. I may revisit the ideas at a later date, but until then, I’m going to delve back into the gooey festered corpse thats been beckoning me to come back…

-Chris

Oh, wow. That is amazing looking.

That looks great! I still have to watch the videos, to see how all ties together in the game.

Razgon: ¬¬