Sword of the Stars: The Pit is a fun, fast, light-hearted action RPG, in the tradition of Rogue and other old school dungeon-diving games.
The game will include the following features on release:
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[li]3 Characters to choose from…Marine, Pilot and Engineer![/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Go up levels and improve your skills as you try and find a way to survive the depths.[/li]> [/ul]
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[li]30 Levels of ancient evil science between you and the cure![/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Dozens of enemies drawn from the SotSverse![/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Over 30 weapons and armors with a variety of special effects including flamethrowers, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and powered Brawler armor![/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Randomized augmentation effects to make each game unique[/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Crafting lets you make special items from bits and pieces of your enemies.[/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Over 60 items to discover, ranging from the familiar to the ancient exotic tech.[/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Dozens of room types containing a host of exotic devices to help and hinder the player[/li]> [/ul]
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[li]Many fiendish ways to die including poisoning, disease, traps, radiation, starvation and of course…MONSTERS.[/li]> [/ul] The Pit is currently in Alpha phase, and slated for Beta release in November. The completed game will be available for download in the first quarter of 2013.
“Rogue-alike”? I thought these guys did mostly 4-ex strategy games. This seems like an odd choice. Well, at least it isn’t yet another First Person Killer.
They’re still working on the 4X games as the main projects. This is testing the waters of crowd-funding, they want to do long-term support of their games but the typical publisher model isn’t working too well for that these days. If they receive the money from sales directly, they’ll have more ability to support the game in the future based on continued sales. The main SOTS product line is going to remain with Paradox as the publisher but if this does well, the next self-published games will get bigger and larger in scope.
I figure this game might have a harsh reaction here, especially after the SOTS2 launch fiasco, but I’m hoping it works out for them. You can read the explanation for why they’re trying this in the post here. Relevant section:
Reading the title I was wondering how they were ripping off the name until I realized it was the same dev team, heh.
I will keep an eye on it as it sounds like something I would enjoy. I am not sure I will sign up now, but hope they can succeed under this new model as they do seem to have some good talent on their team regardless of how the SOTS2 fiasco happened. Perhaps a smaller scale project like this will allow them to win some fans back and kick them off in the right direction.
Given this seems to be operating at least in part on the KickStarter model, I’d be surprised if they get much funding. A lot of people got burned by SotS2.
I loved SotS1. Serious, deep fanboy love. It is one of my favorite games of all time. However, I feel like I already funded them out of a bad publishing relationship. I paid full freight and have yet to fully play or enjoy SotS 2. I am still awaiting the official all clear, and even then may just check out some “lets plays” first.
This crowd sourcing move takes some serious brass. It is probably a difference of perception. To Kerberos, they see themselves as slaving away for a year for free to make things right. To me, it is more that over a year of tireless effort after I bought the game, it is still not quite (or just barely) ready to play.
I feel at best this is bad timing on going to the public to support their “Indy” roots.
