Video Games

Hyperspace Delivery Service – A Game That Works

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

Recently my gaming attention has been taken up by Hyperspace Delivery Service by Zotnip Games. This is one of those games worth analysis – and not just in game design.

At it’s core, Hyperspace Delivery Service is about a crew and it’s commander (that’s you) delivering important cargo to a distant world. It’s done in a retro-DOS style that hearkens back to games that realized they could “fuse” genres together. Thus several game modes are linked together to form a space adventure game that’s sort of “Oregon Trail” in space – travel and survive. Well, travel, survive, deliver.

Your ship travels from world to world in linear fashion. Managing resources is paramount, from buying them to harvesting them in various ways. Some missions and events may result in space adventures, zooming through asteroid fields or battling pirates arcade-style. Other jobs and events may lead you to FPS adventures fighting robot pirates. Events and options may appear, leading to accidents, benefits, or Choose Your Own Adventure type choices.

These different elements are tied together so they influence each other. A mission may let you get resources you need to travel to another world. The choice of who to send on a mission may yield useful parts or have a special ability that lets them survive the challenge. You can push your crew, but prepared to take time for them to relax before they stress out. Every choice has results, some of which will impact you later in the game.

This is all done in an almost too-close-to-history DOS style, down to the text styles and sound effects. There’s a commitment to an aesthetic that carries through the entire venture – as well as a fantastically spacey soundtrack.

The game itself is therefore a tight fusion, where everything comes together, and not just stylistically. Everything you do matters, every action has consequences, and you’re constantly engaged moment by moment.

In many ways, it’s a spiritual brother to Star Traders: Frontiers. ST: F is a modern-style game where multiple games and rules and modes create a galaxy-spanning space adventure where you manage a huge and diverse crew. Hyperspace Delivery Service takes past styles and setups, but also fuses game elements together, to create its own space adventure and its own feel.

The simple retro elements of the game play well to this – because none is overly complex, their interactions are understandable and clear. This doesn’t mean the game is easy – it’s quite challenging. It’s just understandable (which might lure you into a false sense of security). There’s a lovely sense of precision to it.

On top of this, the game’s developer is incredibly responsive to fans in Early Access. As of this post I’ve seen the game go through multiple updates, the developer listening carefully to feedback while asking questions. Thus the game isn’t just fun to play, there’s an additional level of enjoyment as playing it lets you connect with your fellow fans and the creator.

If you work in any form of media, this is another game to pay attention to because you’ll learn a lot about combining elements and engaging fans.

Oh, and it’s fun!

Steven Savage

Star Traders: Frontiers – A Game That Works

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I know I rarely plug things here unless they’re cool – and because I’ve been playing an incredibly cool game, it’s time to not just plug it, but talk about what we can learn from it.

The game is Star Traders: Frontiers by Trese Brothers.  They’ve been building games in their own, detailed universe for awhile, and this is a successor to a mindbending mobile game from years back.  It’s an open-galaxy space adventure, but the description doesn’t quite do it justice.

What they’ve basically created is a Space Opera simulator.  Even in Early Access, it’s an impressive job.  I wanted to go over just why it succeeds so well at it’s goal.

The game starts with you picking (or creating) a template for your captain, their contacts, traits, and faction.  Depending on your setting the game will set things up for you, or you can extensively customize your starting crew.  This is the first sign the game is more than it seems – if you dive in with both feet, you’ll realize there’s a lot here as you ask about profession levels, skills, and even personality traits (each crew member has a unique personality).

The game itself has distinct mechanics that, separately, aren’t overly complicated.

  • Characters in the game are a mix of professions or a profession (which provide bonuses to common abilities and skills over time), talents (unlocked by the professions), and personality traits (which can get pretty wild).  Nothing is overly complex, but these factors intereact . . .
  • Your ship is basically a pile of equipment.  Most of this is also straightforward – torpedoes with certain ranges, equipment gives you bonuses to finding things while exploring, and so on.  It’s just there’s a lot of it, and it can affect your characters, or their skills, or cargo capacity, or . . .
  • You can trade.  The trade engine is wonderfully clear and straightforward – certain kinds of worlds produce or want certain things, and with a keen eye and a bit of planning, you can make a tidy profit in a short time.  Though various skills and events may affect this . . .
  • You can explore planets, spy on worlds, patrol for trouble, and blockade an enemy.  These all use a simple card game where you get a hand of five cards, can use some skills to modify them, and one is randomly chosen as a result.  Nice and simple, though results vary with skills and location . . .
  • You of course have space battles.  Skills from characters, equipment on your ship, all come together to give you options in battle.  This is made easy to manage because you have three things you can do in battle at the same time – move, fire certain weapons, and use one crew skill.  The basics are easy, but as I said there are options . . .
  • You might even get into close combat.  There’s a simple party-of-four battle engine.  Equipment for characters is upgraded automatically unless you get a hold of specialist gear (buy a better weapons locker for your ship, everyone gets new gear).  There’s plenty of skills though, and many combat classes, so though it’s easy to play you have many options . . .
  • There’s also contacts – each of which is also unique.  You can get missions from them, get help, and even meet new people.  Much like your crew, most are randomly generated – and you don’t always know about them.  I had at least two cases where I later found out a valuable contact was a traitor . . .
  • Finally, there’s politics.  Each faction has unique abilities and as you play the factions ally, fight, and more – which can affect your game.  You can manage reputations with factions, and even get things like permits and ranks.  Their interactions add a richness to the game:  a simple trade during a trade war can destroy your reputation, an alliance may give you great opportunities.  Your contacts might send you on a mission that ends up starting a war.
  • All of this takes place in a well-designed universe.  These various parts mean something.

None of these systems is overly complicated – the ship building part is the most complicated and in the end a lot of that is “swapping stuff”.  But as you noticed they all interact, making a game that feels like it’s in a living setting.  This interaction is what makes the game truly work because any one element can affect – and be affected, by all the others.

I think this is a good lesson for game design.  Individual mechanics need to be clear and spelled out, and not too complex.  However the complexity of their interactions brings life to the game.  As almost any factor in the game can affect any other factor, but the individual parts must be clear and identifiable.

I’d also note that some of the in-game mechanics aren’t exactly what you’d expect in games.  The contact portion is more of LinkedIn in space.  The card game for various common actions is a nice way to simulate space adventure without getting too complex, but the card mechanism isn’t used elsehwere in the game.  It’s a bit like the mechanics are best-of-breed ideas – all working together.

The end result of all of this is that Star Traders: Frontiers is one of the most compelling games I’ve seen in a long time.  Every action is it’s own adventure.  Every choice alters the game.  Each little thing is easy to understand, but you have to consider it in part of the whole.

I’ll probably be learning even more as I play it – it’s Early Access, so I’m expecting there to be more lessons . . .

-Steven Savage

Fanime 2018 Observation

by

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

It may seem odd that as of late I’ve posted about animation, but my recent activities have put me in touch with some worth discussing.  My recent speaking engagement at Fanime 2018 gave me a lot to think about – because there’s some insights into where anime and animation may be going.

One of the things I do every con is scope out what’s popular in cosplay and the artists alley.  It gives me an idea of what’s going on, what’s popular, and what we may want to pay attention to.  What I saw has me thinking about a few shifts in anime, animation, and gaming.

My Hero Academia

This superhero show – deserving the praise it’s received – was huge.  Plenty of cosplayers.  Plenty of merchandise.  It was pretty much the dominant anime at the convention.

This has me wondering if the show gets a wider distribution or viewership if it’s going to be the new gateway anime.  I can’t think of anything that truly fit that definition for years (but see below), but MHA could well be it.  If we actually have a new gateway anime that’s a cultural game-changer, meaning more people get interested in the broader anime-and-related scene.

Land of the Lustrous

I only just started watching this gorgeous, hard-to-describe show about living gemstones in a strange world.  I have had friends recommending it, but started watching it because it was far more represented at Fanime than I expected.  I had been concerned that the “limitation” of being on Amazon would affect it, and apparently I was wrong about that or the word “limitation.”

If this representation indicates penetration, that’s excellent news for both Amazon and for unusual anime – because LotL may look like a CGI action anime/magical girl thing but it’s certainly not.  I have trouble describing it.  At this level of attention I suspect it’ll remain a fixture for awhile and shows there’s an appetite for more unusual things out of Japan.

Yuri On Ice

The famous skating sports drama/romcom was less represented this year, but still holding on in cosplay and merchandise.  Considering how it’s been represented in the Olympics, it still reaches people.  I consider it a minor gateway anime if only due to exposure.

But it’s not going away at least in American fandom.

Video Games

Overwatch was still well-representated in both areas, though I saw slightly less Cosplayers.  I think Overwatch is not only popular (in a justified way) but clearly its cast, its character designs and character “skins” encourage cosplayers.  Anyone doing a game wanting mindshare should keep cosplayability (which is now a word) in mind.

Fire Emblem, the game series, was also very well represented.  With a huge cast over many games, and a prominent current one, I met many cosplayers who’d dressed as characters from the series.  Again cosplayability and interesting characters brings mindshare.

Of course back when FFX-2 came out, it was clearly cosplayable.  This is just following in those footsteps.

 

So there you have it.  I think we have a new potential gateway anime, Amazon’s investment in LotL seems to have brought interest and passion, and characters and cosplayability produce some real passion.

– Steve