Turn-Based Tactics Deadnaut - Space Exploration with Alien / Space Hulk / Cthulhu influence?

[Morkar Left]

Looks like the guys from Zafehouse Diaries are trying a SF-Horror game where you have 5 crew members to explore old derelict space ships. Like in Zafehouse Diaries they will have their own personality and weaknesses:

Take control of five glory-hunting Deadnauts - mercenaries, thieves, scientists, killers - and investigate a series of procedurally-crafted mysteries in a long-dead universe.

Collect ship logs, new technology and advanced alien knowledge for transmission back to Earth in exchange for better gear, all while you manage the conflicting personalities of your crew.

Accept the challenge of handling computer-generated soldiers of fortune, or assemble your own team of scoundrels using friends as templates.

Website

 

[Trash]

I absolutely loathed ZD. Just felt pointless and lame. This looks like it follows the same design notions. Oh well, will see.

 

[ColCol]

It's out now. Lol, why would they release it during a bunch of game sales? There aren't even any demos or trailers of the game.

 

[ColCol]

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The concept sounds very interesting.

 

[barker_s]

That sounds way too close to one of my game ideas... Anyway, anybody tried it yet? Is it any good? The game's pretty cheap right now, but I guess I'll still try the demo first.

 

[Logan Booker]

Hey guys, Logan here. I'm one of the two developers at Screwfly, the studio that made both Zafehouse and Deadnaut.

If you'd like to try the game out, we have a demo up now at the website (Windows and OS X). Also, if you have any questions about the game, feel free to ask me.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

I will give them demo a shoot. I did like Zafehouse even if i had some issues with it.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Alright tried the demo and this is my few initial felling.

Great atmosphere
Great concept
Lacking in understanding of what there is to do.

Like i died to a turret that wiped out my 3 guys in an instant with no chance of stopping it. WHY because i did not know you could hack and there seem to be ways to use sensors, the power grid and all kinds of things to give you a fighting edge.

Now most of this is down to me not knowing diking around and i will try and explore the demo a bit more when i get i chance, but it honestly seem kind of neet.

 

[Logan Booker]

Alright tried the demo and this is my few initial felling.

Great atmosphere
Great concept
Lacking in understanding of what there is to do.

Like i died to a turret that wiped out my 3 guys in an instant with no chance of stopping it. WHY because i did not know you could hack and there seem to be ways to use sensors, the power grid and all kinds of things to give you a fighting edge.

Now most of this is down to me not knowing diking around and i will try and explore the demo a bit more when i get i chance, but it honestly seem kind of neet.

Thanks for the feedback! Like Zafehouse, it is the sort of game you need to read the manual for to get a good understanding of what to do. We're adding some help pop-ups in the first patch, but we won't be able to cover everything in the detail it needs that way.

 

[Agesilaus]

What's the game like, content and story wise? Is it mostly focused on the process of getting a team together and completing puzzles/battles, or is there some great mystery of outer space to be discovered? I don't need a mystery/content for zombie games, but I definitely require it in space games. I want to go through black holes and discover space whales and gods at the centre of the universe and stuff.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Alright tried the demo and this is my few initial felling.

Great atmosphere
Great concept
Lacking in understanding of what there is to do.

Like i died to a turret that wiped out my 3 guys in an instant with no chance of stopping it. WHY because i did not know you could hack and there seem to be ways to use sensors, the power grid and all kinds of things to give you a fighting edge.

Now most of this is down to me not knowing diking around and i will try and explore the demo a bit more when i get i chance, but it honestly seem kind of neet.

Thanks for the feedback! Like Zafehouse, it is the sort of game you need to read the manual for to get a good understanding of what to do. We're adding some help pop-ups in the first patch, but we won't be able to cover everything in the detail it needs that way.

Yeah i get that. Most of it was from me playing around with it for 30 mins or so before i had to run and i will give it more of a chance when i get home later today.

 

[Logan Booker]

What's the game like, content and story wise? Is it mostly focused on the process of getting a team together and completing puzzles/battles, or is there some great mystery of outer space to be discovered? I don't need a mystery/content for zombie games, but I definitely require it in space games. I want to go through black holes and discover space whales and gods at the centre of the universe and stuff.

Haha. We don't have any black hole exploration (though early designs did have you travelling to the galactic centre to combat evil). We tell a bit of a narrative using ship and crew logs, which varies depending on the campaign, and we're doing some work to to increase the variety here a bit, but we don't do any epic stories or anything like that. Deadnaut is more of a roguelike you sit down a play in 1-2 hour bursts and the logs help to give your actions context.

 

[noplsai]

Is this like the regular gameplay screen? It screams hipster form over function... Though granted, I dont even know how the gameplay is like, automatic, do I click anything, etc. But that was my first impression. Silent Hunter this is not...

 

[KoolNoodles]

Going to try out the demo and post impressions because why the fuck not?

 

[Logan Booker]

Is this like the regular gameplay screen? It screams hipster form over function... Though granted, I dont even know how the gameplay is like, automatic, do I click anything, etc. But that was my first impression. Silent Hunter this is not...

I'm not entirely sure how to respond to this one! We certainly didn't set out to make a "hipster" game... I'm not even sure what that means.

All the buttons you see work and have a function, though some do have keyboard / mouse counterparts. Nothing is really "automatic". When a signal degrades (say your AUD channel, which allows you to order your crew around), you have to manually boost the signal via the dial in the bottom-right of screen. When a character gets low on health you have to silence their ECG alarm yourself or it'll just keep blaring away.

It's definitely not Silent Hunter, but it was an inspiration of sorts for the feeling we were going for.

I hope that helps explain the game a bit!

 

[Trash]

Wow, this actually sounds a lot more interesting and involved than I had imagined. Going to give it a try.

 

[Luka-boy]

Sure why not, if you made the effort to give offer a demo, which sadly can't be taken for granted nowadays, I'll check it out this weekend.

By the way, does the game have a campaign with a clear end or is it about open ended exploration of whatever space hulk/station you keep finding?

 

[DraQ]

Is this like the regular gameplay screen? It screams hipster form over function...

Tryhard detected.

When trying to go for atmosphere and immersion, but without having excessive amounts of cash to blow on AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA+ visuals, exposing player only to an abstract, *in-universe* interface (like comms console) is a valid option, and limiting visual feedback this way can even enhance the atmosphere if done right.

Will definitely try the demo.

Don't care much for Zafehouse as I was sick of this whole zombie bandwagon before it even became a thing, but this definitely seems like something I might want to check out.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Damn, the demo won't install on Wine.

 

[Logan Booker]

Damn, the demo won't install on Wine.

Thanks for letting me know, that sucks.

At some point we'll we want to release a Linux version, but for our two-man studio, we didn't want to overload ourselves on the support side by releasing on three platforms at the same time, especially as Deadnaut is our first game that works on Windows and Mac. Once we're in a comfortable spot with these, we'll seriously look at getting Linux sorted.

Out of curiosity, what distro are you running?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Damn, the demo won't install on Wine.

Thanks for letting me know, that sucks.

At some point we'll we want to release a Linux version, but for our two-man studio, we didn't want to overload ourselves on the support side by releasing on three platforms at the same time, especially as Deadnaut is our first game that works on Windows and Mac. Once we're in a comfortable spot with these, we'll seriously look at getting Linux sorted.

Cool.

Out of curiosity, what distro are you running?

Linux Mint 13 Maya. It's based on Ubuntu 12.04 and is a long term support distro supported until 04.2017.

 

[General Maxson]

Well this sounds interesting, at least atmosphere/setting wise. If any of you guys give this a more thorough try, please post a short review or something.

 

[Logan Booker]

FYI guys, we're now available on Steam!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/337040

 

[Muty]

This looks quite intriguing. Gonna give the demo a shot when i get back to my den.