Information First-person Turn-based Sci-fi RPG StarCrawlers Now on Kickstarter

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Juggernaut Games; StarCrawlers

StarCrawlers is basically a first person party-based roguelike in space, and it seeks your support on Kickstarter. The funding goal is $65,000.

Lead a crew of freelance adventurers & navigate corporate intrigue on the fringes of space in a classic sci-fi dungeon crawl.

In StarCrawlers, you’ll lead a crew of Crawlers, each with their own unique skills and abilities. Together you’ll take on jobs to explore abandoned spacecraft, battle mighty enemies, and unravel corporate intrigue. Some key features of StarCrawlers:

• Classic first person dungeon crawling in a detailed sci-fi universe
• Narrative AI procedurally generates missions and dungeons with randomized encounters, traps, and enemies
• Strategic RPG style combat featuring a time unit action system
• An atmospheric soundtrack by Ben Prunty
• Class ability customization and modification
• Randomly generated and upgradeable loot
• PC, Mac, and Linux support

In StarCrawlers you'll be navigating the halls of massive abandoned ships and sneaking through corporate facilities in a dynamic and interactive environment. Hack terminals to create shortcuts or find valuable data, disable or evade a variety of traps, grab as much salvage as you can carry, and keep your eyes peeled for hidden areas, loot and enemies.

Randomized environments doesn't just mean slapping rooms together! The Narrative AI in StarCrawlers builds procedurally generated levels based on the story of the mission you're running. Whether on a rescue job in a pirate hulk or extracting data from a corp security station, your dungeon will be custom built to match. Lower the difficulty level for a casual dungeon dive or crank it to 11 and face fiendish traps, complex dungeons, and the toughest enemies.​

This is pretty cool. I've always wanted someone to do a first-person party-based roguelike, and the sci-fi setting doesn't hurt either. $13 gets you an "early bird" digital copy of the game. Check out other rewards on the Kickstarter page, and you can also upvote the game on Steam Greenlight.

Thanks Dieithrio!

 

[Excidium]

Looks lame as hell.

 

[Zombra]

I'm forced to agree. Base game has four classes, meaning you have one party to choose from. Shoot robots and then shoot other robots. Metal walls everywhere, with wires and cables sometimes. Seems like it got old even in that 2 minute video.

Of course, if I saw a 2 minute video of System Shock 2 without SHODAN, it might have looked boring too. But this game doesn't have SHODAN ... I don't see anything about it that really pops. I'd love to see a good sci-fi RPG, but grinding through random dungeons doesn't really touch the heart of what I love about science fiction.

I wish these guys luck, and I applaud them for having the cojones to include a class called the Cyber Ninja with a straight face, but I don't think StarCrawlers is for me.

Lastly, I hate compound words with an extra capital letter in the middle. Why not Star Crawlers?

 

[Drew]

For $13 it doesn't look terrible.
Better than most of the other junk being peddled at $60.

I would like to see more environment and enemy variety, though.

 

[Excidium]

I do like how they dismiss traditional fantasy crawler tropes then make use of those same tropes but with a generic sci-fi aesthetic. Not sure if they're that clueless or just have no shame

 

[Shannow]

Looks good enough. The lowest tier is dirt cheap so: backed.

 

[undecaf]

At least they have a pretty humble goal. I'm not pouring money into this, but I might try it out after release. Part of me thinks, though, that since they are going for ranged weaponry, the blobber style combat might not be the most engaging solution (I just skimmed through the the pitch, though, so I might've missed something).

 

[Trash]

Does remind me of some of my old time fav SF dungeon crawlers. Pledged. Also like that they don't just dump you into a dungeon but that you're invading hulks to do specific 'missions.'

 

[Zombra]

For $13 it doesn't look terrible.
Better than most of the other junk being peddled at $60.

Maybe ... but honestly, it doesn't look like it has enough "bite" to hook me at any price. Even if I got a free copy, I just can't see myself wanting to spend 30 hours doing that.

If I wanted to be constructive, I'd suggest that they show something about the character systems, or why the combat is fun, or show some of the personality of the writing, or basically anything that makes it interesting except "same old thing, except robots instead of goblins and metal instead of stone".

I also wish that there was a story of any kind. Mercenaries doing random jobs for gold and xp isn't a thrilling premise. It doesn't motivate me in any way. Contrast that to Darkest Dungeon ... a game about going through random dungeons because your grandparents discovered that an ancient power was hidden below the ground and dug a bunch of horrible tunnels under your ancestral mansion trying to find it, and in doing so unleashed a nightmare upon your people, so it's your family's responsibility to clean the whole thing up, and since you're a nobleman, you don't go yourself, but hire a bunch of expendable specialists to do it for you. It's not award-winning, but it's something. Just seeing that trailer kind of made me go, oh geez, I'd better take care of that.

 

[Drew]

Well, I backed both.
Even if they end up falling short, there's very little else in this style being released today (outside of the recent influx of several middle market and indie productions).

Even if it's nothing to be remembered, if it convinces people that maybe there's money left in dungeon crawlers, if I only get an hour or two of enjoyment out of it, it's still worth my $13.

 

[SuicideBunny]

paypal coming soon, in case anybody besides me cares...

Looks lame as hell.

View attachment 3221
eh, not really.

 

[Drew]

With only the four classes, it does seem a bit shallow at this point.
Still, looks enjoyable enough.

 

[Zombra]

Looks lame as hell.

View attachment 3221
eh, not really.

I actually do like the look of that, but meaningful C&C and multiple solution mechanics are deep fucking systems that have to be baked in from the very beginning. Having 4 different dialogue picks for "whoa, u lying" isn't as thrilling as it might seem at first glance.

Now, if they talk up a super deep dialogue system, I'll listen ... but this doesn't look like the next Planescape to me.

 

[Eyeball]

I backed this. Legend of Grimrock was a sack of ass scabies and soured me hugely on first-person modern RPGs. Then I played MMX and now I crave more!

This shows absolute potential. I hope it will live up to the hype.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Having 4 different dialogue picks for "whoa, u lying" isn't as thrilling as it might seem at first glance.

p. sure those two different colors for class responses signify different degrees of success or event effect, so it's not just 3 times the same and any degree of c&c beyond the most trivial pick one of two story paths possibly leading to two different bosses is appreciated in blobbers. at least by me.

but this doesn't look like the next Planescape to me.

do you often cosplay captain obvious?

 

[Zombra]

Having 4 different dialogue picks for "whoa, u lying" isn't as thrilling as it might seem at first glance.

p. sure those two different colors for class responses signify different degrees of success or event effect, so it's not just 3 times the same

Maybe. We don't know. Juggernaut mentions "Player-driven experience" almost offhandedly and describes it in less than 30 words. It comes across as a throwaway idea. Maybe they intend to make it a major focus and really do it justice, but that's not what I'm seeing.

and any degree of c&c beyond the most trivial pick one of two story paths possibly leading to two different bosses is appreciated in blobbers. at least by me.

Fair enough. Since the basis of the game is a series of unrelated and procedurally generated dungeons, I remain very skeptical that "story paths" will be implemented in any substantial way.

but this doesn't look like the next Planescape to me.

do you often cosplay captain obvious?

The point is that they mention C&C but I just don't get the impression that it's a big deal to them. Branching stories absolutely explode the amount of content creation necessary for any game, and on a small project like this it will demand a major percentage of their resources to do it well. I don't see that level of commitment here.

Then again, the pitch video is mercifully short (which I appreciate) and maybe they just didn't have the time to really pump it up. With such a pitifully small goal they almost can't help but get funded, so I'll be happy to be proven wrong in the reviews.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Maybe. We don't know.

you don't need to know to make an educated guess based on your gaming experience. considering their coloring corresponds to the degree in which they accuse her of lying/not being a pirate, i say it's a safe bet with gold being the best or most direct answer and the other two noticing something isn't right but not quite being able to pin it down.

The point is that they mention C&C but I just don't get the impression that it's a big deal to them. Branching stories absolutely explode the amount of content creation necessary for any game, and on a small project like this it will demand a major percentage of their resources to do it well. I don't see that level of commitment here.

you seem to suffer from some misguided misconception that c&c is a story thing.
a good character system that leads to different builds offering different gameplay is c&c.
strategical sources that affect some resources (as seems to be the case here with oxygen) is also c&c if a lack of said recources has an impact on gameplay.
story c&c is just one of many possibilities... plus most branching stories do not branch from branches from branches and as such do not involve exploding amounts of content. they usually offer minor variations but still lead you to the same places and roughly the same events. just look at ps:t or motb.

 

[Excidium]

paypal coming soon, in case anybody besides me cares...

Looks lame as hell.

View attachment 3221
eh, not really.

I'm really tired of that CYOA approach to C&C.

 

[SuicideBunny]

not as tired as i am of tolkienesque fantasy...

 

[Excidium]

Generic fantasy, generic sci-fi aesthetics painted over generic fantasy structure... doesn't really make a difference to me.

 

[Zombra]

not as tired as i am of tolkienesque fantasy...

Generic fantasy, generic sci-fi aesthetics painted over generic fantasy structure... doesn't really make a difference to me.

Correct. We should all know by now that there is no difference between sci-fi and fantasy. 1 2

 

[Trash]

Personally I really like the whole 'mission' idea they're using. You're infiltrating security stations, science labs, pirate ships and wrecked hulks with intent. Dig that. The random events and encounter blurbs also really remind me of the old traditional dungeon crawlers of yore. Dig that too. Plus this game really has the vibe of games like Buck Rogers, Captive and Whale's Voyage*.

*And I know I'm forgetting one where you where stranded in a derelict ship but whatever.

 

[Dokkalfar]

not as tired as i am of tolkienesque fantasy...

Don't you mean modern D&D-like high-fantasy? Cause in LOTR there was only like 4 or so Wizards left in the world, and "magic" wasn't about throwing magic missiles or fireballs, Gandalf mostly fought with a a sword and used "magic" as a torch to light up dark places.

I'd actually love a genuinely Tolkienesque CRPG.

 

[felipepepe]

The sad feeling I have from this is that they don't really know the genre, that they are Mass Effect fans that really like Legend of Grimrock... I don't trust them to be able to make good content, much less a good random generator of good content.

And FFS, you don't make a blobber with just 4 classes, having 4 more of them as stretch goals. Is like pitching a shooter that only has pistols and melee combat, with machine guns and shotguns pending on funding.

 

[Crooked Bee]

And FFS, you don't make a blobber with just 4 classes, having 4 more of them as stretch goals. Is like pitching a shooter that only has pistols and melee combat, with machine guns and shotguns pending on funding.

Yeah, this is true. I hope they reconsider having additional classes as stretch goals and put them in anyway.

Still, I really want a "blobber roguelike" so even if it's good for just a couple of playthroughs I'm gonna look forward to it anyway. We'll see how they handle random generation and C&C.