Last year I revisited this concept during a MAGS with Research Residents- a survival game where you play as one of three researchers sent to an offworld facility to explore and document plant specimens for your employer. I really enjoyed writing for three characters at once and started trying to combine the two projects into something I would be willing to devote a lot of time to.
the aforementioned 'Research Residents'
I missed the limited colour palate so, once again, started from scratch with a redeveloped script and put together the first few rooms and basic game mechanics. I'm using a 32 colour palate, with each locale limited to 16 of those colours. I'm hoping this will make each location type unique so players will develop a sense of familiarity while exploring.
Here's the original shuttle interior for comparison:
In Space Residents you will play as three characters simultaneously, switching between them to navigate abandoned facilities and space stations. Missions will be available in a semi-random order, with you being able to choose between two or three at any given time from a kiosk. The game world will be completely unpopulated at first but as your team uncovers new locales other human NPC's will be drawn to the main space station, providing new missions and interactions. Rather than a focus on puzzles, Space Residents will be more about taking your time and exploring. There will be light survival mechanics, and injuries will need to be tended to or your team may permanently *gasp* lose a member, but I want it to feel more like a choose your own adventure. Think exploring vaults in Fallout.
The game's themes will be focused on my personal experience with mental illness and my journey to "wellness". Rather than represent a sense of despair and hopelessness I want to put an emphasis on the world changing around you, with your actions having effect in the long term. Space travel takes a long ass time, with some trips taking over a decade to complete, making human relationships rare and difficult to maintain compared to taking on another project and spending another month alone in front of your computer- err, I mean on another planet.
I know this started as a Space Quest parody, and this more grim, post-civilization world might be a little played out, but I still plan to inject some humour and pleasantry into it through the three lead characters. Also, it's got an eyebot, and everybody loves eyebots, right?
That's it, probably for another while. Thanks for reading.
the aforementioned 'Research Residents'
I missed the limited colour palate so, once again, started from scratch with a redeveloped script and put together the first few rooms and basic game mechanics. I'm using a 32 colour palate, with each locale limited to 16 of those colours. I'm hoping this will make each location type unique so players will develop a sense of familiarity while exploring.
Here's the original shuttle interior for comparison:
In Space Residents you will play as three characters simultaneously, switching between them to navigate abandoned facilities and space stations. Missions will be available in a semi-random order, with you being able to choose between two or three at any given time from a kiosk. The game world will be completely unpopulated at first but as your team uncovers new locales other human NPC's will be drawn to the main space station, providing new missions and interactions. Rather than a focus on puzzles, Space Residents will be more about taking your time and exploring. There will be light survival mechanics, and injuries will need to be tended to or your team may permanently *gasp* lose a member, but I want it to feel more like a choose your own adventure. Think exploring vaults in Fallout.
The game's themes will be focused on my personal experience with mental illness and my journey to "wellness". Rather than represent a sense of despair and hopelessness I want to put an emphasis on the world changing around you, with your actions having effect in the long term. Space travel takes a long ass time, with some trips taking over a decade to complete, making human relationships rare and difficult to maintain compared to taking on another project and spending another month alone in front of your computer- err, I mean on another planet.
I know this started as a Space Quest parody, and this more grim, post-civilization world might be a little played out, but I still plan to inject some humour and pleasantry into it through the three lead characters. Also, it's got an eyebot, and everybody loves eyebots, right?
That's it, probably for another while. Thanks for reading.
