Steam Marines - TB Squad Based Roguelike set on a steampunk spaceship is now released

Jaesun · Apr 15, 2013

http://www.steammarines.com/

(You can download the Alpha Demo at the above link for Windows/Mac).

What is Steam Marines?
Steam Marines is a squad based Roguelike set on a steampunk spaceship. It features tactical play focused on positioning and careful use of resources, Steam Marines is built to keep you on your toes as you progress through the decks of your besieged ship, clearing enemies and trying to escape.

Permadeath
Build your marines up into long range or up close death machines, but don't expect any mercy. Death is permanent and if a marine falls he's gone forever.

Turn and Squad Based Gameplay
Command up to four marines, each with their own gear, stats, skills, and Action Points. Positioning is critical - even a lone enemy can be lethal! Use your Scout to sight and snipe or your Grenadier to funnel enemies into a choke point and blow them up!

State of the Game
Steam Marines is currently in open alpha. This means more gear, mods, implants, monsters, talents, and tilesets will be added in the coming months. Much of the core gameplay is already implemented. Movement, firing, monster AI, fog-of-war, gear and inventory system, and a Follow Mode to help move the entire squad through areas quickly.

There is also a video of the alpha game play here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92922196

golgepapaz · Apr 15, 2013

gonna check it right now. Playing too much TOME nowadays anyway..

PorkaMorka · Apr 15, 2013

I'm stuck on the title screen with the I.S.S. Orion on the scrolling star field.

Is there supposed to be a menu there? I've tried clicking everywhere and mashing every button.

Horus · Apr 15, 2013

Steam marines?Is this a parody of space hulk or an actual thing from an different fiction?

Kane · Apr 15, 2013

And I thought this was a recruitment drive for Gaben's personal army.

Also the official disclosure that ITZ is happening.

Zed · Apr 15, 2013

I once made something using a similar solution to movement animation. Simply resize the sprite as it moved to the next tile. It's brilliant.

I'll give it a try when they finish it.

Severian Silk · Apr 15, 2013

The music in that video is really catchy! The game looks great. I will have to try out the alpha.

Overboard · Jul 10, 2013

v0.7.9a now available.

Changelog:

v0.7.9a

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New/Changed Features
-------------------------------------------------
“Hard” difficulty mode added.
New Game Plus implemented. Reaching the elevator on the fifth level of the Medical Deck wins the game demo/alpha. This allows you to start the game over from the beginning with your current squad, all gear, talents, stats, et cetera. Score is not entered on the high score table until you actually lose the game!
High Score table now records the game difficulty and game version of that run.
Completion of the alpha is the first three decks; Command, Engineering, and Medical. Each New Game Plus adds 1000 points to that run.
Difficulty now affects score. Easy has a multiplier of 0.75, Normal of 1.0, and Hard of 1.25. Bonuses and penalties are scaled separately then aggregated because scores can be negative.
A New Game Plus counter was added to the high scores screen next to the final deck/level.
New Game Plus counter appears on the center/middle of the main menu screen while a game is in-progress or for a save state preview.
You cannot adjust game difficulty in New Game Plus.
On Normal difficulty subsequent New Game Plus runs are harder due to enemy stat gains.
The Revenant is now the boss of the Engineering Deck. Health, armor, and action points were increased and base melee damage decreased.
Revenions can spawn on any adjacent tile from Revenants. On Normal difficulty and up they can also spawn from Revenions.
Easy difficulty monster stats buffed across the board.
All weapons now have a flat 1 AP cost to fire.
When Guard Mode is triggered all available AP is placed in a separate AP pool used for Guard Mode shots. No more infinite enemy turn shooting!
Base trap damage reduced to 4.
Traps are now really easy to see. I will feel zero sympathy if you step on them!
Added new art backgrounds.
The New Game Button now clears any old save file and prompts you whenever there is a save file detected or a game is currently in progress.
Enemy spawn chance from grating tiles has been toned down to 10%.
The escape key now skips the introductory text sequence.
Dispensers potentially give more ammunition.
Increased dispenser spawn chance on open levels. Cramped levels have less chance to spawn dispensers.
Significantly decreased starting ammo for all classes.
Added steam vent animation to grating tiles.
Added wall pipes for environment aesthetics.
Added portholes which allow sight through the wall tiles they reside on.
Reduced firing delay for marines.
Increased the number of traps that can spawn per level.
You may hear tapping noises...
The Medical Deck gets a new ranged enemy unit. Beware!
Enemies are a lot more aggressive when searching out marines on Normal difficulty.
Amputators and Ripsaws are now more aggressive.
Amputators and Ripsaws are more watchful of marines on the player's turn.
Removed primary and secondary mission objectives on deck levels.
Added context sensitive button for using an elevator.
Added more armor variants/names that affect random stats.
Added more context sensitive marine dialogue and banter.
Fixed Grenadier class weapon “Howler” sprite and inventory icon bitmaps.
Escape exits the New Game Button prompt from the main menu when there is a game in progress.
Implemented a credits screen at the end of the game.

-------------------------------------------------
Bug Fixes
-------------------------------------------------
Dispensers again spawn in proper positions next to horizontal walls.
Fixed some walls being able to be seen through.
Fixed mouse cursor sometimes not appearing on the death screen.
Fixed trap positions on lifted tiles.
Fixed fog of war not always covering to the very edge of the map.
Fixed not being able to click on a marine's talent buttons on the bottom of the icon.
Adjusted potential long armor names and shifted swap/keep buttons to avoid text overlap on the armor swap screen.
The weapon swap screen can be cleared (current weapon kept) with the escape key.
Marine health overlay updates properly after environmental damage.
Fixed main menu scrolling starfield from freezing if escape key is pressed after game loss.
Centered and aligned certain UI elements on stat and end level screens.
Fixed squad creation screen not always properly synchronizing class portraits.
Fixed spelling errors.
Mouse move/face actions now properly short-circuit unit auto-switching.
Fixed being able to fire with non-fire keys with fire control toggled on.
Fixed close sync issue with layered GUI menus.
Fixed some enemy units spawning with mismatched current and maximum health.
Centered “I.S.S. Orion” on the main menu after game loss.
Fixed random key pressing sometimes breaking menu order (e.g. on the end level screen).

SuicideBunny · Jul 10, 2013

/me is cautiously fapping while downloading.

Major_Blackhart · Jul 11, 2013

Has anyone played this yet?
What does it feel like?

Overboard · Jul 11, 2013

Major_Blackhart said:
Has anyone played this yet?
What does it feel like?

Excidium · Jul 11, 2013

Major_Blackhart said:
Has anyone played this yet?
What does it feel like?

I found it p. annoying that you an only move and shoot on the four cardinal directions. The fuck is this shit

You can break walls tho which is p. neat.

More lethal than your average roguelike too, the first mobs you meet kill you with 2 hits. Positioning is a pain in the ass because of the cramped spaceship corridors and the aforementioned 4-direction limitation, also because trading spot with another guy costs precious AP and the game takes facing into account. Did I mention traps? P. taktikool I guess

wergle · Jul 11, 2013

4-directional limitation is about the only thing that bothered me, but it's there for gameplay reasons I guess

Very much feels like turn-based Aliens, which is awesome

WorthlessBums · Jul 27, 2013

Hey, guys, just wanted to drop in and comment on the four-directional design choice since it's a sticking point with quite a few people!

The most significant reason is that it places greater emphasis on narrow corridors and chokepoints in general (doors, holes in the walls, funneling from units/traps, et cetera). Because of the way ranged combat is implemented (percentage-based attacks in the unit's facing direction) allowing diagonal fire means that you don't have to think too hard about unit positions since you have many more lines of attack onto a given tile. This goes both ways, of course - enemy units share the same ranged characteristics as the player units, but this turns the game into a dice roll cover shooter system which I wanted to avoid. You can still play the game that way, but it's inefficient and on Hard difficulty you will quickly run out of ammo taking shot after shot at 70%. So it's up to positioning to break RNG's hold. Lifted tiles grant accuracy as well as a defensive bonus against lower elevation units, and the weapon range stat not only dictates the maximum reach of a weapon but any target at exactly max range is a guaranteed 100% hit. So again superior positioning is the design goal.

I'm actually really happy with the weapon range mechanic since it also gives experienced players food for thought regarding the different classes. Your Scout (long range sniper archetype) may indeed benefit from stacking range mods because his weapon has an innately high accuracy and he also has a tier 1 talent that guarantees a 100% chance to hit (at the cost of action points) so having extraordinary range might be a fair trade. Take potshots at range or expend the AP to secure the kill if the target is close. By contrast a class like the Leader who uses a shotgun with knockback might benefit a lot more from having a weapon with only 2-3 range because his accuracy is not as high as a Scout's, and when you really need knockback to work the enemy is probably fairly close. One of my private testers actually swears by a Leader with a range 1 shotgun who acts as a complete doorway blocker (for melee units) unless he runs out of ammo.

Letting fast melee units into an open space with your marines is fairly close to a death knell which is really what I want. Your marines shouldn't be able to go toe-to-toe against alien death machines! Granted I'm not saying my decision to enforce four-directional movement and firing is strictly better. There are situations where you would really, really want to be able to fire diagonally:

But I kind of feel at that point the player has made a series of mistakes and should reap the rewards :D Also it's highly likely that in my next build some enemies will regain the ability to smash walls, and there's probably a good argument somewhere in there for diagonal firing.

Thanks to everyone who gave Steam Marines a whirl!