Hardspace: Shipbreaker - space salvage simulator from Blackbird Interactive

[Life of the Party]

https://hardspace-shipbreaker.com

Spoiler

Focus Home Interactive partners with Blackbird Interactive

Focus Home Interactive, publishers of World War Z, Greedfall, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and many more, are delighted to announce their partnership with Blackbird Interactive, creators of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak and the upcoming Homeworld 3, on a new project.

Set in an original IP and combining Focus Home’s love of innovative, new experiences with Blackbird’s deep knowledge and enjoyment of sci-fi settings, the upcoming game is sure to delight and intrigue audiences when it is unveiled at PAX East next month.

Blackbird Interactive is an independent Vancouver-based studio formed of game development veterans, with multiple titles in development. In 2016 Blackbird released the critically acclaimed RTS Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, which Gamespot called “a real-time strategy masterpiece”. In 2018 the company released the free educational Mars base simulation Project Eagle, in association with NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They are currently hard at work on the recently announced Homeworld 3, as well as a number of other titles. Blackbird's new project in partnership with Focus Home Interactive is the product of a dedicated and passionate team who have been working hard to create an innovative game based on a brand new IP.

Rob Cunningham, CEO and founder of Blackbird Interactive said today: “We are truly excited to work with the Focus team. From our first meeting it was clear they are a perfect fit to help deliver BBI's innovative new game to a wide audience. Focus genuinely shares our vision to create high-quality original titles and have completely embraced the new world we are crafting. We feel extremely fortunate and grateful for this opportunity, and look forward to an exciting and productive partnership!”

Focus Home Interactive’s John Bert, Chief Operating Officer, said today: “We are delighted to bring Blackbird on board the Focus flagship as we continue to invest in new and innovative games that will delight players for years to come. It’s also fantastic to be able to reveal this game in full at PAX East 2020, the premiere gaming culture convention running yearly in Boston, Massachusetts.”

The new game developed by Blackbird Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive will be revealed at PAX East 2020 and released later this year.

https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/43818/focus-home-interactive-partners-with-blackbird-interactive

 

[LESS T_T]

Hardspace: Shipbreaker, you actually do the job of Shipbreaker in first person:

Welcome to LYNX, the galaxy’s leading ship-salvaging corporation!

Across your career, you’ll have the privilege of paying your debt to us by purchasing salvaging rights to increasingly large and valuable ships. Cut them open and extract as much value as possible!

You are equipped with the latest in LYNX tech. Carve entry points, salvage valuable materials and components with your cutting tool or slice scrap metal at any angle into a million pieces as you ponder a lonely existence… the possibilities are endless! Be cautious – dying is extremely unprofitable.

We strongly advise upgrading your tools, helmet and suit to take on more lucrative contracts - all you need to worry about is how you’ll pay for it!

As of today, your debt amounts to:
999,999,999 Credits
Good luck on the job, cutter!

• Experience daily life as a blue-collar spaceship salvager
  
• Cut and destroy at will within a next-generation physics simulation
  
• Upgrade tools and unlock new perks to take on harder contracts

JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game in early access. Don’t hesitate to join our official Discord server and share your feedback with the development team so that we can improve Hardspace: Shipbreaker together.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[thesecret1]

It seems like physics will make or break this game. Definitely looks interesting.

 

[Life of the Party]

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

What a pointless game.

 

[Machocruz]

Being space garbageman is never pointless.

 

[Spectacle]

Sounds more like work than an actual game.

 

[thesecret1]

To me the premise seems more like a puzzle game (dissemble the ship without blowing it up + maximalize revenue) combined with a neat spaceship theme, and as a game that will rely extremely on its physics. There are far too few games that put focus on the physics, so I'm eager to see it in action. Reminds me of Viscera Cleanup Detail, except there the puzzle element was basically non-existent, making things too repetitive, and the physics relied too heavily on scripting.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

 

[Perkel]

Ok this seems cool

 

[Infinitron]

 

[DDZ]

What kinda faggot shit why is it in general gaming.

Move this to space gaming.

 

[Theodora]

Not that big into space games but this one seems super chill and a product of love.



Bought while it's 20% off.

 

[Forest Dweller]

MY COCK!

 

[what am i doing]

I bought it and played a bit. I have only been doing Easy ships so far aka variations on the Mackerel. My understanding is that higher grade ships are more complicated. I find it fun, although the 15 minute time limit per shift is a bit annoying. I actually think time limits are good, in general, on the principle that you prioritize on the valuable stuff to salvage, and also it adds a puzzle aspect in that you have to figure out how to get the stuff you need quickly rather than picking the entire ship apart; however at the same time the 15 minute time limit is a bit short, and a higher limit might be more ideal. You can go in for another shift to work on the same ship, but generally this means you'll be adding to your debt by the third shift since there'll be less valuable stuff and it'll also take longer to pull apart what's left of the ship (higher difficulty ships may last longer). Of course, as you get better gear, you'll be able to go through faster, and also once you start buying the "purchase [tool]" upgrades to stop paying the rental fees going in for multiple shifts will become more profitable since rental fees are the bulk of your expenses. Paying off your debt also gradually helps since you'll be paying less (((interest))) per shift as your total debt declines.

Tether limits are annoying. Same with oxygen, fuel, etc - but again this is all stuff that seems to be alleviated by upgrades. Camera movement "dragging" is annoying, and I get that it's because your whole body is moving in zero g, but it's still really aggravating and something that ought to just be handwaved away or given a menu option to turn off. They already have objects lose momentum over time in vacuum for the sake of gameplay so they might as well make camera movement reasonable for the same reason.

Art direction is nice since they basically just copied Homeworld. Soundtrack is nice as well. Also, the devs probably didn't intend it, but the game starts you off living in a shitty cubicle apartment with loud nigger music blasting through the walls, police sirens outside, etc, basically life in an urban shithole, then you go up to the peace and tranquility of space with Southern music playing and a good-ol'-boy talking to you over the radio, positive message (go to space).

This is very nitpicky but I dislike the "clones" explanation for player respawns. It makes the game's setting much less believable and player respawns should have been just accepted as a gameplay abstraction. It's better to recognize that some game mechanics are just game mechanics than attempting to justify them in-setting and in the process harming the verisimilitude of your work - aka, the Frontier Developments approach.

Overall if you like space games, and enjoyed Viscera Cleanup Detail but wished it was a bit more goal oriented, more serious/believable in tone, and less freeform, I'd recommend it. It is in early access, so there are things that are still being worked on (if you use Dvorak, or really, any non-QWERTY/AZERTY layout, you'll have to switch your layout to QWERTY when playing the game as keybinding isn't in yet, and even then, they used C to move down instead of Ctrl, which is pants-on-head retarded since moving down should be viewed similarly to crouching and crouch always uses Ctrl).

EDIT: I guess you can actually turn a profit on all three shifts completely scrapping a Mackerel, once you've got all the good shit out of it and every easily accessed major component sorted between furnace / processor you just start carving the rest into big chunks and tossing into whatever the bulk of that mass belongs in and accept the loss ie a mostly processor bunch of stuff, toss it into processor and accept wasted furnace stuff, and vice versa. Don't worry about neatly sorting it out. Still, it's probably not worth it overall if you're just trying to rank up quickly, I think two shifts is the sweet spot for a Medium difficulty Mackerel, enough time to get all the good stuff.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Game on the list to buy soon, looks and feels really good.

 

[Silly Germans]

Looks gimmicky. Fun for half an hour surely, but is it enough to fill a whole game without becoming repetitive and boring ?

 

[what am i doing]

Needs more ships. The core gameplay loop is good, though. Just requires more content.

 

[Joggerino]

So I just tried to take out the thruster cap because it's an alright way to get into this particular ship's aft section. Started cutting the connections and since the inside rom was pressurized the engine nozzle flew straight at me and smashed me against the salvage yard walls. (I died)
Also learned it's extremely important to watch the angle you cut when close to fuel tanks after two of them exploded in my face because it affects the direction the sparks go. Had a reactor explode in my face due to that as well, that event wasn't survivable...

 

[thesecret1]

It's fun but the story and characters are insufferable lol. Just let me take apart ships in peace, I don't want to hear about how a socialist sheboon dyke had her first kiss, nor do I wish to unionize with her

 

[GewuerzKahn]

The developer refuse to add a skip button for that shit.

 

[Joggerino]

It's fun but the story and characters are insufferable lol. Just let me take apart ships in peace, I don't want to hear about how a socialist sheboon dyke had her first kiss, nor do I wish to unionize with her

Exactly. It's not woke offensive but it's very heavy handed, over the top and annoying. Not annoying enough to spoil the game though!

 

[thesecret1]

It's fun but the story and characters are insufferable lol. Just let me take apart ships in peace, I don't want to hear about how a socialist sheboon dyke had her first kiss, nor do I wish to unionize with her

Exactly. It's not woke offensive but it's very heavy handed, over the top and annoying. Not annoying enough to spoil the game though!

Yeah, it's annoying as hell, but doesn't affect the gameplay, fortunately. Also, fun stuff, the premise of the game is you start with this insurmountable debt, but the pay you receive in exchange for each ship is so large that it's essentially what, one, two months of work? Makes the characters bitching about how predatory it is sound like whiny babies

 

[Levenmouth]

It's fun but the story and characters are insufferable lol. Just let me take apart ships in peace, I don't want to hear about how a socialist sheboon dyke had her first kiss, nor do I wish to unionize with her

Exactly. It's not woke offensive but it's very heavy handed, over the top and annoying. Not annoying enough to spoil the game though!

Yeah, it's annoying as hell, but doesn't affect the gameplay, fortunately. Also, fun stuff, the premise of the game is you start with this insurmountable debt, but the pay you receive in exchange for each ship is so large that it's essentially what, one, two months of work? Makes the characters bitching about how predatory it is sound like whiny babies

That's just realistic though. You have kids bitching about 7-hour workdays now. Wouldn't do that in mid-1800s.
Since Shipbreaker is taking place in the future, characters think that having than two-days' worth of college debt is a crime against humanity.