Game News Jupiter Hell now on Kickstarter [turn based, roguelike, top-down, pew-pew]

[Bubbles]

Tags: ChaosForge; Jupiter Hell

ChaosForge, the developers of DoomRL, have brought their next game to Kickstarter. The project page for their turn based roguelike Jupiter Hell is full of words like "streamlined", "accessible", and "new audiences", and the game's setting is basically Doom without the copyrighted bits:

Jupiter Hell is a tactical roguelike game in a 90's flavored sci-fi universe. Set on the moons of Jupiter, the game pits a lone space marine against overwhelming demonic forces. Rip and tear undead, demons and unmentionable monstrosities, using classic weaponry including shotguns, chainguns, railguns and the trusty chainsaw. All to the shine of CRT monitors and the tune of heavy metal!​

Rip and tear! If that doesn't have you hyped yet, the developers are also promising "resource management and decision-based character progression" and "tactical and strategic depth", as well as permadeath mechanics and a bunch of other stuff:

• Classic roguelike! - Turn-based, grid based, procedurally generated environments and permadeath.
• Several difficulty levels and dozens of challenge modes - no matter what skill level, there will be always something more to achieve, something nastier to master
• Dynamic animation system - despite being turn-based, you never wait for the player to move, play as fast as you like and see the animation adapt to it
• Streamlined UI and gameplay - no need for manuals, just jump in. Whether you want the easy way of playing by mouse, or the fast way by keyboard, the game offers both.
• G(l)orious visuals - explosions, blood, dynamic shadows, effects galore.
• Randomness! - from the big to the small, Jupiter Hell will never feel samey - the plot and missions will vary each game, the procedural levels will provide new tactical challenges, and even small finishing touches like background furniture will have variety to give a handmade feel.
• Loot - Raid corpses and plunder secret corporate storehouses for kick-ass new weapons and armour.

For further details, feel free to peruse the pitch video:

​

 

[Jack Dandy]

Really hope they make it. I loved DoomRL, it was the perfect introduction to the genre.

 

[Fenix]

So it is how it's look like.
Dunno, what's the point for 3D roguelike...
Have no idea what future awaits it.

 

[ArchAngel]

That KS pitch was terrible lol. At least the non gameplay parts were. I still hope the game makes it.
But one guy standing next to 3 guys, all with guns shooting at each other from point blank does not make me love it.
And they mention Xcom, doing that in any version of Xcom = death.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looking good.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Kinnmuskelspanner, LOL

 

[Epyon]

That KS pitch was terrible lol. At least the non gameplay parts were. I still hope the game makes it.
But one guy standing next to 3 guys, all with guns shooting at each other from point blank does not make me love it.
And they mention Xcom, doing that in any version of Xcom = death.

For the past 1,5 years we were basically two guys who had to prepare everything. Not much time or experience (and definitely not any money) to prepare a nice professional pitch video. As far as the gameplay shots go, it's really hard to capture something nice from a game that randomly sends crap at you, and we didn't want to do "posed" shots. Dropping by the stream and looking at longer segments gives a better idea of how it all works.

Thanks all for the good words though

 

[Agame]

3D? Where is the ASCII!?

 

[Bubbles]

3D? Where is the ASCII!?

I hope 3D ASCII mode will be one of the stretch goals. Best of both worlds!

 

[Agame]

I thinks thats seriously unlikely? Anyway I loved DoomRL so best of luck with this you guys!

 

[Jack Dandy]

3D? Where is the ASCII!?

Look at the Kickstarter page

 

[Fenix]

Yeah, I wish you best of luck too.
Btw Epyon it is always inetersted me, e.g. I imagine I got million of ever-green bucks, and I start to think how to spend it for good of roguelikeS development as a GENRE.
What's the best method? Some convention, some kind of financing, or something?
And does something like that happens now?

 

[HoboForEternity]

roguelike

meh

 

[Fenix]

Edited previous text.

 

[you know what time it is]

Now if someone makes a cataclysmdda in similar vein or toady will come out of his autistic shell and make a proper interface for DF, I might actually die happy.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Have I just been asleep for a couple of decades or does $20 seem a bit much for a roguelike, fancy graphics or not? I'm still trying to save up for Tranny.

 

[Bubbles]

Have I just been asleep for a couple of decades or does $20 seem a bit much for a roguelike, fancy graphics or not? I'm still trying to save up for Tranny.

The development costs are probably quite high. Poland is the California of Eastern Europe:

 

[Murk]

Got to be one of the worst videos I've seen; the intro is p cringe and the audio during the interview is all echo.

FFS how you gonna make a video worse than random dudes on the street yelling "world star hip hop" as they record a bum fight.

 

[Epyon]

Got to be one of the worst videos I've seen; the intro is p cringe and the audio during the interview is all echo.

FFS how you gonna make a video worse than random dudes on the street yelling "world star hip hop" as they record a bum fight.

Audio is bad, because that's the only camera we could procure at zero cost -- we've ran out of money about two months ago.

Have I just been asleep for a couple of decades or does $20 seem a bit much for a roguelike, fancy graphics or not? I'm still trying to save up for Tranny.

The development costs are probably quite high. Poland is the California of Eastern Europe:

3d graphics is much more expensive to create than pixel art. We've burned through about 150k$ of our own money to get to this stage. And this doesn't count the first 3 years I've spent coding the engine for this game, nor the 12 years of DoomRL, AliensRL and other roguelikes that I did for free .

 

[ghostdog]

DoomRL is great. It provides such good short doses of fun that it's perfect even for people who don't like roguelikes. This new game looks pretty cool.

 

[Murk]

I still stand by my statement, but also wish you luck. DoomRL really was good stuff.

 

[Azael]

DoomRL is damned good, best of luck of to you!

 

[Epyon]

Thank you!

Also, for anyone that still doesn't see the turn-based part, I recently did a tech overview for a friend while streaming development. It mostly talks about the technical aspects of the engine, but much longer gameplay shots are visible, and you can hear the keys being pressed
https://www.twitch.tv/epyoncf/v/102610218
(yes, it's extremely dark, we need more lights in the levels, and twitch encoding doesn't help)

 

[Epyon]

the plot and missions will vary each game

This is an interesting statement I'd like to see expanded on, since there's nothing on the kickstarter page about it. There's a tension between roguelike gameplay and story, and we've seen this countless times.

This will actually be half the topic of the next (or thereafter) update -- I'll link it here one we post it!

 

[Zed]

Hi Ewa