Ostranauts - spaceship management sim set in NEO Scavenger universe - now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

In this video, I live stream the current development build on my work machine, to a Steam audience for the Festival of Games. I show several of the improvements and changes made to the game since we showed it at PAX.

 

[Endemic]

Looks interesting. I'll keep an eye on how this develops.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...ping-space-sim-trapped-in-a-brutal-interface/

Ostranauts is a jaw-dropping space sim, trapped in a brutal interface

Based on its intensely confusing demo, I’ve concluded that I really like everything about Ostranauts, except for actually playing it. Admittedly that’s a fairly significant obstacle, and it seems I’m not the only person facing it. But it also seems developers Blue Bottle Games are acutely aware of where the pain is coming from, and it looks like they’re holding off on launching into early access until it’s been alleviated a bit. I hope it goes well for them. Because beneath a UI that makes even the simplest task so onerous that it’s not worth bothering with, this is a rich, fiercely imaginative simulation that I’m desperate to fall in love with.

Any conversation about Ostranauts should start with its setting, which is a bit like the setting of The Expanse series, only if it had all its optimism knocked out, along with its teeth, by a hammer in the shape of Blade Runner. It’s a universe in that sweet middle ground between planetary dystopia and space opera, where humanity has colonised the solar system, but doesn’t have FTL travel to go any further, and is spreading earth’s unrepentant corporate misery over every lump of rock in the sun’s embrace.

Of course, there’s an extra spicy twist in Ostranauts, in that the earth just got slam-dunked into a bin. As detailed in sort-of-prequel NEO Scavenger, the homeworld has been comprehensively busticated by a catastrophe of largely-human origin, and is not only dying hard, but completely cut off from human holdings in space. This, then, is the future you’re thrown into as a fledgling spaceship captain: a solar system burgeoning with mineral wealth, but with humanity clinging on by its fingernails to half-established colonies, trying frantically to set in for the long haul now that any hope of fresh supplies from home is gone.




I absolutely thrive on this stuff. I want to go there, and do crime!

As Graham noted last year, this setting comes with some top-notch SF worldbuilding, and every part of the demo drips with it, too. The writing is great. It achieves that thing science fiction so often attempts and so rarely manages, in giving the sense of a world that’s fully realised and consistent with itself, and which will keep about its business whether you happen to be looking into a tiny corner of it or not. You get the sense that wherever you look, you’ll find something interesting.

And in theory, that’s exactly what Ostranauts should allow you to do. After working with it to generate a backstory for your captain, via an interactive fiction minigame of sorts, you’re turfed out into the big wide empty, in the interior of a top-down spaceship, and left to either make your fortune, or simply avoid mortal and/or financial ruin. There are a huge number of destinations to visit (although not many seem to be properly designed at present), and a wealth of activities you can engage in, from smuggling to salvage to piracy to commercial shipping, and everything in between.

Spoiler

I love the backstory generator, to the extent where I suspect it might end up being my favourite part of the game.

Every component and object on your ship is interact-able-with, in an immersive simmy sort of way, and there’s a good deal of the inventory management lols that made their mark so definitively on NEO Scavenger. Pretty much every major function (reactor, navigation, life support etc) can only be operated in an intermediate way, as you click your ostranaut and have them access the controls of the machinery in question. At this point, you’re confronted with a full-screen, in-universe rendering of the control console, complete with baffling dials, readouts and labels (written partially in opaque abbreviations and partially in Chinese characters), which you have to figure out how to use. Nothing, therefore, is simple.

Once you’ve got yourself a crew they’ll join your captain in operating all this gubbins, and will make their home aboard your ship, where they’ll need to eat, shit, breathe, stay warm and so on. They’ll also interact with each other, on the basis of what appears to be an impressively detailed personality modelling system, and do millions of push-ups. Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld and other colony simulators are the clear influence here, and from what I can tell, Ostranauts plays out with Rimworld’s mix of direct control and autonomous action, weighted somewhat towards the former. That is to say, you can “possess” crew members to make them do stuff directly, but if you don’t, they’ll fall under the game’s control and ant-farm around according to broader directives or their own whims.




The navigation console: clearly, it’s obvious what to do here in order to make your spaceship go places.

And just as any article on the incredible possibilities of living in space usually ends with a caveat about the near-insurmountable practical difficulties involved, so too must this post. Because doing anything in Ostranauts is a colossal pain in the arse. I don’t mean the control console stuff – figuring that stuff out is part of the fun, and presses the same, literal, buttons that Nauticrawl did for me. What’s miserable is how convoluted and unintuitive simple actions are.

One of the demo scenarios involved, essentially, getting to a derelict spaceship’s reactor room from the airlock. Just that. But it was so goddamned frustrating that if I hadn’t been writing about the game, I would have given up very very early on. Just picking things up and using them was a process fraught with needless clicks, accidental abandonment of the entire process, and the non-fun sort of unintended outcomes. At one point, during the inventory screen flailing involved in trying to get a drill off the floor, I took off my entire EVA suit in hard vacuum. Some things I tried to do, which seemed monumentally simple, resulted in nothing happening at all, resulting in that dreaded “I’m stuck” feeling I’d been glad to leave behind with 1990s adventure games.




NNNNNGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I suppose the biggest problem here wasn’t with the attempted actions not working, but with the game’s stony, tactiturn refusal to tell me anything at all about why they weren’t working. I get that space is a difficult place, and that it can be fun to claw your way from complete bafflement to mastery of an opaque system. Indeed, as a long-time Dwarf Fortress player, I consider this a solid way to have a good time. But failure should always come with feedback of some kind, as trial and error only works when you can begin to identify the reasons for error. I was wowed by the complexity underlying Ostranauts’ simulation, but with so little certainty about any of it, it was as much fun as trying to untangle a cement mixer full of 5-metre USB cables. Or indeed, trying to guide a sullen robot through the untangling of a cement mixer full of 5-metre USB cables, via a remote control with 200 unlabelled buttons, half of which don’t work.

I think it’s fixable. Daniel Fedor, the main fellow at Blue Bottle, is a smart bloke, and his communications with players suggest he knows exactly what’s not working with Ostranauts. What’s more, he now has the support of a publisher in the form of Modern Wolf, who seem willing and able to help him untangle things. And once Ostranauts hits early access, I know for sure it’s the sort of game whose fanbase will readily dedicate themselves to the collaborative effort of making it work better. I’m confident it’ll get there, and I’m confident it’ll be worth it, as under that screaming Frankenstein of an interface, there’s an Adonis of a space sim.

 

[Infinitron]

https://wireframe.raspberrypi.org/articles/ostranauts-the-noir-spaceship-lifesim

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/248860/announcements/detail/2716185857425801079

Ostranauts Features That Were Born from NEO Scavenger

Spoiler

Hey Folks!

Back in 2017, NEO Scavenger was approaching its 6th year of development. A far cry from the 3-6 months I expected to spend on a Flash browser game!

So as I wrapped-up the last of the major patches, I decided I'd take a bit of a break from NEO Scavenger to work on another dream project of mine: a spaceship life sim that let me design ships with Lego-like parts, fill it with interesting characters, and watch it go. I still wanted to play in the world of NEO Scavenger, but this would be a fun change of pace, while also letting me flesh-out the setting.



Fast forward a few years, and it appears I just can't resist some NEO Scavenger features

Above, you see a screenshot of the inventory screen in Ostranauts. And NEO Scavenger fans will probably recognize more than a few similarities. Even the paper doll's pose was basically a redraw over the old Philip Kindred model, now with a higher resolution.

Unfortunately, since the game is in a new engine (Unity C#), I couldn't just copy/paste the inventory code from NS. But it's getting closer each day, with slotted and held items, effects from equipping items, weight and encumbrance, and a bit of inventory Tetris for good measure.



NS players will also probably recognize the UI style above, even with the re-skinning. Like with NS, there are traits that cost points, and some that grant them. And the building blocks are here for an interesting variety of character types.

So far, as you can see, I haven't been able to balance the point costs as I did in NS. That'll have to come with testing. Also not seen here are some choose-your-own-adventure style screens to decide on your career history, contacts, and additional traits. All of which should hopefully give you some sense of ownership and context to your avatar.

And speaking of choose-your-own-adventure:



Turns out the olden ones are golden ones, when it comes to UIs. Why reinvent the wheel? The old combo of image, text, clickable options, and a message log work in so many situations, that I've started using it in Ostranauts to communicate events that are easier to describe than to show. In this case, a sort of establishing shot explaining your first foray into the boneyard.



And just like how the encounter system evolved into NS's combat UI, socializing with NPCs evolved from that. I mean, after all, a social engagement has a lot of the same moving parts, right?

We have our status info under each character, telling us how we're feeling. We have a list of moves we can make, and a preview of some effects it might have. We still have the message log, too, telling us blow-by-blow all of the things we experience and see as a player.

And what about actual combat? How will that look? Well, I'm sort of expecting this social UI to come full circle and host physical "negotiations." It has all of the necessary pieces that the NS UI had, plus one important improvement: a grid map. Now we can see where everyone is standing.

What's more, with line of sight in the game now, we could potentially have some fun with stealth and cover, or area effects. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here. Combat is still on the shelf until I finish some more pressing simulations.

It's also worth pointing out that a number of NS's less-visible features are still running under the hood in Ostranauts. The entire physiological sim, for example. We have hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleep, and temperature. Illnesses and symptoms are all copied over, too. Drug effects like alcohol and caffeine are in, so far. And we even have some crossover between social and physiological effects.

Another carry-over from NS is the ability to mod just about everything. I think I've done a better job this time of exposing more game data in plain text files (json format), and the usual PNG format for images.

And who could forget Josh Culler's amazing soundtrack? He's back with an OST custom-made for Ostranauts. Keep an ear out for his signature haunting electronic ambiance, plus a few new tricks to paint a soundscape that spans cultures in the off-world colonies.

And finally, crucially, Ostranauts is going to grow a lot like NS did. Early Access is coming soon, and like with NS, it's going to come out of the gate with much to be done.

Anyone who was along for the ride on NS knows it was slow, but steady progress to add content and features. At every step, I tried to be in there with fans on the forums, both here and my site. Spitballing ideas, answering questions, sharing jokes.

And many times, these chats will turn into awesome features. Remember NS's old combat? Before the encounter-style UI? Some of you will. It was basically Civ-style hex combat, and creatures only had 5 wound states (including death).

Similarly, remember when nighttime in NS was just blue hexes and limited visual range? It was user feedback that turned that into terrifying blackness that allowed us to have tools for light, visibility, and night vision.

You folks are as much to thank for the evolution of NEO Scavenger over the years as anyone, and I hope to continue that tradition in Ostranauts. It'll take some time, but I think Ostranauts can become an equally good platform for telling stories of survival. And I look forward to crafting those stories with you!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Infinitron]

Ostranauts demo will be available again during Gamescom this weekend.

 

[Van-d-all]

Ostranauts demo will be available again during Gamescom this weekend.

Same one or something new?

 

[Infinitron]

Ostranauts demo will be available again during Gamescom this weekend.

Out now.

 

[Infinitron]

Early Access on September 10th.

 

[kirin]

Tried to watch this streamer but it was just too obnoxious.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Another trailer

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Hellraiser]

*Check calendar*

*Checks steam*

Y u no unlock for purchase yet Ostranauts? I want to die horribly in space.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Hellraiser]

Ok, my spess addict F5ing paid off, is out now.

Costs less than 60 potatogeld (~15 kwabucks)

 

[Mortmal]

Just seen it's out too, we got nothing for months now everything release at the same time , flight simulator, wastelands 3, now ostranauts, even i cant follow ....

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Skdursh]

So it's out and the Steam reviews so far are not very positive, but as well all know the majority of people on Steam are borderline to full-on retarded, so what does the Codex think?

 

[Hellraiser]

So it's out and the Steam reviews so far are not very positive, but as well all know the majority of people on Steam are borderline to full-on retarded, so what does the Codex think?

I haven't gotten far yet. It is going to need a lot more development. Also it is quite buggy, had one save game corruption/crash and a couple of times my character failed to finish some job and got stuck in a loop. In general the job/order queuing seems buggy.

My main gripe so far is that your character cannot move if overloaded... while in 0g. Yeah. Also holes in the floor/hull prevent movement. Maybe with the EVA suit you can float over them and it is just too dangerous to do that with a pressurized suit, but who knows. Haven't yet survived long enough to afford one and check it out.

Pressurized suits not accepting o2 bottles (only the more expensive EVA suits use them) is a bit of an overkill.

Salvaging components, scrap, ships or jurry-rigging shit is nice. At the moment though it doesn't look like there is much of a game beyond that.

Could use a lot of QoL improvements, the right-click contextual action menus should just expand to the lowest level outright. Also could use some automation for moving scrap from the wrecks to the ship. Not to mention shift-queuing things like conduit building and other ship construction work.

 

[Mortmal]

Reading steam reviews , he shouldnt have released like it, early access or not people will review it poorly . Only reason is if you are desperate for cash.

 

[MRY]

That's too bad! In some ways, this game is spectacularly ill-suited for Early Access from a player standpoint, because if the internal fiction is that you're dealing with obscure interfaces and malfunctioning machinery, it is critical that the game's interface and rules be functioning as intended -- otherwise, it's not clear whether something is gameplay or a glitch, and I can imagine that getting infuriating quickly. On the other hand, these kinds of games almost need Early Access because you need to have extensive pre-release testing, and EA is by far the easiest way for a dev to do that.

 

[Mortmal]

I get it its cheap testing for big studios , but for a small indie is it worth the reputation hit ? The first thing you look at for indie games , those have already very poor visibility , are the steam review, mixed = complete shit , so people wont look further.

 

[MRY]

I don't know. But I don't see how he could release this game without massive testing, so it seems like a double bind.

Some of the reviews, incidentally, seem very Codexian!