Space Wreck - post-apocalyptic space RPG inspired by Fallout

[Lord_Potato]

FYI: I posted another short gameplay video (...because the previous one was missing sound).
Again, antisocial hacker and manipulative socialite approach the same location in two completely different ways.

I have a question, is the game complete story-wise and you guys are only adding more features and functionalities now? Or should I still wait with a full playthrough(s) until the whole main quest is done?

 

[jebsmoker]

I think it would take 5-10 hrs

your game has amazing style, i loved the demo. but content is paper thin. i was right about my prediction. imagine if this had underrail level of content, it would be amazing

some of the Steam (negative) reviews which have 42 hours on record

they just had multiple characters/playthroughs

making space wreck 100 hours long on average would go against its quality over quantity design philosophy. there's no way that space wreck would be good if it was 10 times as long - it'd have to be padded out with meaningless filler

there's a good reason why fallout 1's reasonable length and focus on multiple choices is a good thing to model your game after

 

[Kamaz]

[..] is the game complete story-wise and you guys are only adding more features and functionalities now? Or should I still wait with a full playthrough(s) until the whole main quest is done?

All the intended content - including both main story forks - is 100% done.

However, that was already true during the EA launch. While the focus is on fixing bugs and improving usability (see UI/interaction updates) and functionality (save games), however, we already have added new story content and expanded the existing lore, quests, interactions, items and many more details in this time.

I believe you can pay for it now, you can wait for the full release - it'll probably have more polish.

 

[Lord_Potato]

All the intended content - including both main story forks - is 100% done.

However, that was already true during the EA launch. While the focus is on fixing bugs and improving usability (see UI/interaction updates) and functionality (save games), however, we already have added new story content and expanded the existing lore, quests, interactions, items and many more details in this time.

I believe you can pay for it now, you can wait for the full release - it'll probably have more polish.

Oh, I already purchased the game - it is one of the few early access titles I'm willing to support before the full release. I find both its design philosophy and the retro visuals strongly appealing.

Thank you for the answer. I'll play Space Wreck when it's ready then.

 

[luj1]

aking space wreck 100 hours long on average would go against its quality over quantity design philosophy

Not really because back in the day you had long RPGs which are quality as fuck

But I like this modern cope how quantity automatically excludes quality

 

[Tyranicon]

aking space wreck 100 hours long on average would go against its quality over quantity design philosophy

Not really because back in the day you had long RPGs which are quality as fuck

But I like this modern cope how quantity automatically excludes quality

Yeah those days are over. The only people making RPGs like that are indies, which are limited due to their small teams. Most reasonable indies won't spend 10 years of their life on zero income to produce a masterpiece.

Blame the consumers. They're the ones busy buying garbage.

 

[JarlFrank]

The shortness of a single playthrough is a selling point tbh

It lends itself well to replays: when each playthrough is 10 hours you're more likely to go for another playthrough with a completely different character build, than if it were 100 hours.

 

[Lyre Mors]

As someone who bought the game and am happy enough with the approach being taken, the ideal length for a "highly replayable" CRPG would be closer to 25-30 hours for me. This simply has to do with my sense of investment in a journey. If a CRPG ends after 5-10 hours, regardless of whether or not I know I have replays waiting for me in the future, I feel like I've really only just gotten started on an adventure at that point.

 

[baba is you]

Reading other people's impressions of the game, it seems to be more influenced by AoD than Fallout. Short playtime, lots of branching paths. These are often cited as AoD's strengths, and this game is similarly mentioned. How is it different from AoD? :중

 

[Kamaz]

Do you sometimes get frustrated by dice just not rolling your way?

- Introducing *Nominal tablets* in the next update - take one and remove any RNG from your skill checks whatsoever!

(Warning: potential side effects may apply.)

RNG in RPGs is a hot topic - opinions tend to differ. Even Fallouts tried it both ways - originals with dice rolls under the hood and New Vegas with fixed skill gates. In Space Wreck we actually tried both of these approaches - originally fixed gates but eventually refactored everything to dice rolls. The chance distribution is natural - rolls tend to fall mostly around the nominal value. However, there is undoubtedly a certain level of randomness. And that can and does frustrate players from time to time.

To alleviate this feeling, we are adding optional tools to the game. One of them can be seen in the GIF - drugs that remove randomness. In-game, it's a type of medication that removes both anxiety and excitement and dulls your character's senses, so they can perform adequately to their competence. Your character will not come up with unexpected ingenious ideas or find extra strength with an adrenaline rush but, on the other hand, doesn't have to worry about performance anxiety and underperforming. The drawback is that experience is suppressed too as you don't challenge yourself and won't grow.

 

[agris]

You should call them Sawyer Tabs (STs).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

You should call them Sawyer Tabs (STs).

Or maybe Lukaszekite.

 

[lukaszek]

any tablet for all rolls to be 1, xp multiplied by 2?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

any tablet for all rolls to be 1, xp multiplied by 2?

Can't you just dump all stats beside Work?

 

[Kamaz]

any tablet for all rolls to be 1, xp multiplied by 2?

Can't you just dump all stats beside Work?

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko is actually spot on right -

 

[Kamaz]

Coming next update: fix up broken robots.

Hypothetically, if you can find enough R/C controllers (random drop), you could create a small robot army.

And yes, you can repair a broken cambot, use it to destroy another cambot and then fix up that one, and so on. And if any of your bots get broken, you can repair them again.

 

[Kamaz]

Thus far our proofreader (native speaker) has already checked 33,641 words worth of dialogue. That's NPCs from 2 major locations, the first game area KROGUS and the ship BULTA. I estimate we have around 150k words in the game in total.

While this is a bit of a technical thing to share, I know that some of you had and still have concerns about broken Engrish in the game. So hopefully this will address some of it.

P.S. And, if you are curious, this is the in-house proofing tool we are using for this task:

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Thus far our proofreader (native speaker) has already checked 33,641 words worth of dialogue. That's NPCs from 2 major locations, the first game area KROGUS and the ship BULTA. I estimate we have around 150k words in the game in total.

While this is a bit of a technical thing to share, I know that some of you had and still have concerns about broken Engrish in the game. So hopefully this will address some of it.

P.S. And, if you are curious, this is the in-house proofing tool we are using for this task:

This calls for a dong joke, but I'm not up for that task.
Must be performance anxiety.

 

[JarlFrank]

Reading other people's impressions of the game, it seems to be more influenced by AoD than Fallout. Short playtime, lots of branching paths. These are often cited as AoD's strengths, and this game is similarly mentioned. How is it different from AoD? :중

Unlike AoD, this one never teleports you anywhere unless you explicitly agree to it (there's a lesbian chick you can seduce and she invites you to her bedroom on the other ship, promising to sneak you past the guards; if you agree you end up in the other ship). You are always in full control of your character's movements and actions.

AoD often had sequences that played out like CYOA where all the choices happened in dialog windows and you couldn't really interact with the environment around you.
Here you get to click on things and use your skills on objects in the actual game world.

So it has a much stronger exploration aspect than AoD.

 

[baba is you]

From Jarl's kind explanation and my old acquaintances who are still active, it seems to be a pretty good game.
I don't think AoD was a bad game from my perspective, but I didn't like the CYOA aspect of it. I wanted something more exploration-oriented with lots of branches and a decent amount of interaction.

This game seems to fit the bill, and I just bought it. I'll have to take my time with it.

 

[baba is you]

I've been playing for about 8 hours and I really like it, and I feel like it brings back some of the things I felt were missing from AoD. My only two complaints are that the combat system is a bit disappointing and there are some bugs.
However, I really liked the interactivity, story branching, and stuff like that, so the things I mentioned are very minor drawbacks, and the bugs didn't really ruin my progression too much - they were mostly bugs that were fixed by restarting.

Anyway, I think it's a well-made CRPG, and I'm looking forward to the full version

 

[luj1]

This is really an AoD successor but in visual style of Underrail. Pretty cool

 

[Kamaz]

Like in many RPGs, containers can be trapped. However, you can disarm the trap, take it and then trap some other container yourself.

This can be an alternative way to safely knock-out an NPC who has a routine.

(* Coming to EA next update.)

 

[Technomancer]

Like in many RPGs containers can be trapped.

You sly devil. Barely any RPGs that came out in recent years have such feature.

 

[Kamaz]

In Space Wreck, XP and STRESS are ... interchangeable.
1) At every odd level (Levelup)- you get to improve your skills - representing getting more experienced.
2) But on every even level ("Stress up!") you have to pick both positive AND negative marks that alter your character with traits.

You can pick whichever positive mark you like but there are only three randomly selected negative marks and you MUST choose one.

As mentioned previously, your XP (STRESS) rate depends on the WORK attribute (varies from 80% to 200%), hence, some characters will get more experience (and stress) while others will have a more spaced out level/stress-ups. Arguably, hyper XP rate is not necessarily beneficial. Consider also that to have such a high rate you must have high WORK which implies you had to sacrifice PHYSICAL, CHARM, FOCUS, and PERCEPTION core attributes that can not be raised by simple levelups in the game. If you created a character with PERCEPTION 1, you will have to endure that decision no matter how much XP you gain.

This is sort of a "chad" vs "incel" approach where "chads" have high inherent stats and core attributes, but "incels" have increased skills: however, neither can have both.

One last aspect to this - next update there are coming _Nominal tablets_ - a drug that removes RNG from your skill rolls. However, the side-effect of that drug is a heavily reduced XP rate - which you may actually want in some cases.