KickStarter StarCrawlers - indie sci-fi dungeon crawling RPG

[Infinitron]

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/125859261/starcrawlers
Steam Greenlight: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=203628033




https://af.gog.com/game/starcrawlers?as=1649904300

Spoiler

We got this in the mail. It seems interesting enough to give them some publicity.

Hello RPG Codex,

My name is Elena, I work at Juggernaut Games (we're a small studio in San Diego working on our first game). StarCrawlers is a first person sci-fi dungeon crawler with a Shadowrun-inspired theme and procedurally generated dungeons. I've pasted our press release below - its got links to the trailer video featuring a new track by Ben Prunty (who's doing our soundtrack), plus links to screenshots, the website, etc.

Since your forums are full of posts on a lot of the games that were our main gameplay inspirations (Ultima/Wizardry and dungeon crawlers of yesteryear plus, obviously, grimrock) I hoped you might be willing to post a preview of the game for your readers. We're gearing up for a kickstarter in the early part of next month and we're trying to get the word out as much as possible, so we'd really appreciate it! Please contact me if you need more information and/or if you'd like to do an interview.


PRESS RELEASE

San Diego, CA - January 24, 2014 – Independent game studio Juggernaut Games announces their first title – StarCrawlers, a sci-fi dungeon-crawling RPG. Run a crew of talented fixers taking shady jobs on the fringes of space where your choices dynamically change the way you explore the environment, fight your foes, resolve encounters, and how your story ultimately unfolds.

Description:

Whatever their particular skillset - be it hacking, smuggling or advanced ass-kicking - StarCrawlers are individuals who specialize in taking jobs others won't. Your team will venture into procedurally-generated environments full of lethal enemies, unexpected events, and deadly traps. Conspiracy is afoot, and you may stumble upon valuable information - how you choose to use it is up to you.

As you progress through the dungeon, you’ll face tougher and tougher enemies and be tested against elite bosses, requiring you to make strategic decisions about your team build, their combat specialization and their gear. Team build will also have an impact on what you can do while exploring, with each character class bringing their own specialized skills to bear to help you avoid obstacles, deal with NPCs, and navigate hazards more effectively.

Features:
Soundtrack by Ben Prunty
Classic first person dungeon crawling exploration
Procedurally generated environments with random encounters, traps, and enemies
Deep character customization with abilities that can be modded and changed
Randomly generated and upgradeable loot
PC, Mac, and Linux support

Look out for our Kickstarter campaign coming soon!

Release Date: TBD

Media Links:
Press Kit : http://www.juggernaut-games.com/press/
Images: http://www.juggernaut-games.com/press/#images
Trailer: http://www.juggernaut-games.com/press/#trailers
Website: www.starcrawlers.com
Company Website: http://www.juggernaut-games.com

 

[Excidium]

We got this in the mail. It seems interesting enough to give them some publicity.

Features:
Classic first person dungeon crawling exploration
Procedurally generated environments with random encounters, traps, and enemies
Randomly generated and upgradeable loot

Shit.

 

[Infinitron]

We got this in the mail. It seems interesting enough to give them some publicity.

Features:
Classic first person dungeon crawling exploration
Procedurally generated environments with random encounters, traps, and enemies
Randomly generated and upgradeable loot

Shit.

I thought you liked randomness.

Do you not like roguelikes, then?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Random everything = yawn. A randomly generated dungeon will never be as good as a hand crafted one done by a person who knows about good dungeon design.

 

[Excidium]

I thought you liked randomness.

I'm trying to find an analogy, but you know it's like a food you like and that is great in moderate amounts but a meal entirely composed of it just makes you sick.

I like randomness as an enhancing factor, not something permeating every single aspect of the game. The dungeon layout is random, the encounters are random, the loot is random, your mom is random...come on just stop.

Do you not like roguelikes, then?

I don't really like or dislike, I played a few a handful of times but I don't find the genre much interesting, it's a very different thing from CRPGs.

 

[J_C]

It can be decent. We'll see.

 

[sser]

Need to see a better proof of concept, but it looks alright. Only complaint at this very shallow juncture is that robots are boring as fuck and I hope they are not the primary foe of a space-based sci-fi game.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The man uses the term "procedurally generated dungeons' without falling into the new hip indie trend of describing his game as 'roguelike'. Just for that, the man has my appreciation. I'll keep on eye on this. We could use more space-based CRPGs.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I've been long wanting a good first-person turn-based roguelike. The last one we had was what, Dungeon Hack? Being sci-fi is good, too.

The project lead's apparent lack of experience in programming and rpg design makes me a bit wary, though. I wonder if they can make the procedural generation any good, the character development complex enough, and the challenge high enough. Because that's what makes or breaks a game like this.

At the moment this is a wait-and-see project for me.

 

[getter77]

It sounds promising, but time will tell once they get around to their proper launch and whatnot.

 

[theSavant]

Random everything = yawn. A randomly generated dungeon will never be as good as a hand crafted one done by a person who knows about good dungeon design.

This is also why I lost interest to "Elite Dangerous". I recall the game "Hellbender" from 1996 and it was great because the planet surface and caves were designed by hand and featured nifty things only humans can create. Now imagine everything was generated procedurally - how boring would that be? Every planet would feel, look and play the same. Of course one could say: "you just need to brainstorm the nifty things and feed it into your procedural generator" - yes, that's true, but you'd need hell of a generator for that. I doubt we can expect something sophisticated like that.

Also if everything is procedurally generated the game has no soul.

Same with "Malevolence RPG"... looks great from a technical point of view - but play it? - No.

B2T: (if the developers read it) graphics and combat look aesthetically pleasing and polished, which is respectable. A good point to start off.

Edit: oh I forgot - get rid off the ugly red background of your juggernut logo. It really makes me puke and almost made me stop the video before it reached 5 seconds.

 

[ColCol]

Gameplay

 

[Damned Registrations]

The dungeons in Incursion were amazing. Tons of variant rooms and passages; caverns, chasms, narrow passages, ice wall mazes, all sorts of cool shit. That game had more variety on a single floor than some games have in an entire playthrough. Random generation can be excellent when done properly. Whether it's randomly generated or not, the real limitation is the developer's imagination. Oblivion had dozens of hand crafted dungeons and it felt like there were about 3 of them because they had no originality.

Roguelikes tend to come down to item drops and character progression more than anything though. If you get the same items (or at least use the same items and ditch everything else because it sucks) and skills every playthough, the game will feel repetitive and shit. If you tend to find something within the first 5-10 minutes that radically alters your playstyle each time, the game will kick ass.

 

[Alchemist]

Being a fan of roguelikes and procedural content, I'll be keeping an eye on this. I do hope they have more than robots for enemies though.

I've been long wanting a good first-person turn-based roguelike. The last one we had was what, Dungeon Hack?

Malevolence is pretty much that. Whether it's good or not is a matter of taste - but I enjoyed what I've played of it. In open beta still I guess, they are still adding and tweaking features.

The dungeons in Incursion were amazing. Tons of variant rooms and passages; caverns, chasms, narrow passages, ice wall mazes, all sorts of cool shit. That game had more variety on a single floor than some games have in an entire playthrough. Random generation can be excellent when done properly. Whether it's randomly generated or not, the real limitation is the developer's imagination.

Agreed - it can be done well or done poorly. Incursion is a great example of getting it right. Of course, that has a huge advantage of being ASCII-based and not requiring the creation of tons of art assets for all that variety.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Heroes of a Broken Land shows us that randomly generated dungeons are sheer drudgery, and I doubt the developers of this are even a tenth as talented as Heroes' developer.

 

[Trash]

Didn't we have a lot of posts here about a grid based SF dungeon blobber a while back? Or is it the same game?

Nevermind, that was Space Shock. Same concept though. Not to mention it looks really similar. Hm.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/858695532/space-shock-0?ref=live

Anyway, liking what I've seen so far. Always enjoyed games like this. Here's some footage.



And a trailer.

 

[Metro]

Do you not like roguelikes, then?

He doesn't like anything. Only game I've seen Ex cop to playing is World of Warcraft. Take that for what you will. Anyway, I like what I see in the gameplay videos. I also don't get why people shit over procedurally generated. Unless you have a sizable budget chances are the 'handcrafted' environments you end up making aren't going to be superior -- just random sets of hallways.

 

[SuicideBunny]

This is also why I lost interest to "Elite Dangerous".

you lost interest in elite: dangerous because it has a procedurally generated >galaxy< in addition to the handcrafted core worlds? how fucking stupid is that?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Good looking game, i like the aesthetic a lot.

 

[theSavant]

This is also why I lost interest to "Elite Dangerous".

you lost interest in elite: dangerous because it has a procedurally generated >galaxy< in addition to the handcrafted core worlds? how fucking stupid is that?

Then I want to see what kind of interaction I have with these handcrafted worlds, so it makes it worthwhile. But the present impression is that the game will feature utmost minimal gameplay and the rest is "oooh, look how much we procedurally generated". If I want to watch randomly generated fuck then I might as well watch the grass growing. He can still prove me otherwise, but the Alpha footage didn't impress me at all.

 

[Angthoron]

Hm, this looks interesting, going to keep an eye on it. Would be worth a newspost, once it stops rivalling DU's riveting news on comparativist approach to neo-classic RPGs.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Well, the present impression is that the game will feature utmost minimal gameplay

the present impression based on what? because it sounds as if it's just like the other elite games with more stuff and the few first alpha impressions seem to be mostly positive.

 

[Drew]

Looks pretty nice. If there were more enemies, something biotic would be a decent addition, then I might look more into it.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUjtefaOYN8

Gameplay

Okay... now I'm excited.

 

[St. Toxic]

Stop the bot on bot violence! Future sentient A.I's will use this game as an excuse to wipe out the human race.