Unfinished: Everspace 09/22/2016

Space Everlasting

"An upcoming space-shooter withrogue-like type gameplay."

Man... just why do devs keep doing this?

Oh? A space game??

@sravankb: making run-based games with permanent character death, or specifically calling it "rogue-like"? Feels like the latter battle has been fought and lost already.

I wish this game were a bit more like Freelancer than it is, but as a backer I've been very pleased with how smooth and pleasant the gameplay experience is, and relatively satisfied with the quantity and breadth of updates since they started into Early Access.

Check back in a couple months if you're not sold just yet.

This is a nightmare, after years and years of waiting I'm swimming in space games but they are all repetitive and/or unfinished.

I freaking LOVE this game so far.

I've played it like crazy since I picked it up last week.

Wow - that looks amazing. Very sharp!

Alex's comment at 22:45 could not have been better timed.

At first I thought "Hey! That space dogfight section in Halo Reach? They've made a full game of that! Sold!" and then I watched Vinny run around gathering resources for way too long.

Space games are clearly the next pixel art platformer

I'm a backer too and glad to see this game gets the attention it deserves. It's still rough around the edges, but they'll get there.

@sravankb: So many promising games ruined by structuring them to be run based. It's today's '<COOL PREMISE> with Survival Elements!' I'm sure some folks are really happy about it, but I have absolutely no interest in run based games.

Because it saves time and money not making fun tailor made experiences, just throw all the toys in the sand pit and let the kids make their own fun... except all my favorite games are tailor made experiences, and these rogue-like's feel shallow without proper design or direction.

You need to get close to transmitters and the like. Once very close a Hack prompt pops up.

Endless Space is a totally different game.

Vinny you're in a ship not a turret. Keep moving man!!

Because it allows them to make less content as you'll be replaying it over and over again. It's the modern equivalent of arcade style 6 level games where you have to start over when you die and hunt for a highscore.

Personally I love love the rouge mechanics as someone who played both he new the Xcoms in ironman mode.

But it doesn't require less content. If you're making, for example, a top down shooter like nuclear throne. You're making 5 levels, with a few weapons in each level. You only need to design the x rooms that will appear, because they never change. If the nonroguelike game is the same size as a roguelike counterpart, the roguelike WILL take more time to make properly. You need to not only make sure theres enough weapons, items, and rooms to make it feel non-repetitive and fresh, but you also need to make sure the rooms will fit together and feel natural, make sure theres no "proceduraly generated jank", make sure certain things appear on each floor, etc. To make the same x rooms appear on a level, you need to have a pool of x+y rooms to choose from so the randomness works out.

I agree that roguelikes are the modern version of arcade games. But to me its not negative, it makes the gameplay much more compelling and fun to revisit at any time. I haven't gone back to play Assault Android Cactus after I beat it, but I still play Enter the Gungeon at least a few times a week.

That's what happens when you don't fix your ship.

Game looks pretty darn neat :)

Oh man it was frustrating to watch that last run.

Vinny, you just needed to fly a pixel closer to that Jump Blocker thing and you would have had the option to hack it. YOU WERE SO CLOSE!

Game looks cool. Alex and Vinny dying in space again though was priceless.

Looks neat. Hope it comes to PSVR.

It's different strokes for different folks. Personally I prefer a single A-to-Z experience that had been carefully hand crafted from beginning to end rather than the ability to revisit a game and see the same deck of cards reshuffled for variety. There is nothing less compelling or fun for me than roguelike game design, but I realize that a lot of other people really dig it so hey, power to the people. It definitely is a more approachable choice for smaller studios that can't stretch themselves too thin. Then again I look at games like Hotline Miami, Axiom Verge, Gunpoint or Hyper Light Drifter and am infinitely thankful the tiny teams behind them went through the effort of making a linear experience for old farts like me that don't like the whole "run" based genre.

THERE WAS A PRECEDENT FOR GLOWING BLUE STUFF NEEDING TO BE TOUCHED TO BE ACTIVATED WITH THE STORE! Gotta read the visual language, guys! Nonetheless, looks like a fun game, somewhere in between Sublevel Zero and FTL.

I want to know more about Vinny and the Space Rooster. He ain't gonna die.

Already a better game than No Man's Sky.

@sravankb: Why do they make all the best video games? Because people like them.

I'm hoping it finally supercedes MOBAs and Survival Mechanics. At least roguelikes are fun.

@koholos: Mmm, I don't think many of the most popular games have used roguelike mechanics over the past few years. It's more of a ratio of sales:cost that determines whether they get made than raw popularity. Sort of like how slasher b-movies keep getting made.

This game is pretty awesome, and a good Early Access title.

@humanity: Err.. am I misreading your comment or are you really trying to imply that only younger people like arcade-style games?

A sad casualty of a small group trying to do what they can. Believe me I get bummed by it too. In a more ideal world of rainbows and puppies, the Bomb crew would be twice as large but we'd only ever see all of them together for things like GotY and the big trade shows. Most of the time half of them would be off on vacations/going to interesting sources of content like they've done with Britain, Iceland, North freakin Korea, South more freakin Korea, and Japan. They'd be free (and maybe even mandated) to also use that time to go wild on much more casual perusals of games than we see in Quick Looks (ie breadth) while also indulging whatever 1000 hour video game/genre (ie depth) they want. Heck, use that time to maybe do non video game stuff that might be interesting content.

Sadly, that's just not possible.

Looks like a cool game. I'm guessing once you settle in to the game that you spend more time than Vinny between jumps in order to harvest more resources and improve the ship faster.

Permadeath is great and requires a very different kind of thinking and planning from player. No need to come here and turn your nose up if it's not for you, there's a big audience for it and not all games should be tailored to your tastes.

@themaintank: I was speaking strictly for myself.

@humanity: That's fair, I understand where you're coming from. I feel the same way about multiplayer games or large scale open world games vs tight knit linear single player experiences. I will almost always go to a game for the linear single player experience over an open world or multiplayer game, because I mostly value quality of content over quantity. I love those A to Z amazing experiences like Uncharted 4 more than any other type of AAA game, because they cut out the filler and just take you straight to the action (or story, or setpiece, or whatever. But there's no 5 minute walk in-between them)

But that's kinda also why I like roguelikes. They don't really overfill the game with unnecessary "filler" like running between areas in an open world game (i.e. having to ride your horse everywhere in Witcher 3 because you can only fast travel from set points). Modern roguelikes are quick gameplay experiences that you can get in, get out, and get a satisfaction of closing your "gameplay loop" - play one game session from start to finish in one sitting. They are also solely concerned about gameplay - I love narrative driven games like Firewatch as much as the next guy, but there's something refreshing about a game that only cares about great gameplay and doesn't give a crap about the story. It hearkens back to games I played as a child, so maybe that's why I like it so much. I used to start games over every time I played them and barely get anywhere; playing roguelikes feels a bit nostalgic for me.

They're also amazing games to listen to podcasts while playing.

This is a very fun game to play in small bursts for like 30 minutes a day. Its like the perfect coffee break game.

@veektarius: I didn't say most popular. I said best. I'm aware that MOBAS are clearly the most popular, despite being gaming's equivalent of The Human Centipede (by which I mean they keep crapping the exact same game into people's mouths in an ongoing chain of horror, not that they have managed to create even something at the quality of that miserable film).

But the number of great roguelikes is out of control: Spelunky (the greatest game of the decade), FTL, Nuclear Throne, Enter the Gungeon, Rogue Legacy. Darkest Dungeons, Binding of Isaac, Cataclysm:Dark Days Ahead. Invisible Inc. Dark Souls borrows heavily from roguelikes. All interesting. All fun. Completely varied in style, gameplay, etc.

Of course it's less popular than MOBAS - it requires thought and planning to make them interesting, they can't just be copied. MOBAS are, like CS and Bejeweled, casual games aimed at people who just want to play the same game over and over again. Roguelikes are for people who want to see new things.

@koholos: My comments on popularity were in reply to your statement that people like them. And some people do, but in the aggregate, I doubt it.

I wouldn't go through that Stargate (TM), Vinny.

I wish there was a weekly 45 minute segment of Alex and Vinny playing this. The randomness of the zones led to some awesome moments. ;-)

I wanted to like this game, I really did. But it lost me the moment I learned it was a run based game, a rogue-like, if you will.

I have liked these kinds of games in the past so I'll at least keep my mind open and wait to see how this is when it's really released.

I would like a space game, where we can go to a bar, or a space station, talk with other characters then get in a ship and go to other places. Like a rpg with some liberty to go anywhere.

But it seems to be very difficult to have one like these.

There was one more canister on that blocking device. I think that could have blown it up before the enforcement showed up.

Otherwise, looked a fun game.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat with ya'. Sometime those games can be fun with the right progression, but not really what I'm looking for in a space game right now.

I feel like a video game racist, because all these Space Combat games look the same to me.

I like space games, or at least I thought I did, but this looks excruciatingly dull.