By Kieron Gillen on July 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am.
Hmm. Interstellar Marines is an indie-developed high-sheen FPS which is… well, I’m intrigued for a load of reasons. Partially because it looks novel (Talking about trying to do a realistic first-contact alien event) and partially because of its route to market. The short version – for more read the press coverage – is that in 2006 they used a high-end game engine to do a demo, which got attention, they turn away from major publishers in favour of indie-dev… which makes the engine too expensive, so they’re moving over to another one. Which they can’t show in game footage publicly. Yet. It’s also got an interesting development philosophy - interesting in that it manages to be both self-deprecating (in its insistence on the import of the community and attention) and self-aggrandizing (not least in calling it “AAA Indie”. As in, if they’re AAA indie, what are everyone else?). Do read. Those videos they can show are below…
They’re planning on a Beta later in the year. More later, I suspect, one way or another.
02/07/2009 at 10:51 Garreett says:
Sounds doomed to fail, to me. Way too ambitious for a startup indie dev team.
02/07/2009 at 10:51 markcocjin says:
I was thinking of the same thing only bettter constume design and the realistic documentation of the first historical space marines. Kind of like how Enterprise the tv series was.
02/07/2009 at 10:57 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Aaargh Indie, more like :)
02/07/2009 at 11:12 nikos says:
Looks very polished. As to “a realistic first-contact alien event” I beg to differ – from the trailers it look like another flesh-eating ‘aliens’-like aliens crossed with sharks… Or is there a lot more than meets the eye? The web site is very short on details.
02/07/2009 at 11:16 Uglycat says:
Sharks!
02/07/2009 at 11:17 Dain says:
Sharks with LEGS
02/07/2009 at 11:20 chaves says:
Sharkaliens.
Uh-huh…
That old engine looked nice, though.
02/07/2009 at 11:25 Carey says:
Ray-liens?
02/07/2009 at 11:29 Rook says:
The problem with AAA indie or mods is that we get so many promises and so little actually delivered. It’s usually best to wait till they actually come out before getting excited.
02/07/2009 at 11:33 pignoli says:
@markcocjin:
‘Kind of like how Enterprise the tv series was.’
What, awful?
02/07/2009 at 11:35 duel says:
Sweet! the second video is much more action packed and to-the-point than the trailer. kinda like the backstory too.
is this a new genre for games? massive projects with a bigger scope and longer development time?
02/07/2009 at 11:37 Here Goes! says:
I hate the indie scene
02/07/2009 at 11:40 Sartoris says:
Looks quite impressive. I hope they can deliver.
02/07/2009 at 12:09 Klaus says:
Or is there a lot more than meets the eye?
Transformers??
Looks great, I would play this for the story. The last FPS I enjoyed greatly was the Halo. (yes)
I also love Sharkaliens.
02/07/2009 at 12:10 Jonas says:
Woah these guys are still alive? Awesome. I hope they pull it off!
02/07/2009 at 12:10 Klaus says:
I don’t know where the ‘the’ came from. But I like it.
02/07/2009 at 12:14 Salt says:
Only with the diligent support of the community can a small indie team hope to make a truly generic dark-metal-corridor shooter! It’s amazing what we can do when we all work together.
I like that the enemies are landsharks, though.
02/07/2009 at 12:14 Bhazor says:
Eeek! Landsharks! I’m afraid of landsharks!
http://www.spike.com/video/land-shark/2802070
It looks polished and might be fun but I hate to say this but that looked pretty generic. it probably wouldn’t be getting this attention without the “Indie cred” flag.
Come on your indie. Theres no need to look like you were made by a committee.
02/07/2009 at 12:20 zombiehunter says:
this looks like some tasty epic awesome for indie production!
02/07/2009 at 12:31 Shadowcat says:
Awesome production values. I love the voice acting — a bit of genuine character goes a very long way.
Am definitely keen to find out more.
02/07/2009 at 12:33 Paul says:
Landshark Aliens are an awful idea.
02/07/2009 at 12:33 Stuk says:
Ahh, so it turns out their new engine is http://unity3d.com/, the same one Blurst uses. Interesting. Will have to wait to see the actuall trailers before I can pass any real judgement.
02/07/2009 at 12:39 lumpi says:
Indie schmindie… So it’s made by a studio not yet bought by EA, that doesn’t strike me as particularly “indie” yet. Big deal.
Looks good, though.
02/07/2009 at 12:42 Alex says:
I hope the landsharks are just a mediocre joke.
02/07/2009 at 12:51 Tei says:
I kind of like the space-sharks. IF the monsters move like in the intro, is a dynamic and fun enemy. Kinda like the “fiend” in Quake1.
Of course, It will be like hard to explain how a culture of Sharklike aliens withouth arms have created a space civilization.
But who knows? maybe are genetically enginerred “pets”/”guardian”.
It will also be like fun, to play on levels where a 40% of the area is filled with water. ….
Why no? … aliens that need water, not air. Acuatic aliens. Much like these that live in the moon Europe here in our solar system.
Let me be the first to wellcome our new acuatic overlords!.
02/07/2009 at 13:16 Ubiquitous says:
I’m quite surprised that someone has yet to point out the absolute gloriousness of the trailer’s statement: “The future of tomorrow is now.” It’s both ambiguous and meaningful enough to be a catchphrase and a discussion point!
02/07/2009 at 13:19 Paul Moloney says:
Perhaps it’s a tribute to Plan 9 from Outer Space:
“Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.”
P.
02/07/2009 at 13:21 Carey says:
Shirly the future of tomorrow’s next wednesday?
02/07/2009 at 13:21 Klaus says:
Thanks Ubiquitous, I didn’t catch that and now it’s going to be on my mind for some amount of hours.
02/07/2009 at 13:25 DrChi says:
Dudes, Space Land Sharks would be sweet as a minion-class. Esp if they use intelligent AI. Smart sharks are awesome, remember Deep Blue Sea? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_Sea) It was like an update to Jaws and that engineered smart shark was sweet.
Tei’s right. If you had to make your way through areas where there was a lot of water that’d be cool.
The actual Alien race could look like Mind-Flayers.
Also, I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with it being a “dark-metal-corridor-shooter” We haven’t really had a good one in a while. Doom 3 sucked, and though I love the Halo series the bright pink and purple everywhere is a little cliche.
02/07/2009 at 13:29 megaman says:
I love the ED 209 :D
The sharks look a bit out-of-place, but otherwise this looks like it could be a nice FPS. Looking forward to this!
02/07/2009 at 14:06 DrChi says:
Yeah, they should throw Robocop in as a boss fight. ;)
02/07/2009 at 14:14 Lunaran says:
> Come on your indie. Theres no need to look like you were made by a committee.
Exactly. They’re turning away major publishers … to make another goddamn game about space marines?
02/07/2009 at 14:16 Man Raised By Puffins says:
It’s perhaps worth noting that they’re supposed to be the “result of human experimentation” rather than oddly familiar alien beasties.
02/07/2009 at 14:18 Diogo Ribeiro says:
Fail.
Everyone knows the only way to make a shark scarier is fusing it to an ICBM.
02/07/2009 at 14:20 Heliocentric says:
If they were breeding sharks with say… kodiak bears I’d buy this… If its sharks and pandas they can go to hell.
Kodiaks are the only AAA bears, don’t let china tell you different.
02/07/2009 at 14:40 Whelp says:
Looks so… generic.
Like that marine scene from the old 3DMark.
02/07/2009 at 14:41 Klaus says:
Why not polar bears?
02/07/2009 at 14:49 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Helio:
That’s some thin ice you’re treading on there. To suggest that any bear other than Horace The Endless is the most divine ursine, in His temple of all places, why that’s tantamount to heresy!
02/07/2009 at 14:50 caramelcarrot says:
“Changed their destinies forever”
I thought destinies were conceptually meant to be a static sort of thing.
02/07/2009 at 14:52 Noc says:
Well, they are, until you change them. (Forever.)
02/07/2009 at 15:13 The Innocent says:
So… was everybody here born on January 1 like me?
I for one think it looks cool if they pull it off right. The fact that they’re promising “non-linear game play and open ended level design” is awesome — thrice awesome if actually delivered.
On the other hand, they could use an editor. “Future of tomorrow”? “Changed their destinies forever”? Ick. If there’s one thing I can’t stand coming out of the indie scene, it’s the spelling/grammar/nonsensical statements.
02/07/2009 at 15:24 Tei says:
“So… was everybody here born on January 1 like me?”
You mean, of 1900?
02/07/2009 at 15:33 CdrJameson says:
It’s Sharks! It’s Crocodiles! It’s Sharks meets Crocodiles! It’s Sharkadiles!
02/07/2009 at 15:40 Sajmn says:
On a completely unrelated note: someone should make Terra Nova:SFC the sequel it deserves! It also had space marines, but they were much cooler (see, it’s not off topic).
02/07/2009 at 15:48 DSX says:
I suggest we pull back and download it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
02/07/2009 at 15:51 Gap Gen says:
Looks good. Hopefully the aliens will be fun to fight (as opposed to, say, the Flood).
02/07/2009 at 15:59 Benny says:
Good ol’ DoB checks letting us OAPs use this new fangled interweb malarky!
I don’t know what they really mean by tripple A indie, as all i can tell the difference between really good indie games and your usual mainstream AAA title is the budget. Are they saying they’re an indie game with lots of money pumped in? This old geriatric is confused :S
02/07/2009 at 16:06 nikos says:
@Sajmn
Seconded!!! Terra Nova brings back many a happy memory…
02/07/2009 at 16:07 F0nx says:
First off who ever said they hate indie games is a total troll, indie dev has been the real spirit of gaming from day 1 numnuts.
Now as far as this game goes I’m psyched to see its still alive, kudos to the dev’s for getting this far. Now as far as the land sharks go, they’re just about the most bad ass alien critter thing ever, my only grip is that I didn’t think of it first. I do have to say though that as an artist I’m really disappointed with the art direction on the marines. I get what they’re trying to do but instead of gritty I find that they come off as uninspiring and cheese, like a Saturday afternoon movie on the sci fi channel. Lets just hope its a case of gameplay over graphics (well art direction I suppose) kind of a situation.
02/07/2009 at 16:28 JonFitt says:
@Diogo Ribeiro
“Everyone knows the only way to make a shark scarier is fusing it to an ICBM.”
Frickin’ laser beams are what’s needed.
02/07/2009 at 16:30 Serondal says:
First contact should be like it was in Enders game, a brutal misunderstanding that leads to the xenocide from which there is no return (or is there?! Muwahahaha)
02/07/2009 at 16:31 bbot says:
Wow, this just looks intensely generic. We obviously need more FPSes about space marines.
And does the ending theme sound a lot like the Terminator 2 theme to anyone else?
If they pull it off, I’ll be happy. But…
02/07/2009 at 16:43 spoon says:
The sharks are a kind of biological weapon chimera type thing. Made by humans. They haven’t posted any art on the aliens you will be contacting.
02/07/2009 at 16:44 Serondal says:
They aren’t space marines they’re interstellar marines ! Get with the program here chief! :P
I would personally like to see a space hulk remake with online co-op where each terminator is controlled by a player and you have to work together to clear the space hulk of xenos. Then it could keep track of the teams who’ve cleared each type of hulk or section of the hulk the fastest
02/07/2009 at 16:52 Poltergeist says:
Was that Duke Nukem narrating the trailer?
Also, the landsharks remind me of those in Blood.
02/07/2009 at 17:00 Heliocentric says:
You think horace is AAA? I would have assumed he was infinite A, of course its impossible to know.
02/07/2009 at 17:10 PleasingFungus says:
“That was one impressive display of skill and courage!”
…I’m not sure that dialogue could have been more awful if they’d tried.
02/07/2009 at 17:37 Tei says:
Re: instelestellar marines vs space marines.
Space marines are much like colonial marines. You could be tasked in a energy satelite in moon (earth), and you will be a space marine.
I say “space marine” for these guys that have a task inside the solar system. Good for then, only 8 minutes-light from the earthlike paradise, normal gravity, good food and human womens.
Interestelear marines is another league. Outside the solar system the radiation is stronger, theres not magnetic field to protect, and the distances are not minutes-light, but years lights, like something like 50 years light.
Also, theres only Humans, Dolphins and Europians races in the solar system. But on the interstellar space… theres …well.. .all the wild and the crazy civilization and stuff you can’t dream off. Anything could be anything, and kill you. You just don’t know if the next thing will say “hello”, or just make the nearest star implode and go nova.
Interestelar Marines is much more than Space Marines. Space Marines hare obsly the garden variety you guys have on safen Earth. But whos is protecting the solar system? the Interstelar Marines. Srsly guys. Doh!
02/07/2009 at 17:38 Impossible says:
I think they mean they are a triple A game (ie Gears clone) without a AAA budget, which means they aren’t really triple A :).
02/07/2009 at 17:57 Serondal says:
@tei – That’s right, show some respect! When that crazy planet eatting worm from outside the galatic disc comes into our solar systems and swallows up pluto see how well those space marines handle it. OH WAIT! that’s right, the interstellar marines already killed it.
02/07/2009 at 18:03 Klaus says:
Does anybody still care about Pluto? Maybe when it gets to Saturn…
02/07/2009 at 18:23 SwiftRanger says:
Great trailers, some PR companies could learn from this. It’s campy of course but that was probably the intention.
02/07/2009 at 18:57 DMJ says:
Nice movie, nice animation, but sharks with legs? Come on.
I mean, yes, it’s nice that they avoid having Generic-Not-Quite-Copyright-Infringing-Alien 247A, but sharks with legs?
Are all the good ideas already taken?
02/07/2009 at 19:04 D says:
It’s not obvious that the “Movie 3″ (one at the bottom) is called “First screenshot.” I saw this one some months ago, and it is as awesome today as then.
The other one is a little more meh and I blame that for the more negative responses here. Land sharks from space is a fucking awesome idea.
02/07/2009 at 19:41 mrmelons says:
I dunno, the concept looks good and there isn’t enough sci-fi space shooters out there but…. Well I don’t know if I can really get into a game that’s trying to be serious if I’m shooting at four-legged shark dogs…
Also…WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING??? Talk about taking the mystery out of the game. Can’t believe they showed the antagonizer right off the bat. C’mon people show some suspense, build it up a little let the users first experience with the enemy be in your game. This is a problem the media community has been having a lot now, giving too much away before we even get our hands on the product.
02/07/2009 at 19:58 geldonyetich says:
I’m hoping these guys succeed. The big name publishers of games have really screwed the pooch time and time again, and if it’s established that Indies can pull off games like this without their interference, PC gaming might just make a comeback.
02/07/2009 at 20:04 Serondal says:
@mrMelons – Someone stated in previous comments the Sharkdogs are not the aliens, they are actually Sharks with legs genetically created by the humans as a bio-weapon. They said that there are not actually any pictures of the aliens in the game yet.
spoon said:
“The sharks are a kind of biological weapon chimera type thing. Made by humans. They haven’t posted any art on the aliens you will be contacting.”
02/07/2009 at 20:16 Heliocentric says:
Looks like COD 8: space combat. Not a bad things, i hope you can actually issue meaningful orders rather than your allies being things that are just talking heads on autopilot.
02/07/2009 at 21:05 A-Scale says:
1. The faces look as bad as in fallout 1 videos.
2. Bipedal shark aliens.
3. Same voice for the transport ship coxswain as in Starcraft.
02/07/2009 at 21:16 Serondal says:
I’ve seen a lot of sounds from Starcraft used in other things, a vast number of them I’ve heard in Sci-Fi Channel movies O.o The sound of the human’s building units welders going I’ve heard a LOT in movies.
02/07/2009 at 21:50 Günter says:
I don’t know about the community input philosophy. That’s the same sort of thinking that ruined Tribes 2.
02/07/2009 at 22:42 Tei says:
There are something like sound librarys. It seems you buy that library, and use these sounds. People like videogame makers buy that library, and filmakers also buy these librarys. If a movie and a game have the same “NON NON NON!” this don’t mean automatically that one is a thief from the other.
02/07/2009 at 22:44 Moonracer says:
I would pay $5 to never have to submit a fake age to watch a game commercial again.
And yeah, they lost me at landsharks.
02/07/2009 at 23:10 Al3xand3r says:
I love the clean aesthetics, note the first video is REALLY old and its main drawbacks, the character faces and plasticky armor look, seems improved to the new video right below it.
As for people saying generic, meh, grow the fuck up. If done well, it will be fun, and that is what matters. What, Left 4 Dead is somehow enough for co-op shooter thrills? There’s a lot more to do with the “genre” whether you have a generic storyline or not.
This makes me think Alien Swarm in first-person and that’s a good thing, especially since Alien Swarm: Infested has disappeared…
03/07/2009 at 00:07 Messiah Complex says:
If the game is something like a parody of Doom 3 (and any other melodramatic FPS you care to name), then I find the landsharks amusing. If the game is supposed to be one of those “visceral” affairs, then this game has jumped the landshark already.
03/07/2009 at 00:08 Messiah Complex says:
Since there is no edit feature, I apologize for a terribly constructed sentence.
03/07/2009 at 00:50 Mwalk10 says:
Apparently in the near future they have forgotten the technology of floodlights.
03/07/2009 at 01:04 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Helio: Horace subsumes all. Your unrepentance has been noted.
03/07/2009 at 03:01 Pantsman says:
THE FUTURE OF TOMORROW IS NOW
03/07/2009 at 03:09 SteveHatesYou says:
I’ve been waiting for somebody to try making a “AAA” game with Unity. It’s an amazingly easy toolkit to use, but not many developers have picked up on it (probably because it was only available for Mac, up until recently). It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.
03/07/2009 at 09:01 madlep says:
Do the freakin sharks have freakin laser beams attached to their freakin heads?
03/07/2009 at 10:03 MrBejeebus says:
I got into their beta thing called “Spearhead Unit” yay me :)
Plus I get access to any betas on games in the future
03/07/2009 at 10:11 Heliocentric says:
When the bear revolution comes i’ll be the first against the wall!
03/07/2009 at 11:17 Diogo Ribeiro says:
@A-Scale: They look as bad as the ones in Fallout 3, too.
03/07/2009 at 19:02 Sulkdodds says:
“Now, the journey into a world beyond their imagination begins…just at the bottom of this cargo elevator.”
05/07/2009 at 04:15 Rob Zacny says:
Candygram.
07/07/2009 at 09:56 destroy.all.monsters says:
Sharkosaurus Erectus? Hope they Blue Oyster Cult into the soundtrack…
Otherwise I thought this looked kind of fun. At first I was thinking it was some kind of inter or intra earth civil war thing by various factions. My initial thought when they said “new commander” was well how’s he in on this then? Or maybe that’s just my desire for something a bit more Deus Ex than what I’ve seen in ages.