By John Walker on February 22nd, 2012 at 4:43 pm.
Today’s the day for indie projects from former major-developers. After Banner comes BlackSpace from PixelFoundry Games, a group of devs who’d previously been together at EA Sports Tiburon. And it’s exclusively for the PC. Good. There’s more details, four pictures of rocks, and a (lifeless) teaser trailer for it below.
It’s an RTS, combined with some action, and “an emphasis on economic and defensive efficiency within the context of intergalactic mining operations,” also including multiplayer, and they keep emphasising, AAA graphics.
This is still a while away, the “Survival Mode” of the game looking to come out in the Winter, but the team seem keen for community involvement at this early stage. Which presumably involves a forum? I don’t know – they don’t go into details. But this is how the game is described:
“The space age emerges and fleets of ships await their birth. Massive mining rigs scatter into the darkness of space in hopes of finding mineral deposits to prospect for extraction. BlackSpace takes you to the edge of known space where nature’s true hostility lay bare. It’s here, in the frontiers of the galaxy, that those dubbed the BlackSpace colonists expect to prove that life can not only exist but flourish. It is yet to be demonstrated whether these deep space ventures can yield returns to justify the expense and the risk. You and your crew are among those who believe they can.”
Here’s the teaser, that doesn’t so much tease as sit there doing nothing.
But look at these pictures instead. Er, they’re of some rocks:
22/02/2012 at 16:46 NAZIUFOCOMMANDER says:
Riveting.
22/02/2012 at 16:52 jrod says:
bring on the rivet gun!
22/02/2012 at 16:56 povu says:
The weakest sounding weapon of Bioshock 2 that I refuse to use.
22/02/2012 at 17:01 Blackcompany says:
I wouldn’t mine hearing more about this.
22/02/2012 at 17:05 aamosnyc says:
I think this game is going to rock.
22/02/2012 at 17:10 Lugg says:
Whoever made that teaser must have been stoned.
22/02/2012 at 17:35 syndrome says:
I’m petrified.
22/02/2012 at 17:35 battles_atlas says:
Must you lot really mine the depths of humour every time an opportunity for a pun presents itself?
22/02/2012 at 17:40 Steven Hutton says:
A game this dull looking seems perfect for my sedimentary lifestyle.
Ugh, that was a rocky start to the puns.
I’m sure it’ll be met with stony silence.
Nevertheless the blame’s all mine.
I’m really giving this wordplay the shaft.
Shale I continue? You’ll be bouldered over.
…some pun on the word “flint”.
I’m done.
22/02/2012 at 17:46 Lugg says:
I dig your puns. Ore maybe I don’t.
22/02/2012 at 18:09 jrod says:
Lest the air escape from your craft its best to ensure its locked hematite
22/02/2012 at 23:07 marcusfell says:
@povu but the coolest one from Dead Space 2.
ALSO:
Back to work guys, you know the drill.
23/02/2012 at 00:07 Jabberwocky says:
To make games this stellar, you have to inject asteroid.
23/02/2012 at 02:59 mdcvnvxnb says:
When you smelt pixels in the Pixel Foundry, do they get stronger? http://zeig.in/2Zbwb8
23/02/2012 at 03:28 Fearzone says:
Ore-ally dig the action-RTS part of it, but hoping EA does not get within a stones throw, else it be between a rock and a hard place.
22/02/2012 at 16:55 Ninja Foodstuff says:
Allow me to be the first naysayer to predict failure, leading other companies to jeer and point out this is why they don’t make space games any more.
Also!: Good thing they added the idents to those pictures! Would hate to think people would callously rip them off for their own nefarious ends!
22/02/2012 at 16:56 CaspianRoach says:
can i upgrade asteroids
22/02/2012 at 17:02 RakeShark says:
I think you’d have better luck upgrading asteroids here:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/23/space-waif-solar-2-is-what-i-like/
22/02/2012 at 20:01 Andy_Panthro says:
Best game for upgrading asteroids?
Fragile Allegiance: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/fragile-allegiance
Really hoping it’ll end up on GOG someday, I lost my copy.
22/02/2012 at 21:50 MadMatty says:
Yeah Fragile Alliegence with working mulitplayer plz- and im hoping this game will be like an update of it.
The space physics look neat in the teaser
22/02/2012 at 16:56 RakeShark says:
Hrm… sounds like 1/3 Homeworld, 1/3 X3, and 1/3 Eve Online mining. Part of me thinks that’s a nice combination of RTS elements, but the other part thinks these things may not work.
Also, predicting big evil bad thing is VGER.
22/02/2012 at 21:57 Montavious says:
VGER, lol. I think most people are too young to get that.
22/02/2012 at 16:56 Richie Shoemaker says:
If there was a +1 button I would have pressed it for you. Had it been possible, twice.
22/02/2012 at 16:57 Jimbo says:
They somehow made space mining look more boring than regular non-space mining.
22/02/2012 at 18:09 Prime says:
Still not as boring as mining in EVE Online, though.
23/02/2012 at 04:50 MasterDex says:
@Prime: Unless you’re at war with another corp. And they ambush you. While you’re alone and ill-equipped. In the new hulk you just bought. And fitted with expensive equipment.Then, it’s not so boring.
22/02/2012 at 17:00 Richie Shoemaker says:
BlackSpace – not to be confused with DarkSpace, which is darker, yet not black.
(On the subject of DarkSpace (aka Battle Isle: DarkSpace) – it’s high time Space Jim visited it, I reckon.)
22/02/2012 at 17:16 Jimbo says:
They really don’t like it when you refer to them as DarkSpace colonists.
22/02/2012 at 17:20 RakeShark says:
Unfortunately only in the galactic North are they considered FreeSpace colonists.
22/02/2012 at 17:37 Viper50BMG says:
Better, though, than DeadSpace colonists.
22/02/2012 at 17:50 RakeShark says:
This is why no-one has gone back to being InnerSpace colonists.
22/02/2012 at 17:02 0rpheus says:
No doubt there’ll be more to it than just floating in front of a featureless asteroid for hours on end… colour me interested.
22/02/2012 at 17:04 Colthor says:
I’m all for space mining, defence and RTSs, so the game sounds interesting, but blimey that is one of the worst trailers ever.
22/02/2012 at 17:08 Mistabashi says:
Lunar Lander managed to come-up with a much more atmospheric visual design than what’s depicted in these shots, and that’s just (as far as I know) one guy with no AAA development experience. This hasn’t exactly grabbed me so far, but then we haven’t seen anything about the actual game so I won’t judge too hastily.
22/02/2012 at 17:13 Brun says:
This looks like it could be good or bad. Perhaps average.
22/02/2012 at 17:18 Salt says:
Chromatic abberation, the lens flare of 2012? (Seen in the second screenshot, where the rim of the large crater towards the right of the image appears to have a border of purple on the right and green on the left.)
Crysis 2 used it last year, and everyone loves to copy Crytek. The 4k intro “Elevated” used it back in 2009, so maybe that was the start of the trend? Tribes 2 uses an extreme version as part of the “cracked visor” effect that they use in place of smearing jam on the screen.
So how about that space mining! They have one post on the dev blog, which makes it seem like the RTSing happens over the surface of an asteroid. Circling around the other side of the planetoid to flank might be entertaining.
22/02/2012 at 17:19 kikito says:
This game … Rocks!
Like New Zealand!
22/02/2012 at 19:45 Armante says:
poor timing on the comment. It’s been exactly one year since the Christchurch earthquake that killed 183 people. Thanks
22/02/2012 at 17:37 kert says:
In space, nobody can hear you mining.
22/02/2012 at 18:10 jrod says:
**CLAPS** Bravo sir, bravo
22/02/2012 at 20:15 ucfalumknight says:
When you smelt pixels in the Pixel Foundry, do they get stronger?
22/02/2012 at 21:47 Zeewolf says:
I’m instantly interested in everything space-related. Besides, those rocks do look pretty good. Look at the surface on the bottom one… nice!
23/02/2012 at 11:14 mingpp says:
http://ppt.cc/7mA7
23/02/2012 at 17:29 vodka and cookies says:
Cool, I remember playing something with a similar premise when I was kid called K240 remade as Fragile Allegiance on the PC, was a fun game.