[Betafund] Zigfrak - Spaceship ARPG

[ColdSpiral]

http://zigfrak.com/ or
http://www.desura.com/games/zigfrak

I discovered this game a couple of days ago when it hit Desura, and picked it up last night. Haven't even finished the tutorial sections yet, but loving it to bits. I've been waiting for a space game that has a faster pace than the X games, but which isn't just a shmup. It's currently 50% off, and totally worth it. (18/1/12 - ?)

Third-person Unity-based space sim that plays more as a Diablo-like ARPG; randomised loot, hotkeyed abilities, quest system, etc. A hint of Freelancer, DarkStar One, and X in there as well.
There's a nice current of humour running through the game, too. It's subtle and understated, and better for it. Picked up a bit of space-junk earlier which was described as something like "Unknowable Artefact - It makes you uncomfortable just looking at it".

[soldant]

Haven't played it but my first thought on looking at the screenshots was "Freelancer".

Say what you will about it, Freelancer was fun and did have a nice UI (mostly). The biggest thing it did get right though was exploration; each system was quite clearly different and had various things to see. The X games by comparison are sterile and boring for exploration.

[ColdSpiral]

I have to say, I never actually got around to playing Freelancer </heresy>*, so I can't really draw many comparisons there.
Most of the sectors I've seen have been open arenas with a few - but substantial - visual differentiations. Then again, I'm still not too far in, so can't really comment.
You're right about the X series. Some of the stations were pretty awe-inspiring, but the sectors themselves were pretty uninspired. I'm hoping the restructure for Albion goes as far as shaking up that part of the design as well.


*I did try, back before I knew how computers worked, and it had massive compatibility problems so I returned it.

[Smashbox]

How do ship upgrades work? Can you buy new ships and outfit them meticulously?

[ColdSpiral]

Ship upgrades are, well, the ARPG-style loot. Engines, weapons, ammo, things like fighter drone bays, can all be picked up in combat, purchased, or crafted. Then they're equipped (on the fly), and can be swapped out with a brief cooldown.
There's a good chance to disable a ship in combat, at which point you can dock with it, steal its cargo/upgrades, and potentially commandeer it - at which point your old ship is returned to a garage screen. There seem to be rules regarding claiming enemy ships, though. It's perhaps a levelling thing. A few of the ships I've wanted to take haven't given me the option.

[trjp]

Waking this thread because this game came-up on Reddit's GameDeals page today - so I watched the video, it said "Ridiculous Loot" and I was sold...

It's here for you cash-rich impulse buyer types

http://fireflowergames.com/shop/zigfrak/

Just 3EU which, if Greece and Cyprus continue as they are, will be about 8c/8p? :)

First impressions - it's very spacey, looks nice, lots to read (as usual, in space games) but it keeps things reasonably to the point (see NOT SPAZ)

Control is 'point ship with mouse and thrust' - none of this complicated newtonian gubbins - it's also very good as making use of the 3 degrees of freedom thing - e.g. you get spacesick very quickly ;)

Downside - automatic docking will grate with some folks I guess - it does turn big chunks of the tutorial into "Press W then press Enter - repeat" but that's the beans we've been given (amusing, my first auto-dock talked of autodocking being safer as it showed my ship being crashed into the station anyway...)

Seems like there's some fun to be had here - initial impressions are it's WAY better than the last game of this type I tried which was Dawnstar (and which crashed my PC in every weirder ways until I uninstalled it)

p.s. it has a proper manual - that's a winner in anyone's book surely? :)

p.p.s. I just swapped it to BG whilst I answered some messages and I've realised it's music continues to play and I really, really like it - that's a world's first for me, normally a game continuing to play music in background would have me raging! :)

[mnemnoch]

Dammit! Im avoiding buying new games. But this is very tempting. Will try the demo

[gundato]

Looks fun. I prefer a joystick for stuff like this, but I might still give it a shot, if only because I won't have access to my joystick for a good portion of the next few months.

Question though> Does buying it on the Fireflower site let me redeem my key with Desura? I am always very hesitant to buy games directly from indies on the simple grounds that their website might not be there in a year.

[trjp]

The key I got from the purchase works in Desura just fine!

I'm really enjoying this, I'd be lying if I said it had any depth but some of the levels are lovely to look at and it had plenty of 'ooh my head is dizzy' stuff too :)

and loot by the bucketload - tho it seems to auto-equip a lot of it which may disappoint the Diablo fans who spend more time sorting through loot than playing the game :)

[mnemnoch]

Ok, I bought it in fireflower. Where can I get the key?

I downloaded the game in the dev site, should I downlaod the zip again in fireflower to get the key?

EDIT: NVM

I recieve another email from fireflower containing the key.

[arccos]

Hmmm... giving it a try, too. Is there any way to change the control scheme to something more like freelancer? Either give me something like freelancer or straight up mouselook.

The click-to-control-camera mechanic needs to die out asap. It doesn't make sense in third person action games (and MMOs), and it makes even less sense in a game like this.


Edit: Never mind. Quote key enables mouselook. Now if I can just get the mousewheel to control throttle...

[deadlyhabit]

I actually covered this on my youtube about a year back, some comments from the creator in my comments.
Should revisit it now, but iirc it was pretty damn fun.

[aayars]

Lone Zigfrak dev and long-time RPS lurker here. Just wanted to say thank you for resurrecting this discussion, and that I'm available to answer questions and offer help. This was my first serious attempt at a game. I know it's not perfect, but if you're in the mood for something different, Zigfrak might keep you amused for some number of hours.

<3

[JimDigritz]

I can vouch for the potential of this game. I bought this the other day and whilst I haven't had a lot of time to play it I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far.

Reminds me a little of Space Rangers 2 (one of my all time faves) in 3D, fast and ARPG like.

The only niggles are I wasn't 100% on how to outfit my ship with looted kit, but that's probably just me being dim.

[mnemnoch]

It seems there is a new version available but its still 1.01 in desura?

[aayars]

The Desura package is being uploaded today, and should be visible within a day or so.

[mnemnoch]

Ill just download the latest one in your site then. Thanks for an enjoyable game btw. Hopefully you'll get greenlit soon.

[Fireflower]

The latest version is also available on FireFlower Games. :)

[trjp]

There really is something special about this game - it's not in any way a serious space game, it has proper 'zen' moments where you just stare into space and think "oooo pretty"

I'm also completely lost with the inventory and loot tho - there's SO MUCH OF IT. I think it has some degree of auto-equipping but I'm not sure what and the UI is a bit 'pokey', it can be hard to see what's going on sometimes - hard to find things etc.

So I just flip my spaceship's colour scheme and find somewhere else to shoot at things instead :)

[Heliocentric]

So, its for cheaps now http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/indiefort-bundle what is the word, is anyone still playing it?