Solarix: Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights?
Crowdfunded space-horror
John wrote about promising space-scares title Solarix last year, and aw, bless - clearly he didn't even remotely suspect it would end up on Kickstarter. I'm much more hardened and jaded now, so I simply presume that any game which doesn't have a big publisher attached to it will end up on Kickstarter or Early Access, or both.
With 22 days to go for its moderate £10k target and £1k in the bag already, this sci-fi horror game has a good shot at making it. Coming across like Dead Space and Amnesia spent a grotesque night together, the pitch video suggests good looks and solid voice performances.
I do have to draw the line at 'spooky version of rockabye baby', though. Even someone who's never seen a horror movie know that someone singing nursery rhymes in a cracked voice and an inappropriate context is about as scary as a man wearing dungarees (though it does depend on the man, admittedly).
Thief-inspired stealth and open-ended play is promised, and the blurb makes a big deal of the 'psychological' element. One for System Shock fans to keep an eye on perhaps, although this appears to be much more survival horror at heart.
The Kickstarter page is loaded with videos, as they've done a great deal of the work already, and just need a helping hand to finish it off. "We have gone as far as we can into the development cycle without investment for better sound, music, voice actors and animations," we're told. This is good: reduces the risk of this being one of those projects that never materialises (for instance, the Yogscast game - the YouTube network has finally admitted today that it ain't happening, after two years of supposed development. I may do a separate post about that). It also means that they're able to show off decent chunks of in-game footage, such as:
There's also this additional This Is What We're Doing vid:
Looks pretty good. Best of luck, PulseTense Games.
Tangent: I still think this is a great setup for a sci-fi horror game.
The idea of not even realising you've lost a crewmate until it's too late to stop them turning against you is a fascinating and terrifying one. I should probably use it for something rather than write about it on a blog.