Game: Empire in the Sky
A retro-style cartoon 2.5D space RPG with lots of opportunities to be
creative, and an absolute ton of music.
Source: LostAstronaut.com
Teaser/trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVTpdIjUUJY
Empire in the Sky is an independently developed PC video game set in a
stylized 1960s-1980s retro cartoon universe with blatant and extensive
references to NASA and other "Space Race" icons. Much of the data is
modeled after real life, so you might even learn something! This is
the "lava lamp" of space RPG shooters! Travel the cosmos in a fully
customizable spacecraft -- designed by you (or us). Fight or befriend
scores of alien civilizations in your quest to rule the cosmos, while
exploring a rich, procedurally generated world that includes planets,
planetary bases, towns, cities and starbases. Build a nearly limitless
and vast empire that stretches across hundreds of star systems, on
thousands of planets! Empire in the Sky optionally lets you build your
own starbases and planetary bases, and enhance your designs by
crafting individual spacecraft parts.
Hello gamers! Well, it's August 2012 and we've been testing our Alpha
Demo for several weeks now. We need your help! The game is stablized
but may not work on every machine. This is tragic for those who want
to play the game but can't! Help us catch our bugs early so Desura
will offer it on their platform, and so the game works on the widest
possible variety of game systems. Contact us at
empire.in.the.sky@gmail.com if the game doesn't install or work right,
or if you have suggestions.
Requirements:
-More than 2GB RAM
-Fairly recent video card (NVIDIA / ATI)
-OpenAL-compatible sound
-At least 4GB hard drive space
-Windows
http://www.desura.com/games/empire-in-the-sky/images/more-empire-in-the-sky-screens
What is the setting of Empire in the Sky?
Earth is intact, but polluted and ravaged by wars. The human race has
entered a relative golden age, however, despite its rather fledgling
status in the cosmos and the wars that have happened prior to the
game's start. Acceptance into the Galactic Council and its positive
relationship with the "GRB" provide it with plenty of new
relationships to explore, and not all are peaceful.
The mysterious GRB provide standards and practices for the commerce
and technology of space faring galactic civilizations, but many of the
planets are unexplored and contain non-space-faring civilizations. In
some cases, aggressor races have enslaved or sworn to protect these
civilizations. Evidence of ancient but vastly sophisticated
civilizations can be found on planets, so you're an artifact hunter if
you're able to find your way through the space wars and other
mucky-muck that is space.
For those who haven't had a chance to play the game, we've got it in
the hands of our testers right now, but we promise a fairly stable, if
limited, experience for people who want to help support the game by
buying a copy early, and for those who want to try it, we'll get a
demo out there.
In the free demo:
-Platform stability on Windows 2 and 4 core systems
-100 star systems to explore across 2 sectors
-300 alien civilizations
-Endless combat
-Endless building (that saves persistently!)
To give you a basic overview, here are the specs for the final version:
-Build anywhere on planets, moons, star systems
-Conquer and interact with alien species
-Traverse cool-looking semi-cartoonish "stellar dungeons" in small teams
-Customize, customize, customize
-Perform scientific feats like materials creation, genetic
modification and xeno-archaeology
-Participate in a strategic meta-game as you conquer the galaxy
-Share your creations with friends
-Duel friends in fun arena-style combat
What's our plan for the MMO?
We want it to be fun, but it's hard to do with a game like this. How
will it work? Stay tuned. For now, just go with the thought "with
friends", because that's what it's all about isn't it?
What kind of features do you expect to include in a "final" release?
We're not certain we can do a fully immersive MMO with such a limited
amount of resources, so we're hoping to provide a gateway service and
develop a P2P client that at least provides a way to communicate and
trade items and blueprints. There may be a way to provide additional
interactivity, but it's down the line. One or more artists may be
helping develop assets to make the game more rich. We will provide
extensive creative and customization capabilities. For those
interested in just how much creativity you can put into a starship,
make sure to review "Building 101" a primer for building.
What will you be able to do outside the ship?
You, and your team, will explore planets and enter ancient ruins,
military bases and alien cities. They will fight alien hordes deep in
the bowels of planetary installations and you will wander dungeons in
an arcade rogue-like. You're also able to enter your base and
manipulate your crew directly, and I'm trying to figure out a good way
to provide ship boarding and hostile takeovers. Outside the ship, you
must repair your vessel in deep space. You will be able to establish
colonies, conquer worlds and perform diplomacy to end wars.
Will there be more?
Yes, there will be more, with your support.
As indie titles go, this game is already a huge 6GB! We originally
capped it at 3GB but in the interest of the project have expanded it
to allow for higher resolution graphics, more audio (3.33GB in latest
build), better experience and more precise pixel management. Also, on
a quad core 3.0GHZ processor we are already seeing 4-core peaks so we
know we've pushed the limit of what the technology can do, and we're
still pressing forward to add more animations, interactions and game
elements.
Download information
Link: http://lostastronaut.com/alpha/EITS-AlphaDemo.exe
About 45 minutes to download. Once installed, it takes about 2
minutes to load normally when the game is started. No reboot is
required after installation.
Please have anyone who you give a copy of the demo to email me their
machine specs, "how do I?" questions, error messages, or creative
feedback.
You may also want to watch our training videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_cPIOAz1Oc ; ( Building 101 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSoV0UZRH1A ( Building 102 )
More videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDo7UjRT9I&feature=g-upl ; (Combat Demo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMASsHSVdQE&feature=relmfu (More Trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmDJaLpp1k (One Hour Gameplay Demo)
