Game-related ramblings.

Month: December 2013

Going The Distance In FTL

I’ve written about FTL before, and if you’re unfamiliar with the game you should probably read that post first. Here, I’m assuming readers have at least a passing knowledge of the game.

Back when I first wrote about FTL, over a year ago, I didn’t think I’d stick with it that long. In fact, my exact words were:

Still, I don’t think FTL will keep me hooked as long as some more involved roguelikes (and roguelike-likes), but its simplicity is really where it shines. It’s easy to learn, and offers just enough options to make multiple plays interesting and fun. It may become frustrating to have to unlock each ship, depending on what’s required, but even with just the two I have I can easily see myself jumping in for quick games or extended sessions well into the future.

Turns out my fears about FTL’s staying power were completely unfounded. I’ve gone back to FTL regularly in the last year, in my quest to unlock more ships (and alternate layouts for the ones I already have), and I’ve learned that FTL is actually a lot deeper than it seemed at first. With developers Subset Games announcing a free expansion to be released soon, I decided it was high time to write about why I keep going back.

lim x→∞: Approaching Infinity Will Be A Space Exploration Roguelike

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre here, or my other posts about roguelikes here. Also, as always, you can click on screenshots for larger versions.

Regular readers will know that I’m quite fond of roguelikes. Given the genre’s roots of fantasy-themed dungeon crawling, however, it’s unusual to find roguelikes with science fiction settings. This may be why I’m drawn to examples like Xenocide and Caves of Qud, but even these still follow a single character exploring locations on foot. Approaching Infinity takes the roguelike to the stars, casting the player as a ship captain who both explores space in their ship and explores planets and shipwrecks with an away team. The game is on Kickstarter and has met its funding goal already, but there are three days left (at the time of writing) to raise more money for some stretch goals. If you’re interested, the Kickstarter page links to an alpha demo to try, and backers get an updated demo to play with. I’ve taken the public demo for a spin, and even in its unfinished alpha state I liked what I found.

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