A uniquely AI-driven sci-fi strategy game from an AI-focused indie developer, Stardust Colonies, recently appeared on Kickstarter. The game promises to be a mix of task and emotion micro management and forces players to take care of the needs of every single unit in the game.
In Stardust Colonies, you take a role of a Colonizator, and a member of a high-tech alien species called ‘gorgans’ that defeats and colonises other planets. Gorgans use lower-species, ‘lorkans’ to do all their (dirty) work and are able to control them with their minds. However, there is a catch hardly seen in RTS games before. Lorkans are somewhat autonomous, which means that they care about things like what jobs they are doing or how much food there is stored for them. The player has to figure out what makes them happy, including what jobs they like to do, in order to keep them efficient at work, and, next to that, manage their energy levels and put them to rest when needed. There is a real danger of the colony simply starving to death if not properly take care of. To help the player, speech bubbles with (sometimes very grumpy) responses to commands, and happiness and energy meters appear next to a unit when it is selected.
The developer is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to get funds for better graphics and music. Apart from better and atmospheric graphics, the later versions of the game promise to have enemies and RPG-like tech tree to challenge moral views of players. PlayerTheory.com said about the project: “A really interesting premise and a passionate designer behind it”
You can follow the project on: Twitter, Facebook, Steam or IndieDB
