Welcome! My name is Ariel Vimo Albini, Game Designer of Sixth Vowel’s first title – Element: Space!
So, what is Element: Space?
If you want to get technical, it’s a Highly Replayable Sci-Fi Turn-Based Tactical Squad RPG
Whew.A bit of a mouthful, I know, so let’s break that down a bit so I can explain what our game is all about, and why we love working on it!
NOTE: Please bear in mind that most of the concepts and screenshots we're showing right now beyond the previous concept art is PRE-ALPHA gameplay.
The first topic is actually the most interesting aspect of Element: Space, High Replayability
The game’s story is divided into story arcs with an Interlude and features 24 missions in total (up to 12 of them playable on a single playthrough).
Even though a single run of the game will take you roughly 12 to 15 hours, you’re not done by a longshot.
The game has five different endings all depending on the choices you make – subtle and not – along the way.
Not only that, but you will only be able to recruit half of the available Companions on each run (and they have two different archetypes to develop each); also, you won’t be playing all of the Story Missions by playing the Campaign just once.
There are many variables that are taken into account during dialogues, best exemplified by this beautiful chart that shows the dialogue nodes and possibilities of one conversation:
Holy Sh… Who thought of this? Oh, wait, I designed the metagame rules.
Damn you, past self!
Every decision that you make will shift the perspective of everything that surrounds you, so you must be very careful when speaking your mind.
So, like I was saying: Lots of Replayability!
Next subject on the list: Sci-Fi
- Space: Check!
spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!
- Spaceships: Check!
Yes, that is a spaceship, you should see the garage where we park it
- Weird technology that no one explains how it works: Check!
Science!
- Supercool power that comes from merging technology with untapped human abilities that allows for particle manipulation through breath and voice which, in turn, grants the ability to enhance your speed and strength or even bend time and space: Check!
cool!
Next, let’s talk about the RPG components, being ‘role-playing’ the key to understanding Element: Space.
There’s a big story to tell, but we don’t want to spoil it here. The short version: Two years after the Interplanetary War, there’s an uneasy peace in the universe. Will it still hold? Or will everything tear apart?
That’s for you – as Captain Christopher Pietham – to find out.
You will be set out into the galaxy to complete missions and recruit Companions in your quest to stop the Tempest Organization from bringing upheaval to the already fragile peace that barely subsists after the (recently finished) massive intragalactic war.
In Element:Space, beliefs are everything. It defines the galaxy, the groups within it and how they see the Main Character. This is called: Ideology. This is not a moral compass of right and wrong, it’s the way the game tracks the way you think about delicate subjects.
Your Ideology score will affect the Relationship values that your Character has with his Companions and the 7 different Factions.
As mentioned before, all your choices impact the way everyone else will perceive you, which in turn affects the loyalty of those who travel with you, and how much support you will receive from the different Powers that “co-exist” in the known Universe.
Moving on, let’s talk about Turn-Based Strategy now:
Turns in Element: Space are free-form! This means that you can spend your actions in any order that you choose, and you can even use two Secondary Actions on the same turn if you wish so!
But most important, we knew how frustrating absolutely infuriating it gets to see a “95% Hit Chance” at the most critical moment and then have your ultra elite soldier miss at point blank range…
So in order to prevent dealing a huge blow to your yearly hardware budget, we decided to focus the Strategy on your Positioning, which means that whenever you attack a target that is exposed or flanked, your hit chance will always be 100%!
Introducing the latest in keyboard protection technologies: NOT-Rage inducing RNG
In order to give you, the player, more choices on how to create those tasty 100% chance shots, we developed (and boy, was it a challenge!) the Displacement mechanic. You can move Characters around the battlefield through several of the Skills that your party wields.
You can pull and push Characters around, even drop Enemies off ledges!
Also, did I mention that there’s no grid? Free-form, baby!
So, since we are on the subject of combat gameplay, let’s talk about the Tactical Squad bit.
You will deploy a three-man commando team on missions, comprised by the hero of our story, Captain Christopher Pietham, and two Companions of your choice.
As I said earlier, turns in Element: Space are free-form, which means that during your turn you have freedom to plan your Character’s Actions.
Jack: “What’s the catch?”
During their turn, the enemies will use all sorts of Skills and Powers that will force you to adapt your strategy accordingly, making your choice of Companions and Equipment a key element of success during the Missions.
Good luck.-
Additionally, combat areas are filled with Cover pieces that can either provide Full-Cover or Half-Cover protection (100% / 50% Hit Chance Reduction).
Fortunately, there is a way around this: Cover can be broken! If you cannot risk moving to a position to flank the enemy, you can shoot the Cover piece until it breaks!
You have to be careful though, this works both ways! Enemies can also flank you to negate the Cover bonus or destroy your Cover!
There are 22 different enemies wielding more than 25 unique Skills and Powers, split into seven different Factions for you to encounter.
The level of badassery of these enemies might be over 9000
Anyway, this game is not gonna make itself, so I better get back to work…
I hope to have piqued your interest somewhat and answered some of your questions about the game :)
Feel free to ask about anything you want to know more about here on this post or on any of our social platform channels. The team and I will keep posting content about the development of the game so you can keep track on our progress; maybe even learn a thing or two about video game development if you are interested in joining the industry.
We do work on 4 dimensions though, I’m not sure how useful you will find our experience...
Stay tuned and thanks for reading all the way! <3
Cheers!
