Hey, everyone! Last push before Steam Greenlight hits tomorrow on August 30th. I fully intend on placing Steam Marines on Greenlight - any support you lend would be greatly appreciated!
Old School
I also wanted to give you some of my thoughts on where Steam Marines is heading. Some people have talked about Steam Marines likening it to a lite version of X-Com, or Space Hulk. I've actually played very little X-COM although I backed Xenonauts and loved the beta. I've also played Alien Assault which is pretty darn close to Space Hulk. I am very happy that people would compare my game to those.
Steam Marines (SM) was originally conceived as a game closer to Chess. Marines classes could only move and attack a certain way, and terrain obstacles and formations were thrown into the mix to create a strategic and tactical level of play. The people in my early alpha versions can attest to how cumbersome the Q/L/I and other formations were!
New School
So, with player feedback, the game changed. Formations were scrapped. Action Points and monster types were created to foster claustrophobia, to keep the squad together. Weapon ranges were reduced and fog of war implemented.
But some principles stayed the same. Being able to fire through friendly occupied tiles encouraged team cohesion and positioning. Permanent death for your marines. Procedurally generated dungeons so you never know for sure what lies behind the next corner. And danger must be ever-present. No risk, no reward.
SM's artist, Detocroix, is very enthusiastic about his trade. He fully intends on sprite animations for the final release. Composer Levan Iordanishvili was asked to create a piece of music for the Steam Marines trailer, a cross between gothic and steampunk and he did a fantastic job. Sound engineer Tapio Liukkonen made a lot of cool sound effects for guns, explosions, and more; if it sounds good he did it, if not I did it!
Should all go well with Steam Greenlight I hope to have more work for these gentlemen!
The Future
SM aims to be steampunk in genre. Clockwork beasts and retro-futuristic technology and brass gears and goggles. To that end there will be more armor, more weapons, and more items. Implants will allow you to boost your marines' toughness or sight range, but perhaps at the cost of speed or accuracy. Mods can increase or decrease main gear stats but also add unique effects, such as explosive rounds for the Scout's rifle.
I do plan for Steam Marines to have a light touch of whimsy to it. Goggles with x-ray vision, magical bullets that can destroy monsters and obstructions in a single shot, or even just class weapons that whistle and release steam when fired.
This article has run on longer than I had intended! As usual, any and all feedback is much appreciated :) And as a final teaser, I wish to show you something Detocroix has been working on:
Is that the stealth i see!?!?!?!
Actually, no, it isn't sadly :( They look cool anyway though, but that reminds me, you guys should make some kind of stealth ability for the scout/sniper. He can't do too much scouting before getting killed :/
No stealth quite yet, although the general opinion right now is that the Scout is slightly OP since action points were uncapped. Some form of stealth mechanic is planned but not all details have been fleshed out yet :)
Fuel tanks and flamethrowers? :D