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[kulik]

A new game that I can't stop playing. For EA it has very solid gameplay and very few bugs.



In Duskers you pilot drones into derelict spaceships to find the means to survive and piece together how the universe became a giant graveyard.

Spoiler: Images (click to show/hide)

 

Explore
You are a drone operator, surrounded by old gritty tech that acts as your only eyes and ears to the outside world. What you hear comes through a remote microphone. What you see is how each drone sees the world. Motion sensors tell you something's out there, but not what. And when you issue commands, you do it through a command line interface.

Adapt
You have to earn everything in Duskers, scavenging drone upgrades, drones, and even ship upgrades. But dangerous creatures lurk in these derelict ships, and weapons are rare, so you may need to think of a clever way to explore a military outpost using only a motion sensor and a lure.
But even if you find a way, the sensor that you rely on may break down, or you may run out of lures, even your drone's camera feed can start to fail. A favorite strategy can't be exploited for long, so you'll have to continually adapt.

Survive
Duskers is set in a procedurally generated Universe, and when you die you lose everything. You not only need to worry about what hazards lay waiting for you in the derelicts, but also running out of fuel, or parts to modify your drones and ship.
You are alone, isolated in the dark reaches of space. Only by sifting through what ship logs remain un-corrupted can you piece together what happened.

Features
- Use a Command Line Interface to control drones & ship systems
- Explore procedurally generated derelict ships and universe
- Upgrade and modify drones with the salvage you find
- Discover ship logs and piece together what happened

Scott's Manley review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKmo85U9HNg

[kulik]

I fleshed out the OP to give you more info.

[SharpKris]

it's a great little title with alot of neat ideas.
loving it so far, cant wait to see it updated 

[Neonivek]

I certainly commend it and it seems like a very interesting and possibly great game.

But alas it isn't for me. I dread this system when I see it in old point and clicks.

[werty892]

I gave it a try and it's interesting definitly. Wonder how long the concept will hold up.

[kulik]

To me, the idea of exploring spaceship derelicts is very appealing, I had very high hopes for Deadnaut game by Screwfly Studios, but it was mostly about combat and I always imagined the game to be about evade dangers not facing them.
In this game, if you do everything right you won't even see the aliens, you lock them out, kill them with proximity mines or lure them into empty rooms and vent them to space, there is only one upgrade making you drone into a stationary turret which is not very reliable.
I don't like the current radiation system that much, I hope they make it deeper to enrich the gameplay.

[Sergius]

PTW.

[Retropunch]

This looks fantastic - going to have a go with it later! I've been dying for something like this. Space Hulk wasn't my thing as it was too much like a puzzle game rather than a strategy. If I recall correctly there's a very similar old DOS game which played like this? I think you controlled a number of robot clones?

[Retropunch]

Ok just had about an hours play with this and I really enjoy it!!
I watched the video and immediately knew it was for me. There's a lot of looting and modifications (although I hope they'll add tons more) and trying to outwit the aliens is genuinely fun and tense. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes the look of this sort of game, as it's the best of this type I've played.

However, a few things (mainly because I feel every EA should have all their flaws pointed out to potential buyers!):
Firstly, the command scheme is a bit annoying at times. I love using commands to do stuff, and it gives you quite a thrill when you're firing off loads of commands to all of your different bots, but unfortunately sometimes it just becomes annoying/tedious when you could have much more easily used a mouse instead. I know this is a concious design decision, but sometimes I just wanted to click on a button/prompt instead of having to type at it. I'm really hoping that they smooth this over a little bit. Even just allowing the player to customise things better would be good.

Secondly, sometimes the pathfinding can be a bit wonky - I'm sure this will get fixed but I've had a number of time when I can't edge round one of my bots and end up having to move everyone in manual mode, which kinda takes away from the feel of it abit.

Lastly, a big problem for me was how formulaic it's feeling currently. I have to have one bot sat at a generator, one doing motion scanning, and the others doing all the work. I'm hoping that the game shakes things up more later on, but so far I've always got two just sat around waiting pretty much.

[kulik]

sometimes I just wanted to click on a button/prompt instead of having to type at it. I'm really hoping that they smooth this over a little bit. Even just allowing the player to customise things better would be good.

You can define Aliases for command sting, for instance i have>
"ee" for command "open all; navigate all r1" for quick evac from ship
"qq" for command "close all" as emergency seal off
"tt" for command "teleport 1 r1" as quick evac for my sensor drone

Lastly, a big problem for me was how formulaic it's feeling currently. I have to have one bot sat at a generator, one doing motion scanning, and the others doing all the work. I'm hoping that the game shakes things up more later on, but so far I've always got two just sat around waiting pretty much.

I use this setup>
drone 1 is my sensor drone -upgrades like motion, probe, sensor, stealth, teleport, scaner
drone 2 is my generator -i use those two slots free for slavaging upgrades on destroyed drones
drone 3 is engineer/turret - pry, tow, interface, gatling, shield
drone 4 is salvager - gatherer, stealth, scaner, teleport

I shuffle upgrades as the need arises, but I use all my drones most of the time.

[EuchreJack]

It's one of those games where I'd love about somebody else playing it.  Looking forward to that!

[Aklyon]

Bit too much for me for an EA, but still certainly ptw.

[ChairmanPoo]

If they release it on gog I'm in

[Retropunch]

-snip-

Thanks for the tips! I use a roughly similar setup - which I feel is part of the problem. It just feels as though you're stuck with having to do a similar pattern each round. Whilst that would be fine if you sort of 'found' a playstyle/combo that suited you (like invisible inc) but it feels like there's only one viable strategy at the moment. I'm positive this will change though.

As far as aliases go, they're really awesome, but it's more just that I feel like they could have used the mouse for menus and the like just to make it a bit more user friendly.

I would highly recommend this however. As it's exactly my sort of thing I was happy to shell out for EA (and it is a bit pricey) but even for those a bit on the fence I'd still say to go for it after a few content patches or two.

[Cthulhu]

I like the aesthetic a lot, reminds me of Deadnaut but maybe not as opaque.

What I'm wondering about i your end of the story.  I mean the rest of the story is kind of the point of the game but does it ever explain exactly who you are and what you're doing?  It seems like you've been sent by somebody to study the ruins but that doesn't explain who or why or why your organization of whatever sort survived without experiencing the collapse firsthand.