Hello, everyone!
Maybe you've seen one of my posts around here. For many years I enjoyed
wasting investing hours online rummaging through the internet to find obscure or lesser-known projects (mostly in the DF Genre or close to it in some way).
Sometimes I'd try to throw them in your faces by bumping one of our threads or
making a
new one.
Today, I come to you to throw a project I've been working on for a while now.
Watch the trailer! Don't be scared by the thunder.About TARTech Age Rebellion is a Sci-Fi Colony Simulator game clearly inspired by games such as Rimworld
(and therefore DF, but don't tell anyone), with the scale inspired by Rise to Ruins. There's also a few other inspirations, but they probably don't make it to the screen at this current development stage.
We've released the game in 'earliest access' on Itch.io in order to gauge interest and gather feedback very early on. This is a lesson we took from similar projects and it seemed fitting for this one, although it can feel a bit unnerving.
Our main goal is to make a colony-sim in as grand of a scale as it's still fun, manageable and performant, enabling hundreds of pawns to be on-screen doing their pawn things, while hopefully making threats large and varied. I'd really like to go for some XCOM-level of strategic/overworld play on this genre, too, but we're taking care about the scope (given our budget of below zero).
Once the expected systems of a colony-sim are in place, we also intend to add on a story component (that is already mostly written), making the story optional, for the most part, for the pure sandboxers out there.
We're also adding an in-map element of
mystery exploration and expansion, by allowing to dig down and mine/build below.
In TAR, you command a group of civilians that ran away from a planet-spanning empire that is very keen on
"correcting" those who oppose their views. Their escape plan nearly fails, as the group steals an empire-owned vessel and is pursued through the seas, later finding themselves shipwrecked in an uncharted island. They're left with no resources, no technology, and no knowledge of how to fight monstrous regimes. Turned rebels, they have no choice but to survive on their own. Turned enemies of The Communion, there's no other option but to prepare and fight.
The Rebellion TeamYou can find more info on the
project page or on the
devlogs, but I can advance the story that we've met early-2018 when playing
Eco. I was doing a
modpack for it and probably won the award of most-people-contacted-in-a-game-community (for that month, at least), and one of those people was Kirthos -
one of the most popular modders of the Eco community. We quickly became friends since our ideas and favorite games were extremely compatible and,
after events transpired, by the start of January 2019 he asked me to join his project (that had been in development for 3-4 months) and to bring my
waifu lifepartner Mari to do the art. We were glad to know Kirthos also had Lio, his childhood friend, in the team, since the guy is a tornado of ideas.
The team composition, after 1 year the development, follows the pattern below:
Gabeux - Designer, Developer, Producer, Bongo Cat: I deal with mostly the macro points of game design (such as overall UI layout, project scope, overall direction), writing, "marketing and producing" (whatever that means). I also try to be an Audio guy, and do some coding when no one is looking.
Kirthos - Lead Technical Developer, Company Admin, Monk: The game already has a sizable code base, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that vast majority of it comes from him. Being the one to formally found the company means he has to deal with all that
boring fun behind-the-scenes stuff. He's also the moderate voice and moderating force during team discussions. He also does his share of game design (as implementation and how things turn out will always be a part of it), but doesn't seem to like to admit.
Lio - Developer, Designer, Tornado: Usually focus on micro points of game design (such as events, effects, specific techs and balancing), but also idealizes whole systems and features, do coding and did our release trailer. He also does the bulk of the test on our (dev) end since, even though all of us do our share of testing, he seems to have the ability to make games scream in despair.
Mari - The Artist, Wildcard: She's the lone artist, doing both concept and 2D art, making all of the game and UI art be of her doing. She's also the one with the least hours in games of the genre (while still retaining as many hours in games of the sandbox genre), making her feedback and views invaluable to keep us more grounded, or open and aware towards taking things in fresh directions.
All-in-all, although some us pull the rope of game direction in different ways at different points, we usually discuss and seek to agree on design and implementation of features, rather than having a designated 'project lead' or 'manager'.
I reserve the right to be the most annoying one since I have the most DF hours and the deepest knowledge of ways to dismember an elf.The roles mentioned above are not really designated, but is what we gravitate towards to.Current Status - April 04, 2020We've released the Flora & Farm Update, which brings a lot to the table.
We're currently watching for bugs, while discussing and working on showcases for a crowdfunding campaign. More info coming soon!
Again, we thank everyone for their attention into looking at our game!
Our LinksTAR Earliest Access Release TrailerItch.io Project PageItch.io DevLogDiscordFacebookTwitter