Sometimes, you have to let a game grow on you. It's easy to be turned off by a steep difficulty curve, or an obtuse UI, or a lack of direction. Sometimes these warning signs are well-heeded; there's certainly no lack of bad games in the world. But sometimes, pushing through them can yield something special.
I say this, as I'm sure you've already discerned, because this week's Free and Worth Every Penny installment might not be for everybody. I almost walked away from it myself. But if you're up for something different, I can promise that the investment level isn't too high and if you let yourself get into it, you can lose an hour or two here pretty easily.
Sound good? Great. Get ready to join.... the
Super Space Rogues was Ted Lauterbach's entry into the Rogue Compo at Gamejolt back in January - also the winner of that competition - and was whipped together in Game Maker in a rather shockingly short 2 weeks. (I know, it's another roguelike. This one is in space! And much more action-packed.) Drawing painfully obvious plot inspiration from Star Wars and gameplay that feels like a mix of Space Miner on the iPhone and Transcendence, Super Space Rogues gives you a straightforward goal - get $50,000 - and a couple discrete ways to go about it. Collect minerals to sell, and bounties for hunting pirates. Sounds simple, but as usual, the Devil's in the details.
"Jabbot"? ...Really? ...Okay.
When you start up Super Space Rogues, it's entirely likely you'll have no idea what's going on, so allow me to walk you through the likely course of events. The game will tell you to "Click Items for Information", and you'll spend a few minutes trying to figure out what it means, because there are no "items" to click and nothing gives you any information. (I guess I just saved you that hassle. You're welcome.) You'll also notice that you can right-click to switch to Combat Mode, though, and then you can shoot your guns. You'll shoot your guns at stuff, and that stuff will explode.
Eventually you'll see that in Navigation Mode, you can direct yourself towards unexplored planets and, if you're in range of one, interact with a trader to sell collected minerals and buy upgrades. Navigation Mode, however, won't allow you to monitor incoming threats, so you'll switch between it and Combat Mode frequently as you fly around. You'll blow up some asteroids and collect the minerals therein, maybe sell them to a trader and buy an upgrade or two. Then a group of pirates will find you and quickly destroy you, and you'll get a Game Over screen. This part may happen repeatedly.
The opening of the game. Also, effectively, the instruction manual.
The inexplicable sudden deaths very nearly drove me away from Super Space Rogues - you get no information about whether the pirate attacks are totally random, or whether certain areas might be more dangerous than others, or anything helpful at all, really. It was frustrating, and felt poorly designed. If you feel like saying "screw it" at that point, I understand, but I would encourage you not to.
Because soon, the tide will turn. The controls will start to click better, and you'll start making quick trade runs to nearby planets. You'll stumble across a trader selling homing missiles, and you'll have the money to buy them. You'll start winning fights against the pirates. You'll start feeling like a pretty serious badass, and enjoying the random battles instead of dreading them.
The action gets enjoyably hectic.
Then, finally, with perseverance and a little luck, you'll collect your $50,000. And Jabbot will come to collect it from you in turn. Will you give it to him? I didn't want to. I was given the chance to challenge him instead, and I took it.
I lost. But as soon as I'm done writing this, I intend to try again.
Super Space Rogues...
- is a simple and straightforward action roguelike in space.
- has enough random battles to fight and upgrades to buy to keep you engaged.
- absolutely will not hold your hand.
- provides a surprising level of satisfaction, in part because of that lack of handholding.
- could not have been easy to make in 2 weeks.
This one is Windows only and comes in just under 15MB. Pick it up here.
"Free And Worth Every Penny" is a column I collaborate on with Mike Bellmore at Immortal Machines. This piece also appears there.