Coming to Linux - Lex Laser Saves The Galaxy on Kickstarter
Lex Laser Saves the Galaxy, Again is a tactical puzzle RPG for Windows, Linux and Mac, with a tentative release date of the first half of 2014. Currently on Kickstarter, the team from Defiant Mouse are working towards gathering $65,000 towards the finished project, and are currently around 20% there. Within the game, Lex Laser must explore a huge alien world across multiple episodes, whilst collect mining samples and killing aliens. Defiant Mouse are billing it as a tactical rouge-like RPG for busy people – specifically parents.
Features
Play at your own pace, deploying area-of-effect weapons in highly visual tactical puzzles. (more)
Completely rebuild your weapons between Episodes. (more)
Explore a blend of procedurally generated and hand-crafted gameplay. (more)
Enjoy a quick challenge in Puzzle mode. (more)
Live with the consequences of your actions in Adventure Mode. (more)
Easily pick up where you left off (more)
Don’t worry if kids see your screen. (more)
Equipment
Between missions, you use the various technological items and alien artifacts you have found to improve your arsenal. You won't have to guess at recipes, though. Lex Laser is a top-notch technician, and can stick almost any mod onto any weapon. For example, the Orthobarrel mod adds a second projectile to every shot from a gun, but always 90 degrees to the right of the main shot, and the gun will take twice as much ammo per shot. Stack the Explosive Ammo on top of that, and you can turn your simple pistol into a mini-multi-grenade launcher. That's fantastic until you find yourself in a museum filled with fragile crystal sculptures - then you might want to go back to the base model. You will also find (or build) sensors, such as a tactical readout that predicts enemy actions, or a life detector that can give you hints about where to go to rescue that last refugee. This equipment mechanic is the primary way Lex Laser improves as the game goes on, so a little creativity here can go a long way.
Inspirations
Games: Robots, Gauntlet, Rogue, Diablo, Dungeons & Dragons, SSI’s Gold Box games, HERO System, Star Control II, Star Saga, FTL Fiction: Heinlein’s juveniles, E. E. “Doc” Smith, Babylon 5, Firefly
From the Defiant Mouse team
We (Defiant Mouse team) are hand picked from alums of the MIT Game Lab, with a few old Looking Glass alums to boot. We think we've got something pretty clever here, and will deliver a quality game if the Kickstarter succeeds. There are lots of games that use small puzzle levels to appease busy gamers, but these games usually don't have any continuity or gameplay depth. Defiant Mouse have a plan to give busy gamers that depth, but they need help to make it happen. You will probably not play Lex Laser in one sitting. When you pick the game up again, you will have to figure out what was happening when you left. We're making that as easy as possible so you don't mind putting the game down when you need to. To accomplish that, we're increasing the importance of location and relying on highly visual elements like area-effect weaponry. This helps players jump back into the action without having to refresh their memories about which things do what. It's all on screen. We're also separating the story elements into short Episodes. An Episode is a self-contained subplot, much like a single episode of your favorite Sci Fi television show. These bite-sized chunks are easy to remember, but if you forget, we'll provide a quick summary of the action so far in the Episode. Once you've completed an Episode, you don't need to remember all of the details about it. Again, we'll provide a short summary. "Lex Laser and the Gene-Cow Stampede: Lex Laser's escape pod landed on Fornax II. Lex helped the local settlers, who provided a nice meal and a ride to the starport."
