Introducing Kickstarter projects is nothing new to GeekDad — these are frequently special projects that need funding and that one or more of the GeekDad contributors feels will be of interest to other geek dads. Well, we’ve found another one that we’re hoping many of you will be excited about. It’s called Star Command, and the early screenshots and gameplay details point to an awesome looking game.
Star Command is from War Balloon Games, and the team of developers list X-Com as its major influence. It’s no secret that X-Com holds a Top 10 slot in my heart when it comes to games, so I took a visit to the team’s Kickstarter page to read more and watch the intro video. It took all of about 5 seconds after the video finished for me to kick in my own funds to help this team bring this game to life (and get some Backer bonus game items to boot).
Here is the official game description from WBG:
Star Command allows players to build a Starship, hire and manage a crew, explore the universe, research new technologies, and battle other races across the galaxy.
Players can build their vessel in their own image – those who prefer a scientific, peace oriented game style can build long range scanners and diplomatic facilities to encourage peace and information exchange. Players more focused on settling disputes through force can build their Starship with multiple weapons bays and a reinforced hull to absorb heavy damage.
Throughout the game, players can hire and manage their crew. Crew members have a variety of skill-sets and each of these comes into play when performing tasks on-board like research, tactical, engineering and more. Crew members gain new skills as the game progresses making them more and more valuable.
Players explore the universe, discovering black holes, nebulae, and new planets, and eventually make contact with new races. Diplomacy comes into play as some species are naturally drawn to combat while others may be more willing to join you – and to even exchange officers on your crew.
Not much else is known about the game right now — actual video of the gameplay is almost non-existent and what details we can gain come from the few screenshots on the in the Kickstarter page and in the intro video. You can see that there is character customization, ship building, research trees, and diplomacy… or full-on weapons blazing and ships burning. We know the game will initially appear for the iPhone, but the devs mention their goal to also have an Android version ported. A visit to War Balloon Games’ website does provide a few additional bits of info, including an estimated price of under $5 for the iPad HD version (mentioned in a forum response).
Speaking of the forum — take a look at it and you’ll see that the devs do seem to be doing a good job of responding to posts (this may change as their traffic ramps up) and they’ve even got an area where they allow users to post suggestions for the game. The forum is a bit thin on discussion right now, but I expect it to be flooded soon as interest in the game continues to increase.
There’s also a brief mention in one of the Reward sections (The MIDORIAN AMBASSADOR LEVEL) about updates and DLC (downloadable content) — it’s cool to know up-front that WBG does plan on releasing new content for the game after its initial release. Imagine if X-Com had allowed us to download new weapons, new aliens, and new base facilities!
As of today, the team is almost halfway to its goal of raising $20,000. Although they’ve got over 25 days left to raise funds, those of us who follow Kickstarter have seen projects with funding that shoots high fast but fizzles in the last days just short of their goals. If this app appeals to you, don’t let that happen! Kickstarter allows backers to kick-in any amount they like — $1 or $1000 or more. The most popular right now is the $25 level that brings you quite a bit of freebies including the Intergalactic Promo Code that will give you the previously mentioned updates and DLC for free!
