You are a Survivor - The last remnants of the human species, forced to flee your home, you are travelling and searching for new Islands to explore
You are a Scavenger - Searching the Islands for parts and equipment that can be used to keep your ship alive.
You are a Provider - Bringing food to your ship to feed your crew
You are a Hunter - Killing the bugs that roam the islands
You are a Fighter - Protecting what is yours or taking what you need
Hi, we are a small company of two blokes that thought we would have a go at creating our own game, and we thought that it was time to share some details of a project we have been working on.
First a bit about us. Over the past two years or so, when we could find time to fit it in around work and life, we have been slowly progressing the games development. We have a few freelancers that lend a hand to do some of the tasks that we can’t and we thought that it was time to get some feedback from others in similar situations and maybe start to develop some networks. This is our first foray into the world of game development and it certainly has shown us how much there is to learn and to do when making a game. But we think we are on the right track and we are making progress every day.
Now a bit about the game.
Saratoga is a third person multiplayer game set in a near future. In the game, an alien race has landed with the intention of destroying the planet. This race was skilled at genetic engineering and has used those skills to create armies of bug-like creatures designed to hunt and kill the human race. After a desperate battle the major land masses are contaminated and humans have withdrawn to the ocean. Aboard cruise ships and freighters human society now survives on the seas.
As the player, you will choose a ship at the beginning of the game and this is your ship, this is where you respawn and where you keep your loot. You must gather supplies and equipment to keep the ship alive. These resources are found on various Islands that the ship will travel to and land at. However, yours is not the only ship, there are others and they need the same resources that you do.
You must make your way onto the Island, collect parts, equipment, food supplies and fuel then return to the ship. Doing this will keep your ship afloat and provide you with cash and rewards. As the game progresses the ship resources will diminish and the player will need to gather more to ensure the ships survival, this can be done by searching the Islands for the necessary supplies or by trading with crews from other ships if they have gathered resources that you need.
OR you could just kill them and take their stuff!
The Islands will be grouped into 2 types either PVE or PVP. The PVP maps will be a free for all with limited consequences for killing other players. The PVE maps however, will be aimed at NPC interaction, killing the players from other ships will still be allowed but there will be consequences in the form of bounties from other players or banishment from the safe havens.
There will also be ship missions available on the ships that will take various forms, from simple hunting bugs for a bounty missions to protecting a ship as it refuels at a port.
Below are some more screenshots of various locations on the maps, these maps are still in progress but should give you some idea of the direction we are heading with our visual style.
Street Scene
Hotel Pool
Abandoned Survivors Room
Freight Depot
Work Area
Fishing Camp
Our current short term goal is to get a small LAN based game ready to use as a showcase with the intention of launching that to help raise funding. It will not be the whole game and won’t contain all of the features we intend to implement, but rather a few maps that the players will be able to invite their friends to and provide us with feedback on game play and bug interactions.
To date we have 3 maps nearing completion, the AI for the NPC survivors and NPC bugs are beginning to be placed into the levels, character creation is still in progress, and the game networking and UI is progressing.
We proudly use the UE4 marketplace for assets. It is a great resource and we hope that by doing this we can encourage artists to make more content which in turn will provide small indie developers like us, the opportunity to create new games with that content.
Our website is https://longroadgaming.net.au/ and we welcome you to come and have a look and provide honest and fair feedback on how you think we are going.
All the Best,
Neil and Greg
Longroad Gaming