Interstellar Marines [Steam] was once an incredibly promising FPS, but sadly somewhere along the way they lost focus and funds ran dry. The last developer left has given an update.
In an update posted last month, the lone developer, Kim Haar Jørgensen, posted about how they're the last remaining member of Zero Point Software and talked about what they're doing. While Jørgensen is the last one, the issue is that he isn't a programmer, but he did say he's learning while he works a normal job which gives him a lot of freedom to work on the game.
Jørgensen is working on a new update to expand the combat sandbox arena called Wargames and fix as many bugs as possible. They're also looking to update to Unity 5.6+ and they've also update the roadmap.
On top of that, in another post this month, they're finally seeing a bit of sense and opening up testing of pre-releases to people who haven't signed an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement). I see no need of such measures for a small indie game, heck even a lot of bigger titles don't require that sort of effort just to allow people to test and give feedback.
That last announcement also mentions some volunteer developers have joined the cause, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.
The problem as I see it, is that the developer completely lost focus. They decided to push heavily into the online portion of the game (Wargames), rather than the single-player and co-op that I saw the majority being interested in. The major problem with that is the tiny player-base and Wargames requires you to join in at specific times, which limits it even further.
Once they decide to shift their focus away from online play again, I will be very interested. We had some real good fun in the co-op mode, so to see that expanded would be excellent.
I wish them the best, but I would be seriously surprised if it ever went anywhere now. Here's to hoping though…
Thanks for the tip hicks!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Nevertheless this game taught me not to buy early access titles anymore, if their state isn't already pretty complete.
I know early access is for devs a good chance to fund their efforts early, and for players who really want to take an active part in the development process.
Early access might be as risky as kickstarter, yet with the difference that you will have already something somewhat playable. Still there is a remaining risk that a game will never come out of early access and remain unfinished. And Stellar Marines is one of those types of games.
I hope they will finish the game, I was impressed by the idea, by the upcoming story, by the coop part. Though I don't have my hopes too high. Especially now as there is only one real dev left. We'll see... it's already in my library, so the money is spent. And it has Linux support.
TheRiddick Oct 11, 2017
The development of this game is a good lesson to others as to why it isn't always a good idea to change course sharply just because of what is popular at the time. Now the market is saturated with bad to great arena games that this has ZERO chance, BUT as a open ended colonial marine shooter with coop, it would have done quite well!
OOOPS....
Last edited by TheRiddick on 11 October 2017 at 12:47 am UTC
Like other's I still hope somehow he can find a way to continue development. I have to give the guy credit for sticking to it under the seemingly insurmountable workload.
Last edited by jo3fis on 13 October 2017 at 8:23 pm UTC
Kuduzkehpan Oct 12, 2017
beyond jokes. hard-core mechanics realtime weapon customisation sound effects are the best of IM.
i hope it will gain some playerbase. meanwhile players and developers found their new interests in "battle royale" mode it will become next years main concept for games. just like MOBA from DoTa mod for Warcraft 3
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