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Space Mercs, a brand new 3D dogfighting game from Bearded Giant Games was just recently announced as part of their "Linux 1st Initiative".

The current plan for Space Mercs is to release for Linux in June and it's coming with a feature that sounds somewhat amusing. It's going to have a command line interface, which you will use in the game to explore various parts outside the combat. They said they plan to talk a little more about this special CLI in a few days with a design post.

It will feature multiple game modes like:

  • Quick Battle: You are given a random ship, a random amount of wingmen, a random objective and must face off a random amount of enemies. It’s literal chaos bound to keep you by the edge of your seat.
  • Campaign: 30 action-packed missions that can be unlocked and explored via the Bulletin Board. You get one or more targets, an objective, reward and are sent out into space. Completing the objective rewards you with credits which allows you to purchase more ships. Destroying anything else outside of the objective will reward your with Prestige which allows you to upgrade your new ships. The backstory of the game, lore and conversation can be explored via the use of the Command Line Interface in the game. Read emails, access restricted folders and explore your Station’s computer via a bash-like interface.
  • Duels (1 v 1 / 3 v 3) is a mode unlocked via campaign progression that allows you to gamble some of your heard earned prestige in battle. Win and multiply your Prestige, loose and it’s back to grinding enemies on missions you can defeat.
  • Survival is your reward for finishing the campaign. Jump between procedurally generated sectors and defeat a ever growing list of enemies and go for the highest score possible.

While there's no current trailer for the game, I did speak to the developer and they supplied some rather interesting gifs. Since they're rather large though, I've turned them into a quick video:

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Of course once I get a decent look at it and a proper trailer, I will post that up too. It does look like it could be a lot of fun and as a huge space nerd I do love a good 3D space combat game. It's a genre that we don't get to see much of now, sadly!

As for a price, it's looking like it will be somewhere around $10 and supporters on their Patreon will get early access.

You can find the official announcement here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

WorMzy May 6, 2019
Nice! I'll pick this up for the Linux First initiative alone. :D

Interestingly, there is already a "SpaceMerc" game, and it is also on Linux. It doesn't look like the two are related though.
x_wing May 6, 2019
The barrel roll makes me remember Star Fox. I'll definitely keep track of this one.

BTW, the patreon page states that the developer releases all the source code of his games with MIT license. I think this is something worth to mention!

Quoting: PatolaAmazing! A sure buy for me! Now that I got my HOTAS kit tho, I just want to know whether it'll have HOTAS support. :)

It looks very arcade for a HOTAS... I'm not sure if an official support will have any priority. But as he publish the source code, it should be completely possible to get it to work flawlessly.
iiari May 6, 2019
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Yeah, I'd agree it's not looking like a HOTAS kind of title :). For an estimated $10, it sure looks like fun, though!
Termy May 6, 2019
Nice! His other games are not really down my alley, but this one i'll pick up for sure :D
Cybolic May 6, 2019
This looks quite interesting, but I doubt I'll get it if it isn't released on itch.io or Steam.
With the amount of games available these days, if it's not in my usual game library, I'm sure to forget I ever bought it.
g000h May 6, 2019
Watching the video, I found that the space ships were too similar to regular jet fighters in flight sims. I'd rather see more interesting craft.
iiari May 6, 2019
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Quoting: CybolicThis looks quite interesting, but I doubt I'll get it if it isn't released on itch.io or Steam.
With the amount of games available these days, if it's not in my usual game library, I'm sure to forget I ever bought it.
Just install their launcher to your Steam Client. Problem solved. This degree of Linux support in my mind deserves our support. How many titles do you see with Linux UI elements baked into the game???

Regarding the "jet fighter" look of the ships, I was channeling some C64-era Skyfox nostalgia for that...


Last edited by iiari on 6 May 2019 at 5:37 pm UTC
Cybolic May 6, 2019
Quoting: iiari
Quoting: CybolicThis looks quite interesting, but I doubt I'll get it if it isn't released on itch.io or Steam.
With the amount of games available these days, if it's not in my usual game library, I'm sure to forget I ever bought it.
Just install their launcher to your Steam Client. Problem solved. This degree of Linux support in my mind deserves our support. How many titles do you see with Linux UI elements baked into the game??? [...]
I know, I just also know I'll forget about it again in the inevitable re-install and it'll get left in my backlog, never to be found. You are right that it deserves support regardless, but one can dream (of an itch release), no? :)
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