Fight against familiar enemies and old favorites.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Pistol Shrimp Games
Or challenge a new opponent in the fast-paced space combat system.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Fight against familiar enemies and old favorites.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Or challenge a new opponent in the fast-paced space combat system.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Pistol Shrimp Games’ new space-combat project brings back many of the ships, weapons, and flight characteristics that made The Ur-Quan Masters—or UQM—so memorable. The team’s affection for the original game is clear, but this new project also introduces several important changes to its melee combat system.
The biggest difference is the way ships move. Unlike the more rigid handling found in the 1990s-era original, ships can now turn and maneuver more naturally. Players who mastered the classic UQM combat system should find that much of their experience carries over, although the updated flight model adds a new layer of strategy and requires some adjustment.
For many longtime fans, the melee mode was the feature that made the original game nearly impossible to put down. Its controls were easy to understand, its battles were quick to start, and every matchup offered a fresh tactical challenge. Friends and family could choose different combinations of ships and immediately settle the result in a chaotic space duel.
My favorite battles involved an apparently mismatched pairing: my brother would select one of the game’s most powerful ships, the Ur-Quan Dreadnought, while I chose the much lighter Alilu Skiff. The advantage seemed obvious on paper, but the faster ship created plenty of opportunities for evasive maneuvers and surprise attacks. Those battles were competitive, ridiculous, and exactly the kind of local multiplayer fun that made the original melee mode so memorable.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Choose your fleet and plan which ships will give you the best chance of victory.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Pistol Shrimp Games
Victorious players earn rewards—and the right to brag about the result.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Choose your fleet and plan which ships will give you the best chance of victory.
Pistol Shrimp Games
Victorious players earn rewards—and the right to brag about the result.
Pistol Shrimp Games
More than a melee combat demo
I would like to spend more time discussing the project beyond its combat demo, but that broader conversation will have to wait. The road to release has included plenty of twists and turns, and while development appears to be entering its final stretch, there is still work left to complete.
That extended development process has been fascinating to watch from the inside. There are stories behind nearly every part of the project, from the evolution of its gameplay systems to the writing and world-building that support the larger adventure.
During the five years I have worked with the team, I have written roughly 100,000 words of non-player character dialogue for seven different alien species. That is enough material for a novel, although I am only one member of a much larger writing team.
I have also worked with Paul Reisch III to turn his story ideas and outlines into full prose. Paul led the project during its Summer 2023 development update, when the story was already close to complete. Since then, we have continued meeting regularly to discuss the dialogue, characters, and ongoing development of the game. Those conversations remain an important part of bringing the project’s alien civilizations and expansive science-fiction setting to life.
Source: arstechnica.com