No Space For Heroes

No Space For Heroes
Developer(s)	LB Simulations and Design
Publisher(s)
Director(s)
Producer(s)
Designer(s)	Luke Brook Phil Evans
Programmer(s)
Artist(s)
Writer(s)	Brad Green
Composer(s)
Series
Engine	Unity (game engine)
Platform(s)	Mac OS Microsoft Windows 10
Release	In Development
Genre(s)	space trading and combat simulator, Adventure game
Mode(s)	single player
Cabinet
Arcade system
CPU
Sound
Display

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No Space For Heroes (NSFH) is a single-player, role-playing, space trading and combat, and point-and-click adventure video game in development for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows 10. The game follows the adventures of an unknown 'hero' who awakens in a cryo-pod floating through space. As the player works toward finding their way back home, they must hone their skills, build their arsenal, and help to defeat a galactic evil.

The game has been in development since 2014, as a joint effort between several people, and began as a homage to the classic space trading and combat game Escape Velocity. The game's direction changed significantly following the announcement of an official remake of Escape Velocity: Override. No Space For Heroes is undergoing significant changes – including a new visual style and narrative tone and the inclusion of point-and-click adventure game mechanics, which has delayed release. The design and development of the game is provided by award-winning game developer Luke Brook and Phil Evans. The overarching narrative, cutscenes and dialogue is written by Australian author Brad Green.

Gameplay

No Space For Heroes is divided into two gameplay types – space trading and combat and point-and-click graphic adventure.

The space trading and combat comprises the majority of the gameplay with the player flying a spaceship through space in a third-person overhead perspective. The player directly controls the spaceship using keyboard input for movement and interaction. While the game uses three-dimensional assets and environments, the player's movement is restricted to two dimensions. The player can explore dozens of solar systems, engage in space combat, board other spaceships, and land on various space stations and planets to complete missions, upgrade their spaceship or sell and purchase new ships and equipment.

Solar systems are self-contained areas with different planets and space stations and non-player character driven spaceships flying in and out of the area. The player can travel to different solar systems by selecting a destination from their Galaxy Map and engaging their hyperdrive, which consumes fuel. The Galaxy Map represents solar systems as nodes, with a system node showing detailed information only if the player has visited the solar system. In addition, certain systems are only accessible if the player's ship is equipped with a specific grade of hyperdrive.

Ships have different properties impacting their performance (speed, maneuverability, shields), capabilities (cargo capacity, hyperjump, weapons), and efficiency (fuel capacity, energy etc.). While some of these can be upgraded with items, it often comes with a trade-off cost in the form of cargo space. For example, adding fuel cells to a ship to increase the number of hyperjumps that can be completed before refueling will reduce the amount of cargo space available for carrying items.

Screen shot of the overhead third-person space combat gameplay in NSFH

Screenshot of the Galaxy Map in No Space For Heroes

During cut-scenes, when landing on space stations and planets, and when boarding ships, the gameplay switches to a third-person graphic adventure. The player controls a character through a point-and-click interface using a computer mouse and clicks to move their character around and to interact with the environment and non-player characters. Environment and object interactions include Examine, Pick Up, or Use. Interacting with non-player characters initiates conversation trees where the player's choices have significant effects on story elements and relationships with different characters and factions.

A screen shot of a cutscene from NSFH

The game also features a loot system where players can collect items found when exploring boarded enemy ships and when completing missions. The items can be used to upgrade the player's ship or sold to vendors for Bits. Bits is the currency used for purchasing items from vendors.

Visual and Narrative Style

In line with the narrative style employed in the Escape Velocity series, the original narrative for No Space For Heroes employed a serious tone for the overarching narrative, dialogue and missions. However, the change in direction for the game's development saw a shift to a narrative with a humorous tone and comedic elements inspired by games such as the Monkey Island series, The Cave, and the Deponia series. The narrative is filled with in-jokes, running gags, humorous references, and various Easter eggs. In addition, the visual style of the game has changed from high-fidelity realistic models and environments to mid-poly 3D models with comic-style textures and cel-shading.

A screen shot of the main menu for NSFH with new visual style

Setting

Prologue

At the turn of the 22nd century, the destruction of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth released a substance known as Cryo-matter into the solar system. Researchers quickly discover the matter has properties allowing for the instantaneous cooling of objects to sub-zero temperatures. Uses for the substance are near limitless – from computer cooling systems to instantly cold beverages and cryostasis of deceased animals and humans.

Cryonix Corp., the leading experts in cryostasis, begin experimentation with freezing live subjects – starting with endangered species. However, freezing live subjects requires a constant feed of cryo-matter and proves too expensive to gather in the quantities required. As an experimental solution, self-sustaining cryo-pods are developed. The cryo-pods are launched into space with systems for catching and processing cryo-matter to preserve their occupants until recalled. However, very few people are interested in being launched into space in an ice-coffin… and those pesky human rights activists put an end to the Just Ice program, where convicts were involuntarily frozen and shot into space… and research stalls.

In a last ditch attempt, the marketing and advertising gurus at Cryonix develop the Human Experimental Rejuvenation Onboarding Program. The H.E.R.O. program is marketed as 'exclusive', with placements reserved for people suffering from incurable illness or disease and the promise they will "wake up healthy without aging a day!" once a cure becomes available and their pods are recalled…

Current Day

A cryo-pod is drifting through space when the on-board systems come to life with blaring warnings. The battered and beaten pod's degrading components have led to full failure of the ship’s shields… and in the midst of a meteor storm! In attempt to keep the occupant from flatlining, the onboard A.I. initiates the Awakening Protocol in attempt to thaw the occupant… but the process is too slow. To speed up the process, the A.I. initiates the 'Heated Argument Protocol'...

Technical Features

The game is being developed using the Unity game engine. Development commenced in late 2014 using Unity 5 and the game has since been migrated several times to newer versions of the Unity engine. The current version of the game is being developed in Unity 2018 LTS to include newer feature support – such as Unity Timeline and Cinemachine. There are currently no plans to migrate the game to newer versions of the engine.

All mechanics of the space flight portion of the game have been programmed from the ground-up including the non-player character AI, combat mechanics, relationship mechanics with factions and individual characters, and interaction (i.e. targeting systems and Galaxy Map).

The point-and-click component of the game is built on Adventure Creator, which is described as "a fully-featured Unity toolkit that has all you need to make an adventure game". The toolkit is used for cutscenes, exploring environments and conversation sequences. The dialogue for the game is currently purely text-based with plans to include voice recordings in the future.

Release

The game is still in development and there is currently no scheduled release date. It is expected a crowdfunding campaign may be launched in 2021.

References

This article "No Space For Heroes" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:No Space For Heroes. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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