Aurora
| Aurora | |
|---|---|
| Alpha Project | |
| Developer | Jedi-Philosopher |
| Theme | Space exploration |
| Influences | Prospector, Star Control |
| Released | Jan, 2013 |
| Updated | November 6, 2013 |
| Licensing | Source code available |
| P. Language | Java |
| Platforms | Windows, Linux |
| Interface | GUI, with mouse support |
| Game Length | short |
| Official site of Aurora | |
Aurora is a space exploration roguelike game, heavily inspired by Star Control 2 and Prospector. Player takes command of a scout starship, that is sent from Earth to explore outer space, establish contacts with other species and bring anything valuable back home.
And when we say 'scout starship' we don't mean that small unarmed one-man thing. We mean a real ship, with dozens of crew members, with on-board laboratories and workshops and its own military regiment.
Player progress is tracked by Earth government, in case of poor performance game will be over. Good performance can affect the development of a solar system. See how new ships and stations appear there, that use technologies discovered in your travel.
However, deep space hides not only treasures, but also threats, that can be deadly not for a single ship, but for the whole human kind.
Features
Currently game has:
- Randomly generated galaxy
- Traveling between star systems
- Star system view with planets and ships
- Planet exploration with resource mining and monster combat (monsters and plant images are also procedurally generated using Frankenstein library.
- Research projects for discovered animals, lands and artifacts, wit X-Com style scientist management
- Player score evaluation when returning to Earth
- Dialog and storytelling system
- Global plot with saving humanity from threats of outer space
- 2 endings (not including different types of gameover)
- Localization (currently RU and EN)
Development state
Currently game is in an alpha state. Major features are implemented, but there is little content in game, and plot and story texts and dialogs are more like a stub. The next steps will be finding a writer and populating the game world with stuff.
Still, the game can be finished, and one of two possible endings (bad and not-so-bad) achieved. However this requires to check a lot of star system to find the beginning of a global plot.
Links
Some screenshots
Space view:
Surface view:
Research screen
Dialog screen
