Interstellar Prime is a peculiar type of indie. We always have those indie game developers who want to be ambitious with their projects. Sometimes it works and you get an indie where you can easily mistake it for a AAA title.
Other times, the studio does not have the budget and/or experience to pull of that ambition and from the early PS3/360-looking screenshots, it almost seems that way. I’m willing to give Dreamcatcher Studio a chance to shed some light on this one!
Chase: So explain your game, Interstellar Prime. What it is as a video game?
Dreamcatcher Studio: INTERSTELLAR PRIME merges RPG, RTS, and space simulation genres through seamless gameplay to explore human existence in the space age. Taking place 150 years in the future, mankind has finally acquired all the necessary technologies to begin contouring the solar system.
The main goal of the game is to reach Alpha Centauri, in search of a rumored, advanced human society who had supposedly created an Artificial Intelligence believed to be astronomically more advanced than modern scientists can comprehend.
Chase: What’s the story in Interstellar Prime?
Dreamcatcher Studio: INTERSTELLAR PRIME will have a strong emphasis on si-fi realism, the technologies you will see in the game are all based on real science and genuine projects that are being studied by scientists today. This means there will not be things like Teleportation, Mind Reading, or Warp Drives, for example.
The game will lead you to explore the real questions of conquering space, does humanity have the ethics, responsibility, or capability to be a space-faring species? This game will take you on an action-packed journey in a scientifically driven story filled with mystery, discovery, and thought-provoking gameplay.
Humanity is at a crucial point of its existence, there are four possible paths for humanity to go beyond this point in time:
1) transform the solar system into an industrial machine with a sole purpose of space exploration into the cosmos
2) transform the solar system into a better, more comfortable home for the human race
3) prevent any significant change to the solar system leaving nature to where it belongs as life is just a byproduct of it
4) a war zone to where the strongest survive
Your role is to convince the rest of humanity to go in either of those directions through your choices in the game.
Chase: Why make a game this huge with a tiny budget?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Because it is possible, Thanks to the free powerful tools available today like Unity.
Chase: Have you thought of crowdfunding sources or additional team members. If so, what is your resolution?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Yes, I plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in December to raise at least $30k-$50k to hire more developers.
Chase: Are there sandbox elements to Interstellar Prime or is the game generally open-ended?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Yes, there is a sandbox mode that is about 90% complete which will be launched as early access on March 22 2019. The full release (Story mode) is scheduled to be launched at the end of that year.
Chase: From what little I’ve played of your demo, there’s a lack of lip sync and voicework within the dialogue. I would understand, except the game looks like its setup to feature both presentational options. Will there be voice acting in the final game?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Absolutely, after the Kickstarter we’ll be able to tell how much resources we can allocate for voice acting and motion capture for cinematics. The next free Demo release for Kickstarter (December 17 2018) and the Sandbox Mode (March 22 2019), we will have some voice acting done by friends and family.
Chase: Sound effects are also minimal, though I am assuming you’ll have all these visual ques down in the end. How do you plan on creating si-fi sound and music in this game?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Absolutely, sound effect is the final touches of the game that will greatly be improved in the next free demo release. The simplest solution is to purchase a si-fi sound collection set, which is probably what I’ll end up doing, but there will also be original sounds which will make the game unique.
I do plan to make some of our own original sound effects in our own studio using the same old-school techniques Hollywood make them (from everyday objects).
Chase: Gameplay should always be an important factor, so how does Interstellar Prime stand out from the huge crowd of 3rd-person action games?
Dreamcatcher Studio: INTERSTELLAR PRIME is aim to deliver a very immersive experience through a wide variety of gameplay. The player has to switch between every mode in order to survive enemy attacks and make progress in the game. Here’s a link to a gameplay video of the Sandbox/Survival mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhGtfVOjmog&t=326s
In this video, the game starts you in an orbit full with asteroids you can mine for resources. the more you dig to the asteroids, the more chances of the enemy (the rogue AI) will discover you and start attacking. Once the enemy ships arrive near you, they will launch landing ships and start building bases on an asteroid and start expanding.
You will then have to balance between mining more resources, commanding your assets, building defense, positioning your fleet, and live action in going to destroy enemy base yourself all the while trying to keep the crew and yourself alive. Pretty much switching between RTS and FPS/TPS mode.
The more resources you gather, the more upgrades you can make to your assets thus making you stronger increasing your chance of expanding. The the end of the video shows that your fleet is no match to the waves of enemies, and therefore you need to retreat by “orbit hopping” to Remnant City.
Chase: Knowing there are space battles, how would that work? Would you get to fly into fighter combat or will this whole game depend on you and your jetpack?
Dreamcatcher Studio: Yes to all, in the Sandbox release in march you will have the ability to, not only fly in a fighter jet, but you also get to build and customize/upgrade your own fighter called “The Interceptor”.
Chase: Finally, this game comes out in December of 2018? How will be able to meet that date in a pre-alpha stage?
Dreamcatcher Studio: That was the originally release date, the project began with 4 developers back in the summer of 2016, after a year we had a major fallout (people can’t agree and some lose interest), now it is down to 1 dev (me). The launch date of December 2018 is still the same, but for a free demo for Kickstarter instead.
The new full release date (story mode) is pushed back 1 year due to having 1 developer. However, the progress of only having 1 dev dedicating 15-20 hours a week (nights and weekend) is very surprisingly fast! Since there is only one decision maker, no need for meetings, bounce between repositories, 100% of the time is solely on making the game. I guess it is vertical integration at its best.
What you see in the game so far including the free demo (release a year ago) that you played was 95% done by 1 dev (me). The project had to be completely redone starting January 2017 since everyone left, so the demo you played was made in 5 months starting from scratch. So in little over 2 years, 90% of the core game is completed (the sandbox mode).
So I have no doubt that INTERSTELLAR PRIME will be able to launch on time for the new target date of December 2019 since all I have to do is add story and more content to an existing core game.
I hope this project becomes as great as they want it to be! If what you’ve read interests you, then follow them up on Steam! Till next time!
Pond's Press 