Hello everyone, I’m the producer of Exo Wanderers, known as Wandering String.
Finally, I can share the making-of and game story of Exo Wanderers with everyone.
Many ancient games generally had one characteristic: you could play alone or with two players. When I was young, some of the happiest times were playing games with friends and family during school holidays.
But nowadays, games with this mode are rare. The number of players is usually one of two extremes: either solo or an infinite number.
That's why I've always wanted a game that fits my imagination: a game where playing solo doesn’t affect the experience, but playing with two people doubles the fun.
The prototype of Exo Wanderers was born, and I gradually filled in more flesh and bones.
The first to be filled in was the story.
Exo Wanderers has a sci-fi storyline: Earth’s civilization is facing dual depletion of energy and resources. So humanity, which had never ventured beyond the solar system, came up with an idea: find potentially habitable star systems within 50 light-years of Earth and send wanderers to these targets. Once confirmed, they would figure out a way to migrate toward them. Due to technological limitations, each target would only have one wanderer.
For these wanderers, it’s a one-way ticket. Once they go, there’s no coming back, destined to be lonely on an alien star.
Du Hao is one of these wanderers, and his journey takes him to Gliese 667C.
But interestingly, after arriving at Gliese 667C, he unexpectedly meets another wanderer, Zoey.
Through communication and information sharing between them, they slowly uncover the mysteries of Gliese 667C and the truth about Earth's civilization crisis.
Therefore, most of the story of Exo Wanderers takes place on Gliese 667Ce (a planet in the Gliese 667C system).
On this alien planet, you can play as either Du Hao or Zoey, or play with your friends and family as both characters, driving tanks and engaging in combat.
The main controls are dual-stick: the left stick controls the vehicle's movement, and the right stick controls the turret rotation.
The tank body and turret each have independent levels, ranging from level 0 to level 3. Upgrades can be obtained through supplies in battle stages, but if attacked, the levels can drop.
The tank itself also has a level system starting from level 1. It can level up by gaining experience points from defeating enemies. Levels will not drop, and leveling up only increases maximum health. Attack and defense are determined by the body, turret levels, and equipment.
Basic combat is divided into normal and special attacks. Normal attack ammo is unlimited, while special attacks are acquired through supplies and have limited quantities. Picking up the same supply can increase the number of special attack rounds.
Both normal and special ammo are influenced by turret levels.
In addition to basic combat, Exo Wanderers has several special combat systems which I will introduce one by one:
Skill System
Each tank has its own exclusive skill, but it can also equip skills from other tanks. However, if the skill doesn’t belong to the current tank, its effect will be greatly reduced. The greater the difference between the tanks, the larger the reduction in effect. All skills consume parts, particle energy fragments, etc. These are primarily dropped by enemies and objects in the levels.
Turret System
Tanks can deploy turrets and obstacles to block enemies or assist in attacks. Turrets also consume parts and particle energy fragments to be manufactured.
Turrets themselves can also be equipped directly on the tank.
Galactic Blessing System
On Gliese 667Ce, strange hieroglyphs appear. You need to determine the positivity of these glyphs. If you choose the positive ones, Galactic Blessings will activate. Otherwise, a meteor shower will be summoned.
Quantum State
If two players are playing together, the level will only fail if both players are destroyed simultaneously. If only one player is destroyed, their tank enters a Quantum State. In this state, movement speed slows down, and only quantum bullets can be fired. Objects hit by quantum bullets will regain health, whether it's the other player, an enemy, or a scene object.
Besides the combat system, let me also share the item and equipment system in Exo Wanderers.
Items range from basic to advanced. The most basic are elements, starting from hydrogen and helium to element 118, Oganesson. Mid-tier items are parts and particle energy fragments, and high-tier items include equipment, turrets, obstacles, particle energy, and atomic energy.
In the universe, besides hydrogen and helium, everything else is called “metal elements.” In Exo Wanderers, non-metals can be captured via stellar winds, while all metals can only be obtained through nuclear fusion.
Elements can be synthesized into parts, but parts and particle energy fragments can also be directly obtained from defeated enemies and items dropped in battle stages.
Finally, elements and particle energy fragments can be synthesized into advanced items.
Alright, now that we’ve covered combat and the item system, let’s talk about the game’s scenery. There are approximately 1000 types of regular enemy tanks, which will appear as the storyline progresses. You can roughly judge whether an enemy tank is weaker by its color.
There are also difficult boss fights in the game. To balance the co-op experience, all boss fights are non-mainline missions. If you just want to enjoy the story and complete the game, you don’t have to challenge these strange steel beasts. However, if you play with two people, it’ll be easier to defeat them.
That’s a basic overview of Exo Wanderers. If you like it, click here to be transported to the store page to add it to your wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3208780/_/