After many months of prototyping and updates for HDog I have now settled on a Sleeper Games’ next project. Hyperspace Harvest has been in development on and off since almost a year, but it was in late 2019 that I started to solely focus on it. The game will be a Farming/Action hybrid taking place in the weirder part of the Hyperspace universe: Within the ecosphere of a giant space whale god-animal. It’s core gameplay is split between chilled farm management and intense bullet-hell dungeon-crawling, with an overall focuses on deep customization of crops, tools, gear and weapons.
If you want to know more you can check the newly published Steam page for the game. Also please consider puting the game on your whishlist so I have a chance against the almighty algorithm. <3
I’ll be posting some dev logs about the game's progress in the coming months, you can also track the current development on the public HHarvest dev Trello.
Here are a couple gifs showcasing how the prototype changed over time.
The game started out with a square-based tileset, which was later replaced with a more distinct hex tile look that's also easier to manage on save/load.
The slot based gear modding system was also introduced really early and reworked multiple times. I'm still iterating on this one, and the whole VR tileset will probably get another overhaul. Weapons/Crops/Tools etc are created by combining certain base mods, which then open up more slots to further augment the item.
Dungeon missions are accessed through multiple hub rooms across the whales surface. In combat you'll have to manage your Vet Suits energy in order to charge your shields and ranged weapons.
Similar to Hyperspace Dogfights, you'll move from encounter to encounter (in separate rooms) and complete objectives to proceed. Right now there are two tilesets for combat, with premade rooms that are randomly selected. Additional tilesets will all explore a different anatomic region of the whale. You'll fight inside bone marrow, neurons, metal implants etc. Individual missions can also have modifiers like the darkness shown above.
You'll also explore the whale's surface and meet the various denizens and hanger ons that populate it. Some of these are sentient extensions of the whales body, other are just stranded on the whale like you.
The whale's visitor mall has been rep-opened on your arrival. This is where you can get new bio code to create new crops/weapons/tools. Rewards for missions will also almost always come in the form of additional code fragments.
For now I tried making resource gathering actions a bit more involved than just pressing a button.
Better timing in these minigames yields you more resources but I'm not sure how far I'll go with this. Simple actions like cutting down overgrowth will also just require simple inputs.
The whale bioluminescent ecosphere of the whale actually has a day-night cycle. The whale's body also goes through a longer cycle of death and rebirth that is not unlike seasons.
The intro sequence was the last thing I worked on and puts the game near the events of Hyperspace Dogfights. Your suit AI can project a little avatar that will give you company and advice throughout your space whale adventure.
If this tickled your interest then please consider whishlisting the game. <3 <3 <3
Cheers!
Stefan - Sleeper Games