Prospector
A downloadable game for Windows
Links
Twitter/X | Mastodon |
Steam | YouTube |
About
Role-playing game set on the surface of a distant moon with a living society, full of underground bases, bio-domes and other places to explore. The player has to deal with lack of resources, equip controlled drones, fight insidious enemies and survive harsh environments with extreme conditions.
Roadmap
Although the game is in development, it is already playable. Estimated playing time is about 30 hours. The current version roughly shows the progress in percentages, so V0.25 means that 25% of the content is in place, including game mechanics, assets, story, etc. The update rate will be about every month.
The following is a list of main items in my backlog:
- Keyboard controls
- Programs (mechanics review, new programs, better icons)
- Machines (mechanics review, enhancements, salvage)
- Special attacks (tools, UI, environment)
- Save/load game screen (extending F5/F9 quick save/load)
- Localization (different font to handle Unicode chars, menu option, SP, FR, JP, CZ)
- Music (hire a composer)
- Farming (mechanics still unknown)
- Bases (beacons, turrets)
- Level editor (for internal use, possibly made public)
- Story (animations, intro)
- PBR optimizations
- Missions view (overview, collected info, known goals)
- Management view (remote control of miners and bases)
- Map travel (between locations, random encounters, secret areas)
- Mini-map (with auto-mapping)
Story
Encountering various beings, places and events will slowly reveal the story of this moon and ultimately the fate of the human race. At the beginning, the player is drawn into the game by building a base around his landing shuttle. Once he does, he is encouraged to explore farther and deeper places of this moon.
Exploration
The player lands near a small space trading post, surrounded by abandoned mines, bio-domes, and military bases. However, this is only a fraction of the places that can be visited on this moon. The player can freely travel in the open world, visit living and abandoned places and discover more of the story.
Equipment
During his journey, the player will face various challenges, each requiring a different approach. Drones have a limited equipment capacity, the player must choose the right combination of weapons and tools wisely. Drones can also use nanobots to perform spooky actions at a distance. Not all equipment is available ready-made, most of the time the player will have to craft the best tools himself.
Crafting
The shuttle lander provides basic crafting machinery, but the player can build additional machinery to process raw resources, assemble materials, and craft equipment. If the items cannot be easily combined in the drone inventory, a special blueprint is needed to provide instructions to the processing machines. Some items and blueprints are common and can be obtained from the trading post, some are extremely rare and require precious components.
Mining
Rare resources are usually hidden deep in caves and underground bases. Drones can mine using attached drills, or the player can build a mining machine to process materials much faster.
Combat
Traveling further from the landing area carries risks. There are many hostile bots and creatures whose interests may conflict with the player's. Combat takes place in real time. Player can instruct his drones to change combat behavior or initiate special actions. It is wise to scout enemies before combat and equip drones accordingly.
Controls
- Esc to clear selection or show menu
- F10 to show menu
- F5 to save game
- F9 to load game
- Space to toggle desktop and console control
- [Desktop controls] E to perform selected action
- [Desktop controls] W to select next action
- [Desktop controls] arrow keys in desktop mode to pan the view
- Left Mouse to move, select, activate and interact
- Right Mouse to pan the view
- Shift to highlight items/areas
- Shift + Left Mouse to inspect items/areas
- A to customize selected drone
- F1(..N) to select your drone(s), press again to center
- 1..8 to use or consume items
- Z, X, C... to execute programs
- D to toggle defend position
- Ctrl + Left Mouse to attack enemy drone
- Q to toggle attacking selected enemy
- Tab to select (next) enemy
- Drag and drop items, hold a second to split a stack or combine stacks
- Ctrl/Shift when dropping an item to stack/split
- Mouse wheel to change number of items to stack/split
Tips
- Your first objective is to get past the lava, just search everywhere, solution is straightforward
- You don't have any weapon on start, avoid fights until you find one
- Your drone has limited inventory capacity, that can be upgraded by modules. Only the first inventory row is available in game - to use access cards or consumables, move them down there
- Modules can specialize your drones for combat, mining, defense, etc. Make sure to unequip first before replacing modules. You can replace modules only in landing shuttle, when you use the Repair machine
- Modules and construction kits can be placed only in the bottom inventory row
Status | In development |
Platforms | Windows |
Author | MathiasKaindl |
Genre | Role Playing, Action |
Made with | Audacity, MonoGame, Paint.net |
Tags | Crafting, Dungeon Crawler, Exploration, Farming, Metroidvania, Post-apocalyptic, Robots, Sandbox, Sci-fi |
Average session | Days or more |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse, Touchscreen |
Links | Twitter/X, Steam, Mastodon |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Update 0.27 - Keyboard Controls36 days ago
- Update 0.26 - FireJul 22, 2024
- Update 0.25 - ModulesApr 01, 2024
- Update 0.24 - RecyclingFeb 03, 2024
- Update 0.23 - Xmas 2023Dec 23, 2023
- Update 0.22 - ShieldsNov 01, 2023
- Update 0.21 - WeaponsAug 29, 2023
- Update 0.20 - ExplosivesMay 06, 2023
Comments
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At first impression I has been charmed by Your game, but it's unclear and a bit frustrating for me. Is game more about crafting&construction or exploration&quests?
At first, I played it like a factory game with a bit of exploration, but at some point, I realized that resource deposits are finite. And within my first impression and playstyle this run has been ruined. (I tried to sell some product just to farm credits and drain a lot of resources)
At first glace stationary drill seems useless with finite resources (component cost vs effect)
Am I missing something or am I just playing incorrect way?
Obviously, I need to set "I apologize for your frustration" as an auto-reply.)
The game is as much about crafting as it is about exploration. However, it is a very early version and some game mechanics are still missing. Hopefully after the integration they will close the current gaps in the game.
Miners mostly allow you to mine and explore at the same time. The ROI is already there for some resources, in the added value when crafting the resource into more valuable chemicals/items. You usually want to construct it on top of a "glowing" resource.
One thing to rush for is the repair nanobots - to keep you alive long enough to defeat bosses. Current game content culminates when you incarnate and defeat your own personal boss. I will be adding more content soon!
Thank you so much for playing the game and posting the feedback!
RTS control style games are some our least favorite games but that doesn't apply here! [played the demo] and really enjoyed the exploration and the player character is quite interesting. The intro really makes you want to explore, and figure out what's going on in the world. I think you could take this a step further and have some cutscenes between transitions to spice it up visually. Great job!
The "go up a level" tiles could stand to be more visible. It took me a while to clue in to what they were... Maybe make the little box on the wall glow blue or something?
I am also stuck.
I have the left gun module, but no gun for it. I put two fuses in the control unit; it doesn't seem to do anything. I can select cracked walls, but can't destroy them. All I can seem to do in the upper-right unmarked mine is rapidly deplete my credits trying to get to what appear to be three health bars. I have checked all of the storage boxes that I can find in the lower mine entrance (even the one behind the three enemy bots). If the way across the lava is "straightforward", I guess I am just not a straightforward thinker, lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I apologize for the frustration, level design is still a bit behind:) When you put the fuses in the control unit, it becomes "active" and you can click on it to open the doors around, just follow the wires on the floor. Animated sprites are on my list, I will bump the priority on them. That could make the control units and elevators easier to spot. Thanks for feedback and have fun!
After I activate the control unit and click it again, all I see is this:I tried clicking on the picture of the control unit on the right side of this screen, but that didn't do anything, either. Doors are all still closed.
I really have to rework this part - you need to click on the computer screen:
Aha, that did it. Maybe it would be more intuitive if you put a little triangular play button in the bottom right of the control unit menu once it is activated, so that the control unit would work much the same as the furnace?
I have quickly patched it using available assets, hopefully there is no other pixel hunting like this. Please get the latest binaries. Thanks for playing the game! :)
Get the free demo and let me know what you think!