VISIT ON ON STEAM

 

• Rogue – Levels are randomly generated and get progressively harder as the player progresses through them. The player’s goal is to defeat a boss to unlock the next biome.
• Perma-Death –  Death is permanent for the individual characters, but they are cloned back to level 0 and can be used for other missions.
• Perma-Progress – Any upgrades the player purchases or any checkpoints the player unlocks are saved. If a mission fails all loot will be lost. At the end of each level, the player must decide to leave the dungeon and keep their loot or continue to the next level and risk it all.
• Platformer – A side scrolling 2D platformer. The main locomotion of the player is walking and using a jet-pack. Attacking is done in two to four directions (depending on the weapon equipped).
• Squad Based – Never journey alone! Bring along several squad mates with different tools and weapons to help you dive deeper. Balance your squad with miners, healers, heavy weaponry and explosives.
• Destructible Terrain – mine and blow your way through the level to collect gems, create a shortcut, or gain an advantage over your enemies.
• Progression – As squad member kill enemies and clear cave sectors they gain XP. When they gain enough XP the go up a level and a random perk is assigned. These will be lost on death and can be changed for gold back at base.
• Three Biomes – explore the ‘Dark Cave’, ‘The Underwater’, or the ‘Lava’ biomes on your quest to save the world.
• Economy – Loot can be obtained in the form of Gold and Gems. Gold is used to buy new crew DNA (unlock characters) and re-rolling perks. Gems are used to upgrade your gear, the number of people in your squad, the starting health of characters, etc.
• Story – a fun, light story about the impending destruction of earth, bureaucracy, the military, and sci-fi culture.
• Local CO-OP – 2 (shooting for 4) player local multiplayer. A holo-deck ‘arena’ is planned (see stretch goals) to add death-match gameplay.
• Controller Support – This game was designed for both keyboard/mouse and controller support.
• Released – First on PC and if successful (see stretch goals) released on MAC, Linux and mobile.
• Sci-Fi – I love reading all types of science fiction {Asimov, Niven, Heinlein, Card, Howey, Clark, Wells, etc.} and have always tried to include that genre in my games.

 

DOWNLOAD ALPHA DEMO – MIRROR1 – MIRROR2 – MIRROR3

WEBSITE – THESUPERFLUOUS.COM

TWITTER – @The_Superfluous

FACEBOOK – thesuperfluousgame

INDIEDB – the-superfluous

Gameplay. You can have the coolest looking game, with the best soundtrack, and a kick-butt story; but if the game isn’t fun, you failed. Gameplay is everything.

 

My Take on Rogue-likes:  I’ve like Rogue type games since I started playing them in the 80’s. Today we have seen an explosion of rogue-like games from indie game developers. Of course, if you really think about it, Rogue games were probably made because of the limitation of saving large amount of character and level data with 1980’s tech :).

MORE ABOUT ROGUE-LIKE GAMES

The best games I think are those that make death a real penalty, but also reward the player’s time as well. Examples:

• Type A: Player dies and loses everything (no saves). The player starts over with no real advantage except knowledge gained. Only the best will finish your game. Traditional Rouges
• Type B: Player dies and loses nothing (maybe some currency or a little XP) and is returned to a previous save or checkpoint. Anyone can finish the game. Most current RPGs
• Type C: Player dies and loses player progress. Somethings are saved; game or level progress general upgrades or maybe gold. Allows the best and/or the most persistent to finish your game. A blend between A and B.

 

I prefer type C games. If designed correctly you can reward the hard-core players that finish the game the fastest with achievements or some sort of scoreboard. At the same time, you allow most people the chance to finish your game (it just might take them longer) regardless of skill level.

Most rogues-likes aren’t known for their story (because so few finish the game to know the complete story), but with type C games I feel like the story can take more of a prominent role.

Ultimately as a ‘rogue’ game designer you have to choose one.

 

Our Game… ‘The Superfluous’ is a type C Rogue-like; or what I like to call a rogue-lite. You start the game with a small crew and go on cave dives. If a crew member dies while on a dive that crew members level goes back to zero. This makes it possible to successfully complete a dive and return with the loot, but still suffer the loss of the crew’s death.

Levels reward crew with a random powerful perk (+max health, faster firing, faster reload, explosion proof, spike proof, etc). If all your crew dies on a mission you lose all the crews levels and perks as well as any loot you collected during that dive. You keep all the previous upgrades, the crew members you unlocked, and the ” unlocked from previous dives.

So at the end of each level you make the critical choice: do I go back home or do I try my luck on one last level?

Perks are gained by the character by leveling up through exploration and combat. Perks will be classified as common, uncommon, and rare. Below is a list of a few of the perks, notice some are more powerful than others.

• Cardio: Faster Move Speed
• Juice Cleanse: Lighter means jump jets more effective
• Charismatic: Brighter light source
• Thermal Vision: See enemies on map
• Treasure Hunter: See chests on map
• Down the Rabbit Hole: See end door on map
• Racoon Eyes: see all shiny/treasure on map
• Blood Transfusion: More health
• Extra Pockets: Bonus to loot collection
• Grounded: Less knockback from getting hurt/explosions
• Hyper Active: Reduced reload time.
• Juiced: Health packs heal more
• Nimble Bits: Won’t get hurt by own explosions
• Explosive Personality: Explosives do more damage
• Fidgety: Faster fire speed
• Grippy Shoes: Eliminate weapon slow down or kickback.
• On Swivel: Guns now have one more degree of freedom
• Hard Headed: Spikes won’t damage you from above
• Lead Foot: Spikes won’t hurt from below

All games should have a story. A story can motivate and inspire or just be something fun and entertaining. In The Superfluous, we are shooting for the later. I know, Indie games should make us feel something to be ‘successful’ (or so it seems to me nowadays); and we enjoy games with really in-depth emotional stories… but sometimes we all just want to laugh and blow stuff up.

The year is 2121. Scientists have discovered an asteroid (BAR-101), half the size of the moon, on a collision course with Earth. Normally this would cause great distress for the people of Earth, but because this asteroid will not impact Earth for another 1,000 years, most deem it as not important. Although there remain a few people that are concerned (a fringe political group formally called Republicans). To appease this minority group, the government of Earth spent billions of dollars to send a space ship to BAR-101. The crew’s mission is to place a Zero-Point-Energy bomb at the center of the asteroid and destroy it before it reaches Earth.

 

The shuttle, your shuttle, is named “The UWN Superfluous”. This ship is equipped with state of the art cloning technology, in case you or your crew is met with an unfortunate end before the mission is complete. New crew DNA profiles are available for purchase in exchange for any valuable metal (gold) found on BAR-101.*

Your ship also has a research lab to upgrade your equipment using any minerals available. Though please note the upgrades are expensive and don’t really make your gear that much more effective.  

Your crew will be equipped with our most advanced environmental suits and super sweet jet packs to help them navigate through BAR-101’s many caves, chasms, crevices, crooks, and caverns.  

 

You have approximately 999 years to complete your mission, so no procrastination. Remember the fate of the world might rest with you and your crew. Though popular consensus says we will either kill ourselves through nuclear war, a super virus, or by proving to aliens we are useless/dangerous to the rest of the galaxy.**  

* While you were in cryo-sleep the funding for this mission was cut in lieu of nicer toilet seats. 

 **Consensus made through a social media poll.

 

Very quickly you’ll find out your mission is not what it seems. You were expecting a lifeless rock your team would spend a few easy years drilling through. BAR-101 was anything but.  Riddled with caves and things that love the taste of your EXO suits, the asteroid, and your mission will be anything but easy.

Dark Cave – Fight bats, slimes, 4 legged spiders and more as you pick your way through the first ‘Dark Cave’ Biome. You’ll see mostly gray rocks but strange fireflies will also light up the cave with a strange ambiance.

 

The Underwater – Deeper down you find there is a large pocket of water trapped under the ‘Dark Cave’ biome.  ‘The Underwater’ challenges the player with slowed down movement. Imagine deep sea divers in their large brass suits.  Players will face rocket fish, sneaky swordfish, methane gas bubbles, butt-pinching crabs, and more as they delve deeper within the asteroid.

 

Lava Zone – The last of the three biomes (though there could be a fourth, see stretch goals) is where the asteroid gets its life-giving heat. The lava zone adds the extra danger of overheating the players EXO suit. If the player stays on the ground too long the heat will damage the player.  Enemies like the Splitting Fire Slime, the Fire Spitting Spider, falling rocks, and flame shooting fissures will try to abate the player.

 

OTHER – We plan on adding more content after release to keep things fresh.  One of our stretch goals is to add a new biome.  My idea was to make it a jungle biome, but we might let the backers vote on what it will be.  What do you think?

“Superfluous” [soo-pur-floo-uh s] – extra or unnecessary .

You will see the theme of ‘unnecessary-ness’ throughout the game.  The mission you are sent on is viewed, by many, as superfluous.  A giant expensive ship instead of a couple of ZPE missiles that would probably do the same job is seen as government waste. As you will see when you play the game, the actions taken by the crew are also extravagantly wasteful and excessive.

 

The programming is about %90 done.  The story about %60 written. The music around %80 complete.  I am fully confident in our team to reach the release date of December.  If we are still in Early Release by then I’ll probably give the “Just the Game Please” tier access to the Early Release so everyone can at least get the game on time.