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Lead a crew of freelance adventurers & navigate corporate intrigue on the fringes of space in a classic sci-fi dungeon crawl

Total funding with PayPal: $80,164 (March 8, 2014)

BONUS: Buddy Backer Did a friend refer you to the StarCrawlers Kickstarter? After the campaign we'll ask for their KS handle, and you'll receive bonus packages directly from them, with special loot inside. Limit 1 Buddy Backer reference per person - choose wisely!

 THE MISSION CONTINUES. WITH THESE JUICY STRETCH GOALS. ALL OF THEM!

$80,000 MiniGoal: Backer Bundle Addition - UNLOCKED

The Kickstarter Exclusive Legendary Armor is not only sleek and stylish, but has a unique effect in game: BlinkTech This armor begins every fight with a high dodge bonus which is reduced every time a dodge is successful. Help your newbie Crawlers dodge like a pro! Until the BlinkTech runs out of juice of course...

$82,500 MiniGoal: Inferno Squad Deployed - Special enemy variants from Inferno Squad join the fight, bringing unique attacks and tactics to keep things hot for your crew.

$85,000 MacroGoal: NEW CLASS - All backers vote to add a new class to the game: Force Psyker, Smuggler, Engineer or Prototype! YOU DECIDE.

     

What's the Backer Bundle all about?

Every pledge contributes to the success of StarCrawlers! As a special thank you to the community, backers will also receive additional exclusive in-game rewards as stretch goals are unlocked. All items below will be added to the Backer Bundle which will be awarded to everyone who backs at Tier 2 and beyond!

RECENTLY UNLOCKED BY THE COMMUNITY:

You’re a Crawler, and that means you work for those that can pay. Asset recovery, commercial espionage, and mayhem for hire are just a few of your crew’s specialized services. If something shady needs doing, chances are a Crawler will be involved. Succeed and you’ll be rewarded with better pay then any corp drone can dream of. Plus, you'll earn the respect of the eclectic assortment of merchants, opportunists and adventurers who make their home in the fringes of space.

In StarCrawlers, you’ll lead a crew of Crawlers, each with their own unique skills and abilities. Together you’ll take on jobs to explore abandoned spacecraft, battle mighty enemies, and unravel corporate intrigue. Some key features of StarCrawlers:

  • Classic first person dungeon crawling in a detailed sci-fi universe
  • Narrative AI procedurally generates missions and dungeons with randomized encounters, traps, and enemies
  • Strategic RPG style combat featuring a time unit action system
  • An atmospheric soundtrack by Ben Prunty
  • Class ability customization and modification
  • Randomly generated and upgradeable loot  
  • PC, Mac, and Linux support
Nurse Ratchet & Grinder - two of the nicest killer robots you'll ever meet
Nurse Ratchet & Grinder - two of the nicest killer robots you'll ever meet

Classic CRPG with a sci-fi flavor

In StarCrawlers you'll be navigating the halls of massive abandoned ships and sneaking through corporate facilities in a dynamic and interactive environment. Hack terminals to create shortcuts or find valuable data, disable or evade a variety of traps, grab as much salvage as you can carry, and keep your eyes peeled for hidden areas, loot and enemies.

Narrative AI

Randomized environments doesn't just mean slapping rooms together! The Narrative AI in StarCrawlers builds procedurally generated levels based on the story of the mission you're running. Whether on a rescue job in a pirate hulk or extracting data from a corp security station, your dungeon will be custom built to match. Lower the difficulty level for a casual dungeon dive or crank it to 11 and face fiendish traps, complex dungeons, and the toughest enemies. 

Doc Elliot - Mission Giver, Barkeep, Gentleman
Doc Elliot - Mission Giver, Barkeep, Gentleman

Player-driven experience

The Narrative AI is also responsive: your choices of allies and how you resolve events alter not only the results of the mission, but how the story of your Crawler crew evolves.

Strategic RPG style combat

Combat in StarCrawlers has a traditional turn-based RPG style with a time unit action system. Unleash a series of light attacks with speedy, low cost actions, or strike a mighty blow with a heavy, high cost action. Smart choices about which abilities to use and when make the difference between victory and defeat. Take a look at the video below to see combat in action.

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Build a Relentless Crew of Crawlers

No Crawler can survive alone. You'll need to hire a crew, level them up, specialize their abilities, and customize their gear. Each Crawler class has their own set of combat abilities as well as special skills that provide advantages outside of combat - helping you to navigate your environment more effectively, and deal with traps, encounters, and threats. Assembling a crew that works well together is a focus of StarCrawlers! Initial classes include: 

The Cyber Ninja is a trained killing machine, dispatching foes with deadly efficiency. As melee combatants, they can be vulnerable to counter-attack, but have abilities to evade and retaliate against the clumsy strikes of their enemies. While exploring, they are invaluable in situations that require subterfuge and cunning.

Technical virtuosos, Hackers possess powerful tools to corrupt and control their enemies, but lack in direct damage attacks. Their high-tech skills are vital outside of combat to disable traps, hack security terminals and access secure data.

Specializing in advanced weaponry and raw power, the Soldier’s a likely candidate If you need something blown-up, exploded, or detonated. Intimidation and damage output go hand in hand, but if you’re looking to charm the locals, you may want to consider other options.

The Void Psykers are capable of building up tremendous psychic energy and unleashing high damage attacks to obliterate their foes. However, tapping into the void is dangerous and carries the risk of unleashing a deadly backlash. When dealing with events, her precognition abilities and terrifying aura can give you the upper hand.


We are very excited to have Ben Prunty (best known for his work on indie games such as FTL, Gravity Ghost, and Scale) as part of the team. With Ben’s original soundtrack as the background for everything you do, exploration through the StarCrawler universe will be an auditory adventure.

On Prime worlds, affluence and privilege abound - technological paradises, both luxurious and beautiful, these planets are home to the wealthiest and most powerful citizens in the universe. In the vast majority of inhabited space, things are very different....

Corpworlds are commonplace - entire planets dominated by large-scale manufacturing operations for their corporate overlords, keeping the distasteful side-effects of the Prime world's extravagance away from its citizens.

The fringes of space are home to drifters, pirates, Crawlers, and other colorful characters who prefer to avoid the busy inner worlds, or to stay outside the reach of those who control them. Your crew makes their home on what used to be a space station. Abandoned long ago, it has been reclaimed by the enterprising citizens of the region and “improved” with a healthy dose of bolted-on salvage and outer-world ingenuity. From here, your story begins...

Tell me about these Stretch Goals

If we meet our funding goal, we're positive we can deliver a great experience. In addition, we've carefully put together a list of stretch goals that will add more great content to the game and make StarCrawlers the best it can possibly be. Between our major stretch goal markers, we've also got some surprise additions in store, with more to be revealed!

As we're 100% funded, we're cracking into the stretch goals! Please see the top of the page!

I want to build my own rewards combo!

Can't find a pledge tier that has the exact rewards you want? Back at any tier and add a reward by increasing your total pledge using the list below. When the campaign ends, we'll be in touch via Backer Kit to help you customize your loot!

We’re a small and scrappy studio located in San Diego, California and we've been working together for 3+ years. Before forming Juggernaut, our team worked at a variety of studios including Autodesk, High Moon Studios, Torn Banner Studios, SCEA, SOE and as independent contractors on various projects. StarCrawlers is our first independent game as a company and we're very excited to bring it to Kickstarter!

Team Juggernaut! Left to right: John, Rocky, Ben, Tony, Jason, George, and Elena *not pictured: Asa (he's shy)
Team Juggernaut! Left to right: John, Rocky, Ben, Tony, Jason, George, and Elena *not pictured: Asa (he's shy)

Why Kickstarter?

We wanted to bring StarCrawlers to Kickstarter because of the amazing community support for indie games like ours and the opportunity to connect directly with those who are most interested in StarCrawlers. Here we can get your input on what features you’d like to see in StarCrawlers and secure the funding needed to complete the game.
 

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Video game development is a complex (but rewarding!) endeavor. Shipping a high quality game on time is challenging even for large teams with full financial backing. However, we have already established most of the complicated core systems involved in StarCrawlers including combat, navigation, map generation and inventory and have a solid and attainable schedule in place to launch StarCrawlers by our proposed delivery date.

While this is Juggernaut’s first indie title, we’ve been working in the video game industry for a combined 20+ years. As a team, we have completed numerous contracts to create game content and art under rigorous deadlines. This experience has prepared us for the production planning and execution required to make StarCrawlers happen - and we're making it happen right now!

After seeing what has been accomplished in the last few months, we are confident in our ability to execute this project without major delay. We have a talented and passionate team that's very excited to be working on StarCrawlers and ready to commit all their time and energy to make it as awesome as it can possibly be. We’re 100% invested and dedicated to seeing StarCrawlers through to release - and beyond!

FAQ

  • NEW -> HOT -> How big a part of the game is story? Procedural content + story = ?!?!

    We believe the heart of any decent RPG is it's story.

    There is a central plot in StarCrawlers and it doesn't revolve around you saving the universe. Events will be set into motion by your crew and you'll have the opportunity to go from pawn to player (or flipping the table), depending on your actions.
    Crawlers are a varied group, and you can play your team however you like, whether that's maliciously, heroically, or just self-serving-ly.

    > How do you plan on procedural content working with the main plot?

    The main plot of StarCrawlers is comprised of individual missions, all of which serve to advance the narrative of the storyline in some fashion. The main plot also has branching paths with different conclusions, and your choices about how to resolve the missions that make up this larger story alter where you are on the paths. Elements of the mission stories are randomized to keep things fresh (who's sending you, what they're after, where it's at) and the levels / events / enemy groups are procedurally generated from these mission stories.

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  • NEW -> There a 1$ shipping cost on the RECON and RECON ELITE tiers? Is that real?

    Oops! That's an oversight we missed before the project went live. Now that it's up, we cannot remove it. Rest assured: there is NO shipping cost for the RECON and RECON ELITE tiers, they are purely digital.

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  • NEW -> Will there be an auto-map feature?

    Yes. Tiles you've explored will be automatically mapped, and you can bring up your map anytime to reorient yourself. Important markers will also be noted.

    If you opt to go Hardcore Ironman for your difficulty setting, you might find the auto-map... unreliable :D

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  • NEW -> What are the system requirements for StarCrawlers?

    It's too early in development to have exact system requirements for StarCrawlers. We absolutely want StarCrawlers to run on as many setups as possible, and working with the Unity engine allows lots of options for user defined scalability.

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  • I only see robotic enemies in your video. Are we fighting just robots?

    No! There's a mess of different enemies in the works, however the main storyline revolves around robotic foes. If you've dug this far into the F.A.Q for info you deserve to know: you'll also be facing humanoids, not-so humanoids, and perhaps something from beyond the fringe...

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  • Will there be a physical boxed copy of StarCrawlers? I love jewel cases!

    We do not have any immediate plans to create a boxed version of StarCrawlers due to the additional cost in time and materials. That said, we fondly remember having a shelf of boxed games (and actual paper manuals!) and would love to add a boxed copy reward tier if we meet our funding goal.

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  • Will there be permadeath / ironman mode? And can we turn it off?

    Yes, and it will be completely optional. If you've opted to have permadeath on, once a Crawler is dead - they're dead. You can however hire a new Crawler of that class back at base and of course retain all their gear.

    There will be a Hardcore Ironman mode: 1 save file, death is permanent. >:D

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  • Can we expect weapons and armor addons (perhaps craftable items?)

    Yes. There is an accessory slot on characters that will allow you to equip items to customize your stats further. We also have a stretch goal for a crafting system to assemble your own custom gear.

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  • Can we expect modding tools?

    Modding tools are something we'd love to offer in the future, but they will not be part of the initial release of StarCrawlers.

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  • Will controls be remappable from the default WASD and will there be controller support?

    Yes. We support remappable controls like a boss! We are actively looking into how much variety we can provide for controller support.

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  • What engine are you working in? Do you like it?

    We <3 Unity! We are extremely happy to be working in what we feel is the premiere engine for independent game development!

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  • How high does the difficulty go?

    This one goes to 11. Yes, we dropped a Spinal Tap reference.

    Good thing we didn't go with Monty Python! :D

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2,911
Backers
$80,956
pledged of $65,000 goal
 
 
Funding period

- (30 days)