Survive at any cost
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About this project
Arctic Ocean, 2048
To prevent major resource crisis ARC (Arctic Rising Company) has created an underwater complex for minerals search and extraction.
An incident during a routine expedition transforms an underwater mining facility into a deathtrap. You find yourself surrounded by fire, water, bare electrical wires, and crewmembers who have gone crazy... and who are ready to take a chunk out of you.
Will you be able to escape the Station?
Station is about an underwater expedition. The action takes place deep in the Arctic Ocean, not far from the North Pole. A survey crew has been sent by the ARC Corporation in search of exploitable natural resources.
The work is hard and dangerous, and the people who do it have become hard and dangerous in order to survive. Some of the crewmembers are working off parole contracts. Others are in search of some easy money and will do anything to make a quick buck. The rest... well, the rest just have nothing to lose. And while everyone else is risking their lives, management at ARC is mired in an internecine power struggle.
During what was seemingly a routine survey mission, a bizarre event takes place that causes the crew to go insane and start killing each other.
The protagonist in Station is just an ordinary man, no one has chosen him for a great mission. He has no latent extrasensory abilities or other special powers and he isn’t even a former Marine. He’s just an average Joe who signed a work contract to make some money and was unlucky enough to end up in the thick of it.
He isn’t particularly fast or athletic, and he certainly doesn’t have any weapons training. He's terrified by what's happening around him, and he’ll have to think on his feet to survive the Station. The protagonist does have one advantage; his professional skills. He knows how to use the equipment on the Station, and that's pretty much his only window of opportunity to survive. The bathyscaphes, cranes, forklifts, and tools he finds laying around at the Station ARE his weapons.
Station's most distinctive feature is its atmosphere, which is characterized primarily by a constant, oppressive, yet vague menace and a feeling of vulnerability. This isn’t the kind of danger you experience when some thugs corner you in a dark alley and demand your wallet – the world of Station functions according to the laws of cause and effect. All the threats lurking around every corner are more than just jump scares.
In Station, the world around you is entirely hostile, and you have no idea how to stop this or how it will all end. Our inspiration for the initial development of the concept for Station was old adventure games such as like Another World (Out of This World) and Flashback.
Another one of the distinctive features of Station is the player’s independence. We don’t lead the player around by the nose or funnel them from place to place with waypoints. Everyone will have to find their own way out of the scenario we have created, and that’s how it always should be!
Summary
- Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux. Playstation 4, Playstation Vita*
- Release Date: First Quarter 2016 on Windows. Second Quarter 2016 on Mac and Linux. Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita to be determined.
- Languages: English, Russian. Other languages after release
* If stretch goal is reached
Click the link to download our playable demo and experience a piece of Station's dark atmosphere.
Be aware: this is a work in progress. Most animations, sound effects, GUI, environment and controls will be greatly improved in the final build.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
"Despite its classic adventure inspirations, Station is nonlinear, allowing players to find their own escape route."
Indie Retro News:
"there will be no hand holding in this game, and it's pretty damn brutal."
Plus10Damage:
"Reminds me instantly of John Carpenter’s The Thing. The idea of not knowing, but having to make a kill decision anyway. Terrifying."
- A detective story
Moreover, why and how the incident happened is shrouded in mystery. You may confide in your instinct to find the truth and by collecting the clues and comparing evidence, players will learn more about the ARC Company and about the current situation.
- Non-linear experience
Think out your actions very carefully. There will be no minor or major decisions. Each choice will have an effect on the story!
- Craft or brute force?
Choose your way to salvation: solve puzzles and avoid danger or try to remove the source itself.
Each puzzle has several solutions. If you’re unable to open a closed door, perhaps you should think of alternative ways for opening, but you must be aware of any potential surprises. The halls of the Station are not safe. If you decide to go around an obstacle, then stock up with ammo, or suffer the consequences!
- Faith or death (interactions with NPC)
Help other characters in trouble and get a faithful ally or finish him to avoid getting stabbed in the back. Each member tries to survive by all means. In order to have a change, you must search all documentation for all expedition members by accessing the internal network of the Station. Use all diaries, logbooks and private correspondence to find out who you have to deal with.
- Survival
Along with his “Health” your character also has three other indicators.
Tiredness. This indicator is spent with time. The more the physical activity of the character (by running around, moving heavyweight objects, etc.), the more tired he will get. Tiredness is recovered during the character’s sleep and by eating certain food. If Tiredness drops to zero, the character will start to black out. If the character blacks out at a dangerous location, there is a high risk of death. If the level of Tiredness is dropped to the critical line find a safe place, close the door and take a rest or find an energy drink to get some energy back for a bit.
Freezing. This indicator goes down when visiting rooms with a subnormal temperature. Players can recover by returning to rooms with a normal temperature. If the Freezing indicator decreases by more than half, the character’s sense of vision starts to get worse. When the Freezing indicator drops to zero, the Tiredness indicator will also start to drop. If your character blacks out in a cold room, he will die.
Air capacity. This indicator is spent while underwater and in rooms where oxygen levels are very low (for example, in rooms where there was a fire outbreak). Air capacity is recovered in the rooms with the normal air composition. When the indication is equal to zero, the Tiredness indicator also starts to drop. If your character blacks out due to a shortage of air, he might not make it out alive.
- ₤10,000 - Initial goal
- ₤11,000 - Expanded digital art book
- ₤13,000 - Two additional translations (German and Spanish)
- ₤14,000 - Advanced Particle System
- ₤15,000 - Alternate Extra Campaign
- ₤16,000 - Expanded physical art book
- ₤18,000 - Hidden bonus chapter
- ₤20,000 - Voice acting
- ₤25,000 - Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita Release (Cross-Buy!)
Backer NPC
Boxed Version of the Game
Digital and Physical Soundtrack
Digital and Physical Art Book
Station T-Shirt
3D Printed Scene
Your first instinct when making a game with a pixelated art style is to have a soundscape to match its visuals. Take the excellent Retro City Rampage which manages to merge the pixeltastic look with a great chiptune soundtrack. Well, we had that instinct – and we rejected it. We decided that the atmosphere we wanted to create demanded more realistic audio. That’s why we've also decided not to have music constantly playing in the background. Instead, we'll tailor it for specific, plot-driven moments. We feel that this cinematic approach can create the desired emotional tension – and, most importantly, it will save it for when it was really needed in order to have an impact.
Xeno - Into The Unknown
Xeno - Survivors
Xeno - Cold Depth
- Bills. In order to avoid having the game take years to develop we’re going to have to put all our time and effort into the project. This means we need to have enough money to pay our bills while we work from home (in order to reduce costs as much as possible).
- Software. We will need to buy some licensed software to complete our development of Station.
- Translation. We will have to translate our game into English, which means paying translators and editors to help us get it just right.
Why are you making this game?
Because we have always wanted to make a game just like this! The concept for Station was both interesting enough for us to put our time and effort into and compact enough to allow the three of us make a demo for it to show what we want to do once the game is funded.
How did you get the idea for Station?
Vladimir: It was after I saw the demo for Attendant that was developed by soft_h. The impression it left on me was very strong. The rest happened on its own accord.
Why are you making your game in this style?
Vladimir: This is also Attendant’s fault. And also because we love big, thick pixels.
Roman: It depends on which style we’re talking about right now. If we’re talking about the visuals, then yeah, it’s because of Attendant and our love of pixels. If we’re talking about the setting, then we should probably thank the Alien movies for that. And in my case, a polite nod is sent in the general direction of System Shock 2, Bioshock, and Dead Space.
What makes your game different from other, similar projects?
Vladimir: Its non-linearity. Adventure games can rarely offer alternative paths to the player. Also the atmosphere, which we’ve already talked about. Station has an interesting setting, which also adds to the atmosphere. And, of course, there’s the mystery component that will keep players engaged with the story.
Who are you guys? What do you do?
Roman: I’m an artist. I guess I always have been, as far back as I can remember. I mostly work with sprites and animation for 2D games, although I’ve recently started working with 3D modeling. So far, it’s going pretty well. Maybe next time we'll dive into a 3D game!
Vladimir: Once, when I was fifteen, I decided to draw a comic book. There was just one problem: the characters talked too much. So I ended up with pictures along the edges and a wall of text in the middle. It goes without saying that everything that took place in my comic book was brilliant, you know, just like everything you do when you’re fifteen.
As the story unfolded, there were less pictures and more walls of text. Finally, it turned into my first book, which I did manage to finish (96 notebook pages!). Since then I’ve been writing little by little. I published pieces in several literature forums, but that was quite a while ago.
Alie: I am a programmer with many years of experience. I have recently completed a Master’s degree in Computer Science, in which I developed a hand gesture recognition system using depth images! The first game I ever made was a text based adventure game about aliens.
Which games did you play when you were kids?
Roman: The first game I can remember was about a wolf catching eggs. Then it was Robin Hood on the ZX Spectrum. When I got to the NES, I played everything. The games I remember the most are, for some reason, Batman 2, Power Blade, and James Bond, Jr.
Vladmir: I definitely have to mention Another World/Out of This World and Flashback. These were pivotal games for me in the sense that it was thanks to them that I started getting interested in video game storylines.
Alie: The first videogame I ever played was the puzzle classic, Tetris, on the Gameboy. Soon after, I started playing Adventure games like Monkey Island and Loom on the Amiga. When I was a kid, the games I played most were Headhunter, Shenmue and Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, and the original Counter-Strike on PC. As well as those, my favourite game is Half-Life!
Risks and challenges
We've been working on Station for about ten months now and have spent hundreds of hours on it. We know exactly what we want and how to get there. We have thoroughly planned our budget and time schedule.
However, no one knows the future. Things might go wrong. Anything might happen. In this case you, the backers will be the first to know about any difficulties we encounter so that we can be as transparent as possible as we work to solve any unexpected situation
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Yes, in the full version we'll add a more complex inventory system, but you'll need to find upgrades to extend the number of inventory slots.
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In the full version of Station, we'll add running to controls and there will be times when your only option is to run!
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Yes, you can use the Xbox controller in Station
Rewards
Funding period
- (30 days)