Freelancers are commonplace in 2014 and becoming more and more the norm as the Millennials flood the labor market. So no doubt mercenaries will be prevalent several hundred years from now or whenever Juggernaut Games’s StarCrawlers takes place. The game is in development and currently passing the hat on Kickstarter (currently at $27K of $65K goal with 24 days remaining).
The game is about a group of Crawlers, freelancers hired to do questionable jobs. These are guys you won’t find on Elance, but in the dark corners of a city’s armpit or at the sleaziest bars on galactic mining planets. The basic concept is to assemble a team, each member with his/her own unique skill, and get the job done, survive and get paid. I’m sure there are some twists here and there, but it’s not a concept that’s completely original. Jagged Alliance and the original Fallout are the first games that come to mind, especially since StarCrawlers has a similar RPG battle play. Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, Ocean’s Eleven, et al, in movies.
I’m most curious about the procedural element. The levels are procedurally generated based on the story and game you’ve decided to play. This could result in very interesting replayability or changing boring. In a game like No Man’s Sky, procedurally-generated planets seem extremely intriguing. Even if a planet turns out to have nothing of value, there’s still the thrill of exploring it. Procedurally-generated dungeons and levels couldn’t offer more than a new trap or a different placement of a door, right? There’s no exploration factor, just a different same….
I hope StarCrawlers hits its goal on Kickstarter because I hope procedural games are as prevalent in the future as freelancers are now.
