Forget gene-splicing, it’s genre-splicing that really matters in the future. Now we have the arrival of Starr Mazer on Kickstarter, seeking $160k to make this shoot ‘em up and point-‘n’-click adventure inter-genre marriage a reality.
Just to rile the blood of genres-shouldn’t-mix conservatives a little more, there’s a dash of RPG too - and they want some procedural generation as well. They plan a ‘randomised episode’ system.
That’s right, the story will change up each time you play it through, with the shmup sequences reflecting the different states of the story as we go along. Starr Mazer sounds an ambitious project and certainly looks the part of an old point-‘n’-click, with the adrenaline addiction of an arcade shoot ‘em up.
”Starr Mazer is more than a collection of Point-and-Click segments, Shoot ‘em up (SHMUP) segments and cut-scenes. The world is seamless. You’ll walk into the Holloway-Exeter docking bay, board the Starr Wolf and control the flight sequence, blasting off to space,” reads the Kickstarter.
”You’ll be bargaining deals at the bar in order to afford repairs and upgrades to your Starr Wolf and using information gleaned from characters to find hidden routes while flying between destinations. Be careful which passing enemies you attack, as not all are foes, and a few could have dire consequences. Even while facing the charging death beam of a G’ell cannon, use your charisma to dodge bullets.”
They explain their ‘Open-Middled Gameplay’ system: ”An entire playthrough of the game is like a season of a show, but each episode within can appear in almost any order. These episodes all have many entry points and exit points, but the core content of each episode is meticulously crafted.”
”We record not only how a player starts an episode, but the decisions that player makes within, and how that player decides to end it. Your actions modify situations and outcomes of future episodes,” they continue. ”As you complete key episodes in the overall narrative, the scenarios start funneling into one of a few logical and satisfying endings influenced by your actions throughout.”
Check out the Starr Mazer Kickstarter campaign for more if you’re as intrigued as we are. There’s 29 days left on the campaign with a goal of $160k, but they’re already near $35k.
