RetroSpace News

[h3]Now is the time to be a part of the Aurora 5 crew, aspiring janitors![/h3]

Join our new Discord server, where everything is about RetroSpace, Immersive sims, FPS games, horror titles, and everything that is retro, disco, and funky!

If you want to be a part of a great community (or a member of The Brothers of the Wrench!), speak with the developers, or just chat with other fans, your place is among us! (pun 100% intended)

You can find the dedicated new server below: https://discord.gg/SXKuWpDsUg

Stay awesome, be funky, play more:
The Wild Gentlemen - RetroSpace team

WILD Tactics is a brand new tactical strategy/squad management game set in the World of Wilderness, with a focus on unique characters, social mechanics, and a hellishly wild narrative.

It features the well-known XCOM-like combat system with unique takes on the beloved gameplay mechanics.



The game emphasizes the narrative as much as the combat! Get to know the ragtag crew of misfits, assemble your favorite team, and witness as the story unfolds through cutscenes and dialogues in 15 action-packed story-oriented missions.



- 12 hero characters with deep backstories and complex relationships
- 15 huge story-oriented missions
- Plenty of side-missions
- Squad and base management
- Weapon upgrading
- A unique and meaningful social system
- And an amazing original soundtrack

Wishlist it now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2384640/WILD_Tactics/

[h2]Hey, cosmic voyagers![/h2]

It's been a long time since we've posted a new dev blog, but luckily that's because we've been busy.

It's no secret that we're still looking for a publisher to help grow the team and speed up development, but until we find the perfect partner, we're still moving forward at a steady pace.



We successfully introduced the game to a whole new audience at the Reboot Develop Blue festival, where we received a lot of valuable feedback, but fortunately, a large majority of players were very happy with what they saw and experienced. (basically everyone) This confirmed that we are on the right track.

Meanwhile, we have achieved several important milestones. We've now surpassed the 30,000 Steam wishlist mark (which is amazing, thank you!) and we have over 10,000 followers on our primary social platform, Twitter (some people call it X)



But let's talk a bit about the progress of the project and our plans:

We've laid all the foundations for the project. We've started to develop an entirely new enemy behavior system and have put a lot of emphasis on making gunplay and combat of all types much more punchy, fun, and enjoyable.



This means new animations and updated models, but we also improved a lot on the effect of the guns on the environment and how the opponents react to them or any other impact (electricity, fire, gas, explosion, etc.)



Meanwhile, the story is being written, new characters and models are being created, and the world becomes more and more alive and real. We put a lot of emphasis on level design, and making sure that every element of it supports the perfect immersive sim experience.



We've also released a brand new trailer showing the game from the Janitors' perspective. It gives us a little more insight into our hero, the possibilities for players, and of course a good dose of the game's humour.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

About the future...

We're currently working to make sure all systems in the game are stable and as perfect as possible, while we're working hard to prepare for a possible Early Access release. We'd like to go down this route because it allows us to involve as many players as possible in the development, get your feedback and get very valuable input on all the things we need to improve to make the game really complete and unique.

Before the early access, we may also organize playtests, but we'll be sure to let everyone know about this in good time so that no one who is seriously interested in the game will miss out.



So the future is full of work and hope, and we can reassure everyone that development is progressing and accelerating as never before. We hope you'll stay tuned, and spread the word because we need as many janitors as we can get!

If you want more regular updates, follow our Twitter page, where we post fresh, new, and meaningful content on a weekly basis.

- The Wild Gentlemen

The hero of our story is a “simple” janitor. A worker who just wanted a normal day at work when something went wrong. The ship derailed and by the time he woke up, the Aurora 5 had sunk into the total madness of space-time.

He must use all his skills and abilities to get out alive, or better still, steer the ship back on course.

[h3]Before anything else, watch our educational film on the subject:[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]So, who are the janitors, you ask?[/h2]

The janitors are trained to keep the city-ships clean and tidy while most of its inhabitants sleep in deep stasis. Janitors are maintenance and cleaning staff in one, trained to work quietly and invisibly, using secret passageways or hiding in the shadows, so that their work never disturbs sleeping or awake passengers.





[h2]Equipment and skills of janitors:[/h2]

As chaos erupts, our hero must utilize the very skills that made him an effective janitor.

One of the most important pieces of special equipment janitors have is the A.U.C.S helmet, which not only tells them their current duties, vital signs, and equipment status, but also the surrounding light levels, and therefore their visibility. It is an essential tool in the eyes of every janitor.

Although janitors can do their job without a helmet, the Aurora Board does not recommend ignoring it (but you can do so if you want to)



Although the janitors mostly hide in the shadows and travel by secret passages, some of them, once the madness has taken over the ship, rely on the power of weapons and mutations rather than hiding.

In such cases, they use homemade gadgets - in addition to Mutamod(s)™ - or weapons from the defense forces, or, in a desperate emergency, their primary tool: the power wrench!

[h2]The power wrench:[/h2]

The power wrench or the “board-allowed multifunctional, heavy-duty, extendable maintenance tool” is the janitor’s best friend. This handy tool is suitable for a wide range of tasks and can be outfitted with a variety of accessories. Although there have been cases where a janitor has used the tool in self-defense, it is important to remember that a power wrench is not a weapon! And using it as a such, especially against a passenger, is a serious offense and will result in immediate off-ship teleportation.



[h2]The cult of the wrench:[/h2]

Sadly, in the chaos after the incident, an organization of renegade janitors and civilians called the "Brothers of the Wrench" emerged. This illegal grouping uses the power wrench not only as a weapon, but worships it as a sacred object that holds the combined power to both build and destroy, and as such, is the solution to all problems. What exactly they mean by this is anyone's guess, but the radicals of the group are growing in strength and currently control most of the engineering section of the ship.

The Aurora Board of course strongly dissociates itself from the organization and its methods or narrative!



[h2]The janitors' oath:[/h2]

Janitors are not just ordinary workers. They are all highly skilled and highly dedicated individuals who have accepted the job with the knowledge that they will probably never see the new homeland of mankind as the slumbering passengers will. Yet they are dedicated, knowing that only with their help will the ship stations eventually reach their destination, hundreds of years away.



The janitors are not just laborers, but a brotherhood, a tight-knit fellowship, bound together forever by a common purpose, and a shared creed. (and a very strong conditioning program)

So... are you ready to be one of them someday? Will you undertake perhaps the hardest job in the world for the greater good, for the survival of humanity? It's up to you...



Wishlist RetroSpace, spread the word, be awesome, and stay funky!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067820/RetroSpace/

The Wild Gentlemen

[h2]A ship takes off...[/h2]

In January 2023, exactly one year ago, we announced the RetroSpace project. We didn't know what to expect when we unveiled our funky, groovy, crazy and surely surprising (yet strangely familiar?) trailer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We wanted to come up with a game that was completely new and bold, yet somehow nostalgic, something we'd never played before but felt like we still knew from somewhere. Perhaps in an alternate timeline, RetroSpace has emerged as a rival to Half-Life and System Shock 2? Who knows?



In any case, our debut trailer gave us an explosive start! And on our social sites (especially Twitter, which some people now call X...) we produced numbers that we still can't believe to this day, because we never paid a single space-dollar for advertising.





Do people just love what we do? That's it? Well... Yeah. Simple as that. Which is nice!

[h2]WHAT HAVE WE DONE???!!! (in 2023)[/h2]

First of all, once we announced the game, we were very keen to make development as open as possible.





Not only do we give you a behind-the-scenes look at development, sometimes with hilariously lame and janky devroom videos, but we also often ask followers for their opinions on very serious design decisions.



Ragdoll or animated death? Interactive or static map? Endless hoarding or inventory system Tetris? Whatever the question is, the most important thing for us is to make the game you want to play! (as long as it matches what we want, of course... Muhaha!)

[h2]Behind the Art[/h2]

It was also important for us to show how things are made and how they end up in the game. So we often showed the amazing works of our artists from the first sketches to the final product.











[h2]...some things just happened to us[/h2]

Then, as the year went on and more and more of you followed us here on Steam and on social media, the requests and offers started to come in.



We were lucky enough to be featured at RealmsDeep 2023, IGN-hosted Fear Fest, and the Indie Horror Showcase, to name a few, but we also made it to the top of PitchYaGame. These are all fantastic achievements that we couldn't have dreamed of at first (not even under stasis!)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

At the Indie Cup, we received 3 major nominations, Critics' Choice Award, Most Promising Game Award, and Most Anticipated Game Award. And that's groovy as hell! If all this wasn't enough, we were even mentioned by the one and only Charlatan Wonder in the year-end Immsim round-up.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, we summed up the big achievements of the year, and we were surprised by what we saw. We were like... Funk! Those are some serious numbers, man!



[h2]Okay, so... what's to come?[/h2]



Oh, my, If you only knew, my friend...
2024 will be the year of RetroSpace! What can be expected? A public demo? That's for sure. But if all goes well, maybe an Early Access release too! A Kickstarter? That's also likely. Or... maybe much, much, much more! (wink, wink)

A lot of the work is still to be done, we're just getting the rockets fired up, and we all know how deep the black hole's ... ... ... hole is (or we don't, but maybe the game will tell us that too). Anyway... you can't imagine how grateful we are that with your help we've been able to achieve all this.



We are honored to have such a great community already! Keep on growing (or... ehm... mutating), and keep on loving RetroSpace as much as we love you, Janitors!

And never forget:
"In space, no one can hear you GROOVE!"