Duration: 9:55

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Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Publisher: Team 17

I didn't know what to expect from the Steam Next Fest demo of Earthless, but I was so impressed by it that I had to feature it on this channel. The demo is still available at the time of writing this, so if you like what you see then try it out for yourself!

There’s a lot going on in this game. The story and setting seems to be inspired by Battlestar Galactica, but the gameplay mixes turn-based strategy, deckbuilding games, roguelites, and even elements from games such as Reigns (re: decisions that affect crew morale). It sounds like a lot, but the end result feels surprisingly cohesive with every element being a natural fit for the others.

In this video, you’ll see that I had a chance to leave the encounter early but chose to hang around to get more rewards (I think destroying more enemies yields more rewards? I’m not 100% sure) and show off as many abilities and mechanics as possible. Then, by some wonderful stroke of luck, the game gave me a path that let me show off all of the nodes in the demo (so you can see what kind of choices you’ll encounter and the kinds of upgrades you can get). One thing I didn’t show is that you can choose from three different ship abilities (ie. the big red button) at the start of the run, and your choice will also alter the starting deck you’re given (target lock, which you'll see quite frequently, is a starting card in the Asimov-class deck).

By the way, do Team 17 still count as an ‘indie’ publisher? I don’t really know anymore… but when the game is this good does it really matter? ;)