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FTL: Advanced Edition shoots for $10 on iPad
FTL: Advanced Edition on iPad aims for parity with the desktop version, and it includes the full game plus the massive expansion hitting PC soon – and it will cost the same as the PC game, $10. Co-founders of FTL studio Subset Games, Matthew Davis and Justin Ma, recognize that for a mobile game, this is a "premium" price point. "Presumably the higher price point will make players a little bit more discerning on whether or not FTL will be something that they're interested in," Ma tells Joystiq at GDC. "Which is funny, because we're very expensive on iPad with the same price that's extremely cheap on PC. It could even be the same users that have the different perception of what is a $10 game, just based on the system." The Advanced Edition is a "pretty huge expansion," Ma says, and it adds polishing touches that Subset couldn't fit in the launch game, even though they wanted to. There's a new "Return to Stations" button that scatters the crew back to their set positions, and on iPad, you can drag a finger to select all workers and move them at the same time into one area, or drag to open a series of doors. Drag to change the levels of the energy bar in the bottom left corner, too. Davis says that one in particular feels really nice. One thing that didn't translate perfectly to the iPad is the dual-ship view. When your ship encounters another on PC they both populate the screen at the same size. On iPad, one is bigger, and you can change the dominant ship by tapping the one you want to inspect. Tap an attack action, and the enemy ship enlarges. "FTL works really well with the general way you play on iPad, just because you can pause it at any moment, come back later, and all the little events are bite-sized moments – " Ma says, and Davis adds: "You can do a jump and play that for two minutes – " Ma continues, "So that works out very well. And in that way, it's kind of casual, it's just you have to be able to put up with severe disappointment." FTL: Advanced Edition is due out "soon," the team says.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: FTL: Faster than Light
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Justin Ma and Matthew Davis of Subset Games describe their quick rise to space roguelike-like fame with FTL: Faster than Light, which recently launched on Steam for PC and Mac. What's your game called and what's it about?Justin Ma: Our game is called FTL: Faster than Light and we've been describing it as a "spaceship simulation roguelike-like." The focus is on managing a spaceship and her crew as they explore a randomized galaxy. Combat requires you to control the crew to keep your ship running and fight off intruders, balancing your power distribution, and trying to wreak havoc on the enemy ship. In between fights the game is filled with "choose your own adventure" style text-based events with many possible outcomes.Matthew Davis: The core game can be compared to something like Weird Worlds or Flotilla where the player is travelling to various star systems, encountering events and upgrading their ship. But the combat is focused on the ship interior as opposed to "dogfighting" in space.What's the coolest aspect of FTL?Justin: Each element of the game is pretty simple on its own: Blast doors can restrict enemy movement on your ship; oxygen can be vented by opening the airlocks; fire spreads through open doors. When all of these interact you can get some amazing and unpredictable situations. Your crew might be trapped putting out a fire in the weapons rooms while at the same time boarders are trying to break the doors down because they're suffocating after mistakenly sabotaging your oxygen system.%Gallery-166005%
