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Ascent: The Space Game now has cloaking devices
Do you want to show off your ship while you're flying in Ascent: The Space Game? Because you shouldn't. People seeing your ship is the first step to people being able to shoot at your ship. Why not keep your ship cloaked at all times so that no one can see you and you can shoot them first? Seems logical. And you can do just that now with the new Kickstarter rewards being shown off in a video from the developers. The video also shows off the Bowhead ship and the Hawk fighter, all of which are indisputably in space. It's the name of the game. You can check out all of this in action in the video just past the break.
See Ascent's warp effect in action
While it may look like a Photoshop paint smear effect, Ascent's new warp animation is certainly an improvement over nothing at all. The one-man team posted a short video showing various ships going through warp gates and bending the very fabric of reality as they lunge across the universe. Ascent is fresh off a successful Kickstarter campaign. You can watch the warp video after the jump.
Ascent squeaks by its Kickstarter funding goal
The race to fund Ascent: The Space Game through Kickstarter came down to the wire, but in the final moments, the community came through and passed its $35,000 AUD goal by $334 AUD. This is obviously good news for the game's fans and for Fluffy Kittens Studio (and no, we will never get tired of typing that name). The money will be put to good use, says the lead dev: "The $35,000 Kickstarter goal will allow us to add four months to Ascent's development, resulting in a total of eight months of development time. We strongly believe that the added time will allow us to greatly expand the game's user base by polishing the visuals and fixing the user interface."
Ascent: The Space Game's Kickstarter will fund updated graphics
When we last checked in on Ascent: The Space Game, the indie sci-fi sandbox MMORPG was already eminently playable, having launched on Desura and angling for a Steam greenlight. Now Fluffy Kitten Studios has posted a Kickstarter intended to fund specific upgrades for the game -- specifically, improved graphics and UI. In fact, the complete budget breakdown is provided on the Kickstarter page. Backer rewards include premium access time, credits, Steam keys, and ships. You could even get a planet named after you. The Ascent sandbox emphasizes freedom, colonization, exploration, trade, combat, farming, mining, ship customization, starbases, and co-op play with fully consensual PvP. The Kickstarter boasts of the game's 270 billion star systems. Massively spoke to James Hicks, founder and CEO of Fluffy Kitten Studios, back in April, when he explained to us his business model, his target audience, and how he's come so far by himself. As he put it then, "Have a look at what we've done, with one developer, in one year, on a shoestring budget for art, music, and sound. Do you want to see what we can do in another year, with more?" The Kickstarter seeks $35,000 and is already at 51% of its goal with 25 days to go as of the time of this writing.
Ascent adds in a colonization city-building sim
The galaxy is now open to colonization in Ascent: The Space Game -- and there's plenty of room for everyone. Developer James Hicks has added in a colonization system to the sandbox MMO, allowing players to engage in a city-building sim among the billions of star systems. Colonization is intended to be the endgame for industrial players, with a great amount of complexity and no upper limit on the number of buildings or colonists. Every planet can be colonized, although ones with hostile environments will require more work and protective domes. To build up their colonies, players will need to recruit colonists, bring them to the planet, and task them with farming and mining the new world. "My intent from here is to expand on the city building aspects -- giving the population more complex needs and desires, making the recruitment aspect deeper and more meaningful, and adding new production types, new structures for interacting with other players like starport facilities and stock markets, and expand on the 'out of ship' play," Hicks wrote.
Ascent: The Space Game on building a better sci-fi sandbox
You'd be forgiven for not having heard of Ascent: The Space Game before. EVE Online is the sci-fi sandbox dominating headlines, and Star Citizen and other upcoming games are breathing down its neck. Is there room in the genre for, well, an indie space MMO that isn't all about cutthroat politics or hardcore ganking? James Hicks, the founder and CEO of Fluffy Kitten Studios and the man behind Ascent, says yes. He took the time this week to answer our questions about his already-playable-but-still-in-development game in deep detail, focusing on the game's complexity, player feedback, business model, mechanics, and how Ascent can truly expand the genre.
