Today in Crazy-Ambitious Kickstarters That Might Wind Up Costing Way Too Much And Getting Delayed But Hey They Sure Sound Cool, here’s The Mandate, a game about space.
The premise: you’re the captain of a big spaceship, and you have to manage your crew, explore space, fight against other ships, and so forth. Also there’s political strategy and RTS-ish combat and a giant space sandbox to explore.
It sounds wonderful, but they’re only asking for $US500,000, which strikes me as a very low amount for a game with goals this lofty. Check out some excerpts from the Kickstarter:
Explore a world of culture, with 1500 years of lore, ruled by the Tsars.
Survive a world of pirates, mercenaries & faction forces with their own agendas. Make enemies, or appease more powerful factions. The world reacts to your choices, and you must live with the consequences.
Utilise the human chain of command to manage your crew. All hailing from various colony ships, tasked by you to fill their stations. Watch them grow, learn, and experience… watch them tire, break down, and die.
Ships in The Mandate are the crew’s home. Blast through shields and bulkheads to knock out the various sub-systems, ejecting the crew into space — all in real time. Board the enemy, or defend against boarding! Fight from space as your friends put boots on the ground, or team-up and storm the enemy ship with RTS mechanics.
Scavenge derelict wrecks and salvage what you can to survive. Expand your home base to rearm, upgrade and design new ships. Grow from a single frigate to a powerful battle squadron.
And…
We’ve written 1500 years of history. It’s up to you to write the future. The explorable reaches of space mix hand-crafted and procedurally generated content and is packed with historically relevant easter-eggs offering insight into the Mandate’s rich lore.
Each level of the game, from the political tier of warring empires, through the strategic level of individual star systems and naval battles, down to personal interactions with other characters impacts on how your story develops.
The decisions you make in Mandate affect the world around you, and your crew. Every action has a consequence, and as you push your ship to the farthest reaches of the universe, diplomacy and morality are pushed with it.
Affect the world with your actions, not with your words. The Mandate will not be challenged with a dialogue wheel.
I guess they had to throw in a dig against Mass Effect, huh? The Kickstarter’s right here, if you want to check it out.
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