ShieldsUp - my couch co-op and remote multiplayer bidge-sim MMO

I cannot ignore the inevitable. Three points along a line project a vector, and when I see it intersect a great number around the same point, it haunts me; fate spinning a dark mathematics. 

This particular confluence has many component parts. Web rendering keeps getting better and better. Cheap devices are getting stronger. What once was a cellphone is now a state mandated chrome-book, now only recently waning in popularity. Certain open source server infrastructure makes running ambitious projects possible for small teams. 

There is also a negative space that this idea grows into. There aren't that many video games that help people play in person. They are disproportionately absent on digital storefronts, and well loved by people who play them. Where can one go to be social with friends? There are growing number of young people who want to engage with each other rather than be absorbed by algorithmically curated content. 

I have been designing Shields-Up, where you and your friends fly around our solar system, working together to solve problems, meet people, do combat and maybe explode. Players exchange information to do their jobs better, or at all.

I made this game because it's the game I want to play. I have fond memories of playing bridge-simulator games at house parties, Artemis especially. The only reason this was possible is because I had a friend with a backpack of laptops that he brought with him. It wasn't easy to set up, or quick to get in to, and often times enthusiasm had fizzled by the time it was set up. I dreamt of a way to play that was easy, with tools people already had. I do not want to compete with the greats. Empty Epsilon, solved so many problems (what does comms do in combat?) but still involves setup. Pulsar: Lost Colony is the most immersive of the lot, with away missions, and full VR crossplay support.

 There are games that focus on the technical aspects of flying a spaceship far better than mine, and that is not the goal. I think there is a huge missed opportunity in the genre where people get to be social remotely. These games are incredibly social when everyone is in the same place at the same time, but require a lot of setup to play remotely. Everyone in my game gets an avatar that you appear to your crew as, and appear in Voice Hails as. 

I am working on refining the visual novel style interface for dialogue trees with NPC's, and the tools to make your own missions, define your own behaviors and write your own dialogue scenes. There's also a kinda DM role where you can run a session, order NPC's and answer voice hails as those NPC's and speak for them with their avatars.

It's in Godot, it uses SpacetimeDB on the back end, and we have a Patreon if you wanna help us build this thing. The goal is to make a game that's easy to get into, that is... almost anti--immersive. I want the game to be the thing that spurs you to pay attention to your friends, and hone your inter-personal communication skills. I could see this being really good for kids.

That's the pitch, https://www.patreon.com/squishypixels/