STASIS

edited in Projects
http://www.stasisgame.com/

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“Daddy, please help us…”

Disoriented, drowsy and in pain, John Maracheck opens his eyes. There is nothing to greet him but the static of a nearby monitor and a cold steel floor. Thick, green liquid covers the floor and then his body, leading to trail to a nearby, steaming stasis-pod. He slowly gets to his feet, trying to take in his surroundings. Where is his wife? His daughter? What the hell is going on…?
Stasis is an adventure game that puts you in control of John Maracheck, a man searching for his family in a seemingly abandoned research facility. Going back to classic adventure game mechanics, you are required to solve puzzles and use objects around you to progress and to find Maracheck’s family.
Graphically, Stasis is fairly unique in the adventure game genre, opting for highly detailed isometric graphics, as opposed to the more classic ‘side on’ views of other adventure games. Richly detailed rooms and fluid animations create an immersive environment for the player to explore, with danger lurking in every shadow.
The stasis-plug suit gives you direct access to an Emergency Medical Kit. This is a piece of equipment that has the ability to break down any object of a certain weight and size into its base elements and store it for future use. While normally used to store small medical supplies, Maracheck uses it as an easy way to keep and transport object he has found. Objects can be stored, accessed, combined and brought back into the ‘real’ world at any moment.
At its core, Stasis is a story about an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation.
Trapped in a place where humanity’s horrors come out to play, how far would you go to protect your family?
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Hey guys,

My name is Chris Bischoff, and I am the developer behind STASIS. Ive been working on it for around 2 and a half years, doing everything from the artwork to the music.

The game has been featured on TIGSource, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Kotaku, and the outpouring of support has been astounding.
Its a very good time to be an Adventure Gamer!

You can find out more at www.stasisgame.com , aswell as the development blog at www.stasisgame.com/blog. I am also on TWITTER at https://twitter.com/StasisGame

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STASIS TEASER TRAILER:




STASIS GAMEPLAY VIDEO:





I would love to hear your guys opinions on the game. ;)

-Chris

Comments

  • GORGEOUS! :D

    Wow the environment harkens back to the classic stuff like Crusader: No Remorse and Syndicate, but obviously WAY more detailed. Also I love the way you theme the crazy inventory system of adventure games (heck, all games). Adventure game you say? I'M SO IN :D

    Looking forward to playable code!! :D

    And when's the release looking to be? How far till completion do you *think* you are? :D
  • This is phenomenal! I noticed STASIS a while ago, and I'm really glad and totally impressed you've kept on with it.

    The gameplay looks like it's gonna be great, and I love a good mystery! Combined with those visuals I'm sure this will be a hit. Those sort of radial environments remind me a lot of the morgue in Planescape: Torment :D

    Is there any possibility of a playable demo at some stage, or did I miss it on your site?
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    Crusader, syndicate, and Fallout pretty much defined my introduction to gaming! I'm headed into my 30's, and I have to laugh at the people who complain about 'bad graphics' in modern games. I remember being in awe at the fact that in crusader, your character had 16 angles of direction! Or watching with glee as the operatives in syndicate would mow down a civilian with a machine gun...all 10 pixels of them!

    Currently I would estimate the game at between 60 - 70% complete.

    I'm glad you like the radial rooms! They are surprisingly difficult to plan, because the isometric angle really doesn't like curves! You would be surprised at how much cheating goes on to get those things to work visually!

    There isn't a playable demo...yet. But there will be one. :)
  • I think we've all been secretly following your Stasis development. There aren't any other South African games anything like it (in a good way).
  • @Chris_Bischoff I can see your style was inspired from those games, but of course now we have the benefit of lovely high resolution monitors! Those visuals have a kind of sharp detail to them that make them really nice to look at.
    And as you've suggested, I'm sure it's quite a technical challenge to get some of those angles and renders suited for the gameplay.

    Anyways, looking forward to the demo.
  • Glad to see Statis represented here. I only found out about it recently, and I have to say the game is looking awesome!

    You say you've been working on this for over two years. From a developer perspective, I'm curious as to how you're actually working on this project? Is it a part time thing, or do you have a savings you use to fund yourself? What keeps you going etc...
  • Wow-thanks guys!
    BlackShips, BroForce is just looking all kinds of bad-ass. Its a really good time to be a developer in SA!

    Manikin, the problems also come in trying to make sure that you can see whats going on at all times, but still keeping the world feeling 'real'. Limiting the fact that you only have 2 walls to actually detail, but needing to make sure a room feels 'complete' is quite a challenge!

    TheFuntastic, STASIS has excursively been an after hours and weekends project. I own a 3D illustration company called BURN, so almost all of my working hours is spent doing architectural illustration - so Stasis is my release from all of that.

    I do have a plan to take off a few months to complete the game in the near future-but its quite a challenge to organise it. Savings wise, its not a problem - the issue is mainly that the company is very reliant on me being here all the time...so to try to work around that is nigh impossible...but where there is a will, there is a way!

    The eventual idea is to go into full time gave development, with me already planning my next project (which is something heavily Fallout inspired). But nothing is concrete until Stasis is out!
    Thanked by 1TheFuntastic
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    Can't wait for a demo! As @BlackShipsFilltheSky said, I've been following you since SAGameDev days in about 2011 (also I'm pretty sure I naively tried to get an internship with you at some point too :P).
  • Quite a few people have sent portfolios and such...I really hope to one day be in a position to start accepting them!
  • Really like the look of STASIS. Like many, I've been following for quite a while :) I'm horribly shallow, so the pretty graphics (and they are pretty) are what I'm most interested in experiencing :P
  • Yay! You're finally on a forum so we can poke you easier :D
  • I am a big fan of the poking! And Shadow, if it helps, the graphics are the most fun part of the project to make!
    Thanked by 1ShadowBlade
  • We don't have a demo to play of your game :( Please can you let us have something to judge for the rAge 2013 submission?
  • Wow this game looks amazing my jaw is still on the ground your pre renderd backgrounds look stunning! Just wow man wow! Big fan of your work on this game! I have been following this game for a bit now first time I saw it I was very intrigued and still blown away by the atmosphere and beautiful renders! Just the sheer amount of work you had to do is mind blowing for one person! Wish you all the best in finishing the project and please keep us updated with the games progress!
  • Ooh, I think that I recall seeing something of this quite some time ago...

    I'm put in mind of the Infinity Engine games.

    It looks very pretty indeed! ^_^

    If I may ask, what engine are you using (if any)?
  • GMax, Thanks man!

    Gotta say that the stuff thats been released has been in development for a while, and the later screens that Im currently working on are MUCH more detailed and in general even more awesome(r). I've actually had to go back and revisit all these released areas and add another layer of detail over them.

    Thaumaturge,

    Thanks man. :D Im using Visioniare ( http://www.visionaire-studio.net/cms/adventure-game-engine.html ). Its an very cool, very artist friendly engine.
  • Holy crap! I remember seeing this on RPS and being quite impressed! I wasn't aware this was a South African game. I'm overjoyed.

    Any word as to release dates? *nudge nudge nudge*
  • Ah, Visionaire -- I think that I've heard of but not used that particular engine. I hope that it's working well for you, as I take the implication that it is. ^_^

    (Now I really am wondering where I saw this game previously -- it was on a community somewhere, I seem to think, but since I don't believe that I've used Visionaire it probably wasn't anything related to that... Ah well. ^^; )
  • Release dates iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis...when its done! :D

    Yeah-its an awesome engine, and the nice thing is that there is a ton of development still happening on it. 3D character support, IOS exports, etc.
  • STASIS got featured in the home_coded section of NAG this August! Thanks so much guys! Awesome, and a little surreal to see it. :D
  • Look I found new Stasis screenshots!

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    Nah, just kidding XD Just amazed at how one man's production is on par with Obsidian's output :)
  • Oh I've been staring at those Obsidian and InXile shots for a long time!
    I did some really early lookdev with the guys at InXile for Wasteland (actually working with Koy, the main art director, and Brian Fargo was a bit surreal).

    I really love what they are doing over there with PE, and Torment. The normal map stuff with lighting, and their shader tricks to get water flowing and flickering fire are just all kinds of badass!
  • @Chris: I've followed your posts on that other indie dev site from the beginning :) What you've achieved is nothing short of incredible...that being said, do you have any concrete goals/deadlines? Or are you winging it until it's done?
  • Thanks man! It really is just a lot of grunt work! :D I have 2 release dates in mind. The one is conditional on getting additional funding (allowing me to work on the game full time), and the other is just keeping going at it in my spare time!

    The nice thing about the game being very linear is that its 'easy' to calculate how much time is needed to complete the game...its just a case of finding that time while running a company, and hoping for a semblance of a social life!
    Thanked by 1kurtkz
  • Social life, schmocial life ;) Have you decided on whether or not you're going to do a kickstarter fund raiser?
  • Yeah-I will be doing one soon. Been busy for the past while getting everything together for it!
  • Did someone say Kickstarter?

    I'll just leave this epic guide of epicness here then.
  • Oh Ive read that a few times!
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    That looks rather useful -- I might read through that myself. Thank you for sharing that, Dislekcia! ^_^

    Whenever you do start that Kickstarter, Chris, good luck with it. ^_^
  • A TRAILER SHOWING SOME OF THE NEW ENVIRONMENTS IN STASIS!

    LINK TO THE KICKSTARTER UPDATE

    I'm at the four month mark of full time development on Stasis!

    The majority of the Alpha bug fixes and new systems have been done and dusted, and so I have been able to move onto entire new and exciting Stasis environments.

    The medical suites are stark and white with a vastly different aesthetic, compared to the rusty, industrial grime you've seen so far. It's refreshing to work on a new experience point with an unfamiliar tile set. I've also now created the medical puzzle that was alluded to in the last update.

    .......

    "The skeletal remains lie clustered together around the room, as if they died in a stampede, or clutching each other. Somehow the bones hold no scraps of flesh."

    We've received some new writing from Christopher Dare and it is excellent! I can already see how the extra depth of this writing will echo through the environments, and really draw a player in.

    I'm now moving onto the Hydroponics Bay... wish me luck :)

    AND SOME MORE ART!

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    -Chris
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