What is No Safe Space: Alone?
No Safe Space: Alone is a space simulation game.
In the early 2000s, when I was maybe 8 or 9, I found an online game called Space Pirate. It was a mostly text-based space simulator where you could buy and sell goods, get into fights, and explore the universe. If you paid for the subscription you could save your game. One day the site showed “under construction,” and I kept checking back every couple of years, but it never returned.
Much later I came across a forum thread where someone described having the same experience, and to my amazement the developer of the game replied. I was sure I would never find out what happened, and was so thrilled to see his response.
His name is Gary, and you can read his story in the thread here.
I was able to get in touch with him during development. He started his own company, CleverMedia.com.
Gary was even able to point out the old site in the internet archives.
This project is inspired by his work, and I hope to have even half the impact his game had on me.
What makes it unique?
Gary laments about a successor to Space Pirate going up against similar 3D games with big budgets. I myself am in the same boat, going up against games like No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous. Though I'm not even in the same ballpark.
How can No Safe Space: Alone possibly compete? Well, another game I loved was Moria. A text based dungeon crawler which may compete for the top spot on my personal most hours played list. And it's literally just text and ASCII characters.
Moria engaged your mind, without flashy shaders and epic visuals. It had challenge, adventure, and depth(literally).
My dream for No Safe Space: Alone is to blend these. The immersion and anticipation of and scifi roleplaying and exploration, with the open world freedom and simplicity common in old text based adventures.
How long is the game?
TL;DR; let's say.. 2-4 hours for the casual player
Open world games typically have a primary quest or goal. In Zelda it's beating Gannon. They excel at packing the rest of the world with side quests, puzzles, and easter eggs. Space games should be no exception, though I honestly don't remember if Space Pirate had a main goal. It was enough for me to just make money to upgrade my ship and overcome challenges, though I know many people prefer a game you can finish. So No Safe Space: Alone will be no different. The main quest is a work in progress and will be relatively short for the alpha/beta release of the game.
PC requirements - OS
It wasn't until I was married and had our first kid that I built my first Gaming PC. For 20 years before that I got by with whatever was at hand. We don't know yet exact specs yet, but we're aiming to launch on steam for Windows and Linux.