u/BigBlueVelociraptor

I've posted a few times recently asking for advice and opinions, a couple of times I've been asked to put something on itch.io, so I have done!

This is a fairly narrow tutorial and combat prototype for my game Severance. You can setup battles, change ship and edit your loadout, I've left the ship and module/weapon editors enabled (they're visually editing json files), you just need to duplicate the default setup.

https://chiefyk.itch.io/severance-combat-prototype

The game itself is a 2D space "sim", I've taken inspiration from Freelancer, Eve Online and Starsector. I'm not sure if I'll get there but the plan is to eventually have an X4 style open universe that the player can inhabit while the big factions do their thing.

Any feedback would be great, what do you like, what don't you like, is the combat fun and interesting, is it boring, is it terribly unbalanced (it is unbalanced)?

Long time lurker.

I've been making a 2d space game for quite a while now. Originally I wanted something like Freelancer, then pivoted to a more Starsector-like combat feel, then settled on a weird mix of Starsector crossed with Eve Online. I've also built a fairly simple set of factions, they control regions of space, they go to war with each other, take over systems, there's a simple dynamic economy, all the things that make a space hame feel "alive".

My problem now is how do I drop the player the player into this living world in a meaningful way? I'm completely stuck. Do I go down the X4 route and allow the player to create their own faction? Missions like Freelancer or Eve? Generic open world stuff? Do I go down the story route? All of the above? A hook to keep playing for one more mission, or run, or whatever.

Some advice or opinions would be great :)

Edit: Apologies for typos, I posted this while sat on the toilet

Severance - Combat Prototype

Working on adding ship explosion effects, opinions?

Living universe vs actual gameplay