Contested Space happens when you take Minecraft and smash it into a persistent universe. Battles play out across a campaign map where each player attempts to grab land in a galactic conflict. We chose to cover this one for a few good reasons we are going to give you.
Why Contested Space Garnered our Attention
For those of you who are planning on Kickstarter you should start planning and put things out early. This one came to our attention because they put up planning trailers for their videos before launching. This sort of dedication shows both the press and fans that you care. If we notice someone doing the same, we would probably cover them too.
The Contested Space Gameplay
The final game will have a single large universe with some test universes being put into effect until the finished setup. You’ll have to choose between three alliances fighting over resources. Each win for your group adds resources and control. This makes each point vital on one level or another.
Contested Space and Ship Combat
One major point the developers are selling people on is the combat. Not only can you fully customize all of your craft in battles but they have precise physics. A big ship may be cumbersome but it will have a lot of armor and surface area. The final plan is to have an extremely precise and exacting system for space combat.
Contested Space and the Subscription Model
One interesting aspect of this game is that they are going with the subscription model. It’s an interesting choice because they aren’t going with the premium items, unlocks and other things many publishers use. At a $5 subscription fee it’s quite affordable but it is different from the industry standard. It will be interesting to see if this works for them.
Supporting the Contested Space Kickstarter
Since this is a small project they aren’t giving all the massive input to design some other games have. Indeed one of the things that they want is to not have a set narrative. They want the same narrative building we have seen in some other sandbox games.
Instead you’ll be getting some 3D printed ship models, stickers and subscriptions for a year. Basically things for people who just really want to support the development. With a campaign map we think it is going to be pretty great. At least one of us here will be supporting it for sure. Have a look for yourself though.
