Earlier this year independent game developer Cornutopia Software was kind enough to send us a review copy of Flatspace, a fascinatingly open ended space trading/combat game that was reminiscent of classics such as Elite and Privateer, but unique in it's own way. It got a 4.5 out of 5 rating from FRAGtopia and was an excellent product. Flatspace 2 is coming out very soon and Mark Sheeky agreed to answer few questions for us regarding the upcoming product.

When we did the Flatspace review/interview with Mark he answered our standard questions about himself and his company, so if you'd like to read them check out the original article here.

Q. How was the player reaction to Flatspace 1, was it positively received?

A. Generally good, better than my other games. Naturally for such an involved game I had a lot of suggestions for new things, questions about the game, ideas and lists of things to fix or change etc. Notes were made. All in all the game was updated regularly for over a year.

Q. How long have you been working on Flatspace 2, what's the percentage of completion and expected release date?

A. Since about March 2005. The game is in the final stages of testing at the time of writing and I expect to release it publicly in November.

Q. Was it just you working on the project again this time, or did you have anyone else involved?

A. On the game design side of things my collaborator Andrew Williams helped me with ideas and suggestions as with the first game, but generally this game was my baby. The countless reviews and comments about the game were also a big help though. In the end I think I implemented every request I could remember apart from two: ultiplayer (more about this later - ed) and moddability which was technically very difficult because of things like graphical formats, particle systems, graphics card memory, the need for technical documentation and a host of other problems. A lot of good suggestions from players were added including scanners that detected cargo types and backup saves, and stopping exploits like using the tractor beam as a penalty-free weapon by sucking ships into each other until they exploded!

Q. Do you have an idea of the pricing for the game?

A. It will be $24 (US) , 21 euro or £14. CD versions will cost $39 US or £24 including postage and will include on-disc printing for the first time. A music pack of in-game tracks will come free if people order within 14-days. (it's on the CD version as standard).

Q. Are you planning on having a publisher put it out, or selling direct to the player as you have in the past?

A. The game will be sold exclusively on-line, and from the official sites only at first. It's tricky to get any sort of retail/boxed game deal and even now I'm still chasing an option for the first Flatspace game (after 2 years). Internet distribution has plenty of upsides for developers and customers.

Q. Will there be a downloadable/unlockable demo?

A. Yes, it will be like the first game.

Q. The screenshots you've recently released on the Flatspace site don't reveal enough! How much of an overhaul have the graphics received?

A. Basically everything apart from the mouse pointer is new. Every ship has been remodelled from scratch. Most of the original ship types are in there but naturally there are new ones too, and every base/station is new. I've tried to make the Flatspace 2 universe much more like a civilization in space and stations include things like hospitals and schools, forests, farms, factories, housing and even an insane asylum, as well as the normal trading bases and star cities. There are little villages and floating habitations, a nod to "rock hermits", space dwellers mentioned in the manual from the original "Elite" game by David Braben and Ian Bell.

Q. You've mentioned there's going to be an alien race.... Good aliens or bad aliens?

A. The aliens (the "Scarrid") keep themselves to themselves generally, although both sides take pot shots at each other. A cold war exists between humans and the Scarrid. As player you can choose your race in classic Rogue-like style and both sides occupy opposing corners of the galaxy. The ultimate goal, or should I say one ultimate goal, is to wipe out all of the alien bases but for that you would need some fancy weapons and equipment so that means more money and getting better rankings to obtain some of the fancier stuff.

Q. The new game is "less brutal" to newbies... Does this mean I'm not going to die horribly dozens of times trying to get the hang of things? I hated Zombie/Non-zombie mode. Is it in this time as well? (I like being able to save my scores!)

A. There are lots of improvements in the gameplay area. For a start you can turn down the damage you ship can accept, that helps. There were a few deaths in the original game that were simply unavoidable, they are gone now. Pointers to incoming enemies (which made it into the last version of Flatspace 1) help pinpoint inbound attackers. A new prisoner system stops prisoners from stabbing the pilot to death... that was just mean. Flatspace II is less frugal with the cash too, bounty hunting, trading and deliveries all pay a lot more than before and it's much easier to attain high scores.

There are almost no random elements that negatively affect the player, that was a new design rule for this game. Crew wages in the first game were just random numbers but here the cheap crew cost a lot to heal, and the more useful the crewman, the more expensive his wage. The same goes for assassination and capture missions... the price is a complex calculation that is based on how hard the mission is to complete.

Permadeath is still in there and optional, it wouldn't be like Rogue without it, but it has no game restrictions apart from entry into the high score list and that's only because lots of identical names with similar scores in there would spoil the point of the list.

Q. We liked the original Flatspace, but it always felt like there could be.. More... What's the main hook that's going to get both new and returning Flatspace players into the game?

A. There's lots of new stuff for existing fans. One new aspect is a "guild" system. Different actions in the game boost the player's rank in one of five guilds. Some upgrades and ships are only available to certain guild ranks so boosting those is one goal. Experienced traders can buy a station for example, but do well enough as an alien hunter and you can have that cloaked ship. There's a new energy management system, and better weapons control with ammo for some. The AI has been improved for ships, fighters are cheaper and tougher and gun turret crews will intelligently fire ahead. There are new nebulae, and new asteroid types to make even mining more interesting.

There are also official secrets to discover (ala Doom) and messages and secret messages in the game that can be purchased in stations.

Unlike before, the new types of universe in the custom games have been planned and played in detail. You can turn off the aliens and play a classic Flatspace game, or turn off the humans and play as a member of the lawless Scarrid hierarchy. Warriors vs Humanity is a good universe to play where the Scarrid are all pirates and prey on human ships who have no defenders, and the Chaos Wars universe puts human and Scarrid sectors all over the galaxy in a tight mix.

Q. You mentioned that players can purchase a station.. What will that do for them?

A. You get free heals and repairs and you can buy equipment at half price. You also get a welcome home message when you dock :)

Q. Are we going to see a multiplayer component of some sort?

A. No. Apart from the budgetary constraints of things like running a game server, multiplayer games really need a lot of registered users to guarantee that enough people will be online. As it stands, even if every single registered user of the first Flatspace game was online at once, the game universe would still be 91% empty! Multiplayer games really require the backing of a publisher big enough to draw enough people in. There are not many online multiplayer indie games... it's a big gamble for any small
developer.

Thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer our questions, and look for a review of Flatspace 2 to be posted here shortly after it comes out. I'm really looking forward to it. You can visit the official site for more information in the meantime.