today i can finally bring you some good
news today i get to talk about an indie
game that has incredible potential and
today i get to remember why i love video
games as well as why i still have faith
in the industry it's time for another
indie spotlight once again about falling
frontier falling frontier is an open
space high fantasy rts developed by one
man i feel like it's important to say
that because in a world where aaa
developers are throwing millions and
millions of dollars eight-digit
marketing budgets and hundreds of
workers at a concept in order to
dominate the space indie titles like
falling frontier become that much more
impressive i've talked about basic
mechanics and creative vision before
when it comes to this game but that was
over a year ago and since then this
title has grown beyond what i ever
envisioned possible i'm biased just to
be clear i've had over a dozen meetings
with the developer dating back well over
a year at this point and i was the first
person in the world to showcase actual
gameplay on youtube but having carefully
considered my own bias having looked at
the facts multiple times i'm confident
when i say that this game doesn't just
have incredible potential it may very
well become a mainstay in rts history
small games sometimes ascend to the
level of greatness hades for example is
another indie game i believe achieved
such a status or slave aspire the best
roguelike i've ever personally played
there are others that come to mind
absolutely but falling frontier to me is
the one that stands tall as the most
exciting and impressive indie game i
have ever yet played of course this
hinges on key factors like your
enthusiasm for science fiction concepts
real-time strategy and space combat as
well but for anyone that holds an
appreciation in those areas this game is
something you absolutely must consider
above all else falling frontier is about
realism i don't mean realism in the
sense that planets will orbit stars in
realistic proximity sizes or realism in
the sense of feeding crew members all
their vitamins every day but realism in
a way that enhances gameplay storage of
munitions population growth economic
prospects as a function of controlling
planets all of these systems aim to
enhance the experience of colonizing and
controlling dynamic space environments
when i first talked about this game it
was scheduled for sometime in 2021 well
there was no concrete date per se but
the target was sometime in 2021 i
believe but now it's been delayed into
2022 for early access most of the time i
treat delays with a large degree of
skepticism but this time i've looked
behind the curtain i've been privileged
enough to be able to do so and i
understand why it happened for starters
the developer of this game is
self-funded yes there is a publisher
named hooded horse studios more on them
later but that publisher actually
operates in an atypical way when
compared to the rest of the industry
hooded horse has a reverse revenue model
that means that the developer is paid
before they recoup costs plus hooded
horse has committed themselves to
preserving control in terms of
creativity and with regards to launch
windows that means that this delay of a
self-funded game was decided purely by
the creative mind responsible for it and
the decision was made so that the
product can be improved upon to a degree
where it is ready for the players to
experience it i often complain about
rushed timelines and publisher
interference so understanding that those
problems simply don't exist here well
it's reassuring and it builds a lot of
confidence falling frontier has grown
immensely in the past year there is a
scenario creator in the works that will
allow users to generate their own
planetary systems there is a campaign in
the works as well and that campaign will
include scripted unique events with
persistent choice-based effects later
down the line saving one crew here or
salvaging that ship there will have a
lasting impact on future scenarios and
all of this is being created without a
subtraction in other areas video games
unfortunately often fall into a resource
trap of sorts where one feature if it
proves too expensive will be stripped
out or gutted to make way for another
feature games often find themselves in a
position where fixes just break other
things or they get so complex from an
engine and baseline code perspective the
further development becomes more
difficult falling frontier doesn't
actually have those problems i have
learned so much from my relationship
here i don't even exactly know where to
begin as an example there is a feature
in a trailer where explosions impact a
planet's surface during our most recent
talk i remembered to ask if this was
purely cinematic or if this would be a
mechanical feature of the game within
maybe about 60 seconds todd the
developer had launched a scenario and
begun tweaking values to show me that it
was a mechanic and how the size color
and speed of the shock wave could be
augmented to make the bombardment of a
planet's surface more or less severe
basically on the fly it was and is
actively incredible to watch the number
of features expand for this game ships
have realistic internal hitboxes to
allow for dynamic fights a great shot
that hits the ballistic magazine can
destroy an entire ship and rather than a
simple format where one ship has the
highest technical damage output and thus
gets mass-produced to win every single
fight falling frontier will have a
resource-intensive engagements with
critical positioning fleet composition
and preparation individual part
manufacturers will denote weapon or ship
armor characteristics ships can hide
within atmospheric dust clouds or
asteroid fields depth charges can be
deployed to attack those areas and the
scale of this game as individual
mechanics like recon stations world
colonization and mining unfold is
absolutely enormous customizing ships to
have your preferred style of armaments
selecting crew with proper bonuses to
enhance that ship's role in your fleet
and an emphasis on the value of those
ships from the beginning make it so that
something disposable in other games
which ships usually are in a space rts
you just kind of yeet them at the enemy
in this game it's almost like they're
actual characters these features come
together in a way wholly unlike other
existing space rts games falling
frontier takes proven mechanics and so
far combines them into a cohesive and
satisfying overall experience in the
background right now just fyi is never
before seen footage of the game i was
given this footage to complement the
video and there are additional updates
being published on the stutter fox
youtube channel which i'll link down
below so if you have any interest at all
i would actively encourage everyone
watching this to put falling frontier on
your steam wish list absolutely and keep
close track of its development i've been
excited for this game since probably the
end of 2019 i've watched it grow from a
bare bones idea as i learned about the
universe and the lore to a featured e3
best in show project e3 2021 awarded
this game the title of most anticipated
indie title at the entire convention and
that praise is very very well deserved
the organic marketing for this project
has grown exponentially since early 2020
and i'm also happy to say that both the
publisher and developer have a very open
genuine interest in having youtube
creators such as myself and streamers
showcase the actual product this isn't a
game with some sort of sky-high
marketing push only to bait and switch
the features at the final moment it's a
project that has proven itself to be
genuine and is aimed at providing the
best overall experience for its players
i have played probably north of 100
different rts games in my lifetime at
this point those titles are fun a lot of
them were but recently the genre has
become rather stagnant the reason for
this is pretty simple but honestly there
is very little effort to address or
change it by major projects typical rts
games focus on rapid expansion and
ultimately end with a calculated group
of numerically superior combat craft
pushing some sort of objective yes you
can have economic victories or other
secondary win conditions but the idea of
grow fast spam stuff win game is almost
always replicated in some way this
remains true partially with falling
frontier however there's an emphasis on
logistics that other similar games
really just don't have
fuel consumption constructing individual
ships with customizable crews and
armaments plus the function of deep
space and the sheer scale of its
planetary systems all combine to produce
an rts that lives up to the acronym
better than almost any other game i've
ever seen in my life it happens in real
time of course and there is a tremendous
amount of strategy available even for
tasks that might otherwise have been
overlooked as mundane so in terms of the
name rts real time strategy this is the
quintessential example of that there is
this recurring issue where end game in
rts titles can become kind of frantic in
the beginning you perfectly manage your
resources unit pathing everything but
eventually your presence is too large to
maintain you make mistakes by and large
the tasks and maintenance from the early
stages becomes kind of a chore as you
shift from micro to macro and then
pushing the final goal falling frontier
is able to change that dynamic ever so
slightly and it's amazing as a result as
an example there is no globalized
resource system which might seem like a
tedious thing to manage but building
your supply lines to and from different
orbiting stations can hold incredible
sway over your efficiency likewise this
kind of automation reduces the stress of
micromanaging a giant empire and is also
mirrored in how you attack your enemies
disrupting supply lines just isn't a
thing in most rts games you can do some
damage sure or disrupt their economy
generally speaking but hitting an
exposed supply chain depot and falling
frontier can be a critical step in your
future attacks taking the frantic pacing
of most rts titles and slowing it down
inside a traversible yet intimidatingly
massive planetary sandbox it has amazing
results thus far from angles of attack
to scanning deep space all the way to
fleet positioning and depth charge
bombing asteroid clouds for stealth
ships it's all here the inherent value
of all ships and the goals put forward
when it comes to economic function are
designed to make the game equally
engaging no matter the phase i like to
compare this game to the amazon tv show
called the expanse because it seems to
focus on a similar idea of realistic
scarcity and resource importance
obviously the universe is completely
different there's no actual affiliation
there but high concept science fiction
worlds and video games have always been
a selling point for me another thing
that stands out something i believe to
be monumentally important in any video
game though some might disagree maybe is
the soundtrack having the right music
can either destroy the atmosphere and
immersion or complement it perfectly
games with a great soundtrack can become
absolutely legendary but games with a
bad soundtrack can honestly never even
become great falling frontier has a
fully personalized soundtrack produced
by scott buckley having listened to a
number of the different tracks and
witnessed their implementation when it
comes to combat and exploration
especially pacing things like that i can
say with confidence that the game has
all necessary building blocks right now
to transcend the typical lifespan of an
indie project and become a widespread
resilient entry in the real-time
strategy industry all in all this game
deserves to be wishlisted by anyone with
even a tiny bit of enthusiasm for the
genre and it's being supported by a
publisher that respects indie games
indie developers and best of all the
players links are down below to every
relevant outlet including the steam page
and the developers youtube channel as
well it's worth your time and again this
is the hard work of one man there is no
concrete release date as of yet keep
that in mind but this game is worth
keeping track of if you want support
there are links down below but i'll keep
the outro short on this one thank you
all for watching and have a nice night
[Music]
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