March 15, 2014 4:30 PM | Tim
In Mi-Clos Studio's new procedural-generated adventure game Out There, you play as an astronaut who is lost in space and has to travel a long way across the universe to get back to Earth. Resources like oxygen and fuel are scarce, so players will have to visit unknown planets to gather and mine for raw elements that will keep their ship running.
Since a spacecraft only has so many cargo slots that can be utilized, juggling between which resources to keep or to discard plays an important part in your survival. Your journey comes to an end if the ship ever runs out of fuel or receives too much damage, and a lack of oxygen can also cause suffocation and death to the astronaut. Tough decisions have to be made constantly, and one wrong choice could easily leave you stranded and drifting aimlessly in space.
Two commonly-used methods for gathering resources exist: you either mine for new elements, or use your probe to search for them on the surfaces of alien planets. Players will get more resources by sending their probe further or drilling deeper into the ground, but they also run the risk of breaking their equipment and having to repair them as well. Subsequent mining and probing produces diminishing returns, meaning that you'll be getting fewer elements each time you try to gather resources from the same spot.
Some planets are inhabited by aliens, though understanding their language will require regular communication with unknown lifeforms across the universe. You'll learn a word or two each time you converse with an alien, and after meeting a few of them you should be able to translate enough of what they say to make sense of their wants and needs. Random events and encounters are common during your travels, and occasionally you might even come across an abandoned ship that you can board and pilot as you leave behind the previous one.
Out There is available now on the App Store and Google Play. The standard edition costs $3.99, and Android device owners can purchase the soundtrack for an additional $2.