Space the final frontier… not anymore. In Space Colony you will explore and colonize new worlds with the same sense of familiarity of popping in your local coffee shop for a skinny decaf latte.

Space Colony is best described as a People Sim meets a City Builder. The player manages and nurtures a group of dysfunctional space dwellers colonizing the most unearthly corners of the galaxy.

Make no mistake, none of the 20 colonists you’ll meet were ever on a NASA shortlist. Ahhh, welcome to life beyond the stars. It’s everything the brochure said. So what if half the staff are brawling, the Harvester Robot is chain sawing its way through the oxygen supply and small furry aliens have taken over the disco? This is home!

Game Chronicles goes inside this unique and highly promising title with an exclusive interview by John Carswell.

GCM:	Please start of by introducing yourself and telling us about Firefly Studios.
Paul Harris:	Hi there. My name is Paul Harris and I’m the Associate Producer at Firefly Studios, developer of Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader and of course Space Colony.

GCM:

Space Colony is certainly a unique blend of different gameplay styles. Please give us a brief breakdown of its core gameplay.

Paul Harris:

It’s a Space colony sim, or to put it another way a cross between a city builder and a people sim. In order to build and run an efficient base you need happy and motivated colonists. Unlike most builder games, the colonists in Space Colony are not just mindless drones who will do whatever you want. Our colonists all have different personalities, some good, some bad, which have to be managed to achieve success. If you can keep them happy, healthy and entertained they will work hard, if you neglect them though it’s a whole different story. I don’t advise neglecting them!

GCM:

What was the inspiration behind creating such an uncommon gameplay blend?

Paul Harris:

The initial idea for Space Colony was to create a city builder in space. However while we were researching the idea we noticed that a lot of the reference material we looked at (Aliens, Star Trek, etc) was based around the idea of limited numbers of people in very cramped and stressful environments. In these environments personal interactions were always a key feature and the ability for different personalities to gel as a team was essential for their survival. We decided to take this intriguing concept and create Space Colony.

GCM:

Pre-made characters play a major role in Space Colony. What can you tell us about the game’s stars and how does taking this “pre-made” approach (as apposed to The Sims’ build-your-own-character method) enhance gameplay?

Paul Harris:

As you say the colonists are the stars of the game. Our heroine is Venus Jones, a hard working intelligent red head who is looking forward to retiring at the grand old age of 23! All she has to do is get through her last assignment with Blackwater Industries, owned by the deranged Mr. Waterhouse. Helping Venus out are 19 other characters, all with very different personalities and skills at their disposal. Stig is a Norwegian biker who is greater at mining but has a tendency to lose his temper when stressed, Slim is a lazy skater boy who loves sleeping and the terrible twins Hoshi and Kita love hanging around together, separate them at your peril! One of the key gameplay features in Space Colony is managing the different personalities from taking care of their personal needs to ensuring everyone is getting along together. If you don’t keep the colony happy, be prepared for the consequences.

GCM:

How much control will the player have over their base’s design and what sort of tools and items will the player have at their disposal?

Paul Harris:

The player has almost total control of their base from military systems all the way down to where to position the pot plants! One of the most intriguing elements in the game is that it creates a persistent environment. This means the player uses the same base they built in the first mission all throughout the campaign. As the missions progress the player must keep developing the base using industry to process resources, military systems to keep the base safe and discos to keep the colonists happy!

GCM:

What can you tell us about Space Colony’s combat system and the enemies that the players will be pitted against?

Paul Harris:

Life isn’t easy in the Space Colony universe. If you are going to live in space you’ve got to expect aliens and Space Colony has plenty of them. Some are harmless, but the majority of them have the sole intention of destroying the colony. Take the Orox for example – a giant monster made of rock that hasn’t taken kindly to the colonization of the universe and is determined to enslave the human race as a result! Luckily for the colonists Blackwater Industries considers aliens bad for business so they have taken precautions and provided the player with the finest weaponry in the galaxy. To defend your base you have automatic lasers, force fields, missile silos and even robotic guard dogs to name but a few at your disposal.

GCM:

Please tell us a bit about the main campaign in Space Colony.

Paul Harris:

The main campaign in Space Colony is very story driven. Through the storyline players have set mission objectives, which gradually introduce new gameplay elements into the campaign. There are 24 missions to complete and they are designed to challenge the player by making them think about the best way to use their colonists in order to complete the task in hand. These mission objectives can vary widely from cleaning up the litter in the base to gathering resources in order to fulfill a contract to building an android to defuse a nuclear bomb! The gradual learning curve the campaign employs and the variety of missions available to the player really helps to keep the game fresh and means there is always something cooler just round the corner waiting to be discovered. In the later missions you will be expected to take care of all 20 characters at the same time, which is a real handful.

GCM:

Will Space Colony feature a “sandbox” mode and/or any multiplayer options?

Paul Harris:

There are 3 game modes in total. I’ve just mentioned the Campaign mode. Along with the campaign mode is Galaxy mode which features twenty-four extra missions within sixteen mini campaigns, split between three categories: Economic, Military and People. You will be given set colonists for each mission but you can select extra colonists, depending on the amount of points available to you. And, finally, there is Sandbox Mode, which allows you to build a base in any way you wish until your heart’s content.

GCM:

With The Sims already finding success on consoles and many strategy game developers trying to find success on these platforms, is their a chance we’ll see Space Colony appear on the current line-up of consoles?

Paul Harris:

Space Colony has been designed for the PC and so plays best on the PC. We wouldn’t rule out working on the consoles in the future but at this current time we still believe that strategy games are best played on a PC so that’s the format we are concentrating on. It’s a shame that console owners won’t get a chance to experience the game, though as it’s been designed to be easily accessible, friendly and funny – the kind of game that anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy.

GCM:	Thanks for your time! Would you care to close this Q&A with any last thoughts or comments?
Paul Harris:	I’ve got to mention the speech. The game contains approximately 10000 lines with each colonist having between 300 and 900 recordings. There are some very funny lines and hearing the characters speak for the first time can’t fail to put a smile on the most miserable person’s face!

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