Village Gamer

Kerberos Productions has released a playable Alpha Demo today for their first self-published title, “Sword of the Stars: The Pit” ahead of the beta release, which is expected later this month or early December. The Alpha Demo includes the Engineer, one of the game’s three playable Characters, a brief Tutorial, and five playable levels to explore, which include a good cross section of monsters, traps, and items. The full game, which will release with 30 playable levels, is considerably larger in scope.
“Sword of the Stars: The Pit” is a fun, fast, light-hearted action RPG, made in the tradition of Rogue and other old school dungeon-diving games. Set in the popular Sword of the Stars universe, the game delivers sharp retro graphics and modern turn-based gameplay. Although the art style is light and the game is readily accessible to all, the role-playing mechanics under the hood are crunchy, and will appeal to players who appreciate depth and challenge, as well as death-by-adorable-monsters.

“This Alpha Demo offers only about 10% of the game’s total content,” says Lead Designer Martin Cirulis. “But it should give players a good feel for the Roguelike gameplay, with the retro art style and the skill-based RPG aspects. While The Pit keeps getting bigger as you go deeper, and you will encounter more and more threats, weapons, and devices from the SotSverse, the first 5 floors – even at this alpha stage – will be an excellent way for gamers to tell if The Pit is for them. And it’s just plain fun!”

Kerberos is currently running a crowd-funding campaign for The Pit on IndieGoGo. The campaign has garnered considerable support from players of the company’s Sword of the Stars series of strategy games, and will end on November 14th. The final game will be available on Steam in January or February of 2013.

“People will still be able to support the game after November 14th through the game’s dedicated website, especially if they just want Beta access.” says Kerberos COO Chris Stewart. “Obviously a few of the fancier Perks will not be available. Those are limited time offers for the game’s early supporters.”

 

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLFcd93HtZ8]