This coming Friday January 23, 2015 in downtown San Antonio, Texas the first ever PAX South will be taking place. It’s safe to say that this will be a very big deal for the gaming community in South Texas, especially for San Antonio as this could show all developers, both AAA and indie that South Texas is a great place to set up shop. But most important of all this is a great way for developers to reach out to gamers that are not able to make it out to either PAX East or PAX Prime and want a taste of the PAX experience. And that experience means games, panels, cosplay and more games. And since I was lucky enough to get into PAX South as part of the media I thought it would be a nice chance of pace to do some preview pieces of games that I am scheduled to play at PAX South. With that said, the first game that I will be taking a look at is Rebel Galaxy from Double Damage Games. So first off, who is Double Damage Games?
Double Damage Games was founded by Travis Baldree and Eric Schaefer (no relation to Tim Schaefer but will ask) in 2014. Tim was the creator of Fate and was previously the project and engineer lead for Mythos developed by Flagship Studios. Eric was the co-creator and lead designer of Diablo and Diablo II. Then he went on to be the lead the development of Hellgate: London, also developed by Flagship Studios. But after a “debacle” at Flagship, Travis and Eric left and formed Runic studios. During their time at Runic they were responsible for the highly addictive alternative to Diablo III, Torchlight & Torchlight II. So its safe to say that they have plenty of experience between the two of them. After they left Runic they formed Double Damage and started development on Rebel Galaxy.
Now at first glance some people (especially those who are super into space games) might compare the game to Star Citizen. And to be honest, I kind of thought that too, but its not the developers’ fault. Most, if not all games that take place in outer space all share the same influences and tropes, so it’s kind of hard not seem similar to other games. However just from this announcement trailer alone there is enough for it to stand out. For example, most space games will give off a militaristic vibe to to them. Rebel Galaxy’s trailer however, was giving off more of a western/wild west vibe. That is something I can dig. Does “See You Space Cowboy” ring a bell to anyone? Regardless on how pretty it looks, and it looks really really pretty, there will be several key factors that need to be addressed, such as gameplay, size of solar system and customization. Hopefully the devs will be able to give more insight to the game when I go hands on this coming Friday.
There you go, one preview down, many more to come before Friday. Make sure to keep an eye on the site as I will be trying to get each interview and hands on gameplay up in a timely matter. Also be sure to follow the site’s Twitter as I will be taking pictures from the show floor and quick update videos.
