Hollow Ponds, a studio founded by Ricky Haggett, who also founded Hohokum and Super Exploding Zoo studio Honeyslug, has announced its first project, Loot Rascals, for PlayStation 4 and PC.
Due out in early 2017, Loot Rascals is “a tale of friendship, loss and redemption in outer space.” It is a roguelike set on a hostile alien world where you play as the survivor of a rocket crash trying to escape.
The game has two main components:
- Exploration – As you explore the planet, you’ll reveal its hexagonal surface and fight against a menagerie of strange aliens, monsters, and robots. Defeating them will earn you Loot Chips—schematic cards from which you get all of your abilities.
- Loot Chips – These cards can be arranged in your HUD to create your character’s build. Much of the game’s strategy comes from deciding which cards to keep, which will determine how you’ll approach various situations on the planet, and which ones you’ll convert into resources needed to heal up and fight to escape.
Enemies will loot you when you die, which is where the themes of “friendship, loss, and redemption” come into play. They’ll steal your cards, which are beamed up and dropped into someone else’s game. Defeating a strong enemy will get you a card looted by an enemy from someone else. Players can then decide whether to keep the card or return it to its rightful owner.
These choices have “big” consequences, according to Hollow Ponds. Every player has a “Holographic Agent,” or a computer controlled copy of themselves who can visit other people’s games. If you hold on to another player’s card, you may have to face against their Holographic Agent, who will try to kill and loot you. But if you return their card, their Holographic Agent may turn up to help you for a while.
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.
