Разработчик: The Tiniest Shark
Описание
"Redshirt’s take on science fiction clichés is amusing, telling short stories in the form of status updates and messages, but the activity of playing the game is rather intense, even though it’s a turn-based life management sim. As if accidentally snubbing friends and causing heartbreak wasn’t enough, a short while into your misadventure, a disturbing message arrives. A calamity is coming. The station is doomed. People will die." - Rock Paper Shotgun
Redshirt received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 IGF Awards for Excellence in Narrative!
Social Networking, But Not As We Know It...
Redshirt is a comedy sci-fi social networking simulation game. Create & customise your character, a brand new arrival aboard space station Megalodon-9, where you start your career on the lowest possible rung: a Transporter Accident Cleanup Technician. You also realise that everyone on the station is required to use the proprietary social network, "Spacebook"!
You hear rumours something terrible will happen soon aboard the station, and it's up to you to stop being a disposable nobody before it's too late! You can do this by interacting (through Spacebook!) with randomly-generated, AI-driven characters with their own unique personalities, trying to win friends and influence station citizens. Or, you can focus on what skills you need to climb the fairly-extensive career tree. Or, save up your KarmaCreds. Or, flirt your way up the station. The choice is yours, and there are different strategies. You just have a limited time in which to do it, otherwise... terrible things will happen. You are a Redshirt, after all!
Features
- Satirical, tongue-in-cheek social simulation, filled with humour and political intrigue.
- Detailed character creation: choose from 5 different species, from human to tentacled squid creature!
- Each game is unique: Megalodon-9 is full of procedurally generated AI-driven characters, each with their own random personalities and profile pictures.
- Customise station settings: define the kinds of personalities you'll encounter, from friendly chatterboxes to self-obsessed bigots.
- Update your Spacebook, strategically 'like' statuses, and send private messages to your fellow station citizens.
- Arrange Spacebook 'events' with your friends, frenemies, and even higher-ranking officers, to influence your relationships and skills.
- Multiple routes to success through turn-based gameplay, from skills-based diligence, to romance, to charismatic schmoozing.
- Navigate an extensive, non-linear career tree, by gaining the right skills... or just by making the right friends.
- Make friends and manage romantic relationships -- if you can handle the drama!
- Strategically manage your interests and skills.
- Buy items in the Self-Help Object Purveyor (S.H.O.P.) to increase your stats and skills, from RoboCats to illegal hoverbikes!
- Away missions!
- Humorous parody of social networking culture.
- Puns! So many puns.
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: 2 gig
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: any
- OS *: Windows XP
- Processor: 2 gig
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: any
Mac
- Processor: 2 gig
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: any
- Processor: 2 gig
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 256 MB
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: any
Отзывы пользователей
This is a conditional recommendation, just a hair above neutral. I'd suggest grabbing this on sale rather than paying full price, and its replay value is so-so at best but it's an okay game and not too expensive. Don't expect to have your socks knocked off, I wouldn't call it great but for about 5 bucks it's an alright game. Fine praise, but still praise.
W-H-A-T!?
40% Positive???? No way. This is perhaps the perfect $10 game. It's solid as a concept and delivers on the "Facebook within Starfleet" vibe. It's a cool game with a good story and a neat, well executed core. Sure it's not Skyrim I guess, but I have nothing but good memories of my playthrough. Kind of reminds me of Gone Home in that way. Strong concept and execution, low replay, no regrets.
I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to write a review - I had just assumed they had been generally positive.
Achievements (and some game systems) broken. Dev simply "moved on" to other projects and abandoned this one. Could've been really good, but lack of support and bug squashing killed it. I would advise against purchasing, even on discount.
I have very mixed feelings about this game. It's a good concept, has depth and feels well balanced, but it's also very stressful and incarnates all the reasons why I don't take part in any real life social networks. Why would I want to subject myself to the negative feelings of fomo, harassment and social pressure coming from characters who aren't even real. That being said, just because it's not my thing doesn't mean the game isn't good at what it does. if you like drama (as in drama queen), this game is probably for you.. If you want to play it as a social experiment, you'll find it interesting. Also, it's not really worth playing as a trekkie: you might still like it, but the references don't go that deep.
I'd say buy it on sale, but the problem is that everyone has a backlog of much better games than Redshirt.
Redshirt is essentially, Facebook in space. So instead of real people acting fake, you get...fake people acting fake.
Also the space station you're on is going to explode for some reason and you have to get off.
There are five ways to do this but apparently one is bugged. (And has been since 2013, so no plans to fix it apparently)
Unfortunately, playing it five times requires such mental fortitude it's practically impossible and only for the hardcore, as the mechanics and rehashed dialog get boring around play 2.
The concept is good, and I suppose the game could be looked at as a commentary on social media and the inanity of it all, so points for that.
I really liked this game. I use the past tense here because I'm not sure how replayable it is, but my first playthrough was a good time. And since I purchased the game on sale for 75% off, I'd say $2.49 is money well-spent for 8 1/2 hours of play. Especially as this game is pretty unique, as it combines a lot of my favorite genres and has a distinct flavor/atmosphere/personality (I'm not sure of the word to use here, but that's the idea.)
Things I Really Enjoyed:
1. Humor / writing: Sometimes absurd, sometimes satirical, sometimes cheesy. Probably where that "personality" comes from
2. Combination of genres that I like, which are rarely combined in this way.
3. Intuitive / Easy to get the hang of the interface
I think you'll like this if you enjoy turn-based games, life sim games, space games, and social and/or time management games, but probably only if you do NOT hate using Facebook in real life, as this has a heavy Facebook-like simulation component.
Overall it needs to be more challenging. And there are a number of things that I wish had been more fleshed out. But I applaud its uniqueness and its wit.
The game was on sale for $2.49, so I decided to give it a shot. My gaming tastes include the following that synch up with this game, so if you have these same interests, you might like this game:
1. Turn based games.
This game basically moves when you make a decision to do something, so you aren't in a race with a virtual clock.
2. Life Simulations.
Conceptually, I like seeing and playing games where the heart of the game is trying to simulate a cultural universe. I've designed them as a hobby, and I also enjoy playing them and seeing other's work.
3. Novel concepts.
This is 90% a Facebook simulator. When I was reading the negative reviews, I noted that the ones I read disliked that concept. It's different, for sure.
The strategy of the game is in choosing what to Like, who to schedule events with, what general things to say - with the idea that there's no right answer. Just like in any group of people, you're not going to make 100% of them happy 100% of the time.
But bottom line is that if the idea of a Facebook simulator is dull for you, this game is not for you. If the idea intrigues you as a game concept - absolutely give this a try. Especially if you like Sci-Fi.
I love this game! Its satirical, tongue-in-cheek attitude towards social media and popular sci-fi shows is absolutely hilarious. It's also a much deeper game than it first appears. There's a lot of strategy involved in what you do, and you have to pay a lot of attention to your actions, which makes it fun and challenging at the same time. It's also a nice game to just pick up and play if you want something a bit more relaxing. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys making a bit of fun at social media or who is a long-time sci-fi nerd such as myself.
The game description and pictures made me think this game may be kind of fun, and it wasn't terribly expensive so I went ahead and bought it. Unfortunately the early charm of the game kept me entertained for maybe an hour, after which I essentially "played" it almost racing through it to see if anything better would come. This game feels like a job and it's not fun. Just as an example, as you progress you are supposed to gain Spacebook friends in order to extend your influence. However, there is only so many action items in a day, and you can't do activities with everyone, so you constantly are bombarded by all of the people that you aren't spending time with. I really don't have any desire to play a game that simply has me manage my activities so that i equally distribute the time between a large number of video game characters.. Game just isn't fun.
I bought this back when it first came out because I thought the premise was intriguing. I've always been a fan of Star Trek, and I thought a game about how those poor, unfortunate redshirts and other nameless, unimportant crew members survived the insane situations that inevitably befell the crew would be neat. I thought a game about being an underapprciated but vital part of a team would be fun.
This game is not that game.
Let's go through each of the claims this game makes any why I think most, if not all of them, are bogus.
1: "Satirical, tongue-in-cheek social simulation, filled with humour and political intrigue." If by "political intrigue" you mean "boring, petty interpersonal drama that I get enough of in my daily life," then yes. This game has political intrigue coming out of its nostrils. I will say that it is at least mildly satirical, as the implication that social media is a poor substitute for actual interaction is a perfectly valid one. I will admit, though, that I didn't find too much about this game to be funny.
2: "Detailed character creation: choose from 5 different species, from human to tentacled squid creature!" It isn't that detailed, I'm afraid. Additionally, it actually makes very little difference what species or even sexual orientation that you choose, except in very rare circumstances (such as being depressed because you don't have a significant other and everyone you can date is not interested in people of your gender, and the one person who is hates your guts; I don't need a repeat of my everyday life, thank you).
3: "Each game is unique: Megalodon-9 is full of procedurally generated AI-driven characters, each with their own random personalities and profile pictures." Each game is unique, but the NPCs aren't sure the names and species and personalities might change, but they're all the same, vapid, uninteresting characters.
4: "Customise station settings: define the kinds of personalities you'll encounter, from friendly chatterboxes to self-obsessed bigots." This bit is accurate, at least.
5: "Update your Spacebook, strategically 'like' statuses, and send private messages to your fellow station citizens." This is also an accurate feature.
6: "Arrange Spacebook 'events' with your friends, frenemies, and even higher-ranking officers, to influence your relationships and skills." Despite being accurate, I'm not sure how this and the prior item are even features.
7: "Multiple routes to success through turn-based gameplay, from skills-based diligence, to romance, to charismatic schmoozing." This is accurate, to a degree. You cannot rely on just one to succeed, however; the best route always involves using everything at your disposal. And you'll need to: without romance, for example, your morale may drop .And if you're in a bad mood, your work will suffer. If your work suffers, say good-bye to that promotion. And before you know it, you're another soulless drone lamenting your lack of a love-life and your boring, dead-end job, anxiously awaiting the weekend so you can go to wine-tastings to get your mood back up for the coming week, only to repeat the cycle ad infinitum.
8: "Navigate an extensive, non-linear career tree, by gaining the right skills... or just by making the right friends.
Make friends and manage romantic relationships -- if you can handle the drama!" On a personal note, this is something I dislike about this game, especially when paired with the above item. Don't get me wrong, I love playing games where I get to be a manipulative schemer. But when the best run I ever had involved buddying up to my supervisors and discarding them when I'd gotten a promotion, that may say something about how viable a skill-based playthrough is.
9: "Strategically manage your interests and skills." See the aforementioned bit about wine-tastings.
10: "Buy items in the Self-Help Object Purveyor (S.H.O.P.) to increase your stats and skills, from RoboCats to illegal hoverbikes!" True, and also a requirement.
11: "Away missions!" Also known as "which one of my friends is going to die miserably and send me into a self-destructive spiral?"
12: "Humorous parody of social networking culture." A parody, perhaps. But I wouldn't say it's a particularly humorous one. I found most of the jokes to fall flat.
13: "Puns! So many puns." Yes, but they're not particularly funny puns.
Now that that's done with, here's my final conclusion. Redshirt was fun, for about 10 minutes. Then it became very, very tedious and very, very boring. And while that's fine to a degree, especially if your game is parodying something as boring as social media, the game itself has to be fun. Quite simply? Redshirt is not fun. I cannot suggest that anyone buy this game for anything more than $3.00.
Seriously, wait for it to go on sale if you have to buy it.
I bought into the hype and the appeals at my inner-geek. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, maybe something with a little more role play action.
I was all jazzed up, I was going to be a Red Shirt, enjoy watching the drama unfold trying not to be killed, all the while making some space buddies for life. Judging the Captain for not seeing how very in love they are with their Science Officer and vise versa. What I got was repeative clicking, and boredom. I can't be bothered with the inane lives of real people, why did I think I would enjoy this?
I understand that that's the point, the commentary the game is making on FB and Twit etc. but a whole game on it? Where actions have no conquences, nothing changes, and a very real sense of same sht different day. I use video games to get away from that.
I was expecting more actions away from Spacebook, and that was my own fault, it had been on my wishlist so long that I turned it into the game I wanted not the game it was. I wanted to experience life on a space ship for the cannon fodder, all I got was life on Facebook.
I got the game on sale and would recommend doing so too if you are going to go for it. I didn't even bother saving the game, that's how sure I am that I'm not going to play it again.
Just be prepared for monotony, because that's the point. That's the game.
I wanted to like this game, I really did. And I do... to an extent.
I liked the fact that it's basically a snarky social-network simulator set in outer space.
But let's be real. It's repetetive as all get out. You're going to spend inordinate amounts of time doing the exact same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
But, okay, sure, I don't mind a repetetive game every now and then. I can play it in bursts. But your "Spacebook friends" in this game are SO NEEDY. Your lovers get jealous if they catch you talking to other people, people get annoyed with you for not inviting them to events that they were too busy to attend, your ever-growing social circle requires constant love and attention.... it's like you're expected to be the entire world of everyone you've ever met. It's exhausting for a game.
And, real talk here--- it feels like one of those flash games you play on like newgrounds or kongregate or whatever for free.
It was a phenomenal concept. It's just not a good game. Which pains me to type, because like I said--- I wanted to like it. Sorry, Redshirt, it's not you, it's me. Maybe we should see other people.
Sadly this game has suffered on steam as a casualty of idiots giving idiot reviews. All the player has to do is just a little bit of research, to discover this game is made by the British company (Positech) that makes the very successful games "Democracy" and very importantly, "Kudos (original, and Kudos Rockstar and Kudos 2). ALL of these other games are "casual simulation spreadsheet" games that playout different scenarios.
THIS game is basically "Kudos DeepSpace 9". The developer however, wanted to take its spreadsheet games in a new way that hadn't been parody'd much in video games "yet", why not re-work their spreadsheet interface mechanics of their life-casual-sim Kudos, with an interface that is based on facebook?
What IF, instead of facebook being a place where you talked about what was going on... what if it was the true reality? Where parties, life-events, relationships, and so forth, originated on facebook, and then played out in life? THIS is Redshirt, or as it is accurately called "Spacebook" the game.
Its a fun twist on the Kudo's game style, set in a very star-trek themed universe, ran from a spacebook interface. I highly recommend it. I will see what kind of replay value it has, but for now, I can say, it has been a fun casual play, enjoyable, and creative.
I think the developers should make a demo, but until they do, I suggest you download one of the Kudo's demos... and then just immagine the interface re-worked into a facebook style of menu-systems, with a clever set of space-themed events and opportunities.
I mostly bought the game for the book of the same name by John Scalzi, which is quite excellent. This game, however, is not (and is, as far as I can tell, not related to the book).
The premise of organizing everything in your life via a social network sounds one-sided - and it turns out it is. The game gets boring and tedious rather quickly:
- I reality not all of your friends are available all the time, and that can be implemented in the game, but beyond a certain level, it is purely annyoing.
- Of the many actions one can take, most seem redundant and choices are arbitrary.
- Relationships don't seem to mean anything, and there does not seem to be much in the way of building your character.
- The user interface is ugly and (for me) confusing. Seems that not all actions are availabe from different tabs, and sometimes links lead to the wrong action. Seems buggy.
The game MAY be amusing on a mobile device, but for the computer, I'm sure you all have better things to do.
Wow, I cannot believe how overpriced this game is, even on sale. I'm a big fan of the life sim genre and I own most of Positech's games. When I heard they had a new one out that looked like a satirical version of Kudos, I ignored all the bad reviews and jumped at the chance to buy it. What a mistake. This game is basically Kudos 2 with a space skin. But though it's lifted most of its gameplay mechanics from Kudos 2, it's a huge step backward. The interface is clunky and hard to manage (and for a game that is ALL interface that's a crying shame), the gameplay is a lot less fun, it's riddled with bugs, and the 'humour' is repetitive and gets wearing after just an hour of gameplay. And though it's been, what, six years since Kudos 2 was released, nothing has been improved - the gameplay is meandering with no meaningful objectives, there's no feeling of real characters to connect to, and there is endless, endless grinding. I am usually very patient with indie life sims, and will put up with bad writing, poor artwork and lots of grinding, but there has to be SOMETHING at the heart of it. But this life sim is absolutely lifeless. It's an amateur piece of garbage that's worth $5 at best. Do yourself a favour and pick up Positech's Democracy 3 instead - or if you're desperate for a life sim, try something by Hanako Games, or go to Abandonia and download Princess Maker 2.
The disappointment first arrived when I realized that, yes, the artwork in-game is worse than the preview screenshots. Since then that disappointment has mutated into full-blown ennui. I caution anyone considering whether or not to buy this game to wait for a discount. Please don't buy this game at its regular price; don't make the same mistake that I did.
At first glance, Redshirt looks like a SciFi offering along the lines of Long Live the Queen, Magical Diary, and so on, but don't be fooled. While other slice-of-life simulation/RPG blends provide a decent story and actual rewards for game progression, Redshirt laughs in the user's face as it generates more and more lifeless content to grind through.
All the shortcomings of an independent development house mixed with all the malice and hate from triple-A publishers.
Caveat emptor.
The Good:
- Star Trek inspired universe
- multiple species available as player races
- wide range of interests and skills
The Bad:
- clunky engine and interface
- no quick-save/load
- unnecessary actions-per-day economy
- fast-paced gameplay mixed with slow progression
The Ugly:
- the graphic designs are just cheap--no other word for it
- the NPCs have zero personality beyond randomly generated messages and posts; cardboard and forgetable
- mind-numbing grind that never really pays off
A game about social networking.. and guess what.. it´s just as boring as the real deal -.-
It repeats itself quite fast, there is way too few change in the daily activity and your "goals" as well as the actions of the "people" are senseless and stupid.
Add this to the high price for such a game and the very few connections it actually has to Star Trek, which it wants to imitate with this "Red Shirt" thing and the away missions.. leaves only one thing
Thumb down!
Compared to other games of it's genre, it is overpriced, though it matches the proce of the Positech game this is a re-painting of: Kudos 2. For those that like the idea of a social management game, there are java based phone games, android games and I'm sure IOS games that have more to offer in the free to $10 range, but on the PC, Positech's Kudos and this are it without counting the Sims, which is really a whole different experience.
It is a social life management game. You are given so many tme units a day to allocate your time and try to manage the life of your character, try to inch up the job ladder and anything beyond that is fed as backstory clues but the game itself is of a style more befitting a tablet than a PC interface.
As far as the style of game goes, it is pretty average in it's genre, and have seen cell-phone games that had more to offer. For those that like the genre of game (which I do, in some of my moods) it's worth getting, but unless you love the game style, not at $20. $5 to $10 would be a much more typical pricetag for what is being offered. If you don't already know and like the genre, there are much better games out there to experiment with the genre, starting with the game this one almost clones: Kudos 2, which you can usually pick up for $5.
Like Star Trek? Like Facebook? You'll find Redshirt totally addictive and hilarious. The video gives you a good sense of what you're in for: loving skewering of every sci-fi cliche ever plus a razor-sharp social media satire. It also shows how you can do social humor without being racist or sexist, while calling out dating-site creepy cliches for a good laugh.
Plus, the mechanics are interesting, and will give strategy gamers good reasons for replays.
I played 10 hours straight after installing Redshirt, and I've got lost more game time ahead.
Synopsis: Redshirt is mildly fun, cute, but vastly overpriced nerdservice.
While it tackles an old saw with a new seemingly innovative twist of vicariously experiencing a space adventure from the perspective of a nobody who experiences life vicariously through social networking (wow how meta), the end result is a cute and at first funny menu game that shows itself pretty shallow with time. At first you smirk at all the little references and sarcastic jokes and puns, but then after hours of shifting through menus you frown because that is really all the game has to it. It is unfortunately a one trick pony, and ironically it essentially is the shallow facebook game that this game precisely intends to mock. As an example of art imitates life, it works and I get it. As a game that is an enjoyable time sink? Not for $20. It is a phone ap game at best for less than five.
Update 1-19-15
It ain't worth 9.99 either. This is a glorified cell phone app.
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | The Tiniest Shark |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 17.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 62 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 40% положительных (199) |