Stationbreak
Broken Spaceship is currently a solo studio based in London. It is led by James Hosken, who was born and raised in South Africa and has a background in film, XR, and game development. The studio is working on Stationbreak as its first commercial game, and is particularly interested in creating tightly scoped, systems-driven, high concept sci-fi games.
For Stationbreak, the Starter Fund will allow the studio to work with specialists in music, 2D art, and programming support for progression and persistence. These collaborators will give those areas dedicated attention while James continues to focus on core game design and development. The aim is to use the Starter Fund to turn the current prototype into a more polished, public ready demo.
For the studio, the grant is an opportunity to establish working relationships and a collaborative production model that will support the game as it moves towards release.
Key features
- Stationbreak is a grounded sci-fi station-building roguelite about commanding humanity’s last few starships on the run from an overwhelming, energy-hungry Swarm.
- Players jump their deteriorating fleet between star systems, building temporary space stations to recharge and prepare for the next jump.
- With scarce time and resources they construct modular stations, use their limited ships to gather materials or defend the station, and prepare for increasingly vast Swarm attacks.
- The game’s systems are inspired by plausible hard science fiction. Power, heat, orbital dynamics, and the crew’s rising Madness all play important roles in keeping the struggling fleet moving.
- It is planned for PC and Steam Deck, for players who enjoy space, strategy, base-building, and roguelite progression.
- Each new star system is a race to build enough, gather enough and survive just long enough for humanity’s last ships to stay one jump ahead of the Swarm.
Check out the game trailer
Quote
I applied to the Starter Fund because Stationbreak has reached a point where getting it to the next, more public-ready stage is best served by collaborating with experienced professionals. The grant gives me the chance to work with specialists who will focus on key areas in music, art, and infrastructure programming to produce a robust demo.
For Broken Spaceship as a studio, it is an opportunity to establish a collaborative way of working in what has so far been a solo-developed project. This will involve building new working relationships, and developing production practices that can support both this game and the studio beyond the funded period.
