Looking for a space exploration game that’s a little less daunting than today’s cyclopean commercial offerings? Digital Eel and Cheap Ass Games have collaborated to produce Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (SAIS) for the computer, and recently released an open playtest version of their forthcoming Mac edition.
SAIS is designed for play time from 5-20 minutes and is set up for straight solo play. In this game, you “sail the high sea of stars in your own deep space exploration vessel. Explore exotic star systems; seek out new technologies, artifacts and lifeforms; boldly blow up stuff where no one has blown up stuff before!”
The full version of the game will feature 21 different ships, 69 different weapons, drives, shields, gadgets and artifacts; 18 different alien lifeforms; 17 different planet and star types and seven unique alien races. The game changes each time it’s play, with randomized elements like stars, planets, black holes, nebulae, alien patrols, items and more.
The demo version is a bit scaled back from the full version’s description — it doesn’t have all the content of the full version and it uses a fixed star map, but it’ll give you a thorough taste of what the full version of SAIS will be like — including a combat simulator. It’s scheduled for release in July, 2003.
The open playtest demo is available in Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 flavors. Both versions measure under 7MB. Visit the Web site for more details.