The Mandate looks to be an exciting and polished prospect which has just completed its $500,000 Kickstarter crowdfunding drive with 5 days to go. Things are looking rosy for Perihelion Interactive‘s space RPG.
The concept behind The Mandate is certainly one to excite any space sci-fi fan, with a grand sandbox universe and involving backstory providing the setting for gameplay including tactical spaceship combat and detailed crew management.
With inspiration cited from Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and Firefly, the California-based indie studio made up of veteran developers formerly of EA, 2K Games, Ubisoft and Funcom, aim to deliver an engaging character-led story wrapped up in gameplay which combines elements from X-COM, FTL: Faster Than Light and Sins of a Solar Empire. The focus is firmly on the crew, with the player taking control of the captain.
“We really want to focus on our interactions with the crew, because we believe that’ll be a great source of gameplay and storytelling. We want them to become important in your universe. We also want them to be important to you when you go into battle, because you’re not just defending your ship, you’re also defending your crew; you don’t want them to get killed in a boarding operation, you don’t want them to get sucked out into space when a torpedo hits your ship just right. You want them to survive.” – Art Director, Garret AJ
The detail and sheen is already evident despite the project being at a “concept pre-production” stage. There is some fantastic-looking in-game footage and some engaging lore. You can even experiment with ship customisation and damage using the Interactive Ship Designer tool and delve into the backstory in the Interactive Prologue and the Text Adventure.
With funding secured and Doctor Who and Game of Thrones actor David Bradley signed on to voice the main character (he already features in many of the trailers on the official YouTube channel), The Mandate will certainly be worth keeping tabs on.
Watch this space.
